On Friday and Saturday, May 8-9, 2026, we held the MDev Conference in Ann Arbor. This was a development economics conference for University of Michigan researchers, students, and alumni. 

The list of presenters and papers is here and and the list of confirmed participants is at the bottom of this page. 

The conference was held in North Quad. It consisted of a mix of 30-minute presentations and shorter (10-minute) presentations.

Please enjoy our official conference photos, courtesy of Go Blue Photos.

A Program Committee of esteemed U-M alumni will decide on the conference program: Kate Ambler (chair), James Allen, Emily Beam, Jessica Goldberg, Caroline Theoharides, Hang Yu, Gaurav Khanna, and Meera Mahadevan.

Conference funding is from the University of Michigan’s Department of Economics, Department of Political Science, and International Policy Center (Ford School of Public Policy). 

Questions? Please write to the MDev email address, [email protected], or reach out to any of us on the organizing committee.

MDev Organizing Committee: James Allen, Kate Ambler, Emily Beam, Hoyt Bleakley, Kevin Carney, Jessica Goldberg, Gaurav Khanna, Meera Mahadevan, Yusuf Neggers, Emma Riley, Caroline Theoharides, and Hang Yu

MDev Administrative Coordinators: Jessica Yen (Department of Economics), Sophia Guo (DevLab)

Space 2435, North Quad (105 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109)

6:30PM onwards: Dinner at Blue Nile (221 E.Washington Street)

8:00AM – 8:30PM: Breakfast

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM: Introductions

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Session 1: Health & Development

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM: Break and discussion

11:30 AM – 12:40 PM: Session 2: Labor, Gender & Household Economics

12:50 PM – 2:10 PM: Lunch and discussion of short presentations

2:10 PM – 4:00 PM: Session 3: Trade, Finance & Structural Transformation

4:00 PM – 4:20 PM: Break and discussion of short presentations

4:20 PM – 4:30 PM: Group photo

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Mentoring Session

6:30 PM onwards: Dinner and karaoke at Dean Yang’s house (701 Green Road.)

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM: Breakfast

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Session 4: Political Economy, Institutions & History

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM: Break and Discussion of short presentations

11:30 AM – 12:50 PM: Session 5: Household Behavior and Wellbeing

12:50 PM – 2:00 PM: Lunch

Faculty

Hoyt Bleakley, Professor

Nina Brooks, Assistant Professor

Kevin Carney, Assistant Professor

Mark Dincecco, Associate Professor

Yusuf Neggers, Assistant Professor

Ana Reynoso, Assistant Professor

Emma Riley, Assistant Professor

Chang Wang, Post-Doc

Dean Yang, Professor

Basit Zafar, Professor

Visiting Faculty

Prabhat Barnwal, Michigan State University  

Mehrab Bakhtiar, International Food Policy Research Institute  

Staff

Yara Correa Gomes, Research Associate

Olivia Woodring, Predoctoral Scholar

Current Students

Gustavo Acosta, Ph.D. student

Paul Brimble, Ph.D. student

Rosario Aldunate Didier, Ph.D. student

Saheel Chodavadia, Ph.D. student

Brian Daza, Ph.D. student

Franco Riottini Depetris, Ph.D. student

Joaquin Endara, Ph.D. student

Alexander Fertig, Ph.D. student

Amerti Gudissa, Ph.D. student

Sophia Guo, Undergraduate Student

Raveesha Gupta, Ph.D. Student

Mika Inoue, Ph.D. student

Juanita Jaramillo, Ph.D. student

Heesung Kim, Ph.D. student

Aladdin Ko, Ph.D. student

Laston Manja, Ph.D. student

Magdalena Martin, Ph.D. student

Shawdi Mehrvarzan, Ph.D. student

Sameer Nair-Desai, Ph.D. student

Aneesha Parvathaneni, Ph.D. student

Nirina Randrianarisoa, Ph.D. student

Amelia Schubert, Ph.D. student

Francesco Toti, Ph.D. student

Valeria Ulloa, Ph.D. student

Yuqing (Claire) Wang, Ph.D. student

Willem Wilken, Ph.D. student

Kayah Williams, Ph.D. student

Future Faculty

Nathan Franz, Incoming Post-Doc

Future Students

Rupkatha Banerjee, Incoming Ph.D. student

Bhavya Pandey, Incoming Ph.D. student