Dr Khalid Adnan receives Harvard fellowship

AUK Assistant Professor of Economics, Dr Khalid Adnan has been granted a research fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School. His research will focus on export-diversification-led growth in a knowledge economy framework. In particular, using a knowledge-led growth model, he will conduct quantitative and qualitative research to study the impact of export-diversification on economic growth, and the potential transformation to knowledge-intensive economy in Kuwait and GCC countries over the past two decades.

For the past two decades, economic development policy in high per capita income countries – especially in countries where exports represent a large percentage of national income such as the case in Kuwait and other GCC countries – have focused on diversifying their export-base to achieve sustainable development in their economies. Countries in the GCC region have taken considerable steps to diversify their incomes away from the natural resource-base. Export diversification leads to [in theory] knowledge spillovers that contribute to the building of human capital in those countries, however, there has been evidence to the contrary in GCC countries. Expanding on this topic, Dr. Khalid explains the purpose of his research, “My research will attempt to identify the structural components that contribute to the transformation of Kuwait and other GCC countries to Knowledge Economies. In doing so, this research will help us better understand the structural barriers to export-diversification in Kuwait and the Gulf, and will inform future research in sustainable economic development on the region.”