Dr. Happy Siphambe received his BA in Economics from the University of Botswana in 1987 and his MA in Economics from Western Michigan University in 1989. He was the recipient of the Elias Harik Award for the best graduate student in Economics at WMU. He later received his PhD in 1997 from University of Manitoba, Canada, in Economics with specializations in Development and Labor Economics.

Dr. Siphambe is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics of the University of Botswana, where he served as the Head of Department of Economics from 2001 to 2007, and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in various fields such as Development Economics, Labor Economics, Advanced Macroeconomics, and History of Economic Thought. In addition to teaching, he has supervised ten undergraduate BA and nine MA theses in economics at the University of Botswana. He has numerous publications including an edited book titled "Economic Development of Botswana" (2005) and he has contributed several chapters to books in areas such as Labor Markets and Migration, Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Integration, Labor and Human Resource Development, Economic Development of Botswana, and household and national Food Security in Southern Africa. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Botswana. He served as external examiner to University of Swaziland Economics Department.

His publications have appeared in refereed journals such as Southern African Journal of economics (2007), Indian Journal of Social and Economic Policy (2004), Botswana Journal of Economics (2003), Journal of African Economies (2001) and Economics of Education Review (2000). His work has also involved numerous technical consultancy reports and monographs for organizations such as UNCTAD, Barclays Bank Botswana Economic Review, Government of Botswana, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He has also presented numerous papers in various national and international conferences.

Most recently, Dr. Siphambe received a Fulbright Research Grant to study the Impact of HIV/AIDs on Labor Markets in Botswana, where he will spend his grant period at WMU as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Economics during the 2008-2009 Academic Year.

February 2010