Faculty Director

Deputy Directors

    Christopher Blattman, Chang-Tai Hsieh

Description

Many low- and lower-middle-income countries confront a common set of challenges, and policymakers in those countries often lack access to reliable and relevant explanations and evidence to help inform decision-making.

  • What is the right mix of policies, investments, and incentives needed to spur industrial growth?
  • How can policymakers ensure that prosperity is widely distributed and addresses the most extreme forms of poverty?
  • What policies promote more effective government and more free societies?
  • How can societies prevent and respond to economic and political instability?

Together, these are the defining problems of the 21st century. They do not demand a new approach to economics or new tools. Instead, these problems demand that economists turn their attention, models, and analysis toward new places and a new set of questions.

The Development Economics Center brings together scholars from across the UChicago community for a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to addressing these challenges. Through rigorous research and active engagement with policymakers and stakeholders, UChicago scholars can push the frontiers of research and have real world impact.

The Center builds on the work of BFI’s Development Economics Research Initiative, expanding its support to include a new Development Economics Research Fund to prioritize development economics research by UChicago PhD students and junior faculty. The Development Economic Center also serves as a coordinating platform for the Development Innovation Lab (DIL) and the Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics.

2022-23 Field Requirements


DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS RESEARCH FUND

Call for Proposals 

The Development Economics Research Fund (DERF) is financially supported by the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago and the Development Innovation Lab and aims to sponsor research in the field of development economics at the University of Chicago. Learn More


Affiliates

The Development Innovation Lab uses the tools of economics to develop innovations with the potential to benefit millions of people in low- and middle-income countries. We bring researchers in different fields together with governments, firms and non-profit organizations to identify, test, refine and scale innovations.

The Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics supports research by students and ladder faculty working in development economics, broadly defined, funding projects that address a wide range of issues affecting less developed countries.

Associated Scholars

Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Anjali Adukia

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Maria Angélica Bautista

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Marianne Bertrand

Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Willard Graham Faculty Scholar, Chicago Booth
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Christopher Blattman

Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies, Harris School of Public Policy; Deputy Director of BFI Development Economics Center
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Fiona Burlig

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Leonardo Bursztyn

Saieh Family Professor, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics; Co-Director of BFI Political Economics Initiative
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Adam Chilton

Assistant Professor of Law, Walter Mander Research Scholar, The Law School
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Emanuele Colonnelli

Associate Professor of Finance, Chicago Booth
Scholars /

Ryan Cooper

Director, The Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Joshua Dean

Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, Booth School of Business
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Rebecca Dizon-Ross

Associate Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Oeindrila Dube

Philip K. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies, Harris Public Policy; Director of BFI Initiative for the Study of Gender in the Economy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Tom Ginsburg

Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor, The Law School
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Rachel Glennerster

Associate Professor, Division of the Social Sciences and the College
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Michael Greenstone

The Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and Harris Public Policy; Director of the Becker Friedman Institute; Director of the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC)
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Richard Hornbeck

V. Duane Rath Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Chang-Tai Hsieh

Phyllis and Irwin Winkelried Professor of Economics and PCL Faculty Scholar, University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Deputy Director of BFI Development Economics Center
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Amir Jina

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Anne Karing

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Economics, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Michael Kremer

University Professor in Economics and the College and the Harris School of Public Policy, Director of the Development Innovation Lab
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Anup Malani

Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law, The Law School
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Luis Martínez

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita

Sydney Stein Professor and Deputy Dean for Promotions & Recruitment, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Eduardo Montero

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Roger Myerson

David L. Pearson Distinguished Service Professor of Global Conflict Studies, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Eric Posner

Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, Arthur and Esther Kane Research Chair, The Law School
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

James Robinson

The Reverend Dr. Richard L. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict; Institute Director, The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Raul Sanchez de la Sierra

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Konstantin Sonin

John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor, Harris Public Policy; Co-Director of BFI Political Economics Initiative
Scholars / UChicago Scholar

Austin Wright

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy

Associated Working Papers

BFI Working Paper, Development Innovation Lab Jan 17, 2023

Water Treatment and Child Mortality: A Meta-analysis and Cost-effectiveness Analysis

Michael Kremer, Stephen Luby, Ricardo Maertens, Brandon Tan, Witold Więcek
Topics:  Development Economics
BFI Working Paper Nov 18, 2022

Measuring Religion from Behavior: Climate Shocks and Religious Adherence in Afghanistan

Oeindrila Dube, Joshua E. Blumenstock, Michael Callen
Topics:  Uncategorized
BFI Working Paper, Development Innovation Lab Sep 16, 2022

Can Education be Standardized? Evidence from Kenya

Guthrie Gray-Lobe, Anthony Keats, Michael Kremer, Isaac Mbiti, Owen Ozier
Topics:  Development Economics

Associated News

Media Mention Feb 3, 2023

Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare & The Development Innovation Lab Partner to Improve Food Security & Double Farmer’s Income

Krishi Jagran; Development Innovation Lab
Topics:  Development Economics
Media Mention Feb 3, 2023

DA&FW, DIL Chicago sign MoU to harness innovation for improving food security & addressing climate change

AgriculturePost; Development Innovation Lab
Topics:  Development Economics
Media Mention Feb 3, 2023

Chicago University’s Development Innovation Lab Partners with India’s Agriculture Ministry

Latestly; Development Innovation Lab
Topics:  Development Economics