The Macro Finance Research Program (MFR)-Latin America Early Career Scholar Program will offer financial support for current doctoral students and PhD graduates of up to four years after receipt of a degree in economics or other fields who are pursuing innovative work on understanding how monetary and fiscal policy impact overall economic performance and societal well-being. The proposals should draw on existing evidence on the experiences of the various Latin American economies. Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Background
The program is rooted in the Monetary and Fiscal History of Latin America (MAFHOLA) Project, launched in 2013 to analyze economic data from 11 of the largest Latin America economies, to produce a comprehensive monetary and fiscal history of the region. The papers generated by the project use a common conceptual framework and a comparable data set to narrate the economic histories of 11 Latin American countries since 1960. The authors are country experts who participated in numerous meetings over five years to discuss and receive feedback on their findings. The working papers were released at an event co-hosted with the Central Bank of Chile on August 24 in Santiago, followed by an event co-hosted with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on September 24-25 in Washington, DC.
The project was organized and managed by the University of Chicago’s Fernando Alvarez and Lars Peter Hansen, the University of Minnesota’s Timothy Kehoe and Juan Pablo Nicolini, and New York University’s Thomas Sargent, also a Senior Fellow with University of Chicago’s Department of Economics. The findings of this project offer valuable lessons for future policy design in Latin America and other regions of the world. Germane to this funding, the project also provides monetary and fiscal macro performance data that may be used as proving ground for alternative economic models and as a starting point for a deeper probe into varying Latin American experiences. The unique data set, along with chapters devoted to each individual country, is available on the project website. Additional funding for related conference participation will be provided as needed.
Proposals
Early career scholars interested in examining fiscal and monetary histories in Latin America are encouraged to submit research funding proposals (with a six-page minimum) for future related research applying the findings and datasets generated by the Monetary and Fiscal History of Latin America project.
The proposals should contain:
- an introduction (or abstract), motivating facts and background,
- a discussion of the model mechanisms,
- next steps or future research plans,
- potential implications of the research, and
- a list of key references.
Proposals should connect explicitly to the written material available on the project website, with a clear statement of how the project builds on or extends this previous body of posted research on the project website.
The funding level of each proposal will depend on the scope of the research and can range between $5,000 and $15,000. For any questions regarding submissions, please contact Diana Petrova, Associate Director of the Macro Finance Research Program at dpetrova@uchicago.edu or email mrfinfo@uchicago.edu.