New Visiting Researchers Program brings Postdoctoral and PhD Student Fellows to Harvard's Center for International Development

The Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University launched the Visiting Researcher Program this academic year. With sponsorship from UniCredit Foundation, this program brings postdoctoral and PhD student researchers from the UniCredit Bank’s extensive European network to Harvard CID. Program participants have the opportunity to join CID’s vibrant research community and learn from leading Harvard faculty and researchers.

Over a three-year period, the support from UniCredit will fund postdoctoral fellowships for researchers whose research focuses on education related to a UniCredit country: Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. In addition, visiting fellowships at CID will be awarded to PhD students from institutions in UniCredit territories listed above. CID welcomed the first two PhD students this spring and will welcome two postdoctoral candidates in fall 2024. The call for additional PhD students for fall 2024 is currently open.

“Through this new program, we are thrilled to bring early-stage researchers to the CID community at Harvard University. We hope to build new relationships that spark innovative ideas and translate into research that will have a significant impact on education and economic development,” said Eliana La Ferrara, CID Faculty Affiliate and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School who is overseeing the program. 

Andrea Orcel, CEO of UniCredit and chairman of the UniCredit Foundation, visited CID on November 28, 2023 to launch the program alongside CID leadership. He noted the importance of investing in the education of the next generation of scholars. CID faculty and fellows discussed global trends and challenges on education. 

“Education is the bedrock upon which we build our future, and we are proud of UniCredit’s commitment to supporting educational development through our Foundation,” Orcel said. “This program will act as a further tool to better understand educational needs enabling researchers to generate new evidence about the countries where we operate.”

“We are delighted to welcome these visiting researchers to the CID community,” shared CID’s Faculty Director Asim I. Khwaja. “Building and investing in the talent of the next generation of researchers is one of our top priorities at CID. We want to support and grow their research and watch the ripple effect as they advance learning on critical development issues. I am grateful to the UniCredit Foundation for helping us get this incredible initiative off the ground.”

Award recipients

The CID Visiting Researcher Program welcomed its inaugural cohort of PhD students in spring 2024:

Dilnovoz Abdurazzakova is a PhD student studying Economics related to gender and education at Central European University in Vienna, Austria. Currently, her research centers on social norms and their influence on career and educational aspirations among high school students in Uzbekistan, utilizing a field experiment to analyze how societal expectations shape the futures of both boys and girls. She is sponsored by CID Faculty Affiliate Michela Carlana, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Erick Baumgartner is a PhD student studying Development, Labor and Public Economics at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. His work is aimed at evaluating social policy and the institutional framework on which these policies are decided, attempting to propose measures that can improve the efficiency of the policy decision process, its targeting, and allocation.  He is sponsored by CID Faculty Affiliate Eliana La Ferrara, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. 

The CID Visiting Researcher Program will welcome two postdoctoral candidates in fall 2024:

Andrei Munteanu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics of the Université du Québec à Montréal's École des Sciences de la Gestion (ESG UQAM) and the Academic Director of the CIQSS-UQÀM-INRS Laboratory. During his fellowship at CID he will focus on education research in Romania related to the effects of high school majors, the effects of attending a higher value-added high school, the equilibrium implications of identity choice of the Roma People. He will be sponsored by CID Faculty Affiliate Gabriel Kreindler, Assistant Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University

Dejan Kovac is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association. During his fellowship at CID he will focus on education research in Croatia to increase understanding of migration processes by shedding light on human capital development in origin countries and what role peer effects play in the post-migration period. He will be sponsored by CID Faculty Affiliate Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education