Aerial view of the UZH main building

About the Cen­ter

Alleviate poverty and build prosperity

The Zurich Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment aims to cre­ate syn­er­gis­tic co­op­er­a­tion be­tween acad­e­mia, busi­ness, gov­ern­ment and non-prof­it or­ga­ni­za­tions in de­vel­oped and in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries for the pur­pose of de­sign­ing and eval­u­at­ing eco­nom­ic poli­cies that fa­cil­i­tate the al­le­vi­a­tion of pover­ty and help build pros­per­i­ty.

It is an in­ter­na­tion­al nu­cle­us of ap­plied re­search in eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment. The cen­ter holds an­nu­al work­shops with in­ter­na­tion­al lead­ers of the field. It pro­vides ide­al con­di­tions for knowl­edge trans­fer by at­tract­ing a con­tin­u­ous flow of in­ter­na­tion­al ex­perts for short- and medi­um-term vis­its to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich.

The Cen­ter’s work would not be pos­si­ble with­out the close col­lab­o­ra­tion and ded­i­ca­tion of many part­ners. The Swiss Re Foun­da­tion has ac­com­pa­nied the cen­ter as the foun­da­tion part­ner since its in­cep­tion.

Af­fil­i­at­ed Pro­fes­sors

The Zurich Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment forms part of the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, one of the lead­ing eco­nom­ic de­part­ments in Eu­rope. Our four prin­ci­pal in­ves­ti­ga­tors are Loren­zo Casaburi, Dina Pomer­anz, Joachim Voth, and David Yana­g­iza­wa-Drott. They set their own re­search agen­das, raise funds to sup­port their eval­u­a­tions, and work with the Cen­ter’s staff on re­search and pol­i­cy out­reach.

Lorenzo Casaburi

Associate Professor of Development Economics

Af­ter hold­ing the po­si­tion as As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor, en­dowed by Swiss Re at Zurich’s De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics for five years, Loren­zo Casaburi is now As­so­ci­ate Pro­fes­sor of De­vel­op­ment Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. Be­fore he joined the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, he was a Post­doc­tor­al Fel­low at the Stan­ford In­sti­tute for Eco­nom­ic Pol­i­cy Re­search (SIEPR), Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty. He holds a Ph.D. in Eco­nom­ics from Har­vard. Pro­fes­sor Casaburi is an Af­fil­i­at­ed Pro­fes­sor at the Ab­dul Latif Jameel Pover­ty Ac­tion Lab (J - PAL Glob­al), a Re­search Af­fil­i­ate at the Cen­tre for Eco­nom­ic Pol­i­cy Re­search (CEPR), the In­no­va­tions for Pover­ty Ac­tion (IPA) and the In­ter­na­tion­al Growth Cen­tre (IGC), and a mem­ber of the Bu­reau for Re­search and Eco­nom­ic Analy­sis of De­vel­op­ment (BREAD). His re­search fo­cus­es on two main agen­das. In the first, he fo­cus­es on agri­cul­tur­al mar­kets in Sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa, with an em­pha­sis on mar­ket struc­ture and agri­cul­tur­al fi­nance. Re­cent pa­pers in this area study the im­pact of sav­ing con­straints on agri­cul­tur­al mar­kets and the de­sign of nov­el agri­cul­tur­al in­sur­ance prod­ucts for small­hold­ers. In the sec­ond, he looks at state ca­pac­i­ty, with an em­pha­sis on tax en­force­ment. Re­cent work in this area in­cludes a pa­per on the im­pact of tax en­force­ment poli­cies on vot­ing be­hav­ior and on­go­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Kenya Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty on projects aimed at re­duc­ing eva­sion of rental in­come tax and val­ue added tax. Pro­fes­sor Casaburi’s re­search has been fund­ed by sev­er­al in­sti­tu­tions, in­clud­ing US­AID, DFID, IGC, 3ie, and JPAL.

