2024 DRI Annual Conference

Economics after Neoliberalism

Date: Monday, March 25, 2024

Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm Eastern Time (doors open at 9:30am)

Location: Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, Kimmel Center for University Life (4th Floor), 60 Washington Square S, New York, NY 10012

Overview:

What have been the successes and/or failures of economic reforms designed to give a greater role to markets (sometimes labeled "neoliberalism")? Examples are movements towards freer trade and decreased financial regulation. Do such policies lead to economic growth and poverty reduction, or do they lead to higher inequality, or possibly both? How do such policies affect interactions between nations (peaceful and otherwise)? How do they affect support for populist movements? Understanding this debate is more vital than ever at a time of great crisis today.

Program:

9:30am – 10:00am Doors open

10:00am – 10:10am      Linda G. Mills, President of NYU, Introductory Remarks

10:10am – 10:40am Suresh Naidu to present on “Economics and Economists After Neoliberalism”

10:40am – 11:10am     Lawrence Summers to present on “What is neoliberalism and is it really dead?”

11:10am – 11:30am  William Easterly moderates a panel discussion with Lawrence Summers and Suresh Naidu

 11:30am – 12:00pm   Audience Q&A

Speakers:

© Jolly: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

The History, Politics, and Economics of Georgian Wine

Learn about Georgian wine — and drink some, too.

Paired with delicious Georgian food.

Date: March 10, 2023

Time: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm ET

Overview:

Georgia is the world's oldest wine producer, and the history of Georgian wine is woven together with the country's culture, politics, and economics. Join Mamuka Tsereteli for a lecture on the significance of Georgian wine, followed by a Q&A—and stick around for a wine tasting, paired with delicious Georgian food, to find out for yourself why Georgian wine is so special!

Program:

Welcome remarks by Rajeev Dehejia, Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics, Co-Director of the Development Research Institute, New York University (NYU)

Karl Storchmann presents “Introduction: The Georgian Wine Industry in a Few Slides”

Mamuka Tsereteli presents “The History and Politics of Georgian Wine”

Wine and food is courtesy of www.georgianwinehouse.com

Speakers:

Hosted by: New York University Development Research Institute (NYU DRI) and Sustainable Economic and Climate Development Initiative (SECDEV)

Overview:

The IPCC Report shows to keep 1.5ºC within reach, we need every tool available – both public sector policies and private sector market solutions – to transition to a decarbonized world. Join us for a panel discussion on ‘Carbon Markets and Mechanisms’ and a Fireside Chat on ‘Mobilizing Capital to Implement the EU Green New Deal.’

*The in-person event is only open to NYU community members (faculty, students, staff). Attendees will be required to present a current NYU ID card and Violet Go pass for entrance.*

Program:

10:00am–11:20am  Session 1: Carbon Markets and Mechanisms

Join us for a panel discussion where experts discuss the various private sector tools ranging from a high-integrity voluntary carbon market to tradable indices to help mobilize urgently-needed capital which can complement public sector climate policies. We will also hear how a carbon tax could be an effective public sector tool to reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere. 

Welcome Remarks by Rajeev Dehejia, Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics and Co-Director Development Research Institute, New York University

Speakers:

• Madelyn Antoncic, Senior Fellow, NYU Development Research Institute; Director, Sustainable Economic and Climate Development Initiative (Moderator)

• Nicholas Godec, Head of Fixed Income Tradables, S&P Dow Jones Indices

• Bob Litterman, Partner & Chairman of the Risk Committee, Kepos Capital

• Annette L. Nazareth, Senior Counsel, Davis Polk & Wardwell; Chair, Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market

11:20am–11:30am Break

11:30am–12:30pm Session 2: Mobilizing Capital to Implement the EU Green New Deal

Join us for a fireside chat with European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle where he will discuss the EU Green New Deal and how the EIB and the European Fund for Strategic Investments use public funds to mobilize private investments to finance strategic investments focused on  the environment (including biodiversity), climate action and the circular economy.

