The faculty selection committee of the Robert T. Michael Research Prize has awarded the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 prizes to the Chicago Initiative for Economic Development and Early Childhood (CEDEC), an initiative by Harris School doctoral students to explore early childhood development in developing countries. The Harris School doctoral students comprising CEDEC are Pedro Bernal, Guadalupe Bedoya, Elise Chor, Ana Sofia Leon, Javaeria Qureshi, Maria Fernanda Rosales, Patricia Ritter and Arianna Zanolini. Pietro Biroli, a doctoral student from the department of economics, is also a member of CEDEC.
CEDEC's mission is to build a bridge between leading researchers and policymakers in order to gather, synthesize, disseminate and implement state-of-the-art knowledge of early childhood development (ECD), particularly in the context of developing countries. In this way, they hope to contribute to attempts to break the vicious cycle of poverty and inequality created in the early years of life.
Beginning in fall, 2010, CEDEC launched a weekly workshop with critical, multidisciplinary discussions of groundbreaking research on childhood development. The workshop focuses on assessing the weaknesses and strengths of the current literature, and also on how to translate research findings into deliverable implications for policy interventions. These weekly discussions are led by experts from the University and invited external speakers from other universities, policy research institutes, and international organizations. Attendees come from faculty and students at the Harris School, the Economics department, the Booth School, and the School of Medicine. Speakers have included Hoyt Bleakley (Booth School of Business, UC), Janet Currie (Economics, Columbia), Patrice Engle (Psychology and Child Development, CalPoly), Michael Msall (Pediatrics, UC), Norbert Schady (Inter-American Development Bank), and Emiliana Vegas (World Bank).
CEDEC is using the Robert T. Michael Prize money to support its first conference, scheduled for April 20- 21,2012. This conference will bring together leading researchers and key members of international organizations to discuss state-of-the-art research on early childhood development integrating the role of the family influences with early childhood interventions. Confirmed presenters include Jere Behrman, Mark Rosenzweig, Greg Duncan, Norbert Schady, and Steven Durlauf.
About the Robert T. Michael Research Prize
NORC established the Robert T. Michael Research Prize to honor Michael on the occasion of his retirement from the NORC Board of Trustees. The prize is to support student research at the Harris School, of which Michael is the founding dean. He also served as CEO of NORC in the 1980s, as well as a principal investigator for the organization’s National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Currently, Michael is a Senior Fellow affiliated with both the NORC Academic Research Centers and its Economics, Labor, and Population Studies department. He is the Eliakim Hastings Moore Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Harris School at the University of Chicago.
About NORC
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices on the University of Chicago's campus and in the D.C. Metro area. NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to provide data and analysis that support informed decision making in key areas including health, education, economics, crime, justice, energy, security, and the environment. NORC’s 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and dissemination—coupled with deep subject matter expertise—provides the foundation for effective solutions.