PhD Profiles

Beyond Static Inequality, Thailand “A recent study reveals that in OECD countries, children from poor families would need at least 150 years to reach the average income level, while in some developing countries such as Brazil, Colombia and South Africa, it could take as long as ...

I previously worked at the UN ECLAC in Santiago de Chile, in a division that has partnered with UNU-MERIT on various projects. For two years I worked under Mario Cimoli, who used to be a colleague of UNU-MERIT Director, Bart Verspagen. It was Mario who first told me about the programm...

My co-author Francesco Loiacono and I won an exploratory grant from Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) last year, and a small grant from the International Growth Centre (IGC) this year. The first allowed us to travel to Uganda and organise focus group discussions with refugees, firm...

My research was about a set of public policies to support the semiconductor industry in Brazil. These policies started to be designed in the early 2000s, when it was identified that developing a semiconductor industry in the country would foster innovation in the electronics industry....

I found out about the UNU-MERIT PhD programme through an online scholarship subscription. Initially, I was a bit surprised that governance and economics could be combined to form a single PhD programme – but then I saw how the two tracks work side-by-side in a complementary way....

I was born in Aachen, a child of a German mother and a Palestinian father. As a German, I am the owner of the most ‘powerful passport’ in the world -- a passport that grants me the freedom to travel and visit the most beautiful places around the globe. Yet, my Palestinian roots were s...