Speakers:

• Madelyn Antoncic, Senior Fellow, NYU Development Research Institute; Director, Sustainable Economic and Climate Development Initiative (Moderator)

• Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President, European Investment Bank

Speaker Biographies:

Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President, European Investment Bank

Ambroise is responsible for climate action and environment, development policy and oversees EIB’s activities in France, Germany, and countries in Africa. Prior to joining EIB Ambroise was Executive Director for France at the Boards of the IMF and the World Bank, Washington D.C., the only ED holding both positions simultaneously. He is the former Chief executive at Agence France Trésor, Ministry of Finance, Paris; Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Development, Department of the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Paris; and Co-Chairman of the Paris Club and G8 sous-sherpa where he previously served as Secretary General and Vice Chairman of the Paris Club. He has extensive experience in development policy across emerging economies, most particularly in Africa. He holds a Law Degree from the Université de Paris, Sorbonne and is a graduate of ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration).

Overview:

An acclaimed expert on violence and seasoned peacebuilder explains the five reasons why conflict (rarely) blooms into war, and how to interrupt that deadly process.

It’s easy to overlook the underlying strategic forces of war, to see it solely as a series of errors, accidents, and emotions gone awry. It’s also easy to forget that war shouldn’t happen—and most of the time it doesn’t. Around the world, there are millions of hostile rivalries, yet only a fraction erupt into violence, a fact too many accounts overlook.

With a counterintuitive approach, Christopher Blattman reminds us that most rivals loathe one another in peace. War is too costly to fight, so enemies almost always find it better to split the pie than spoil it for everyone or struggle over thin slices. In those rare instances when fighting ensues, we should ask: What kept rivals from compromise?

Why We Fight draws on decades of economics, political science, psychology, and real-world interventions to lay out the root causes and remedies for war, showing that violence is not the norm; that there are only five reasons why conflict wins over compromise; and how peacemakers turn the tides through tinkering, not transformation.

From warring states to street gangs, ethnic groups and religious sects to political factions, there are common dynamics to heed and lessons to learn. Along the way, through Blattman’s time studying Medellín, Chicago, Sudan, England, and more, we learn from vainglorious monarchs, dictators, mobs, pilots, football hooligans, ancient peoples, and fanatics.

What of remedies that shift incentives away from violence and get parties back to dealmaking? Societies are surprisingly good at interrupting and ending violence when they want to—even gangs do it. Realistic and optimistic, this is a book that lends new meaning to the adage “Give peace a chance.”

*This event is only open to NYU community members (faculty, students, staff). Attendees will be required to present an NYU ID card and daily screener for entrance.*

Speakers:

Christopher Blattman is the Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago’s Pearson Institute and Harris Public Policy. He is an economist and political scientist who studies violence, crime, and underdevelopment. His most recent book is Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace.

Moderator: William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University (NYU), Co-director of NYU Development Research Institute (DRI)

Purchase a Copy of the Book:

Attendees will be able to purchase Why We Fight onsite with a local bookseller. Before the event, you can also purchase a hard copy of the book online for a 30% discount. Please note that the book will ship the day after the event and may take up to 1-2 weeks after the event. Alternatively, attendees can purchase an e-book or hard copy in advance with their normal bookseller, including Amazon.

For non-NYU guests: The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation will host an event that is open to the public on May 3rd. Find more details here.

