Pauper to policy: BEPP chair researches international poverty

Robert Jensen during graduate school. Now, Jensen devotes his research to the study of international poverty .

Along with his role as the new chair of Wharton’s Business Economics and Public Policy department , Jensen is a leading researcher of economics, with works published in academic journals such as the American Economic Review . He is also profiled in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist . His research mainly focuses on the impact of factors such as gender, health and education on international poverty and economic development .

Jensen went to grad school to study domestic poverty but was inspired to pursue the field of international poverty after his experiences abroad. He said they allowed him to put into perspective the drastic disparity between what we consider poverty in America and the level of poverty that exists in other countries.

Jensen continues to spend time in other countries doing research. One of his favorite projects included linking increased job opportunities for women with increased education in India . In rural areas, families are less likely to send girls to school, marrying them off early instead. For years it was argued that this was purely cultural and that the situation could not be changed. However, with the advent of call centers in India, more jobs opened up to educated Indian women . Around 2000, Jensen and his team sent recruiters to rural villages and supervised the villages for three years. They found that in villages where more jobs were offered to women, their parents began to send more of the girls to school and marry them off later.

“It was amazing to see the transformative power [of equal opportunity],” Jensen said. He added that it was also personally satisfying to know that it is possible to make a positive change in the world.

Jensen has done extensive research about poverty in Los Angeles during his time teaching at UCLA . One of the projects he is currently working on involves research dealing with the effects of peer pressure on student educational decisions . Jensen hopes to begin new projects to help aid poverty in Philadelphia as well. As chair of BEPP, he is also actively trying to get students involved in new public policy initiatives and have speakers come to Penn to get students interested in issues.

One of Jensen’s colleagues at the Jameel Poverty Action Lab — a research center that informs public policy where Jensen is an affiliate professor — noted that students can learn from Jensen’s studies and experience to make their own impact on the world. “I think that as a student, you should take advantage of where you are and what your professors are doing,” Ben Jaques-Leslie , research manager at J-PAL , said. “Try to understand and keep an eye out for good opportunities.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.