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Research Fellow Attends Major Economic Conference in the United States

2011.07.14

DayJune 29, 2011(Wed) - July 03, 2011(Sun)
PlaceSan Diego, California, US
OrganizerWestern Economic Association International (WEAI)

From June 29 to July 3, JICA-RI research fellow Jean-Claude Maswana attended a conference of Western Economic Association International (WEAI) in San Diego, California. As one of the world’s largest of its kind with nearly 2,000 members, WEAI annually provides an opportunity where economists from the country and overseas come together and exchange ideas on the latest economic research. The agendas of the conference are so broad (the number of all sessions totaled nearly 300) that this year they ranged from: “Basketball: Market Structure and Labor Issues” and “Economics of Happiness,” to “U.S. Labor Market,” and “Foreign and Direct Foreign Investment.”

As an organizer of the session on Africa’s agriculture, trade, and education, Maswana discussed findings based on his paper currently being prepared for the research project “Exploring Areas of Potentials Sources of Growth for African Economies.” [Related article 1, Related article 2] In front of 20-some eager experts, he revealed he had applied an unconventional analytical method, called threshold autoregressive panel estimation, to study relationships in Africa’s economic growth function with a focus on its trade with China. After the presentation, the audience inquired on technical details of the analysis, as it was one of the first cases the method was used to analyze the relevance of trade and economic growth nexus. Maswana says comments and feedbacks from other attendees will be valuable in the process of completing the related paper in the coming weeks.

Maputo, booming capital city of Mozambique
(Photo by Mika Tanimoto/JICA: August 2008)

In addition, he was also the discussant at a session on Chinese employment and its public sector, and commented on a paper about the real exchange rate and employment in the country. Their outcomes were interesting and promising for future research, he says.

Related Research Area: Growth and Poverty Reduction