KARACHI, PAKISTAN - APRIL 22: A general view of a fruit and vegetable market as Pakistani vendors unload watermelons ahead of Muslims' Holy Month of Ramadan amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Karachi, Pakistan on 22 April, 2020. Photo by Muhammad Sabir Mazhar Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.
G²LM|LIC/path2dev/BREAD academic and policy conference on development economics
IGC's Pakistan country team is proud to co-host the flagship Pathways to Development Conference that brings together multi-disciplinary empirical and historical research to document and describe the scale of challenges facing Pakistan and to organize discourse about ways in which these can be mitigated.
IGC Panel: Resilience and Fairness in Tax Systems
Ali Cheema
Vice Chancellor, Lahore University of Management Sciences
Shahrukh Wani
Head of Data and AI Policy Partnerships, International Growth Centre
Rashid Langrial
Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue, Government of Pakistan
Murtaza Jafferjee
Former Director, Colombo Stock Exchange
Roberta Gatti
Chief Economist of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, World Bank
Sam Waldock
Development Director, British High Commision, IslamabadThe Pathways conference brings together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to engage with the evolving landscape of development economics. With a focus on low- and middle-income countries, it explores how structural inequality, institutional arrangements, and historical context shape economic and social outcomes. Through paper presentations and panel sessions on labor, finance, taxation, education, health, and governance, the conference highlights research that is empirically rigorous and conceptually reflective, while opening space for critical engagement with the assumptions and priorities that guide the field. At its core, the conference invites participants to think more carefully about what inclusive and context-sensitive development can and should look like.
This year’s conference, jointly organised by the and Pathways to Development (Path2Dev), the IZA/FCDO Gender, Growth and Labor Markets in Low-Income Countries Programme (G²LM|LIC), and the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), will feature both an academic program and a dedicated one-day policy conference.
Through paper presentations and panel discussions, participants will engage with research that examines how political economy, structural inequality, education, labor markets, health systems, and financial inclusion shape development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.
A special mentorship opportunity for junior researchers based in South Asia, led by BREAD fellows and affiliates, will also run alongside the event, with the aim of supporting early-stage research and strengthening the pipeline of development economists from the region.