Converging to Convergence

Date: Friday, November 12, 2021

Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm Eastern Time

Abstract:

Empirical tests in the 1990s found little evidence of poor countries catching up with rich—unconditional convergence—since the 1960s, and divergence over longer periods. This stylized fact spurred several developments in growth theory, including AK models, poverty trap models, and the concept of convergence conditional on determinants of steady-state income. We revisit these findings, using the subsequent 25 years as an out-of-sample test, and document a trend towards unconditional convergence since 1990 and convergence since 2000, driven by both faster catch-up growth and slower growth of the frontier. During the same period, many of the correlates of growth—human capital, policies, institutions, and culture—also converged substantially and moved in the direction associated with higher income. Were these changes related? Using the omitted variable bias formula, we decompose the gap between unconditional and conditional convergence as the product of two cross-sectional slopes. First, correlate-income slopes, which remained largely stable since 1990. Second, growth-correlate slopes controlling for income—the coefficients of growth regressions—which remained stable for fundamentals of the Solow model (investment rate, population growth, and human capital) but which flattened substantially for other correlates, leading unconditional convergence to converge towards conditional convergence.

Speakers:

Jack Willis is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia University since January 2018, a CEPR Research Fellow, and a NBER Faculty Research Fellow. His research interests are in development economics and its intersection with public economics, behavioral economics, and household finance. 

Moderator:

William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University (NYU), Co-director of NYU Development Research Institute (DRI)

The event “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism” – A Conversation with Anne Case & Angus Deaton, originally scheduled for April 15, has been postponed.

In the coming months, we will provide updates when available. Our thoughts are with you and your families, and with the many people who have been directly affected by COVID-19. Thank you for your understanding as we do our part to keep New York safe and healthy.

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

A Conversation with Anne Case & Angus Deaton
Moderated by Ezekiel Emanuel

The NYU Development Research Institute, Princeton University Press, and The New York Academy of Medicine invite you to a conversation with Princeton economists Anne Case and Nobel Prize-winner Angus Deaton, moderated by Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania.

Since they first discovered a shocking rise in deaths by suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism in middle-aged white Americans and coined the term “deaths of despair,” Anne Case and Angus Deaton and their dramatic discoveries have had a profound influence on domestic and international news. In Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Case and Deaton at last bring their findings together in one authoritative, compelling narrative, show how the problem could still become much worse, and blame this era-defining epidemic on an economy run wild and a disgraceful healthcare system—all through a devastating critique of capitalism.

Copies of Deaths of Despair will be available for purchase and signed by the authors.

About the Authors:

Sir Angus Deaton, Ph.D., winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University and Presidential Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California.

Moderator:

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, Ph.D., is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

©Goldman: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

Video Courtesy of NYU TV

Overview:

Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change—these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. 

In the past, we’ve turned to economists to solve these large-scale problems, but over the past few decades—and certainly since the 2008 financial crisis—the global citizenry have lost their faith in economists. The resources to address these challenges are there, but what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. 

In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, the authors of the prize-winning POOR ECONOMCS (2011), take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, GOOD ECONOMICS FOR HARD TIMES makes a persuasive case for intelligent forms of intervention, based on sound research into real-life situations; and a society built on compassion and respect.  It shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.   

At this event, Esther Duflo introduced "Good Economics for Hard Times", a new book co-authored with Abhijit Banerjee, where they draw on the best recent economics to demonstrate how to think about these problems differently, and present intelligent, daring solutions based on sound research into real-life situations , towards a society built on compassion and respect. 

Event Program:

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM: Doors Open, Guest Arrival

6:00 PM - 6:05 PM: Introductory Remarks by C. Cybele Raver, Deputy Provost, New York University (Introduced by Rajeev Dehejia, New York University)

6:05 PM- 6:10 PM: NYU Development Research Institute Welcome Remarks and Introduction of Esther Duflo, by Rajeev Dehejia, New York University

6:10 PM - 6:50 PM: A Conversation between Esther Duflo and Debraj Ray

6:50 PM - 7:15 PM: Q&A

7:15 PM - 8:00 PM: Reception and Book Signing

About the Authors:

Book Reviews:

“Not all economists wear ties and think like bankers. In their wonderfully refreshing book, Banerjee and Duflo delve into impressive areas of new research questioning conventional views about issues ranging from trade to top income taxation and mobility, and offer their own powerful vision of how we can grapple with them.  A must-read.”

