I am a Ph.D. candidate in Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My research explores how technology, institutions, market structures, and contractual arrangements influence economic opportunities and outcomes, particularly in rural and agricultural settings. Over the past decade, I have conducted field-based research across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa—including in Mexico, El Salvador, Malawi, and Uganda—collaborating with farmers, cooperatives, NGOs, and government agencies to identify strategies that enhance productivity, market participation, and the effectiveness of public programs and interventions.

Weihong Li is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on Environmental Economics, Development Economics, and Political Economy, with an emphasis on how local governance and institutional behavior influence climate outcomes and development trajectories. She has worked with organizations such as the United Nations ESCAP and the State Information Center of China, contributing to projects on digital infrastructure, environmental policy, and geospatial analysis. In her spare time, she likes traveling, hiking, and playing board games.

I am a PhD Scholar in Economics at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. My research interests lie at the intersection of labor markets, household resources, consumption patterns, food insecurity, disability, and migration. I have recently completed research projects under the Global Labor Organization's Virtual Young Scholars (GLO virtYS) program (2022) and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA)'s Lele-Mentor Fellowship (2023). In 2024, HEC-Pakistan awarded me a scholarship to conduct a six-month research visit at Texas A&M University (TAMU), USA, where I further developed my analytical skills and broadened my academic perspective. My PhD dissertation examines the relationship between food insecurity and labor market dynamics, highlighting how higher wages and access to skilled employment can significantly alleviate household food insecurity. Additionally, my work highlights the importance of inclusive labor policies and social support mechanisms in addressing the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities in the workforce.

Susan Cossa is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs. Her dissertation – Three Essays on Foreign Capital Inflows and Rural Development in Mozambique – establishes an inclusive growth index using principal components analysis and examines the socioeconomic effects of agricultural foreign capital in Mozambique. Susan recently returned from a year of field research in Mozambique, where she collected survey and interview data in rural communities on the socioeconomic impacts of agricultural foreign direct investment from China, India, and South Africa. During this period, Susan also worked as a Research Fellow at the World Bank’s Development Impact Group’s Mozambique office. In this role, Susan designed and implemented a qualitative assessment of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Farmer Field School Program. Using findings from this assessment, she wrote an article draft titled Social, Economic, Political, and Policy Determinants of Women’s Participation in Farmer Field Schools: Empirical Evidence from Mozambique. Susan is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Political Economy Research Institute at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Miranda is a 2025-2026 job market candidate from Texas A&M University. She utilizes field and lab experiments along with applied microeconomic methods to study topics encompassed in Development and Labor economics. Her current research uses a gender and development lens to look at the individual and community implications of war as well as the gender differences in promotion/evaluations. Her job market paper examines the impacts of childhood trauma on adulthood household violence in Northern Uganda.

Jesugnon Ezechias Djima is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Houston, specializing in education, labor markets, and development economics. A native of Benin, he holds a Master’s in Mathematics, Economics, and Statistics from the African School of Economics and a Bachelor’s in Statistics and Applied Econometrics from the University of Abomey-Calavi.

Ezechias’s research is motivated by questions of equity and opportunity in low-income settings. His job market paper, “Rethinking Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from West Africa Beyond the Co-Residence Sample Bias,” leverages newly harmonized household survey data from multiple West African countries to revisit long-standing questions in intergenerational mobility. The project addresses methodological challenges related to sample selection and measurement in mobility research within low-income contexts.

He brings a wealth of experience as a research assistant on multi-country projects funded by J-PAL, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE). These roles have equipped him with advanced fieldwork, data collection, and statistical analysis skills across diverse African contexts.

Richard Acquah-Sarpong is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Economics at Oregon State University, specializing in regional and environmental economics. Before his Ph.D studies, he received dual Master of Science degrees in Economics and Data Science from South Dakota State University, where he developed rigorous skills in applied econometrics, policy evaluation, and spatial analysis.

His research interests focus on how place-based policies and natural disasters affect the behavior of firms and regional development. Richard’s current research investigates how Oregon's regional minimum wages shape survival and credit default behavior, particularly in urban versus rural settings. He also examines the economic implications of wildfires on firm migration patterns in the Western United States.

In addition to his research, Richard is actively involved in teaching and mentorship and has presented his work at conferences such as AAEA, PNREC, NARSC, and WRSA.

Rafael Hernandez-Pachon is a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Zurich. His research interests include Development Economics, Economics of Education, & Applied Econometrics. He combines administrative data, experiments, & causal inference methods to study various topics, such as how transportation to school impacts primary school children in Bogotá, Colombia, & whether early investments in the education production function make later investments more productive for children in Ecuador. His recent work in Ghana explores social learning & decision-making in the microcredit market, examining how individuals adapt their behavior based on information about others. Before starting his PhD, Rafael worked at the Inter-American Development Bank on projects related to early childhood development & education in Latin America.

Prerna Dokania is a PhD candidate in Economics at George Washington University and is on the 2024-25 job market. Her research interests lie at the intersection of behavioral and development economics, with a particular focus on gender and human capital development. For her job market paper, she conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment to explore whether providing information about job-related knowledge gaps nudges early childhood care providers to invest in their professional development. In another chapter of her dissertation, she collaborates with a co-author to analyze secondary data from India, examining the impact of parental seasonal migration on the educational outcomes of children left behind. Prerna previously completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Indian School of Business and holds a master’s degree in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Outside of academia, she volunteers with nonprofits in the education sector and enjoys baking in her free time.

Manisha Jain is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interest is applied microeconomics, particularly public & development economics.