About
Current Visiting Scholars and PhDs

Our Visiting PhD Fellowship Programme and the Visiting Scholars Programme give doctoral students, as well as qualified scholars an opportunity to participate in UNU-WIDER activities and the opportunity to research topics related to development, and/or global economic issues.
Visiting Scholars – Autumn 2023

Gabriela Zapata RománGabriela Zapata Román

I am an Economist with a PhD in Development Policy from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. I am a Researcher at the Max Planck-UCEN Research Group on the Economy and Society of the Faculty of Economics, Government and Communications at Universidad Central de Chile and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester.
During my three-month visit to UNU WIDER, I aim to investigate how motherhood affects women's labour trajectories and to what extent motherhood explains the persistence of gender inequality in Chile, using longitudinal data from the Social Protection Survey of Chile.
 

Yashodhan Ghopade

I am a Senior Economist in the Social Protection and Jobs globalYashodhan Ghopade practice of the World Bank working in the East Asia and Pacific region. My research focuses on the microeconomics of conflict, household coping strategies under duress, social protection and informality. I have a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Sussex, UK, and has previously worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Institute of Development Studies, Oxford Policy Management Ltd., the ILO Child Labor Program, and World Bank country offices in New Delhi and Yangon. As a Visiting Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER, I will be studying the impact of climate change and conflict-related shocks on migration in Yemen.

Visiting PhD Fellows – Autumn 2023

Robert MackayRobert Mackay

I am visiting from Curtin University, Perth Australia and study a combination of environmental and social sciences through the lens of economics. My broader thesis concerns the behavioural and attitudinal changes of individuals exposed to natural disaster in Africa, however my specific focus during my time at WIDER is that of interpersonal trust. Specifically, research into whether individuals who are repeatedly exposed to natural disasters throughout their impressionable years (early adulthood) have impacted formations of trust.

Betty AsseBetty Asse

I am a PhD student in Economics at the University of Bordeaux, France. The main objective of my work is to highlight the role of international insertion in the process of structural change by considering the threshold level of institutional quality  and the institutional similarities between countries.

David Otoo

I am a visiting PhD fellow at UNU-WIDER, and I am pursuing a PhD in David OtooEconomics at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. My work at UNU-WIDER is on ‘Climate change and the effort to reduce inequality’. My research interest include efficiency and productivity analysis, poverty and inequality, climate change, human capital development and among others. 
I am also is a non-resident researcher at PLACEFEET, a research consulting firm in Ghana.