The problem is that the dominance of Western development economists leads to one prism dominating the development discourse on Africa, leading to a damaging lack of cognitive diversity. The problem is that the dominance of the privately-educated leads to one prism dominating political discourse, leading to a damaging lack of cognitive diversity. (6) At the blog Stumbling and Mumbling, which we secretly think is an apt description of the econ profession (shhh, don’t tell anyone), was this interesting post about how U.K politics and policymaking is dominated by private school types. And one of our favourite economists Dani Rodrik had a set of interesting tweets on this very topic last week. (5) By the way, if you have an hour to spare you can listen to David Autor talk, in a very accessible way, about his work on trade and the disappearance of U.S. Perhaps the obsession with free trade will now die. And this partly explains the rise of Trumpism.Īmerican economists rule the world. and China has been utterly devastating for manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Recent statistical work by the MIT economist David Autor and his colleagues finds that increased trade between the U.S. The free trade religion is now looking shaky even in the West. The case for ever “freer trade” was ironclad. But these were dismissed as nothing other than the protestations of heretics by the powers that be. After all, they had seen first-hand the devastation that the lowering of tariffs had wrought on labour markets in their countries. (4) For a longtime, economists in the South talked at length about how the benefits of trade liberalization were exaggerated. Countries on the continent need to move away from the colonial legacy of depending on primary commodities (cocoa, copper, oil, et cetera). (3) As we said last year, Africa needs to industrialize if it’s going to meaningfully rise. (2) Ironically, the Economist, using data from the IMF, declared in 2011 that Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zambia would be among this decade’s star performers. It’s also becoming increasingly likely that Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy, might have to approach the “Fund” for help in plugging its budget shortfall. In Mozambique, the authorities have had to renegotiate repayment terms on outstanding debts given the country’s lackluster economic performance. In Zambia, the IMF concluded a two-week visit painting a very dismal outlook for the country. Kenya, this past week, announced that the IMF had offered the country a $1.5bn stand-by facility. Ghana, just last year, was bailed out by the IMF. First up: (1) Things are not looking up for the “Africa Rising” story and we are only half-way through what was meant to be Africa’s decade.
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