Economic development is inherently a dynamic but often slow process characterized by changes in institutions, the natural environment and by the mobility of individuals. Advances in the scientific understanding of both the multi-level causes and consequences of development have been hampered by the lack of comprehensive data tracking individuals, their environment and institutions over the long term. Our goal is to provide a new laboratory for carrying out a wide range of potential studies of the medium- and long-term changes, or lack of changes, that take place during the process of development. We are particularly interested in providing a framework for the investigation of the large set of issues that have remained outside the scope of scientific analysis because of the short time frame and narrow methodological focus of most existing surveys in developing countries. By committing to a very long term, comprehensive study that obtains information on individuals and the built and natural environment in which they reside through their life courses, we can provide the tools required for a transformation of the study of development.
The guiding principles of the studies are flexibility and a long-run commitment. We aim to provide a research infrastructure that will encompass a wide range of innovative studies of the process of economic development, many of which cannot be predicted in advance. Some examples of the types of research that will become possible with these data are:
- the long-term impacts on individuals of health shocks, childhood nutritional status, and schooling;
- local institutional transformation and economic development;
- the interactions between ecological transformation and patterns of growth;
- the dynamics of household formation and restructuring;
- randomized evaluation of development interventions with long-term follow-up;
- patterns of long-term occupational or expenditure mobility.
Scope
Our strategy is to permit the investigation of unexpected connections between the multiple transformations that occur during the process of economic development. To do so, the EGC has planned large scale panel surveys in three developing countries to continue for at least 15 years.
Currently, field work is underway in India and Ghana. To learn more about the Ghana survey, see http://www.econ.yale.edu/~egcenter/egc_isser_overview.html
We will conduct surveys once every three years. The interval length is chosen to conserve on costs, and because three years is sufficient to begin to observe significant changes beyond the short-run fluctuations that have been the focus of many other studies. In India, the survey begins with a random sample of 10,000 households in 400 communities in rural and urban areas of the state of Tamil Nadu. Every three years following the initial survey, each individual in the original 10,000 households would be followed for re-interviews. Individuals and households will be followed irrespective of whether they move out of their original community, or where they move to. This aspect of the study design is essential to capture the important, but heretofore understudied, spatial component of economic mobility as we follow individuals over their life courses.
A very broad range of data will be required to maximize the usefulness of this research infrastructure. Each round of the survey will consist of three key elements: a census of all inhabitants of the community; comprehensive household-level surveys; and community inventories.
Collaboration and flexibility
The wide scope and long-term time frame provide a broad set of opportunities for collaborative research and extensions of the project. The core panel study provides a framework around which a wide range of additional research can be generated, funded by add-on grants and other sources. These additional projects can be carried out at relatively low marginal cost, because the larger study provides complementary data and the infrastructure for survey research.
Interdisciplinary Approach
The goal of this project is to shed new light on long-run processes of economic development. Development economics provides the intellectual framework that guides the overall design of project. Progress on understanding economic development, however, relies on insights from a broad range of disciplines. The broad scope of this project provides a natural setting for collaboration across disciplines.
A central goal of the project is to understand the pathways through which local social and political institutions influence patterns of economic development, while taking into account the possibility that the process of economic development itself may shape the evolution of these institutions. There is an extremely broad range of such institutions which we will examine in the context of this long-term study. Three specific examples include: farmers’ security of land tenure; processes of dispute resolution within villages; and the role of caste and kin groups in occupational and residential choices.
A parallel goal of the project is to examine the dynamic relationships between economic change and broader measures of human well-being. We will investigate long-term interactions between economic development and individual health, nutrition and education.
The project will clarify our understanding of the long-run connections between environmental and economic change. For example, we will monitor how land resource management and farming systems evolve with economic growth. Similarly, we can study how local environmental threats (indoor air pollution, agricultural chemicals, water-borne diseases) are related to individual health and to production and consumption choices.
Intelligent investigation of these broad questions requires collaboration with experts in many fields, including public health, education, environmental sciences, political science, demography, psychology and sociology.
Institutional Connections
The Economic Growth Center at Yale is leading this research program, but will rely on strong long-term institutional collaboration.
In India, the Centre for Microfinance Research at the Institute for Financial Management and Research, an economic research and policy think tank, has partnered with the EGC on the Tamil Nadu Socioeconomic Mobility survey. In addition to collaborating in development of the survey instruments and sampling procedures, the CMF is responsible for operational management of the survey.
