Two students invited to present their Master's thesis at an international conference in Vienna

This year, some forty students from the School of Public Affairs chose to write a thesis as part of their off-campus semester. We were delighted to learn that two of these students were selected to participate in an international conference on poverty and inequality, to present the results of their research. The conference was organised at the Central European University in Vienna and The Open Society University Network (OSUN)> covered the costs of their travel and stay. Manon Fortemps and Nina Regenhardt look back on this experience, which was the perfect end to their Masters. 

You have decided to devote your S4 to writing a Master's thesis and your work has been selected to be presented at an international conference in Vienna. Congratulations! Could you tell us more about this conference?

The Graduate Student Conference on Poverty and Inequality was part of the project Rethinking Economic Policy to Address Inequality and Poverty, supported by the Open Society University Network. Hosted by the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, the conference aimed to fuel reflections and exchange on the most pressing public policy issues underlying the persistence of poverty and inequalities within and across countries. 12 students from around the world were invited to travel to Vienna to present their Master’s thesis or PhD research project. During the two days of the conference, the research presentations were complemented with interactive Q&A sessions between the presenters and the audience, as well as more informal exchanges on the participants’ respective fields of work. 

What topic did you work on and what conclusions/recommendations did you present to the audience? 

Nina: In my thesis, I quantify the sensitivity of income inequality in 28 European states to the income taxation of the richest 10% - framed differently - how much does taxing the top actually matter? Through my research, I found that top income taxation played a measurable role in the evolution of income inequality after the economic and sovereign debt crises and that minor increases of one percentage point in top income taxation can attenuate surges in income inequality by up to 75% in some countries and time periods. Given the stark increase of income inequalities during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the minor effect on top incomes, a tentative recommendation drawn from my study is to use minor increases in top income taxation as one relevant policy tool amongst others to mitigate rises in income inequality, especially in crises like this one. 

Manon: My Master's thesis looks at the allocation of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in low and middle-income countries. In the absence of the financial markets and stable institutional environments necessary to attract private investments, ODA remains a significant source of financing in developing countries. However ODA resources are scarce and countries fall short on their commitment to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for ODA. To deal with the scarcity of development aid resources, multilateral and bilateral donors have tied ODA allocations to conditionalities related to recipient countries’ performance in implementing good policies and strong institutions. These conditionalities are measured by the World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA). 

Against this background I investigated the relationship between a country’s CPIA score and the aggregate volume of ODA it receives, which so far had not been confronted to cross-country panel data. I find ODA allocations to be biased towards better governance. This finding has several implications. First, donors’ poverty reduction objective embodies a trade-off between needs and governance which might result in a setting where worse-governed poorer countries receive less ODA than better governed countries which host a lower share of the poor. Second, poorly governed countries might end-up in a low-ODA flow trap, thus reinforcing the gap between aid orphans and aid darlings. This is all the more puzzling in the context of fragile states which are expected to be home to 80% of the world’s extreme poor by 2030 (OECD) and are typically characterized by poor governance, unstable institutions and therefore low CPIA scores. I drew some policy implications from these findings and recommended ODA allocation formulas to integrate additional components such as the economic vulnerability index or multidimensional poverty index to better account for the structural vulnerabilities of recipient countries. 

What did you learn from this experience? 

Nina: Having decided to write the thesis in the S4 with the goal of becoming really acquainted with the academic world, the conference completed this experience. It allowed us to gain insights into how different researchers work and how important the exchange among each other is for the success of academic work. Personally, I was really impressed by the depth of the exchange from an academic perspective that even continued in coffee breaks and shared dinners. 

Manon: The conference was a unique opportunity to present my work to peers, answer thought-provoking questions and receive valuable feedback. I realised that there is no better way to reflect on the multidimensional policy issues behind poverty and inequality than to bring together scholars and professors from different geographical areas and research backgrounds. Hearing other students’ work and exchanging ideas was also a great way to learn about innovative empirical techniques and datasets to apply to my own research project. Interestingly, the most challenging and fascinating discussions happened outside the conference room, during coffee breaks and dinners, where the participants would gather and exchange more openly on the topics that had been discussed during the day.  

Would you advise students to write a thesis during the off-campus semester?

Nina: Writing a thesis is a very demanding process that allowed me to learn a lot in only four months - from research design over applied data analysis to academic rigor. Therefore I believe that one can learn as much or even more from writing a thesis than from an internship for example. Nonetheless, I would advise that if students think about writing a thesis, they should make sure that they choose a topic that passionately interests them such that they can enjoy devoting four months to that topic. 

Manon: Looking back, I am very happy I decided to validate my final semester at Sciences Po with a master thesis. First of all, the master thesis is a unique chance to dedicate six months of your academic life to a topic you feel passionate about and to eventually contribute to the literature or public policy debate underlying it. Furthermore, a master thesis can very well be coupled with a part-time internship at an institution or company that complements your research project. As an example, I joined the OECD Development Cooperation Directorate during the writing of my thesis, which greatly helped me getting a better understanding of the development assistance ecosystem. Finally and on top of being a rewarding academic achievement, the writing of a master thesis is well-regarded and sometimes necessary to apply to institutional organisations’ policy analyst positions or post-graduate programs.

Learn more

• The Off-Campus semester at the School of Public Affairs (S4)
• The Master's thesis option at the School of Public Affairs
• The Central European University in Vienna
• Sciences Po and the Central European University are part of The Open Society University Network (OSUN) and CIVICA