- Thomas Piketty, professor, Paris School of Economics, and author of Capital in the Twenty-first Century

“In Good Economics for Hard Times, Banerjee and Duflo, two of the world’s great economists, parse through what economists have to say about today’s most difficult challenges – immigration, job losses from automation and trade, inequality, tribalism and prejudice, and climate change. The writing is witty and irreverent, always informative but never dull. Banerjee and Duflo are the teachers you always wished for but never had, and this book is an essential guide for the great policy debates of our times.”

- Raghuram Rajan, Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and author of The Third Pillar and Fault Lines

“A magnificent achievement, and the perfect book for our time. Banerjee and Duflo brilliantly illuminate the largest issues of the day, including immigration, trade, climate change, and inequality. If you read one policy book this year -- heck, this decade - read this one.”

- Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University, and author, How Change Happens

“One of the things that makes economics interesting and difficult is the need to balance the neat generalities of theory against the enormous variety of deviations from standard assumptions: lags, rigidities, simple inattention, society’s irrepressible tendency to alter what are sometimes thought of as bedrock characteristics of economic behavior. Banerjee and Duflo are masters of this terrain. They have digested hundreds of lab experiments, field experiments, statistical studies and common observation to find regularities and irregularities that shape important patterns of economic behavior and need to be taken into account when we think about central issues of policy analysis.  They do this with simple logic and plain English. Their book is as stimulating as it gets.”

- Robert Solow, Nobel prize winner and Emeritus Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

From Local to Global: The External Validity Challenge of Experiments

Event Overview:

In recent decades, the use of experimental and quasi-experimental methods has become widespread across a range of fields in economics, such as labor, education, health, and especially development. The emphasis on experimental and quasi-experimental methods was driven by an attempt to generate internally valid results, i.e., accurate estimates of the impact of the policy of interest in the time and place the experiment was implemented. But the now global scale of experiments points to the central question of external validity: to what extent and how can we generalize the knowledge generated by experiments beyond the setting of the experiment to other contexts?

©Goldman: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

Conference Program:

8:30 - 9:00 AM: Registration, coffee, and pastries

9:00 - 9:05 AM: DRI welcome remarks by Rajeev Dehejia, New York University

9:05 - 9:10 AM: Introductory remarks by Yanoula Athanassakis, Associate Vice Provost, Academic Affairs and Special Projects; Director, Environmental Humanities Initiative, New York University

9:00 - 9:10 AM: DRI welcome remarks by Rajeev Dehejia

9:10 - 9:50 AM: Susan Athey, Stanford University. “Heterogeneous Treatment Effects.” View Presentation

9:50 - 10:30 AM: Cyrus Samii, New York University. “Evaluating Ex Ante Counterfactual Predictions Using Ex Post Causal Inference.” View Presentation

10:30 - 10:45 AM: Break with coffee and pastries

10:45 - 11:25 AM: Sylvain Chassang, New York University. “Designing RCTs with External Validity in Mind.” View Presentation

11:25 - 12:05 PM: Rohini Pande, Yale University. “Politics, Power and Proof: Asking the Right Questions”

12:05 - 1:00 PM: Lunch for audience and speakers

1:00 - 1:40 PM: Rajeev Dehejia, New York University. “A Thought Experiment: Seven Questions Regarding External Validity.” View Presentation

1:40 - 2:20 PM: Michael Kremer and Kevin Croke, Harvard University. “Incorporating Theory and Decision Analysis into Meta-Analysis: The Case of Deworming.” View Presentation

2:20 - 3:00 PM: Roundtable moderated by Timothy Ogden, Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative, New York University.

Speaker Bios:

Thursday, May 2, 2019

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

14A Washington Mews

New York, NY 10003

RSVP HERE

Space is limited and will be on a first come basis.
Reception to follow at Africa House.

