Call for Applications: Intensive Course in Gender-Sensitive Macroeconomic Modeling for Policy Analysis July 8-14, 2020 at Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

Sponsored by:

the Care Work and the Economy Project, Program on Gender Analysis in Economics at American University, and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

Call for applications link:

Application link:

The purpose of this course is to engage with fellow economists to enhance capacity building in research and teaching of gender-sensitive economic analysis, with a focus on care and macroeconomic policy aspects. The course will be built on four pillars, namely: a) understanding and measuring the care economy; b) adapting social accounting matrices to account for paid and unpaid care activities; c) integrating the information from time-use surveys on unpaid care activities with other relevant sources of information, such as national income accounts, labor force surveys, and household or special surveys; and d) performing policy-relevant economic analyses that take systematic account of the interlinkages between care, macroeconomic processes, and distribution. Our goal is to guide the participants toward the formulation of viable research projects focused on addressing care needs in developing countries through a better understanding of the care economy and the formulation of gender-sensitive macroeconomic policies. Hence, the program will be comprised of lectures by experts, hands-on training in analytics, and mentoring.

We are especially interested in participants who either would like to be or are currently involved in research aimed at influencing policymaking in order to address care needs in their countries. We particularly seek applications from the following countries: Colombia, Ghana, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Women, minorities (ethnic, racial, and other), and teams of country researchers are encouraged to apply. We will cover the travel and accommodation costs of successful applicants.

We encourage economists in academia, research institutions, government, and civil society organizations to apply. The applicants must have completed at least two years of study in a graduate economics program, or have received a masters or PhD in economics. We also expect that participants have the ability to analyze data using Excel. We also consider the ability to analyze data with STATA or other similar statistical software (such as R) highly desirable. These requirements may be waived under exceptional circumstances. The program will be conducted in English; therefore, applicants are expected to be fluent in written and spoken English.

The course has three components. The self-study module of the course will require the students to complete a set of assigned readings before they arrive at the Levy Institute. These readings will help the students acquaint themselves with the conceptual and technical aspects of the material to be covered in the course. The second component of the course is the set of lectures and hands-on training to be conducted at the Levy Institute. There will be some degree of overlap between the readings for the self-study module and the readings assigned for the lectures. The goal of the lectures is to deepen the participants’ understanding regarding the topics discussed in the self-study module and introduce the participants to recent research in gender-aware economic analysis with a focus on policy issues. We will also provide hands-on training in developing participants’ the modeling skills, including training in analysis using packages such as STATA. Finally, the mentoring component of the course will enable the participant to make progress toward formulating a research project along with other participants and mentors.

The deadline for applications is March 8, 2020. Interested applicants should complete the online application form and submit the required materials via this link on Google forms. If you have issues with online submission, please contact Kathleen Mullaly (mullaly@levy.org). We will communicate the decision on participation before March 30, 2020. If you require further information regarding the course, please contact Charlotte Friar at cfriar@american.edu.

This course is organized by Maria Floro, Professor, Department of Economics, American University and Care Work and the Economy (CWE-GAM) Principal Investigator; Paula Herrera Idárraga, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Thomas Masterson, Research Scholar and Director of Applied Micromodeling, Levy Institute; Ana Maria Tribin, Senior Researcher, Central Bank, Colombia; and Ajit Zacharias, Senior Scholar and Program Director, Distribution of Income and Wealth program, Levy Institute.

The course is made possible by the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.