GCED 2024: The 1st Global Conference on Economic Diversification MBR School of Government Dubai, UAE, October 31, 2024

Conference website	http://economicdiversification.com/GCED2024
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=gced2024
Abstract registration deadline	July 15, 2024
Submission deadline	August 1, 2024
Author notifications	September 6, 2024
Early registration closes	October 1, 2024

Despite economic diversification being an essential economic goal for countries around the globe as well as a widely studied topic in both the policy and academic worlds, there is no agreed upon universal measure of economic diversification. Policy discourse and research on economic diversification is often limited to the trade structure of a nation, linking the vulnerability of a nation to external shocks with a ripple effect on its economic growth and development. Empirical evidence focuses on the strong linkage between trade diversification, export-led growth and total GDP and/or per capita income of countries. While trade diversification is an important indicator of economic diversification, equally important are production and government revenue diversification. This realization triggered the development of The Global Economic Diversification Index (EDI), a global dataset and systematic method of measuring economic diversification.  The Global Conference on Economic Diversification (GCED) aims to provide a platform for scholars and practitioners to build on the efforts towards advancing novel economic diversification research, practical policies and actionable practices.

The first edition of the EDI was published by the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) at the World Government Summit 2022. The dataset’s annual editions were launched in panels with World Bank, IMF and UN experts in 2023 and 2024. The EDI is built on a cross-country, time series empirical analysis, allowing for a historical analysis of the evolution and extent of economic diversification across countries. Such an analysis represents a building block for further work to understand the macro-economic shifts, policy adjustments and strategic changes that allowed countries to either successfully diversify or, on the contrary, be held back in their path to diversification.

The inaugural edition of the EDI was based on the analysis of data from 83 countries, covering economies from all regions of the globe, income levels, and resource wealth/dependency. In 2023, the second edition of the Global EDI expanded the scope of coverage and analysis to include more than 100 countries. The third edition of the EDI has been published in 2024, with even further expanded coverage of 112 countries and thematic analysis focusing on the impact of digital trade on diversification. As a composite indicator, the EDI looks beyond trade to also include production/output and government revenue diversification, as the three dimensions forming the basis of the index.  The EDI is designed as a rigorous ‘reproducible research’ and is solely based on publicly available data from reputable sources, following a methodology peer-reviewed by a panel of international experts. In order to ensure highest levels of methodological rigor, data validity, robustness, inclusiveness, acceptance and impact on policy discourses, the MBRSG has conducted peer and expert reviews at different stages of the EDI’s construction. Given the importance of comparative analysis for policy learning, the EDI is designed to allow policy makers and scholars to visualize and assess their ranking on each measure of diversification (output, government revenue, trade), across regional and income groups and within their natural resource grouping (e.g., OPEC).

As such, the 1^st Global Conference on Economic Diversification (GCED) aims to build on the EDI’s efforts to fill the gap in existing literature, data and empirical analysis, with the objective to advance significant innovations and important additions to the analysis, discussion and policy discourse related to economic diversification.  

The full EDI datasets and analysis are made available openly for researchers, scholars, policymakers, and the global practitioners’ community to support global efforts that address economic diversification questions and developmental pathways. Based on that global dataset, the authors and the MBR School of Government invite the global community to further expand the research and analysis around economic diversification and develop thematic, regional or country-specific analysis, research, publications and policy outcomes. The MBRSG will host the 1^st Global Conference on Economic Diversification in Dubai in 2024 to address methodological, theoretical, policy focused, and thought-leadership outcomes based on the EDI dataset and beyond.

Call for Papers

The 1st Global Conference on Economic Diversification is seeking policy and scientific papers that can inform economic practices and related literature, and inform a new research series of policy papers with a focus on comparative policy analysis of economic diversification.

One aim of the conference and the policy series is to conduct in-depth analysis of the policy and determinants of economic diversification within a group of countries (regional, sub-regional, level of natural resource endowment), while using and making sense of the 2024 EDI findings and underlying data made available to researchers[1].

We invite researchers to explicate and contextualize the factors that contribute to both temporary changes and structural transformations related to economic diversification. By bringing scholars and policy practitioners together through this timely conference, the program committee aims to build a pioneering global repository of practice-relevant research around this essential topic. This would serve as an important contribution to the literature and policy around economic diversification at regional and global levels.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions are to be made through Easychair.

Submitted papers are strongly encouraged to explore and make use of the data and findings from the EDI datasets that span 22 years and over 112 countries.

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference.

Author Guidelines:

Manuscripts are to be submitted exclusively in either English or Arabic. Prior to submission, authors are advised to thoroughly proofread their work to eliminate any errors. Robustness checks on empirical analyses is encouraged. A bibliography section should be included at the end of the paper to cite references, with in-text citations following the MLA format guidelines.

Submitted papers must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review. Papers that have been previously published or presented elsewhere, but have undergone substantial revision, enhancement, or modifications before submission to us may be considered.

All work is expected to have original content written by the listed author(s) only. A full list of references must be cited for all types of work.