Join Africa House Director/DRI Co-Director, Professor Yaw Nyarko, as he moderates a fireside chat with Amb. Fatima Kyari Mohammed, the Permanent Observer of the African Union (AU) to the United Nations (UN). 

Amb. Fatima Kyari Mohammed is the Permanent Observer of the African Union (AU) to the United Nations (UN). Her mandate is to represent the AU at the UN as well as develop and maintain constructive and productive relationship between the AU and Member States in New York. Prior to her appointment, she was Senior Special Advisor to the ECOWAS Commission. Her career spans over 2 decades with a focus on peace, security, socio-economic development, regional integration, organizational development, and project management, both in the public and private sectors.

Her academic background is in Peace, Security, Development and Conflict Transformation (University of Innsbruck), Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development (UN University for Peace, Costa Rica), and Business Communication (European University, Switzerland). She also has a BA in Environmental Design (ABU, Zaria, Nigeria).

She is also the Founder of the LikeMinds Project, a non-profit, Organisation working with vulnerable communities in Nigeria. She is an Eisenhower Fellow, and was further honored with the ExxonMobil Distinguished Fellow Award in 2017.

Event Co-Hosts:

Founded in 2006, the NYU Development Research Institute (DRI) is home to a growing team of researchers and students. Through our work, we seek to expand the number and diversity of serious commentators on the state of foreign aid and development. Our ultimate goal is to have a positive impact on the lives of the poor, who deserve the benefit of high-quality, clear-eyed, hard-headed economic research applied to the problems of world poverty.

www.nyudri.org

NYU Africa House is an interdisciplinary institute devoted to the study of contemporary Africa, focusing on economic, political, and social issues on the continent and programs in the Arts. An integral part of Africa House’s core mission is the advancement of the understanding of the links between Africa and the rest of the world within social, historical, and economic contexts, among others. To this end, we have fostered relationships with African immigrant communities in New York City. NYU has a large number of professors and students doing research in the areas of economic development, macroeconomics and economic growth, microfinance, politics, political economy, law, and legal institutions. Africa House regularly convenes high level talks and seminars, and has in the past featured African heads of state. We also host policy luncheons, and research discussion presentations on focused topics. Our programs take place in New York City and in various cities in Africa.

www.nyuafricahouse.org

Tuesday, December 11 
5:30pm
New York University
14A Washington Mews, New York, NY 10003

Event Program:

5:30pm – Brief welcome from the Marron Institute

5:35pm – Introductory commentary by William Easterly

5:50pm – Fireside discussion between Alain Bertaud and Weiping Wu of Columbia GSAPP

6:35pm – Audience Q&A

6:50pm – Book signing

RSVP HERE

Overview:

Join us on Tuesday, December 11 at 5:30pm for the launch of Alain Bertaud’s new book from MIT Press, Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities. In it, Bertaud argues that operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. Drawing on five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities around the world, Bertaud links cities’ productivity to the size of their labor markets; argues that the design of infrastructure and markets can complement each other; examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities; stresses the importance of mobility and affordability; and critiques the land use regulations in a number of cities that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of just trying to alleviate clear negative externalities. Bertaud concludes by describing the new role that joint teams of urban planners and economists could play to improve the way cities are managed.

Event Program:

Professor William Easterly, Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute, will provide an opening commentary on the book. Bertaud will then sit down for a discussion of the book with Weiping Wu, Professor of Urban Planning and Director of the M.S. in Urban Planning program at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, before fielding questions from the audience. Books will be available for sale and signature.

Speakers:

Alain Bertaud is Senior Research Scholar at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management. He has worked as Principal Urban Planner for the World Bank and as an independent consultant and resident urban planner in cities ranging from Bangkok to New York.

William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute. His most recent book is entitled The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the
Forgotten Rights of the Poor. He is a Research Associate of NBER and has served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Development Economics.

