Celebrating Our Graduates
May 22, 2023
Today, a diverse group of students in development economics are graduating from Yale at different levels. They will enter a world of work that, more than ever, needs innovative development thinking. The Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted many of their studies, also caused the first uptick in the global number of people living in extreme poverty in decades. Even as the pandemic recedes, the poor’s economic recovery is impeded by conflict, barriers to migration, rising food and energy prices, and natural calamities linked to climate breakdowns.
Our graduating students, however, give us reason to be optimistic. I invite you to meet our students in an article we have prepared to honor their achievements.
With their impressive jobs, our PhD students in development and trade will disperse across continents and sectors. The class of 2023 of the International and Development Economics (IDE) Masters program features the first-ever recipients of the IDE Africa Scholarship, for a total of 31 graduates who are moving on to PhD programs and research and policy jobs. We are saying farewell to several interns and postgraduate associates who have made significant contributions to our research and communications programs and are moving on to bigger and better things.
Commencement also celebrates the first full year of the Salus Populi Foundation, the EGC-supported student-led undergraduate club focusing on development. Their fellows – first year students who have been mentored by juniors and seniors – are marking their own achievement. You can read about this program in a retrospective article by the club’s founders.
EGC congratulates all of these students on their achievements, wishes them the best in their chosen endeavors, and encourages them to continue applying their skills to solving global problems.
Rohini Pande
Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics
Director, Economic Growth Center
2023 Yale Economics PhDs in Development & Trade
Sheng (Charles) Cai will join the City University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor in Economics; Lucas Conwell will join University College London as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Economics; Lucas Finamor will join Fundação Getulio Vargas - SP in Brazil (after a postdoctoral fellowship at IFS, London); Matthew Gordon, a development-focused PhD student at the Yale School of Environment, will join the Paris School of Economics as an Assistant Professor; Antonia Paredes-Haz will join Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow.
The IDE Class of 2023
This year’s graduates of the International and Development Economics Master’s program will go on to the PhD program at Harvard, fellowships at the University of Chicago, and a range of policy jobs.
EGC Postgraduate Associates
Sarah Danner, who assisted with research on governance in Nepal, will enter a PhD in Public Policy at Berkeley Haas. Fikremariam Gedefaw, who worked on projects in technology and gender in India, will also enter a PhD in Public Policy at Berkeley Haas. Diana Perez Lopez, who worked on EGC projects related to early childhood development interventions, will start a PhD in Economics at Yale University. Marie-Rose Tonguino, who assisted with EGC research on energy markets and the environment, will enter as a post-baccalaureate student in Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University. Satish Wasti who worked on environmental projects in India will enter the PhD program in Economics at the University of British Columbia.
Yale College Class of 2023
We also celebrate the achievements of Yale undergraduates who studied international development – particularly those who worked with us as EGC Interns. During their time with us, they analyzed data on technology and gender in India, wrote articles about a range of EGC research, reorganized the Center’s historical archive, and helped us feature our affiliates.
