Conference Program: Firms, Trade, and Development 2025

9:00 - 9:30 am: Coffee and welcome remarks

9:30 - 10:10 am: Familiar Strangers: Evidence from Referral-based Hiring Experiments in India

• Kartik Srivastava (Harvard University)

10:10 - 10:50 am: Social Learning among Urban Manufacturing Firms: Energy-Efficient Motors in Bangladesh

• Eric Verhoogen (Columbia University), Ritam Chaurey (Johns Hopkins SAIS), Gaurav Nayyar (World Bank), Siddharth Sharma (World Bank)

10:50 - 11:10 am: Break

11:10 am - 12:10 pm: Keynote: Trade Winds or Trade Walls?

• Indermit Gill (Chief Economist & Senior Vice President for Development Economics—World Bank Group)

12:10 - 12:50 pm: Moving to Profitability? Alleviating Constraints on Microentrepreneur Location

• Carolyn Pelnik (World Bank Development Research Group)                    

12:50 - 1:50 pm: Lunch

1:50 - 2:30 pm: Tax Audits and Their Distortionary Effects

• David Henning (Oxford University), Joseph Okello Ayo (Uganda Revenue Authority)

2:30 - 3:10 pm: Working it out: Randomized Restructuring and Entrepreneurial Effort in a Collateralized Debt Market

• Apoorv Gupta (Dartmouth College), Christopher Eaglin (Duke University), Filippo Mezzanotti (Northwestern University), Jonathan Zinman (Dartmouth College)

3:10 - 3:50 pm: Money or Monitoring: Evidence on Improving Worker Effort

• Shing-Yi Wang (University of Pennsylvania), Jing Cai (University of Maryland), Sai Luo (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)

3:50 - 4:10 pm: Break

4:10 - 4:50 pm: When Competition Compels Change: Trade, Management, and Productivity

• Ananya Kotia (LSE)

4:50 - 5:30 pm: More Trade, Less Diffusion: Technology Transfers and the Dynamic Effects of Import Liberalization

• Gustavo de Souza (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago), Ruben Gaetani (University of Toronto Mississauga), Marti Mestieri (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)

8:45 - 9:00 am: Welcome and coffee

9:00 - 9:40 am: The Spatial Distribution of Income in Cities: New Global Evidence and Theory

• Yuhei Miyauchi (Boston University), Peter Deffebach (Boston University), David Lagakos (Boston University), Eiji Yamada (Japan International Cooperation Agency)

9:40 - 10:20 am: Relational Frictions Along the Supply Chain: Evidence from Senegalese Traders

• Edward Wiles (Harvard University), Deivy Houeix (Harvard University)

10:20 - 10:40 am: Break

10:40 - 11:20 am: Willing but Unable: Social Norms and Costs of Female Hiring in Pakistan          

• Zunia Saif Tirmazee (Lahore School of Economics), Sakina Shibuya (UTokyo Economic Consulting), Hana Zahir (Lahore University of Management Science)

11:20 - 12:00 pm: The Effects of Mandated Maternity Leave on Labor Market: Outcomes in India

• Garima Sharma (Northwestern University), Pulak Ghosh (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore), Stephanie Hao (Revelio Labs), Lisa Ho (Columbia University), Shreya Tandon (Harvard University)

12:00 - 12:20 pm: Break

12:20 - 1:20 pm: Policy Panel Lunch: Local Priorities in Light of Global Geopolitical Shifts

• Panelists: Ashfaqul Chowdhury (IGC Bangladesh), Tewodros Makonnen Gebrewolde (IGC Ethiopia), Abou Bakarr Kamara (IGC Sierra Leone)
• Moderator: Namrata Kala (MIT)

1:20 - 1:35 pm: Break

1:35 - 2:15 pm: Identity, Market Access, and Demand-led Diversification         

• Sampreet Goraya (Stockholm School of Economics), Akhil Ilango (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)

2:15 - 2:55 pm: Automation without Borders: The Impacts of Generative AI on International Service Outsourcing

• Maggie Chen (George Washington University), Neha Betai (George Washington University)

2:55 - 3:00 pm: Closing remarks