Weiping Wu is Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia GSAPP and Director of the M.S. Urban Planning program. Trained in architecture and urban planning, Prof. Wu has focused her research and teaching on understanding urban dynamics in developing countries in general and China in particular.

This event is co-hosted by NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, NYU’s Development Research Institute, NYU Africa House, and NYU’s Urban Planning Student Association.

©Goldman: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

Event Program:

1:30pm – 2:00pm             Doors Open, Guest Arrival

2:00pm – 2:05pm            Welcome Remarks on Behalf of New York University
By: C. Cybele Raver, NYU Deputy Provost

2:05pm – 4:00pm            Angus Deaton in Conversation with Amartya Sen

4:00pm – 5:00pm            Networking Reception

RSVP HERE

Speakers:

Supported by:

NYU Office of the Provost

NYU Conversations in the Social Sciences

NYU Africa House

©Goldman: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

Event Overview:

There has been increasing interest over the last decade in understanding the role of culture in shaping development outcomes. The push has come from many directions: from studying economic history, from the institutions and growth literature, from political economy, and more recently from a literature that has explicitly tried to measure dimensions of culture and their evolution and their impact on economic interactions and on the process of development. Culture, defined loosely as shared ideas, customs, and social behavior, is from the perspective of economics a deeply endogenous variable, in other words, something that is determined through a history of economic, social, and political interaction. At the same time, once a culture forms, it acquires its own valence, shaping the way individuals interact, transact, and aggregate into a process of growth.

Conference Program:

MCs: Rajeev Dehejia, (New York University) and Yaw Nyarko, (New York University)

8:00am–9:00am Registration, coffee and pastries

9:00am–9:05am DRI welcome remarks by Rajeev Dehejia, (New York University)

9:05am-9:10am Introductory remarks by Yanoula Athanassakis, Associate Vice Provost, Academic Affairs and Special Projects; Director, Environmental Humanities Initiative, (New York University)

9:10am–9:50am Nathan Nunn, (Harvard University). "The Importance of Culture and Context for Development Policy"

9:50am–10:30am Enrico Spolaore, (Tufts University). “Modern Fertility"

10:30am–10:45am Break with coffee and pastries

10:45am–11:25am William Easterly, (New York University). "Does Ethnicity Predict Culture?"

11:25am–12:05pm Raquel Fernandez, (New York University). "Cultural Change”

12:05pm–12:45pm Alberto Bisin, (New York University). "The Joint Dynamics of Culture and Institutions"

12:45pm–1:45pm Lunch for audience and speakers

1:45pm–2:25pm Gerard Roland, (University of California, Berkeley). "The Deep Historical Roots of Modern Culture”

Speaker Bios:

Abstract:

The last two decades have seen a large number of African countries post rapid growth by the region’s historical experience. In contrast to the past, the region managed to ride through three shocks with reasonable resilience - the global financial crisis, the Euro crisis, and, more recently, commodity price shocks - with some variation across countries. About 100 million Africans were lifted out of poverty and some improvements in life expectancy were registered. In contrast to the Asian emerging economies, however, this progress was made without significant structural transformation or creation of modern jobs. The advent of artificial intelligence and data technologies have made industrialization increasingly jobless as robots "take over." Has the region missed on the opportunity to get on the escalator that helped Asian economies catch up and reduce poverty very significantly? What alternative escalators for structural transformation, catching up income-wise, and poverty reduction are available to the region? How should the region position itself to take advantage of disruptive technologies to make progress toward prosperity? The presentation will offer some ideas in response to these questions.

Speaker Bio:

Professor Benno J. Ndulu just completed a 10-year term as Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, the country's Central Bank, and is now the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair on Development at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. He is best known for having served as one of the pioneers for the most effective research and training network in economics in Africa, the African Economic Research Consortium, where he served first as its research Director and then as its Executive Director. Having begun his career in academia at the University of Dar-es Salaam, he later served in the World Bank as a Research Manager in Development Economics (DEC) and Advisor to Vice President Africa Region. He has published widely on growth, governance, and trade. He is currently co-directing the Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development anchored at Blavatnik School of Government.

