Hagen Kruse

I am currently a PhD researcher at the University of Groningen. My research focuses on the causes of global poverty. Particularly, I am interested in contributing to the academic debate on recent patterns of structural change and industrialization in developing countries.

Recently, I was part of the GGDC and UNU-WIDER team constructing the Economic Transformation Database. These data provide researchers with evidence on sectoral employment and productivity for a large number of developing countries. Our own research using these data was - among others - presented at the CEPR STEG conference 2021 and discussed by Dani Rodrik on Project Syndicate. In further current research projects, I examine a new conceptualization of structural change based on the task-content of different occupations.

Before starting my PhD, I successfully completed a Research Master in Economics and Business as well as a Master in Economic Development and Growth at the University of Groningen. During my Bachelor studies at the University of Cologne, I contributed to research projects at the Chair for International Political Economy.

My personal curiosity for economic research on developing countries originates from pre-academic work on development projects in Southern Kenya, which were supervised by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.