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Understanding Development and Poverty Alleviation
14 OCTOBER 2019 Scientific Background on the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION The Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel THE ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines. BOX 50005 (LILLA FRESCATIVÄGEN 4 A), SE-104 05 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN TEL +46 8 673 95 00, [email protected] WWW.KVA.SE Scientific Background on the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 Understanding Development and Poverty Alleviation The Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel October 14, 2019 Despite massive progress in the past few decades, global poverty — in all its different dimensions — remains a broad and entrenched problem. For example, today, more than 700 million people subsist on extremely low incomes. Every year, five million children under five die of diseases that often could have been prevented or treated by a handful of proven interventions. Today, a large majority of children in low- and middle-income countries attend primary school, but many of them leave school lacking proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics. How to effectively reduce global poverty remains one of humankind’s most pressing questions. It is also one of the biggest questions facing the discipline of economics since its very inception. -
Does Winning a 'Million Dollar Plant' Increase Welfare?
Bidding for Industrial Plants: Does Winning a ‘Million Dollar Plant’ Increase Welfare? Michael Greenstone MIT, American Bar Foundation and NBER Enrico Moretti University of California, Berkeley and NBER November 2004 We thank Alberto Abadie, Michael Ash, Hal Cole, David Card, Gordon Dahl, Thomas Davidoff, Michael Davidson, Rajeev Dehejia, Stefano Della Vigna, Mark Duggan, Jinyong Hahn, Robert Haveman, Vernon Henderson, Ali Hortacsu, Matthew Kahn, Tom Kane, Brian Knight, Alan Krueger, Steve Levitt, Boyan Jovanovic, David Lee, Therese McGuire, Derek Neal, Matthew Neidell, Aviv Nevo, John Quigley, Karl Scholz, Chad Syverson, Duncan Thomas and seminar participants at Berkeley, Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Illinois, Michigan, NYU, NBER Summer Institute, Rice, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Wisconsin for very helpful discussions. Adina Allen, Ben Bolitzer, Justin Gallagher, Genevieve Pham- Kanter, Yan Lee, Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, Antoine St-Pierre, and William Young provided outstanding research assistance. Greenstone acknowledges generous funding from the American Bar Foundation. Moretti thanks the UCLA Senate for a generous grant. Bidding for Industrial Plants: Does Winning a ‘Million Dollar Plant’ Increase Welfare? Abstract Increasingly, local governments compete by offering substantial subsidies to industrial plants to locate within their jurisdictions. This paper uses a novel research design to estimate the local consequences of successfully bidding for an industrial plant, relative to bidding and losing, on labor earnings, public finances, and property values. Each issue of the corporate real estate journal Site Selection includes an article titled "The Million Dollar Plant" that reports the county where a large plant chose to locate (i.e., the 'winner'), as well as the one or two runner-up counties (i.e., the 'losers'). -
Philippe Aghion
CURRICULUM VITAE (last updated March 2018) Name: Philippe Aghion Address: College de France 3 rue d Ulm 75005 Paris France Email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Date of Birth: August 17, 1956 Place of Birth: Paris, France Education: 1976-80 Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Mathematics Section 1981 Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies d’Economie Mathématique, Université de Paris I 1983 Doctorat de 3éme cycle d’Economie Mathématique, Université de Paris I- Pantheon-Sorbonne 1987 Ph.D. Harvard University (Economics) Professional Experience: 1986-87 Sloan Foundation Dissertation Fellowship 1987-89 Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1989- Chargé de Recherches au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 1990-1992 Deputy Chief Economist, EBRD (London) 1992-96 Official Fellow, Nuffield College (Oxford) 1992-2000 Research Co-ordinator, EBRD (London) 1996-2002 Professor of Economics, University College London (UCL) 2000-2002 Professor of Economics, Harvard University 2002- 2015 Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University 2015- Professor at College de France, Chair entitled “Institutions, Innovation, et Croissance” 2009-2015 Invited Professor, Institute of International Economic Studies, Stockholm 2015- Centennial Professor of Economics, London School of Economics 2018-2020 Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, Harvard University Other Professional Positions or Appointments: 1991-97 Associate Editor, Review of Economic Studies 1992- Managing Editor, -
Good Economics for Hard Times
Good Economics for Hard Times #LSEStamp Professor Esther Duflo Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation. Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Professor Robin Burgess Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at LSE and Director of the International Growth Centre Hosted by the London School of Economics and Political Science Good Economic For Hard Times Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo Most issues that are important today are core economic issues • Brexit • Trade • Immigration • Economic growth • Inequality • Social policy But economists have lost most of their credibility On most core issues people disagree with economists “Imposing new US tariffs on steel and aluminum will improve Americans well-being.” Percentage 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Percentage Average respndents Experts Most economists like migration “The average American Citizen would be better of if a larger number of low- skilled foreign workers were legally allowed to enter the US each year” And they have no interest in listening to them • ADD A PHOTO OF AN ANTI CARBON TAX RALLY, full page (I will just talk through it) Credit: Guillaume Clement, l’Humanite Why this mistrust? Economists are not good forecasters “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable” --John Kenneth Galbraith Four Lessons Lesson 1: incentives are overrated The “Lazy” welfare recipient Alaska permanent fund did not led people to work less Lesson 2: The economy is sticky RIP, Toqueville no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well your neighbors running faster than you breath bloody in their throats the boy you went to school with who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory is holding a gun bigger than his body you only leave home when home won’t let you stay. -
