Young Grants for the Economics Department In the 2019-20 academic year, the Young Initiative expanded its supportive role in advancing high quality research on global political economy at Occidental by funding the research of faculty in the Economics Department for the first time. Faculty members Kirsten Wandschneider and Diana Ngo were the first recipients of Young Grants, allowing for more impactful research on the global political economy, and encouraging collaboration between the Economics and Diplomacy and World Affairs Departments.
Diana Ngo The Young Initiative supported Assistant Professor Diana Ngo’s ongoing research in development economics, focused on meaningfully monitoring and understanding global poverty. In joint work with Abhilasha Sahay at George Washington University, Ngo has been developing her project, “Chronic Multidimensional Poverty: A Multi-Country Study.” In it, they document the similarities and differences in the dynamics of monetary poverty and deprivations in health, living standards, and education in India, Peru, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. They also highlight the disparities between urban and rural areas and discuss how the narrative on poverty reduction and inequality differs by measure. With the Young Initiative’s support, much of this work was done by Oxy students Jordan Walker ’21 and Wafa Abedin ’21, culminating in separate research on the effects of road-building in Vietnam and the effects of violent protests in Ethiopia. The funds also supported Ngo’s participation in the Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economics Conference at Colby College in fall 2019. 31
