Call for Papers: Annual ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Conference

Institute of Public Policy and Administration of the University of Central Asia (UCA), Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), and International Security and Development Center (ISDC), are pleased to announce the next fourth annual ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Conference to take place in Bishkek on 17-18 October 2018.

The two-day conference will bring together national and international experts from government and the public sector, development agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia and research institutions, and media to exchange knowledge and experiences on recent socio-economic developments in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia, and to promote evidence-based policy making.

The conference will also inform on the results of the 5th wave of the “Life in Kyrgyzstan” Study carried out in 2016 by an international consortium of research institutions with funding from IFPRI, IGZ, FAO and UCA (see https://lifeinkyrgyzstan.org).

To contribute to the discussion, we invite the submission of proposals for entire sessions or for individual research papers studying various aspects of socio-economic development in Kyrgyzstan or Central Asia. We welcome empirical papers using panel micro data, especially the “Life in Kyrgyzstan” Study data, which is accessible at http://idsc.iza.org/lik. We also encourage researchers to present other micro- and macroeconomic studies with the relevant topics of research. We encourage PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to apply to participate at the conference and use this opportunity to receive feedback from senior researchers.

Research topics of individual submissions or entire sessions may include but are not limited to:

  • Poverty and inequality;
  • Employment and labor markets;
  • Migration and remittances;
  • Entrepreneurship and informality;
  • Gender, children and intra-household decision making;
  • Education and health outcomes;
  • Nutrition and food security;
  • Rural livelihoods and agricultural market access;
  • Home gardens and rural coping strategies;
  • Value chains and export orientation;
  • Economic policy;
  • Public service delivery and decentralization;
  • Impacts of trade and integration reforms;
  • Social capital and social cohesion;
  • Peace-building, trust and expectations;
  • Micro-level data quality, survey methodology and panel data collection;
  • Methods of rigorous impact evaluation;
  • Sustainable development goals;
  • Climate change and its impact.

The organizers are seeking both individual papers and proposals for sessions of three or four papers, with preference given to complete session proposals.

Those interested in submitting sessions or papers to the conference are welcome to submit their applications by 30 June 2018 at (likconference2018@gmail.com).

Academic committee: Professor Tilman Brück (IGZ/ISDC), Dr. Damir Esenaliev (SIPRI), Dr. Roman Mogilevskii (UCA), and Dr. Kanat Tilekeyev (UCA).

For more details please see the call for papers.

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