LAHORE: Lahore School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday organised the 8th international conference on Applied Development Economics (ADE) examining development issues in low and middle-income countries.
LSE Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB) and the Innovation and Technology Centre (ITC) in collaboration with the International Growth Center and the Consortium for Development Policy Research organised the three-day conference from Aug 17 to 19.
LSE Rector Dr Shahid Chaudhry observed that Pakistan’s economic policies were deeply shaped by national development concerns which necessitated high government spending. At the same time, repeated stabilisation measures including exchange-rate adjustments, privatisation and liberalisation have substantially transformed the economy and contributed to rising poverty.
The first day of the conference opened with a plenary address by University of Michigan Dean Prof Yang, who examined the role of international migration in the developing world.
Albena Sotirova discussed the impact of a child marriage edutainment intervention targeting parents on girls’ education outcomes in rural Pakistan.
Rida Ali Khan from Center for Studies and Research on International Development discussed her paper which examined the long term impact of early-life exposure to the 2010 floods in Pakistan on human capital.
Noman Ahmad from University of Georgia Athens focused on the direct and spillover effects of women’s access to higher education in Pakistan.
The second plenary address discussed market failures and the challenges of industrial policy in Pakistan. It was followed by the second and final session for the day on gender, assets and economic outcomes. Kate Vyborny – an economist from the World Bank, discussed the intended and unintended consequences of a de facto inheritance reform. The study found that digitising and centralising land records in Punjab had significantly increased women’s inheritance of parental land.
The final presenter, Bezawit Bahru from the University of Hohenheim, talked about housework and the gender productivity gap in agriculture.
Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2026
