Mario Biggeri

Biography

Born in Florence on November 15, 1968, married with three children Mario Biggeri is Associate Professor in Development Economics at the Department of Economics at the University of Florence (Italy). He teaches Development and International Cooperation Economics at the BA degree and Human Development and International Cooperation and Local and Industrial Development at the MSc level degrees and Introduction to Research Design at the PhD Program on Economic Development. Between November 2008 and November 2012 he has been the Academic Director of the Master in Development Economics (two years course in English). He is a Fellow of the Human Development Capability Association (HDCA) and a co-ordinator of the thematic group on 'Children's capabilities'. He is Scientific Director of ARCO (Action Research for Co-development, since September 2009). His research interests are: impact assessment and theory of change, research methods, sustainable human development, capacity approach, street children, child labor and children and persons with disabilities and capabilities. He is the co-author of four books and co-editor of five. Papers have been published in several international journals. He has worked for three years at UNICEF at the Innocenti Research Center IRC. He has conducted several field research in emerging countries. He has also been a scientific coordinator in several impact assessments on people with disabilities and children India (2009-2010), Uganda (2011) and Italy (2012). In 2012 he has conducted the intermediate evaluation of the UNDP ART Initiative at the global level (with field research in Colombia, Ecuador and Morocco).

Research Interest

MAIN RESEARCH ISSUES 1) Children Capabilities: Poverty, Deprivations and Development, Marginalized Children and Youths and Children and Youths with Disabilities 2) Child Labor and labor markets 3) Impact evaluation on Children Life Trajectories 4) Impact evaluation of Economic and Social Policies 5) International Aid, Cooperation and Economic and Human Development 6) Informal Activities, Collective Action (cooperatives and social business), Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection 7) Transition Economics and Chinese Economic Development 8) Local System of Development and Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs ) Clusters in Developing Countries and Human Development 1) Children Capabilities: Poverty, Deprivations and Development, Marginalized Children and Disabled This is one of my main areas of research. I am particularly concerned with issues related to poverty, marginalized and disabled children. A book has just been published with Palgrave McMillan. I am currently carrying out several researches on child poverty as capabilities and rights deprivation and on children / persons with disabilities and children's participation. - I prepared a paper for Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) applying the Foster Alkire (2008) multidimensional poverty of afghan children (with JF Trani and V. Mauro, 2011). Paper accepted (journal SIR comingcoming in 2012). - Another project has a special focus on children with disability through the capability approach in the Tuscany Region. The project is based at the Institute of Innocents (IDI, Florence) and is funded by the Department of Social Policies of the Tuscany Region. I was the scientific coordinator. There is a book and a Journal special issue. - I am also trying to operationalize the capability approach to program, monitor and evaluate projects and programs on child issues in developing countries and for disabled children. I am finalizing a research with operational outcomes at Delhi (India 2008) in a slum with a local NGO with Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Center at University College of London UK as well as Women's Foundation at Kathmandu (Nepal, 2008). - I also conducted a research study on capacity approach and early childhood interventions, Bernard van Leer Foundation (NL) (July 2008- January 2009). - Senior researcher on the capability approach to program, monitor and evaluate project and programs for non-profit organizations (June 2006- June 2009). Project coordinated by Renato Libanora for Ethics and Cultural Foundation (Ethic Bank of Italy). My work focus was with the team involved in the analysis of the programs for refugees in the Tuscany Region. - Since 2004 I have been the coordinator of the Children Development and Deprivation, a co-ordinator of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA). This thematic group is an interdisciplinary international network of development economists, economists, anthropologists, demographers, statisticians, sociologists and psychologists. It focuses on children with the aim of developing a bottom up framework based on the capability approach to addressing theoretical and practical issues related to children's human development. I am coordinating with the help of two colleagues (from the University of Cambridge and the University of Versailles) to a group of 40 peoples. - We, as a group of children of the HDCA, organized a international conference / workshop on "Children's capabilities" at Florence Italy on 18-19 April, 2007. - We, this time as the theme group of participatory methods of the HDCA, , organized a international workshop on "The Capability Approach and Participatory Methods of Expanding Bridges: HDCA and Civil Society" in Florence, Italy, 18-20 May, 2007. - We, as the two thematic groups of Children's Capabilities and Participatory Methods HDCA, organized an international workshop on "Agency and Participation: The case study of adults and children with mental illness and intellectual disability" at Delhi India on 4-9 September, 2008. - As TG of HDCA on Children's Capabilities, we organized a day workshop in Lima (Peru, Sept. 2009) and a day workshop in Amman (Jordan, Sept. 2010) before HDCA. Then, I'm organizing with Caroline Hart at a conference at Cambridge University next April. - I was Co-ordinator of the research project "Deprivation of Street Involved Children in Kampala (Uganda)". Analysis using an ad hoc-survey (random sample) and participatory approaches. Field research in Uganda (February / June 2005). I coordinated 10 people (7 in the field research team). I was in charge of the relationships with the partners and the stakeholders