I was working at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva when I applied for the PhD in Development Economics at the Graduate Institute. Since I completed my Master degree at Columbia University and my time working at the World Bank, I have wanted to pursue a Ph.D. focused on applied Development Economics. I was thrilled to be accepted to the programme and to receive a very generous scholarship from the Washington DC Alumni Chapter, for which I will be eternally grateful.

The semesters of coursework were memorable. I really enjoyed studying with my colleagues, solving problem sets and eating cold sandwiches late at night in the old Rigot building.

I wanted to study issues that matter to development, using my home country, Brazil, as a reference. I was also very curious to better understand the extent to which events in the past still influence development outcomes today. It motivated me and my co-author – Felipe Valencia, from the University of Bonn – to explore the effects of slavery on inequality, using colonial institutions to eliminate the problem of endogeneity between economic activities and location of slaves.

The same curiosity led me to identify a historical telegraph line laid in the wilderness of the Amazon forest in the beginning of the twentieth century and to use it as an instrumental variable for the current road in order to evaluate its impact on development outcomes and deforestation. Finally, fiscal capacity is a topic that has engaged me since I started my professional career working in governments and international organizations.

As I moved to Brazil during the second part of the PhD, I could also benefit from easier access to data and opportunities to discuss my research projects with experts in the field.

I am passionate about development, and there is a lot of work to be done. As a next step, I plan to keep one foot in academia, where I can pursue my research projects. I may also continue working in public policy, to hopefully help countries pave a more promising path to prosperity.

Humberto Vieira Barbosa Laudares was the beneficiary of the Washington DC Alumni Chapter’s scholarship for two consecutive years in 2011 and 2012. He defended his thesis in October and obtained his PhD In International Economics with Magna Cum Laude.