Last updated: February 2013

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Development microeconomics, in particular: nutrition, labour markets and returns to education in developing countries, poverty and inequality
• Economic demography with concentration on ageing and intergenerational transfers

 

EDUCATION

 

11/2001 - 01/2005          Ph.D. in Economics, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

09/2000 - 05/2001          Doctoral Student in Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

09/1996 - 06/1997          M.A. in European Economic Studies, College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium (bi-lingual program, taught in English and French)

09/1991 - 06/1996          Diploma in International Economic Relations, Economics University of Varna, Bulgaria

 

PRESENT POSITIONS

 09/2011-present             Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

                                    Senior Lecturer in Development Economics

09/2006 – present          IZA – Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn, Germany

                                    Research fellow

04/2012-present              European Journal of Development Research

                                      Co-editor

 

PAST POSITIONS

 

09/2005 – 08/2010         Brunel University, West London, United Kingdom

                                    Lecturer in Economics

04/2005 - 12/2005          Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Vieillesse, Paris, France

                                    Marie Curie research fellow

10/2004 - 03/2005          Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

                                    Marie Curie research fellow

11/2001 - 09/2004          LICOS, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

                                    Research assistant

09/2000 - 05/2001          University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

                                    Teaching assistant

11/1998 - 06/1999          ICRA Limited, Associate of Moody’s Investors Service in India

                                    Consultant with an independent project

 

RESEARCH GRANTS

 Summer 2012               United Nations Foundation

                                    Consultancy Project ($ 20,000)

                                    Title: The productivity and welfare implications of female empowerment

                                    through high value agriculture. 

                                    Partner: Ira N. Gang

                                    British Academy

01/2009-12/2011            UK-Africa network grant (£29, 135)

Title: The impact of macroeconomic policies and exogenous shocks on employment and poverty in Africa: Simulations for Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal

Partners: Latif Dramani (Université de Thiès, Senegal, Barthélémy Biao (Université de Parakou, Benin), PAM Zahonogo Université de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), Patrick Gbakou (Université de Cocody-Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

                        

                                     Leverhulme Trust

12/2008 - 12/2009          Grant F/00 275/L (£37,669) – Principal Investigator

Research title: Nutritional Science Insights into the Economics of Food Consumption in Bulgaria

                                    Co-researchers: Ira N. Gang (Economics, Rutgers University, USA)

                                    Daniel Hoffman (Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University, USA)

                                    Patrick Monnet Gbakou (Research Assistant hired for the project)

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

                                    European Union

04/2004 - 09/2005          Marie Curie Grant for Project on Intergenerational Relations

10/2004 - 03/2005          Marie Curie Grant for Project on Population Ageing

09/1996 - 07/1997          TEMPUS scholarship for attending the College of Europe

                                    Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA

Summer, 2004               Travel grant

 

 LANGUAGES

 

Bulgarian, English, French, Basic Russian, Basic Bengali

 

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SERVICE ACTIVITIES

 Cluster convenor- Development Economics and Public Policy, IDPM University of Manchester

Program Director-Development Finance, IDPM University of Manchester

External Examiner-Leeds University

 

Referee:

Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Population Economics, European Journal of Population, World Development, Economics Bulletin

 

PUBLICATIONS

 Ganyu Labour in Malawi: Efficiency Problems and Determinants of Supply (with Subhashis Gangopadhyay, Katharina Michaelowa and Anke Weber). Second revision: Economic Development and Cultural Change.

The impact of food and economic crises on diet and nurition (with Ira Gang, Dan Hoffman and Patrick Monnet Gbakou). Revise and resubmit: Journal of Development Studies.

The global food crisis: Disaster, opportunity or non-event? (with Patrick Monnet Gbakou) Forthcoming: World Development.

Whither corruption? A quantitative survey of the literature on corruption and growth. (with Nauro Campos and Ahmed Saleh) Accepted subject to minor revisions:  Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics.

