Mission Statement

This annual conference brings together faculty working in Development Economics at Liberal Arts Colleges.

The field of development economics is a particular one: it incorporates most of the economics’ disciplinary sub-fields, be they theoretical or empirical. Of late, the field has become useful for informing policy through experiments and the field is evolving fast.

The intention of the conference is to provide a forum to discuss recent research and teaching in development economics. This is helping to foster exchange and collaboration among Liberal Arts Colleges Faculty and students.

The conference includes presentation sessions with discussants, a keynote speech by a leading development economist and also a session on teaching development economics in the liberal arts setting.

The lead institutions are the following: Amherst College, Colgate University, Hamilton College, Lafayette College, Vassar College and Wesleyan University.

Our mission is to bring together researchers from liberal arts institutions to form a close network in the field of development economics.

The conference takes place on an annual basis and rotates among the lead institutions:

2013: Amherst College
2014: Colgate University
2015: Lafayette College
2016: Vassar College