CRRC-Armenia is pleased to invite you to training on
Inequality, poverty, growth and industry structure
To be conducted by
Dr. Aleksandr Grigoryan (American University of Armenia)
Dates: November 13 to 17, 2012
Time: 10.00 – 14.00
Location: CRRC-Armenia, 52 Abovyan Street (YSU 6th building), 3rd Floor, Room 305, Yerevan
About the training: The training course will cover basic research components relevant for sound understanding of the impact economic activity on inequality and poverty. Trainees are expected to invest considerable effort in mastering the fundamental concepts at the beginning of the training in order to use them for developing and analyzing the hypotheses later in the course. Students will also be encouraged to develop their own hypotheses so they can present and discuss them at the last panel of the course.
The structure of Armenian industry experienced drastic changes in transition following independence. Studies indicate that certain components of the economy (particularly, the sector of agriculture) significantly affect the evolution of inequality and poverty. Regional (marz) level data from the Armenian National Statistical Service will be used to estimate the impact of economic fundamentals on income inequality and poverty. With the help of a theoretical model, certain channels will be suggested to explain the established causalities. In addition, several specifications will be checked to ensure reliability of our results.
About the lecturer: Since 2010, Dr. Aleksandr Grigoryan has been teaching at the American University of Armenia (AUA), School of Political Science and International Affairs. In 2012, Dr. Grigoryan was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Economics affiliated with College of Business and Economics and College of Humanities and Social Sciences, AUA.
Dr. Grigoryan teaches courses such as Macro- and Microeconomics, Managerial Economics and Economic Development. Prior to joining AUA on a full-time basis, Dr. Grigoryan worked as a Senior Researcher at the Central Bank of Armenia for three years. Previously he worked as an analyst at the Ministry of Economy for two years. Dr. Grigoryan received his PhD from the University of Turin, Italy. He holds a distinguished master’s degree from the Institute for Advanced Studies of Vienna, Austria, and a master’s degree from Yerevan State Institute of Economics. His areas of research include development economics, dynamic programming and microeconomics of banking.
Language: The training will be conducted in English, while occasionally switching to Armenian during interactive discussion sessions. Questions from the audience will be expected in both Armenian and English. An intermediate level of command of the English is required from participants.
Registration: Please follow the link https://docs.google.com/a/crrc.am/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGliSHpwcEw5Z25UU2hwbzhUaG9GeEE6MA#gid=0 . Fill in the short application form online and press submit. Only shortlisted applicants will be notified.
Deadline for applications: November 7, 2012.
Outline of the course:
The course is a five-day interactive training with half-day (four-hour) sessions. Each day will cover a specific component of the course, which comes to complete a certain niche of the required knowledge.
Day 1, November 13, Tuesday: (10.00 -14.00)
Overview of the Armenian economic structure. Development of research hypothesis.
- Overview of Armenian economy structure (1 hour)
- Describing data (1 hour)
- Development of research hypothesis (2 hours)
Day 2: (11.00-15.00)
Main statistical and mathematical concepts. There are three groups of concepts to introduce:
- Statistical concepts (1 hour)
- Panel analysis related concepts (2 hours)
- Inequality/poverty related concepts (1 hour)
Day 3: (10.00 -14.00)
Introduction to Stata (session in the lab). Some Stata learning material will be provided in advance.
- Getting started with Stata (1 hour): Preliminary steps
- Main regression commands in Stata (1 hour)
- Panel analysis in Stata (1 hour)
- Manipulating with the Armenian dataset (1 hour)
Day 4: (10.00 -14.00)
Body research (session in the lab).
- Building and testing the hypotheses. One hypothesis is singled out for interpretation of specifications in economic terms (1.5 hour)
- Testing of remaining 3-4 hypotheses. Different measures of inequality will be used and separate concept-based models for poverty will be provided (1.5 hour)
- Analysing policy driven hypotheses, in particular assuming different scenarios for the state budget breakdown (1 hour)
Day 5: (10.00 -14.00)
Presentation, interpretation & discussion of findings
The findings will be summarised. Students will be assigned certain hypotheses to explore in groups of 4 or 5 and present in group presentations. Each presentation will be followed by formal discussion led by the instructor. To conclude, the instructor will present an original paper, with summarizes the findings. Finally, some time (about 10-15 minutes) will be devoted to highlighting further challenges: improving and checking sensitivity of models discussed throughout the sessions.