VEGARD IVERSEN MALE DATE OF BIRTH: 12 OCT 1962 e-mail: Vegard.Iversen@manchester.ac.uk or v.iversen@uea.ac.uk EDUCATION PhD Economics, University of Cambridge, 2000 MA Dissertation Title: Child labour and theories of the family Supervisor: Professor Partha Dasgupta Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, 1991 BA Economics and Business Administration, Norwegian School of Economics, 1988 Research interests: Labour markets; networks; identity and discrimination; gender, children and intrahoushold allocation; experimental economics; research methods; impact evaluation Summary: Have recently completed the research project Social networks, labour transactions and outcomes: A theoretical and empirical study of migrant workers and their employers in South-Asia which combined theoretical innovation with detailed primary data to study social network effects, migration and labour market outcomes. Was awarded the Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article published by Journal of Development Studies in 2008. The article, jointly with Richard Palmer-Jones, reexamines intrahousehold externalities from literate husbands to illiterate wives using data from Bangladesh and India. I am presently undertaking empirical research on inclusive growth including a large, new paper on caste and economic performance in rural India. Have received a seed grant from the Indian Planning Commission for a randomized evaluation of the impacts of gender and social audits on the governance of NREGA projects in Andhra Pradesh. I have extensive experience with primary data collection in North- and South-India using mixed methods and combining standard sampling and household survey methodology with ethnographic techniques. I have also implemented economic experiments with married couples in rural and urban North- India in games with work tasks, knowledge tests and distributional decisions. I am a part time external project advisor and evaluation expert for the International Initiative of Impact Evaluation (3ie).
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Present: Senior Fellow (Honorary), School of International Development, University of East Anglia; November 2006- Fellow (Honorary), Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester; January 2008- Visiting Faculty, Indian Statistical Institute, Planning Unit, New Delhi; August 2007- External Project Advisor and Evaluation expert, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), New Delhi; June 2010- Previous: November 2006 to June 2007: Research Fellow, Social Safety Nets and Labour Markets International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi. Responsibilities: Conduct and manage research on social safety nets, notably NREGA schemes. October 2000-November 2006: Lecturer in Economics and Co-Director of MA in Development Economics, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia. Jan 1997-December 1999: Research fellow (conducting PhD-research at University of Cambridge), Norwegian Research Council. April 1995-Feb 1996: Researcher, Environment and Development Economics, Noragric, Agricultural University of Norway. Responsible for two collaborative research projects combining soil-science and economics and addressing environmental problems in sub- Saharan Africa. Nov. 1993 Feb. 1995: Junior Programme Officer, "Poverty and Human Development", United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi, India. Responsibilities: Design, commissioning and management of research projects on poverty, livelihoods, education and primary health care in India. Jan. 1993-Nov. 1993: Researcher, Environment and Development Economics, Noragric. Nov. 1991-Dec. 1992: Research Assistant, Centre for Research in Economics and Business Administration, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE Undergraduate Principles of Microeconomics; University of East Anglia Agriculture and rural development; University of East Anglia Higher level Microeconomics for Development (Master); University of East Anglia Research Techniques and Analysis (Master & PhD); University of East Anglia Environmental economics (Master); University of East Anglia Microeconometric analysis (Master); University of East Anglia Labour Economics (Master); Indian Statistical Institute Industrial Organization (Master); Indian Statistical Institute Have supervised 8 PhD students PUBLICATIONS JOURNAL ARTICLES Iversen, V. and Y. Ghorpade (2010): Misfortune, misfits and what the city gave and took: the stories of South-Indian child labour migrants 1935-2005, Modern Asian Studies, 1-50. Published online 29 June 2010. Paper version forthcoming. Iversen, V. and G. Torsvik (2010): Networks, middlemen and other (urban) labour market mysteries, Indian Growth and Development Review, 3(1): 62-80. Iversen, V., A. Kalwij, A. Verschoor and A. Dubey (2010): Caste dominance and economic performance in rural India, Discussion Paper no 10-01, Indian Statistical Institute, Planning Unit, New Delhi (Under review). Iversen, V., C. Jackson, B. Kebede, A. Munro and A. Verschoor (2010): Do spouses realise cooperative gains? Experimental evidence from rural Uganda, Revise and resubmit, World Development. Iversen, V., K. Sen, A. Verschoor and A. Dubey (2009): Job Recruitment Networks and Migration to Cities in India, Journal of Development Studies, 45(4): 522-43. Iversen, V. and R. Palmer-Jones (2008): Literacy sharing, assortative mating or what? Labour market advantages and proximate illiteracy revisited, Journal of Development Studies, 44(6): 797-838. Awarded the annual Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article published by Journal of Development Studies in 2008. Iversen, V. and P. S. Raghavendra (2006): What the signboard hides: Food, caste and employability in small South-Indian eating places, Contributions to Indian Sociology, 40 (3): 311-41.
