The GLO network will engage in fostering research on “green jobs” and “African labor markets”. For this purpose, research clusters have been established on Green Employment Creation and Labor Markets in Africa. Green and circular economies are increasingly used in transition to sustainable development. Although growing fast, the African continent faces a larger number structural challenges. For further details see the GLO cluster page.

The GLO Cluster Lead for both initiatives is GLO Fellow Almas Heshmati.  He is Professor of Economics at Jönköping University (Sweden) and Sogang University (Korea) and can be contacted under heshmati@sogang.ac.kr.

Heshmati has held  positions at the Korea University, Seoul National University, University of Kurdistan Hawler, and the MTT Agrifood Research (Finland). He was Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), The United Nations University during 2001-2004. From 1998 until 2001, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics. He has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden, 1994), where he held a Senior Researcher position until 1998. His research interests include applied microeconomics, globalization, development strategy, efficiency, productivity and growth with application to manufacturing and services. In addition to a large number of scientific journal articles he has published books on EU Lisbon Process, Global Inequality, East Asian Manufacturing, Chinese Economy, Technology Transfer, Information Technology, Water Resources, Landmines, Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Development Economics, World Values, Economic Growth, Development and Growth in Africa.

Almas Heshmati’s research interests include applied microeconomics. In recent years his research is on development economics and growth in Africa.