Each month Griffith Library finds out more about a remarkable Griffith researcher. Professor Alberto Posso is Head of the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics and a Professor of Economics. Growing up with a feeling of injustice about child poverty led Alberto to a PhD in Economics and research spanning topics including international development, child labour, poverty, development economics and inequality. We asked Alberto about his path to becoming a researcher and about the projects he’s recently worked on.
What path led you to becoming a researcher?
‘The second you start wondering “why?” you’re sort of halfway through to becoming a researcher, once you decide to do something to answer that question, I guess that you are a researcher.’
I think that I’ve always sort of been a researcher, so I’m happy that I found a way to do this as a job. I’m from Ecuador, but as a kid I moved countries quite a lot because of my dad’s job. By the time I finished high school, for example, I got a chance to live in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, the United States and the Netherlands. I remember going from the US and the Netherlands back to Ecuador and constantly wondering “why are these places rich and my country poor?”. The second you start wondering “why?” you’re sort of halfway through to becoming a researcher, once you decide to do something to answer that question, I guess that you are a researcher.
So, when I went to university I got into Political Science and Economics because I didn’t just want to know “why”, I wanted to do something about it. The problem was that the more I found out, the more I knew that I didn’t have the answer, so I studied, and studied, and studied…. I decided to do a PhD in Economics once I figured out that the “why” had a lot to do with economic policy. The problem was that now [I’d] figured out one important thing: while “why” is pretty important, how we answer a question is equally or more important. This made me realise that a lot of the answers that we have in social science aren’t really that good because of methodological issues. So, I’ve spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of time learning how to answer questions using data. Basically, most days I read, learn and practice methodological techniques to help me figure out why. I apply those techniques to the questions that I care the most about!
Can you tell us a bit about the projects you are currently working on, or have recently worked on?
Growing up, the thing that bothered me the most about Ecuador was child poverty. I remember going to school, for example, and seeing out the window of my school bus a kid about my age selling chocolates in the street. When I grew up, this feeling never went away. So, I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out why some people are poor. And, in particular, why some kids are poor, what poverty looks like, and what we can do about it. This path led me to the study of child labour. Some of my most recent work in this field looks at the consequences of child labour and what we can do about it. As to the consequences, in recent work I’ve looked at the psychological costs of child labour in India, for example. My colleagues and I showed that kids engaged in child labour exhibit lower psychosocial health. This is important as this impacts their wellbeing as children and when they grow up. In turn, this explains how child labour is a part of a vicious cycle of poverty. Altogether, this means that doing something about child labour is really important.
In recent work I’ve looked at what we can do. For example, I looked at bilingual education programs for Indigenous kids in Peru and show that they can curtail child labour. This means that providing educational opportunities to vulnerable kids that are sensitive to their cultural background can pull them out of work and into schooling! In turn, this helps governments and international organisations come up with better policies. I often liaise with these as part of my job. As an applied researcher it’s important to join the policy conversation and help to provide an evidence base.
What sparked your passion for this research area?
‘I think that if we learn about a problem, we can actually come up with solutions to it.’
Building on my answer to the above, what sparked my passion is a feeling of injustice. It just really bothered me that two kids, the same age, born at the same time and living in the same city had such hugely different opportunities! I thought that if I could understand why, maybe I can help do something about it. I think that if we learn about a problem, we can actually come up with solutions to it. And as one of the few Ecuadorians that have had a chance to go to university and get a PhD, I feel somewhat responsible to spend my time trying to learn about ways to help the poor.
My research, however, is not just on Ecuador, recognising that there are lessons from developing countries that can be broadly applicable. To that point, I think that development economics offers a lot of interesting lessons for individuals and households facing different vulnerabilities, even in wealthier societies like Australia. At Griffith, I’ve partnered with colleagues to look at, for example, closing the ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. That’s what I really love about Griffith, there are so many people really interested in answering important societal questions and helping our communities, be it here, in Australia, or abroad.
Do you have any advice for researchers just starting out?
Do it! Don’t give up on your passion, work on what you think is really important even when others may not get it. Your passion will fuel your thirst for knowledge and in turn this will make your work amazing!
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