Inaugural HCI Incubation Grant Winners Announced: Solomon Owusu and David Lagakos
The Human Capital Initiative (HCI) is excited to announce the first winners of its inaugural Incubation Grant. Solomon Owusu and David Lagakos will be conducting their project, “Why are measured hours of work so low for agricultural workers?” through the grant’s support.
“We are thrilled to see this project get started and its potential to inform agricultural policy,” Owusu stated. “We are also excited to have the support of HCI and the GDP Center.”
The 12-month HCI Incubation Grant includes $10,000 to fund research activities and facilitate engagement with relevant stakeholders. The goal of this award is to encourage HCI’s Core Faculty Members and Affiliates to engage in policy-oriented collaborative research within the Initiative. To support the grant’s interdisciplinary and collaborative mission, proposals must originate from multiple faculty members based within different departments and/or schools across Boston University. The GDP Center will also provide outreach support to promote the awardees’ work through workshops, communications and outreach, and more.
Owusu’s and Lagakos’s project aims to explore two distinct hypotheses for the relatively low hours of reported work by agricultural workers. They theorize that mis-measurement and a lack of opportunities for productive work could contribute to this discrepancy. Their analysis will utilize national representative surveys in Ghana stratified over different geographic zones with different agricultural conditions providing time diary data.
Owusu expanded on the intended impact of the project, sharing that “together, we aim to not only uncover the reasons behind the low measured hours of work among agricultural workers, but also contribute policy insights crucial for the advancement of the sector.”
Owusu and Lagakos hope that their findings can be used to improve the efficiency and development of the agricultural sector amongst others, and aid in the implementation of policies that benefit and increase the productivity of farm workers. The project will also contribute to the development of improved data collection methods and tools in agriculture.
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