"To improve the lives of the poor we need scientific research to test the theories on the ground,” provided the foundation for Prakarsh Singh week long course titled “Applied Econometrics and Development.” Singh, assistant professor at Amherst College, concluded this course as part of the III Annual Development Week, an international congress organized by the Navarra Center for International Development of the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra.

 According to Singh, research in the development world has many challenges; mainly that data aggregation in randomized experiments requires time, funding, and contact with local organizations.  

“Normally a randomized experiment takes 18 months. If you are not able to collect the data you can use other sources of information such as the government statistics or surveys”. However, these sources do not always paint an accurate picture and can ultimately affect the results of the research. Moreover there are some cases –Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea or some parts of Zimbabwe– where microeconomic data is unavailable.

New Challenges in Research

“In research we also have opportunities, especially with advances in technology,” said Singh. For example, the Geographic Information System (GIS) is a software system that allows one to capture, store, and analyze geographical data. Thanks to this progress in technology, it is easier and more precise to collect of data, and, measure some variables that were unavailable before.

Those who attended the course were mainly students and teachers from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Navarra. “Participants already had advanced knowledge of the theories, but I wanted to teach them how to apply these concepts to the real world; how they can design their own experiments; and what to do once they have the data,” concluded Singh.