A Quick Tour Around the World: Research on Global Poverty

The School of Public Policy is honored to host Dr. Angelino Viceisza, Professor of Economics and Research Director of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship at Spelman College.

Dr. Viceisza’s lecture will describe his journey through life and economics by providing snippets of activities that he has engaged in on over the last 20 years. Through these stories, most of which will focus on his research on economics of poverty, we will visit several regions and countries, including Central America, Curaçao and the broader Caribbean, Ethiopia, France, Japan, Senegal, the United States of America, and Vietnam.

Speaker: Angelino Viceisza

Dr.  Angelino Viceisza (pronounced: Vee-Say-Za) is Full Professor of Economics and Research, Director of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship at Spelman College, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Co-Director of the NBER Retirement and Disability Research Center, Invited Researcher at J-PAL at MIT, Past-President of the National Economic Association (2024-2025), and Associate Editor at Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Prior to joining Spelman, Dr. Viceisza was at the International Food Policy Research Institute (2007-2012). He has also held visiting positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (AEA CSWEP-CSMGEP Fellow, summer 2014), Duke University (2015-2016), the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (National Fellow, 2020-2021), and the Sloan School of Management at MIT (MLK Scholar, 2023-2024). Dr. Viceisza’s primary expertise is in behavioral and experimental economics, with applications in development, household finance, and entrepreneurship. A significant part of his research has studied determinants of financial remittances, i.e., money that migrants send to family and friends in countries of origin. Dr. Viceisza has extensive experience designing and conducting field experiments in a variety of countries including El Salvador, Ethiopia, Peru, Senegal, the United States, and Vietnam. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Agricultural Economics, Economic Inquiry, Experimental Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Review of Black Political Economy, and Small Business Economics. Dr. Viceisza’s research has been supported by numerous agencies including the Kauffman Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Social Security Administration, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Education, and the World Bank. In 2014, Dr. Viceisza was awarded the Vulcan Award for Excellence in Teaching at Spelman College. He is the Founder and Director of VLab, a virtual lab that primarily engages Spelman students in research experiences. Dr. Viceisza's former research assistants and mentees have ended up in graduate or predoc programs at Brookings Institution, Columbia University, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Georgia State University, Mathematica, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale University. Dr. Viceisza serves as a member of the American Economic Association (AEA) Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession as well as a mentor in the AEA Mentoring Program and the AEA LGBTQ+ Mentoring Program. Dr. Viceisza holds a PhD in economics from Georgia State University (2008), an MA in economics (Policy Track) from Georgia State University (2005), an MA in economics from Boston University (2004), an MBA in international business from Temple University (2001), and a BS in accounting from University of Curaçao (2001).