McNamara Fellows - 2023 Cohort Blogs

When it comes to public capacity, what works, for whom, and why?

While grappling with these questions and scrolling mindlessly through Econ Twitter, I came across the Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program, almost by accident. As I would discover in the months to come, it was a happy accident. The premise—fellows are matched to researchers in either the Development Research Group (DECRG) or the Development Impact Group (DIME) and work with them on active projects—was very engaging. Indeed, for somebody who intends to pursue a PhD in economics, such an experience is valuable because it teaches you not just what research is but also whether you like it.

My time in the fellowship was both wonderful and unique. I was initially recruited for the DE JURE program in DIME’s Governance Unit, on a project focused on determining the effect of improvements in access to justice in Kenya. However, two months into the fellowship, due to a shift in circumstances I found myself working under a different supervisor on a new project. The smoothness of this transition was a testament to both the fellowship’s robustness and DIME’s depth in quality. 

I spent the bulk of my fellowship working on the new project—an impact evaluation of a police funding program in Mexico. The program was designed to improve the capabilities of local police forces through government-sanctioned subsidies for training programs and infrastructure procurement in municipalities with the highest crime rates. Because I was onboarded early in the project’s life cycle, my work involved cleaning and analyzing administrative data to understand whether the additional funding affected future crime rates and, if so, whether there was a downstream effect on firm investment. This project was my first introduction to the economics of crime, but abundant (and rapid) feedback helped me get up to speed very quickly. 

In addition to hands-on experience, the fellowship offers many other learning opportunities. The World Bank has a rich culture of weekly seminars, regular conferences, policy discussions, and brown bag lunches. The sheer variety in both event type and topic area ensures that there is always something new to learn. These events are supplemented by workshops and mini-courses, such as Reproducible Research Fundamentals, which taught me how to write comprehensible code that is easily reproducible by external viewers and structured to handle a large team of collaborators. As a bonus, we also got to connect with active DEC researchers in weekly seminars-cum-meetings, which allowed us to draw upon their experiences in esoteric areas, ranging from machine learning to using mobile phone data to Bayesian meta-analysis, among others. 

The fellowship is an excellent learning avenue for anybody who wants to become a practitioner of applied economics. It blends exposure to academic research with the policy-centric focus of the World Bank, which makes for a nigh unique mixture that has something to offer to anybody with an interest in economics or public policy, whether in academia or elsewhere.

Devvrat Raghav

As I transition from a background as a tax administrator, with limited research experience, my time as a Robert S. McNamara Fellow in the Development Research Group (DECRG), Macroeconomics and Growth Unit, of the World Bank has been a truly transformative experience. I emerge with a clearer vision for my future career path, an enhanced research skill set, better ideas for approaching developmental research problems, new research techniques learned in practice, and a network of resourceful people around me.

One exciting project I engaged with used stores’ scanner data to examine the distributional price effects of a temporary value-added tax (VAT) cut in Argentina. Under the guidance of a research economist, I conducted a detailed analysis to understand the extent of the VAT cut’s pass-through to prices according to various store characteristics. While engaged in this project, I significantly improved my proficiency in Stata and familiarized myself with new techniques for presenting patterns, trends, and results visually. It was thrilling to see how empirical analysis can lead to a precise understanding of the evolution of a policy’s impact at the micro level. This prompted me to think more deeply about how I can translate this same analysis to policy reforms in my home country. 

A special highlight of the fellowship was the weekly lunch series arranged by the program organizers, where seasoned economists discussed their work with the fellows and shared their career experiences. These interactions were incredibly enriching and played a crucial role in refining my career aspirations. During the fellowship, I also got the opportunity to attend seminars, conferences, and courses at the World Bank, which exposed me to the frontier of knowledge, practice, and technique in development economics research at a global level. 

Looking back, I view the fellowship as a pivotal experience in my career. The skills and knowledge I acquired have already made a tangible impact on the tax authority in my home country, and serious discussions about potential collaborations on tax research with the World Bank are underway. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity, and I assure aspiring young researchers that the fellowship is indeed a unique chance to grow, learn, and contribute to development and impactful policy reform!

Kudakwashe Maposa

As a young, Chilean, female economist, I joined the World Bank as a Robert S. McNamara Fellow seeking greater exposure to development economics. Prior to my tenure at the World Bank, I worked as a research analyst at the Central Bank of Chile. After two years in that role, I felt the need for a change before embarking on my PhD journey. My move to Washington, DC, was motivated by a desire to deepen my understanding of poverty and inequality, as well as to learn how to conduct research that could inform the design and evaluation of effective public policy.

My experience as a McNamara Fellow was overall amazing. I had the opportunity to participate in a diverse array of trainings and seminars on various topics, which helped me identify my primary research interests within the field of development economics. The World Bank is always buzzing with conferences and events, and being situated in Washington, DC, the hub of international organizations, provided ample opportunities for networking and engaging with influential figures in the field.

During the fellowship, I worked with Senior Economist Sandra Rozo on the Longitudinal Survey of Forced Migrant Children (VenRePs-Kids), which examines the impacts of forced migration on Venezuelan children who migrated to Colombia between 2015 and 2020. Forced displacement is a significant global development issue, and an estimated 40 percent of displaced people are children under the age of 18 (UNHCR 2024). Displaced children can experience various traumas during the migration process, while host communities face challenges accommodating refugee children. These challenges underscore the importance of understanding the needs of this population and efficiently supporting them to prevent them from being marginalized.