The following paper categories are welcome:

• Abstract submissions are welcome with an early submission deadline. Authors should intend to develop these abstracts, once accepted, into a subsequent submission of a full-length research or policy paper, case study or poster with results. The main text of the abstract should be ideally between 400-500 words and should include a list of references following it. The abstract should describe the motivation of the study, the topic chosen, main research or policy question(s), the methodology and/or data to be used, expected results (if analysis is not complete yet, then the main hypotheses and methodology to find results suffices), and contributions and limitations of the work. If the full-length paper is already complete or nearing completion, the abstract can detail the main results, conclusion, and policy directions from the research paper. Abstract submission will have an early submission deadline and authors will be notified of the acceptance of the abstract after review at an early date so they can develop and submit the full work for consideration to the conference. 
• Full papers presenting comprehensive research on various aspects and challenges related to economic diversification in or across a group of countries are welcome. The paper should ideally focus on one of suggested list of topics outlined in the call for papers and use the publicly available dataset on the EDI website and/or other publicly available data sources for analysis. Full papers are expected to offer novel contributions to the literature and inform policy discussions on the topic of economic diversification through comprehensive literature review and using methods and tools from any fields of economics or public policy. The paper can be bolstered through adding case studies, by collecting original survey data, or leveraging other country/region/sector specific data in the analysis. The submission should ideally include the structure of the paper, the abstract, introduction/background, methods/data, results, discussion, conclusion, references/acknowledgements, appendix, and other sections the author deems fit. Papers can be up to 7000 words in length.
• Policy/Management Papers analysing policy decisions, responses and adaptations at the policy or management levels in the public and private sectors, as it relates to the process of economic diversification in a country or a group of countries, or across specific sectors. Economic diversification in our context is defined to include trade, output, and revenue diversification sub pillars, however, one or more of these pillars may also be chosen for detailed analysis in the paper. Factors influencing policymaking and management decisions related to diversification, including structural and governance innovations, strategy shifts and/or technological advancements can be explored. Please refer to the call of papers for a list of suggested topics. Use of relevant publicly available data, when possible, is highly encouraged.  The submitted paper should detail the structure of the paper, the main issues, hypotheses, arguments, methodology, data, or case studies used, country/region/sectoral focus if applicable, the analysis, results, and references.  Papers can be up to 5000 words in length.
• Case Studies describing in detail the economic diversification trajectories in a country/region or related to other topics in the call for papers, preferably leveraging publicly available empirical evidence and data including but not limited to the EDI panel data are welcome. Case studies can focus on specific policy dilemmas and associated policy insights or strategies in the context of economic diversification, using real world cases and/or empirical evidence.  Case studies should include the title, index, abstract, introduction, case background, analysis/discussion, endnotes, and exhibits. Case studies should be between 3500-5000 words in length.
• Posters summarizing results from original research work done by the author on any topic related to economic diversification as detailed in the call for papers. Research papers on which the poster is based should contain analysis drawn from real world case studies, empirical evidence and/or sound theoretical models done as original work by the author and their co-authors. Posters should include the Title, Authors, Background/methods/results/limitations/conclusions, tables/figures/images, acknowledgements/references. Authors are encouraged to illustrate the poster using graphs, charts, diagrams/photos, and a limited amount of text (well bolded). 48(W) x 36 (H) is standard poster size. You may use Microsoft PowerPoint (or similar tool), change the dimensions of the slide under the “page setup” option to the specified size, and finally save the completed poster “As a PDF” under the “File” menu and submit. Suggested format: Title text in Arial or Helvetica can be between 66-72. Main text size: 36 or above. Images should have at least a 200 dpi and should be inserted into the poster ideally in the .tif (TIFF File) format so it’s clearly seen when printed. Ensure legends are located adjacent to images. Include a brief (2-3) list of references only.

Committees

 

Organizing committee

 

• Fadi Salem, Director of Policy Research Department, Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government
• Salma Refass, Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government
• Keertana Subramani, Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government

Program committee

 

• Khalid Al Wazani, Associate Professor of Public Policies, Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government
• Reda Cherif, Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Nicolas Depetris-Chauvin, Professor of International Economics, Geneva School of Business Administration
• Clovis Freire, Chief, Commodity Research and Analysis Section, Commodities Branch, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UNCTAD
• Thorvaldur Gylfason, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Iceland
• Fuad Hasanov, Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Steffen Hertog, Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Bernard Hoekman, Professor and Director, Global Economics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.
• Martin Hvidt, Associate Professor, Department of Culture and Language, Center for Modern Middle East and Muslim studies, University of Southern Denmark
• Jean Imbs,  Professor of economics, New York University Abu Dhabi
• Ken Miyajima, Economist , International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Mahmoud Mohieldin, Executive Director, Arab States and Maldives, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Nasser Saidi, Founder and President of Nasser Saidi & Associates
• Zainab Usman, Senior Fellow and Director of Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Rick Van Der Ploeg, Research Director, Oxford Centre for Analysis of Resource Rich Economies
• Karen Young, Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy

 

Invited Speakers

Senior scholars and experts on economic diversification from the following organizations:

• The IMF
• The World Bank
• The OECD
• United Nations agencies

Publication

Accepted papers will be published as an Open Access conference proceedings by Springer. The GCED 2024 proceedings will be coordinated by the Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government and made available as an official publication at the World Government Summit 2025.

Selected papers may be considered for a special issue of selected SCOPUS journals, currently under discussion.

Venue

The conference will be held at in Dubai at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.

Contact

For questions related to submission, selection process and the Economic Diversification series/conference, please email: EDI@mbrsg.ac.ae

Sponsorship

Sponsorship opportunities are welcome. Please email: EDI@mbrsg.ac.ae for further information.