of the research. - I was the Co-ordinator of the research project "Childhood and Children's Well-Being and the Impact of Their Priorities on the Research on Child Labor". Field research in Italy (April / May 2004), India (September 2005), the co-operation between the organizers of the Children's World Congress on Child Labor (CWCCL), the Global March Against Child Labor -GMACL-, the NGO Mani Tese and the PhD in Politics and Economics of Developing Countries of the University of Florence. In Italy I coordinated 10 PhD Students and other three colleagues. I was in charge of the relationships with the partners and the stakeholders of the research. - From October 2000 to October 2002 I was at UNICEF IRC as consultant. We conducted a research on "Home Workers and Child Labor in Manufacturing Processes in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand". Child labor is widespread in industrial outwork in the informal sector in most developing countries. This form of child labor will not attract the penal provisions of a country's laws banning child labor. We examined the incidence of child work in such households, the child's schooling, the reasons why children are working, their work conditions, their health and gender issues. Based on focus group discussions with children, it also attempts to articulate the voices of children working. Policy implications are drawn accordingly. Econometric analysis is applied to analyze the determinants of child activity status. (Multilogit analysis and OLS, software STATA) -. With Santosh K. Mehrotra. I supervised two assistants as a statistician and an economist. 2) Child Labor and Labor Market - Local Coordinator ECORES for the international Marie Curie EU project "EduWel", Main partner University of Bielefeld (2010- Feb. 2013), PhD Program on Children's Education and Youth Work Opportunities in Europe. - Since November 2011 I have also coordinated a small group of Chinese and Italian PhD students on a research on the wellbeing of the children of Chinese migrants working in the informal sector in Florence Municipality. - I worked as a consultant at UNICEF IRC in the project The Understanding Children's Work (UCW) Project. - IA / UNICEF / World Bank Project (11/2002 a 1/2004), I conducted a research on the group of children that neither attends school nor performs economic activity according to the statistics of the household surveys. Drawing on data from six countries, evidence suggests that children can be absent from both school and economic activity because they are required to perform household chores because of their health or because they are unable to find work after having left school. But a large proportion of children who are not in school or economic activity do not fall into any of these categories. I have carried out data processing and analysis using different types of household surveys, MICS (UNICEF), Poverty Monitoring Survey, Child Labor Survey (ILO, SIMPOC), LSMS (World Bank), National Labor Force Survey. Software used STATA. Brazil, Cameroon, Guatemala, Nepal, Turkey and Yemen. With Prof. Furio C. Rosati. Recently, I also published two articles on children in home-based households in Indonesia and Pakistan (IJMP), one on the journal EPW (on Indian children in home-based households). - In the project (2000-2002), "At Home Workers and Child Labor in Manufacturing Processes in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand" at UNICEF IRC, we found that collective action and organizational membership have a positive influence on women's productivity in value terms) and health and children. This calls for government support to relevant collective actions. Education and work experience have a positive influence on women's productivity (in value). (Econometric analysis, Software used STATA). Most of the research was also related to child labor and wellbeing. 3) Impact Assessment and Children's Life Trajectories Recently, I am focusing on the impact assessment and monitoring of national and international programs (with qualitative, quantitative methods). With the research Lab I am coordinating we have formed a strategic unit for impact assessment. - The research on life trajectories is based on HR approach and human development approach and impact assessment. I presented the first results in an international conference organized by UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA as Keynote on Human Development and Human Rights: Two Decades of Advancement, What's Next for Children and Youth? I was Keynote speaker, "Children's Life Trajectories: Measuring Children's Capabilities and Rights Expansions", Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 27-29th October 2011. - Scientific Coordinator of the International Project on Quantitative Analysis for AIFO (Italian NGO) (from January 2009 to February 2012). Community Base Rehabilitation (CBR) in Mandya District (Karnataka, India) for persons with disabilities (including children and youth). The quantitative method is based on a large scale survey conducted (an area with more than 2 million people). - Between 2007 and 2009 as a Department we conducted several research on refugee and asylum-seekers wellbeing and well-becoming in Tuscany Region interviewing 50 asylum seekers and refugees in three different centers managed by Caritas and ARCI. The research was founded by the Ethic Responsibility Foundation. 4) Impact assessment of economic and social policies (More details on request) Impact analysis to evaluate local and national policies and international assistance and cooperation programs (qualitative, quantitative methods and part-number approach). I am working with NGOs and the Ethics Bank of Italy and Oxfam Italia (UCODEP) to identify best practices for improving project impact and to evaluate their social impact. We are working in partnership with the HDCA. - 2009-2012 scientific coordinator to evaluate the impact through a large scale survey. The program is carried out by AIFO and local NGOs and self-help groups on persons with disabilities in the district of Mandya, Karnataka, India. Partners WHO, LCC, LCC South Asia, and local partners. - Projects evaluation, international cooperation of the Tuscany Region on health. Mission to Uganda (January 2011). - From March 2003 to November 2005 I collaborated on the research project on 'Health Impact and Response to a Growing Number of Social Upheavals' funded by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Health and Social Upheavals coordinated by Professor Sir Michael Marmot of the University College London. I worked in the group of 'Health impact and response to a growing number of social upheavals' coordinated by Prof. Giovanni Andrea Cornia. 