Iversen, V., O-H Fjeldstad, G. Bahiigwa, F. Ellis and R. James (2006): Private tax collection - remnant of the past or a way forward? Evidence from Rural Uganda, Public Administration and Development, 26: 317-28. Iversen, V., B. Chettry, P. Francis, M. Gurung, G. Kafle, A. Pain and J. Seeley (2006): High value forests, hidden economies and elite capture: Evidence from forest user groups in Nepal s Terai, Ecological Economics, 58(1): 93-107. Iversen, V. (2003): Intrahousehold inequality A challenge for the capability approach?, Feminist Economics, 9 (2-3): pp. 93-115 (Special issue on the Work and Ideas of Amartya Sen). Iversen, V. (2002): Autonomy in Child Labor Migrants, World Development, 30 (5), pp. 817-34. Wiig, H., J. Aune, S. Glomsroed and V. Iversen (2001): Structural Adjustment and Soil Degradation in Tanzania - A CGE-model approach with Endogenous Soil Productivity, Agricultural Economics, 24, pp. 263-287. Brekke, K.A., V. Iversen and J. B. Aune (1999): Tanzania's soil wealth, Environment and Development Economics, Vol.4, pp. 333-356. BOOK CHAPTERS Iversen, V. (forthcoming): Caste and Social Mobility, in Ghate, C (ed): The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy, Oxford University Press. Iversen, V. and R. Palmer-Jones (2009): Literacy sharing, assortative mating or what? Labour market advantages and proximate illiteracy revisited, reprinted in Kaushik Basu, Bryan Maddox and Anna Robinson-Pant (eds): Interdisciplinary approaches to literacy and development, Routledge. Iversen, V. (2005): Intrahousehold inequality A challenge for the capability approach?, reprinted in Bina Agarwal, Jane Humphries and Ingrid Robeyns (eds): Amartya Sen s Work and Ideas: A Gender Perspective, Routledge, London and Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India. Iversen, V. (2004): On notions of Agency, Individual Heterogeneity and the Existence, Size and Composition of a Bonded Child Labour Force, in S. Cullenberg and P. K. Pattanaik (eds): Globalization, Culture and the Limits of the Market: Essays in Economics and Philosophy, Oxford University Press. Brekke, K.A., V. Iversen and J. B. Aune (2003): Tanzania's soil wealth, reprinted in Charles Perrings and Jeffery R. Vincent (eds): Natural Resource Accounting and Economic Development, Theory and Practice, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.
PAPERS IN PROGRESS Referral as recruitment mechanism. Draft (with Amrita Dhillon). Caste, local networks and lucrative jobs: Evidence from Nepal. Draft (with Magnus Hatlebakk and Gaute Torsvik). Network mechanisms in lower end labour markets (with Magnus Hatlebakk and Gaute Torsvik). Who benefits from growth and why? (with Arjan Verschoor, Adriaan Kalwij and Amaresh Dubey). India s social and political transformation Polarization and development: evidence NEW RESEARCH On identity: an experimental approach, with Farzana Afridi, Delhi School of Economics and Sherry Xin Li, University of Texas. Does female leadership impact on governance and corruption? Evidence from a public poverty alleviation programme in Andhra Pradesh, India, with Farzana Afridi, Delhi School of Economics and Jens Chr Andvig, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. RESEARCH GRANTS 2008-2009: Norwegian Research Council: Social networks, labour transactions and outcomes: A theoretical and empirical study of migrant workers and their employers in South-Asia. Total budget: 160,000. With Magnus Hatlebakk and Gaute Torsvik, Chr Michelsen Institute, Bergen and Amrita Dhillon, University of Warwick. 2008-2010: Research grant from the joint ESRC-Dfid (Economic and Social Research Council, UK) scheme for the project: The intra-household allocation of resources: crosscultural tests, methodological innovations and policy implications, a collaboration between economists and anthropologists using experiments to test economic theories of household behaviour in Nigeria, Ethiopia and India. Total budget: around 500,000. Left project late 2008. 2004-2005: Research grant for studying independent and other child labour migration in South-India from the Development Research Centre for Migration, Globalisation and Poverty at University of Sussex ( www.migrationdrc.org). Total budget 35,000. 1997-2000. Phd-fellowship award from the Norwegian Research Council for research at University of Cambridge. Total budget: 100,000.
SELECTED SMALLER ASSIGNMENTS The World Bank, New Delhi. Youths and labour market access in New Delhi. April-June 2008. 50 days. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for desk study on child labour in fisheries (2006). Duration 20 days. The Department for International Development (Dfid) Under the NRSP-programme (see http://www.nrsp.org/) for research on distributional and other impacts of decentralised forest management in the Terai, Nepal. Duration 3 months. 2004. The Department for International Development (Dfid) for the study of tax reforms and privatisation under fiscal decentralisation in rural Uganda. Duration 2 ½ months. 2004. Development Fund, Norway. Team Leader for Evaluation of Namsaling Community Development Centre, and their participatory approach to development planning in Ilam, Eastern Nepal. Duration 1.5 months. 2000. OTHER PROFESSIONAL ASSIGNMENTS Have presented research in seminars/workshops at (among others) Chr Michelsen Institute (Bergen), Cornell University (North Eastern Universities Development Consortium Conference in 2006), Delhi School of Economics, IFPRI-Washington, Imperial College at Wye, Indian Statistical Institute, University of California (Riverside), University of East Anglia, University of Oxford, University of Sussex. External examiner for the Distant Learning Master s programmes in Agricultural Economics at Imperial College, Wye over the period 2001-05. Have been a referee for among others, the following journals: Journal of Development Studies, Ecological Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, World Development, Environment and Resource Economics, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, Journal of Population Economics, Feminist Economics, Environment and Development Economics.