+41 44 634 59 32

loren­zo.casaburi@econ.uzh.ch

Vis­it per­son­al web­site

Dina Pomeranz

Assistant Professor of Microeconomics, endowed by the UBS Center

Dina D. Pomer­anz has been a Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor at the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics since Au­gust 1, 2016, and was ap­point­ed to the As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor­ship in Mi­cro­eco­nom­ics, en­dowed by the UBS Cen­ter, start­ing Sep­tem­ber 2017. Be­fore join­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, she held a po­si­tion as As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the Har­vard Busi­ness School at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty. Pro­fes­sor Pomer­anz is a Fac­ul­ty Re­search Fel­low at the Na­tion­al Bu­reau of Eco­nom­ic Re­search (NBER), an Af­fil­i­ate Pro­fes­sor at the Ab­dul Latif Jameel Pover­ty Ac­tion Lab (J-PAL), the Bu­reau for Re­search and Eco­nom­ic Analy­sis of De­vel­op­ment (BREAD) and the Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Pol­i­cy Re­search (CEPR), and a mem­ber of the In­ter­na­tion­al Growth Cen­tre (IGC) and of the HBS So­cial En­ter­prise Ini­tia­tive. Her re­search fo­cus­es on pub­lic poli­cies to­wards firms and en­tre­pre­neurs in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries. She has con­duct­ed large-scale ran­dom­ized field ex­per­i­ments on tax eva­sion by firms and the de­ter­mi­nants and im­pacts of for­mal sav­ings for low-in­come mi­cro-en­tre­pre­neurs. Pro­fes­sor Pomer­anz’ re­search has been pub­lished in jour­nals such as the Amer­i­can Eco­nom­ic Re­view and the Tax Ad­min­is­tra­tion Re­view and has been fea­tured in me­dia out­lets in­clud­ing CNN, Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Jour­nal. Be­sides her aca­d­e­m­ic in­ter­ests, she serves on the board or ad­vi­so­ry board of a num­ber of so­cial en­ter­prise ven­tures com­mit­ted to trans­lat­ing re­search into prac­tice.

+41 44 634 59 32

dina.pomer­anz@econ.uzh.ch

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Joachim Voth

Professor of Macroeconomics and Financial Markets, endowed by the UBS Center

Joachim Voth joined the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich in 2014 and has been ap­point­ed to the Pro­fes­sor­ship in Macro­eco­nom­ics and Fi­nan­cial Mar­kets, en­dowed by the UBS Cen­ter in 2015. From 1998 to 2013, he was a pro­fes­sor at UPF, Barcelona. He is a Re­search Fel­low at the Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Pol­i­cy Re­search (CEPR), has held vis­it­ing ap­point­ments at the MIT Eco­nom­ics De­part­ment, Prince­ton, at NYU-Stern and at the Stan­ford Eco­nom­ics De­part­ment, and he has been a Vis­it­ing Fel­low at the In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Stud­ies, ANU, Can­ber­ra, Aus­tralia and at Nuffield Col­lege, Ox­ford, as well a Re­search Fel­low at Clare Col­lege, Cam­bridge. Pro­fes­sor Voth is one of the joint man­ag­ing ed­i­tors of the Eco­nom­ic Jour­nal. He is also an as­so­ciate ed­i­tor at the The Quar­ter­ly Jour­nal of Eco­nom­ics. His area of spe­cial­iza­tion is eco­nom­ic and fi­nan­cial his­to­ry and his re­search has been pub­lished in four of the top 5 jour­nals in eco­nom­ics, as well as in books and field jour­nals. His prin­ci­pal ar­eas of re­search in­clude long-run eco­nom­ic growth, the his­to­ry of sov­er­eign debt, caus­es and con­se­quences of the Nazi Par­ty’s rise to pow­er, and the eco­nom­ic his­to­ry of the In­dus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion. Pro­fes­sor Voth has been award­ed sev­er­al grants and prizes for his work and his re­search has also been pro­filed in The Econ­o­mist, the Fi­nan­cial Times, the New York Times, Fi­nan­cial Times Deutsch­land, Wall Street Jour­nal, NZZ, Han­dels­blatt, FAZ, Le Monde, Van­guardia, and De Volk­skrant.

+41 44 634 55 47

voth@econ.uzh.ch

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David Yanagizawa-Drott

Professor of Development and Emerging Markets

David Yana­g­iza­wa-Drott is Pro­fes­sor of De­vel­op­ment and Emerg­ing Mar­kets at the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics, Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, and Af­fil­i­at­ed Pro­fes­sor at the UBS In­ter­na­tion­al Cen­ter of Eco­nom­ics in So­ci­ety. Be­fore join­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich he held po­si­tions as As­so­ci­ate Pro­fes­sor (2014-2016) and As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor (2010-2014) at Har­vard Kennedy School and as Vis­it­ing As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the MIT Eco­nom­ics De­part­ment. Pro­fes­sor Yana­g­iza­wa holds a Ph.D. in Eco­nom­ics from IIES Stock­holm Uni­ver­si­ty. He is a Fac­ul­ty Re­search Fel­low at The Na­tion­al Bu­reau of Eco­nom­ic Re­search (NBER), an Af­fil­i­at­ed Pro­fes­sor at the Ab­dul Latif Jameel Pover­ty Ac­tion Lab (J - PAL Glob­al), and a mem­ber of the The Bu­reau for Re­search and Eco­nom­ic Analy­sis of De­vel­op­ment (BREAD). His re­search in­ter­ests in­clude po­lit­i­cal eco­nom­ics and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, with cur­rent fo­cus on cul­ture, con­flict and glob­al­iza­tion. Pro­fes­sor Yana­g­iza­wa’s re­search has been fea­tured in nu­mer­ous me­dia out­lets in­clud­ing ABC, CBS, Fox, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wash­ing­ton Post.

+41 44 634 61 53

david.yana­g­iza­wa-drott@econ.uzh.ch

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Ad­dress

Zurich Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment

De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics
Schön­berggasse 1
CH-8001 Zürich

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