 Good and Bad Institutions -- Is the Debate Over? Cross-country Firm-Level Evidence from the Textile Industry (with Sumon Bhaumik).Forthcoming:  Cambridge Journal of Economics.

 Does Human Capital Endowment of FDI Recipient Countries Really Matter? Evidence from Cross-country Firm Level Data (with Sumon Bhaumik).Forthcoming:  Review of Development Economics.

 Do Downward Private Transfers Enhance Maternal Labour Supply? Evidence from around Europe (with François-Charles Wolff), Journal of Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pp.911-933, (2011).

 Off-farm labor supply and labor markets in rapidly changing circumstances: Bulgaria during transition. Economic Systems, vol. 35(3), pp. 358-389 (2011).

 Social Mobility Sans Frontières? Evidence from a Sample of Immigrants in France (with Claudine Attias-Donfut),  European Societies, vol. 13(1), pp. 51-68 (2011).

 Allocation of Labour in Urban West Africa. Insights from the Pattern of Labour Supply and Skill Premiums (with Christophe Nordman and François Roubaud). Review of Development Economics, vol. 14(1), pp. 74-92, (2010).

 Upstream Transfers and the Donor's Labour Supply. Evidence from Migrants Living in France (with François-Charles Wolff). The Manchester School, vol. 77(2), pp. 204-224, (2009).

 Are Private Transfers Poverty and Inequality Reducing? Household Level Evidence from Bulgaria (François-Charles Wolff). Journal of Comparative Economics, vol. 36(4), pp. 584-598, (2008).

 Grandchild Care Transfers by Ageing Immigrants in France: Intra-household Allocations and Labour Market Implications (François-Charles Wolff). European Journal of Population, vol. 24(3), pp. 315-340, (2008).

 The Impact of Labour Reallocation and Competitive Pressure on TFP Growth: Firm Level Evidence from Bulgaria. International Review of Applied Economics, 22(3), 321-338, (2008).

 Economic Reforms as a Tool to Attract Foreign Direct Investment: Is it a Chimera? (with Sumon K. Bhaumik). Applied Economics Letters, 1–7, (2007).

 Self-selection and Wages during Volatile Transition. (with Ira N. Gang). Journal of Comparative Economics, 35(3), 612-619 (2007).

 The Informal Sector during Crisis and Transition. (with Ira N. Gang and John Landon-Lane). In Guha-Khasnobis, Basudeb and Ravi Kanbur (Eds.) Informal Labor Markets in Development, Palgrave Macmillan (2006).

Monopolistic Wages or Efficient Contracts: What Determined the Wage-Employment Bargain in Post-Privatization Bulgaria. Economics of Transition, 14(2), 321-47, (2006).

 How do Migrants Care for Their Elderly Parents: Time, Money and Location. (with François-Charles  Wolff). Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Special Issue from the First Conference on Long-term Care, 142, pp. 123-130, (2006). 

How Important is Ownership in a Market with a Level Playing Field. The Indian Banking Industry Revisited (with Sumon K. Bhaumik). Journal of Comparative Economics, 32 (1), 165-180, (2004).

 

Work in progress:

 Remittances, Child Labor and Migration. Theory and Evidence from the Kagera region in Tanzania (with Ira N. Gang and Gil Epstein): in submission.

 Does institutional quality affect firm performance? Insights from a semiparametric approach (with Sumon Bhaumik, Subal Kumbhakar and Kai Sun): in submission

 Economic crises and nutrition (2 papers coming soon) (with Ira Gang, Dan Hoffman and Patrick Gbakou)

 

SHORT TERM VISITS

 

Summer, 2008               Rutgers University, Department of Economics, New Brunswick, New  Jersey, USA

                                    Visiting lecturer, taught a summer course in Labour Economics

Summer, 2006               IZA – Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn, Germany

                                    Visiting researcher

Summers, 2004/2006     Rutgers University, Department of Economics, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

                                    Visiting researcher

Summer, 2002               The World Bank, Washington, D.C., USA

                                    Summer intern, Africa Department