Currently, lack of data poses a major obstacle for researchers and policy makers in addressing the needs of refugee children. The VenRePs-Kids project aims to identify developmental disparities between displaced and local children and examine how these disparities change in terms of access to various public services. To address these questions, the survey gathers information on access to services, cognitive and socioemotional development, mental and physical health, and child labor.

In my role, I cleaned and analyzed data from the second wave of the survey. During data collection, I conducted weekly frequency checks and generated reports for the survey firm to address any concerns or mistakes in data collection or delivery. This proactive approach helped resolve issues during the data collection process.

As part of my fellowship training, I attended the Reproducible Research Fundamentals course, which proved invaluable for maintaining a clear workflow and transferring work to subsequent research assistants. In addition to data analysis, I collaborated with Sandra Rozo and Juan Miguel Jimenez on a literature review on children and migration, recently published as a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper. I also participated in the Managing Successful Field Research course, which provided insights essential for embarking on my PhD journey. 

My time at DECRG involved navigating the challenging process of applying to PhD programs, and being exposed to cutting-edge research—through conferences, seminars, and courses—played a pivotal role in informing my decision-making process. The fellowship has provided me with invaluable insights on development issues, new knowledge, and memories that will stick with me throughout the years. This fall, I will be starting my PhD in economics at Texas A&M University, with my experience as a McNamara Fellow serving as a cornerstone of my career as an economist and researcher.

Magdalena Cortina

References

UNHCR. 2024. Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2023. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2023.

The Robert S. McNamara Fellowship is a beacon of opportunity for emerging scholars in development economics. It not only supports fellows’ academic pursuits but also prepares fellows to become leaders in the field of global development. Through financial support, mentorship, networking, and professional development, the fellowship equips recipients with the tools and knowledge to make a significant impact on poverty alleviation and economic development. 

Like every graduate from a development economics program, I had only my knowledge of impact evaluation and a master’s degree coming into the Robert S. McNamara Fellowship Program. Prior to the program, I had completed a couple of internships, and I was certain I had developed all the essential skills in development. Well, I was wrong! In the past 8 months, I have grown tremendously in my knowledge of impact evaluation methods, how to use R and GitHub, and reproducible research. My experience has shaped the way I conduct research and has supported me in discovering how to ensure research outputs are useful and reproducible. 

My fellowship cut across key units in the Development Impact Group (DIME)—the Bureaucracy Lab and DIME Analytics—which provided unique complimentary skills. With the Bureaucracy Lab, I supported the team’s efforts to improve administrative and survey data on the characteristics of public officials and their organizations to inform the operational design of the public sector. With DIME Analytics, I supported reproducible research efforts.

During my fellowship, I supported one impact evaluation with the Bureaucracy Lab. This research informed my knowledge of the civil service in Ethiopia and across Africa. One highlight of my work was generating insights into the challenges that civil servants face in navigating their roles and delivering on their tasks. Across five countries (Ethiopia, Estonia, Lithuania, South Sudan, and Croatia) poor leadership was identified as a major challenge in the civil service. While many past studies have highlighted this challenge, I had some difficulty adopting their findings because many of these research outputs failed to yield consistent results, partly due to the challenge of reproducibility. 

I came to understand what reproducible research is during my time with DIME Analytics. This fascinating new area of research caught my attention from the beginning because of DIME’s approach to verifying research that meets reproducibility criteria. I was trained to use GitHub and other statistical tools to verify reproducible research, and I supported verifying over 20 research packages. DIME’s approach to reproducibility verification is the first of its kind at the World Bank and has received a lot of recognition so far. To be part of this effort made my time during the fellowship not only relevant but also productive and inspiring. 

In addition, the fellowship also provided a platform to build a strong network in the World Bank, through the weekly McNamara lunch series. The lunch series featured top economists at the World Bank who shared research they are working on or how they navigated their career path. These lunch series were instrumental in defining my career path. Their journeys have inspired me and really helped me to realize what it takes to be successful in this field.

In general, the fellowship has supported me in the following ways:

• Multiple learning experiences: Fellowships tend to have some very specific work you must do; however, this fellowship provided many learning opportunities, especially through training programs like Managing Successful Field Research (MSFR). There was also a reading group where anyone could volunteer to share their work or any research paper for learning.

• Mentorship: I was very lucky to have a mentor during my fellowship. Generally, task team leaders (TTLs) become mentors to fellows. This approach was useful for keeping fellows on track and providing a soft landing. Having a mentor has helped me to have clear goals, achieve them, and take on new ones. 

• International cohort: The program has a rich blend of fellows from across developing countries. Being in a mixed cohort with fellows from different countries exposes one to different cultures, experiences, insights, and perspective on life. It also brings the world closer to you. Most importantly, your network is richer.

I strongly encourage anyone looking to develop their skills and chart a unique career path to apply to the Robert S. McNamara Fellowship—you will be making a huge investment in your career.

Temidayo Falade