5) International Aid, Cooperation, Human Development I am co-editor (with Giovanni Canitano) of a book on international cooperation (2010, FrancoAngeli) and co-author with Franco Volpi of a book on international aid and development issues (2007). In this book there is a paper on children's international aid and on the human rights-based approach. This was also my area of ​​research in the first three months as a consultant of UNICEF IRC. I was responsible for data management and statistics. Mehrotra S. (2001), "The Rhetoric of International Development Targets and the Reality of Official Development Assistance" Innocenti Working Paper, no. 85. I also did some research on South-South international cooperation. In particular, on the People's Republic of China international cooperation with African countries and on cooperation among local territories. Recently, I am focusing on the international cooperation aimed at developing the clustering of small and medium enterprises in the informal sector and their role in reducing poverty and social protection with the UNDP ART initiative. Till December 2011 I was the coordinator of the Univ. Of Florence (ARCO) on international cooperation at the University of Florence in the Program on Local Human Development Project funded by Europe Aid (partners, University of Pavia, Tuscany Region, Oxfam Italia UCODEP), Province of Arezzo, Municipality of Arezzo, Lunaria). I am quite often involved as an expert at the initiatives of the Tuscany Region on international cooperation. Eg In Latin America, Desurbal project 2007/2008 with Municipality of Arezzo and UCODEP international cooperation for local public service development. Another example is the participation in the Commission for Asia or Tuscany Region, .... 5) Informal Activities, Collective Action (Cooperative and Social Business), Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection (More details on request) Now I am involved in two research lines with the Yunus Social Business Center University of Florence on Social Business and with ARCO on cooperatives Previously, I was involved mainly in the main research projects: i) Coordinator of a project to develop Credit and rural cooperatives in Vitoria do Mearim, (North East) Brazil, April 2006-November 2007. ii) In the project (2000-2002) "UNICEF IRC" (see points 2 and 3) "Home Based Workers and Child Labor in Manufacturing Processes in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand", we found that collective action and organizational membership Had a positive influence on women's productivity (in value terms) and health. This calls for government support to relevant collective actions. Education and work experience have a positive influence on women's productivity (in value). (Econometric analysis, Software used STATA). Iii) I developed a project on the role of the informal sector in SSA developing a theoretical model as a researcher in Development Economics at the University of Florence (04/1999 - 03/2000). The low-income economies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) present a segmented economic structure. In the research I argue that, in these economies, informal activities can contribute to the reduction of poverty and economic and human development. The development process is analyzed starting from the assumption that its evolution is influenced by institutional endowments and non-institutional resources endowments. 7) Transition Economics and Chinese Economic Development (More details on request) This is my initial area of ​​research. I am interested in Economics and Political Economy of Developing and Transition Countries. I was initially involved in research on the determinants of economic growth and development during the transition (econometrics and panel analysis, software used TSP). I received three grants form CNR / CASS (see curriculum study) to conduct field research in China. I also received a grant from ECAN (ECRFF EU-China Research Fellowship Fund) through the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, UK) and several grants from the University of Florence. (More details on request). My last research was on South-South international cooperation focusing on the People's Republic of China international cooperation with African countries. 8) Local Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Clusters in Developing Countries and Human Development (More details on request) The analysis of the development of clusters of SMEs in developing countries as a means of economic development and reduction of poverty. I received several grants from the University and the National Council of Research. I was visiting researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1996, 2000 and 2005. I am currently working on a theoretical and operationalisable framework for analysis local development. - I am coordinating a research (November 2011 to November 2012 in Florence (Italy) and in Wenzhou (China) on the clusters of small producers organizations. - Since 2005 I am a member of Interuniversity Center for Economics Applied to Industry, Local Development and Internationalization (c.MET.05). In 2011 I became the coordinator for the University of Florence. - From November 2002 to 2005 I collaborated with the Institute for Industrial Development Policy, University of Birmingham (UK), Ferrara (Italy) and Wisconsin-Milwaukee (USA)] on a project on Italian SMEs internalization and an Analysis of Guangdong And the clusters of SMEs. In this case I supervised two junior researchers and I worked with a team of 10 people. - From 2000 to 2001 ISESAO of the Commercial University L. Bocconi paid me to carry out a research on The role of SMEs in Chinese industrial development. - From 1999 to 2000 at the request of FAO I collaborated with professor. E. Giovannini (Director of the OECD Statistical Division) in analyzing the data of the First Chinese Agricultural Census. I have studied the relevance of Township and Village Enterprises in Chinese economic development and poverty reduction.