Download Presentations Slides Here.

Pictures From Prof. Ndulu's Talk:

Abstract:

This lecture builds on and extends the findings in Case and Deaton (2015, 2017) on increases in mortality and morbidity among white non-Hispanic Americans in midlife since the turn of the century. Increases in all-cause mortality continued to 2016, led by increases in drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol-related liver mortality, most notably among those with less than a bachelor degree. Not only are educational differences in mortality among whites increasing, but from 1998 to 2015 mortality rose for those without, and fell for those with, a college degree. Mortality rates in comparable rich countries have continued their pre-millennial fall at the rates that used to characterize the US. Why has the US left the herd? We propose a story of cumulative disadvantage from one birth cohort to the next, in the labor market, in marriage arrangements, and in health, that has been triggered by progressively worsening labor market opportunities at the time of entry for whites with less education. We examine mechanisms at work in the US that have made for an increasingly hostile labor market for working class workers, and policy levers that, if pulled, may help strengthen the market for less well educated Americans.

Speaker Bio:

Anne Case is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Emeritus and Lecturer with Rank of Professor at Princeton University, where she is the Director of the Research Program in Development Studies. Dr. Case has written extensively on health over the life course. She has been awarded the Kenneth J. Arrow Prize in Health Economics from the International Health Economics Association, for her work on the links between economic status and health status in childhood, and the Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for her research on midlife morbidity and mortality. Dr. Case currently serves on the Advisory Council for the NIH-National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science, and the Committee on National Statistics. She is a Research Associate of the NBER, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and is an affiliate of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. She also is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Abstract:

Many agree with the second President of the United States: “... banks have done more harm to the morality, tranquility, and even wealth of this nation than they have done or ever will do good.” This certainly accords with the tenets of the Hollywood blockbusters, The Wolf of Wall Street and Wall Street. In this talk, I take a step back from the rhetoric and ask (a) what does the evidence say about the role of the financial system in shaping economic growth, poverty, income inequality, and discrimination and (b) what types of financial policy reforms will foster economic prosperity.  

Speaker Bio:

Ross Levine is the Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the European Systemic Risk Board. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University in 1982 and received his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1987.  He worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the World Bank, where he conducted and managed research and operational programs. His work focuses on how financial sector policies and the operation of financial systems shape economic growth, entrepreneurship, and economic prosperity. His two most recent books, Rethinking Bank Regulation: Till Angels Govern and Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us, stress that regulatory policies often stymie competition and encourage excessive risk-taking, with deleterious effects on living standards. Levine advises governments, central banks, regulatory agencies, and multilateral organizations. Read more.

Download Presentation Slides Here.

Watch Presentation Video Below:

Abstract:

There has been a debate in development economics over the last 20 years as some claimed the use of RCTs as a tool for independent impact evaluation would significantly improve development practice and hence development.  While right about the methodological claims about the superiority of randomization to produce cleaner estimates of the LATE (local average treatment effect) of projects and programs, this, in and of itself, does not change development practice.  All of the five claims needed to sustain a positive model in which RCT/IIE has a major positive impact are demonstrably false.  The proponents of RCTs have responded to losing the first round decisively by changing significantly both their claims and their practice.

Speaker Bio:

Lant Pritchett is a Professor of the Practice of International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School.  He will be moving in 2018 to Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government where he is working on a large research project on how to improve systems of basic education in developing countries. Read more here.

Download Presentation Slides Here. 

Watch Event Presentation Below: 

DRI regularly hosts a private development faculty discussion series. Our motivation is to increase communication among faculty working on development at NYU. 

DRI regularly hosts a private development faculty discussion series. Our motivation is to increase communication among faculty working on development at NYU.