African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital
This PDF is a selection from a published volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital Volume Author/Editor: Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson, and David N. Weil, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBNs: 978-0-226-31605-5 (cloth) Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/afri14-2 Conference Dates: December 11–12, 2009; July 18–20, 2010; August 3–5, 2011 Publication Date: September 2016 Chapter Title: Comparing Economic and Social Interventions to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Central and Southern Africa Chapter Author(s): Radha Iyengar, Giulia Ferrari Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c13379 Chapter pages in book: (p. 165 – 214) 6 Comparing Economic and Social Interventions to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence Evidence from Central and Southern Africa Radha Iyengar and Giulia Ferrari 6.1 Introduction Empowerment of women within households and reduction in domestic violence remains a major issue around the world, including Africa. Despite this, there is a lack of broad evidence and little consensus among scholars or practitioners as to what programs or policies are effective. In particular, the debate remains as to whether economic conditions, such as wage rates or labor market opportunities, affect bargaining power and reduction in vio- lence or whether specific gender- based programs are required. This chapter describes an impact evaluation of a financial skills and negotiation- training program in conjunction with microfinancing in Burundi compared to data from a previously published study on gender- based training for women receiving microfinancing in South Africa. The Burundi program coupled discussion groups for both women and Radha Iyengar is a senior economist at RAND. -
Economics Annual Review 2018-2019
ECONOMICS REVIEW 2018/19 CELEBRATING FIRST EXCELLENCE AT YEAR LSE ECONOMICS CHALLENGE Faculty Interviews ALUMNI NEW PANEL APPOINTMENTS & VISITORS RESEARCH CENTRE BRIEFINGS 1 CONTENTS 2 OUR STUDENTS 3 OUR FACULTY 4 RESEARCH UPDATES 5 OUR ALUMNI 2 WELCOME TO THE 2018/19 EDITION OF THE ECONOMICS ANNUAL REVIEW This has been my first year as Head of the outstanding contributions to macroeconomics and Department of Economics and I am proud finance) and received a BA Global Professorship, will and honoured to be at the helm of such a be a Professor of Economics. John will be a School distinguished department. The Department Professor and Ronald Coase Chair in Economics. remains world-leading in education and research, Our research prowess was particularly visible in the May 2019 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and many efforts are underway to make further one of the top journals in the profession: the first four improvements. papers out of ten in that issue are co-authored by current colleagues in the Department and two more by We continue to attract an extremely talented pool of our former PhD students Dave Donaldson and Rocco students from a large number of applicants to all our Macchiavello. Rocco is now in the LSE Department programmes and to place our students in the most of Management, as is Noam Yuchtman, who published sought-after jobs. This year, our newly-minted PhD another paper in the same issue. This highlights how student Clare Balboni made us particularly proud by the strength of economics is growing throughout LSE, landing a job as Assistant Professor at MIT, one of the reinforcing our links to other departments as a result. -
Essays in Development Economics
ESSAYS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS Erika Deserranno A thesis submitted to the Department of Economics of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. London, September 2015 0 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgment is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Statement of Conjoint Work I confirm that Chapter 2 was jointly co-authored with Oriana Bandiera (Professor at the London School of Economics), Robin Burgess (Professor at the London School of Economics), Imran Rasul (Professor at the University College London), Munshi Sulaiman (Researcher at BRAC Africa), Ricardo Morel (Researcher at BRAC Africa). I contributed 50% of the work. 2 Acknowledgment The work contained in this thesis has benefited from the help and support of many people. I am immensely grateful to Oriana Bandiera for her invaluable support and advice throughout, as well as to Robin Burgess and Johannes Spinnewijn for their comments, suggestions and support. I am also very grateful to the members of The Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) for providing me with a great environment to work and to be in, and to the participants of the Development and Labour economics LSE brown bag seminars. -
Escaping the Climate Trap? Values, Technologies, and Politics∗
Escaping the Climate Trap? Values, Technologies, and Politics Tim Besleyyand Torsten Perssonz November 2020 Abstract It is widely acknowledged that reducing the emissions of green- house gases is almost impossible without radical changes in consump- tion and production patterns. This paper examines the interdependent roles of changing environmental values, changing technologies, and the politics of environmental policy, in creating sustainable societal change. Complementarities that emerge naturally in our framework may generate a “climate trap,”where society does not transit towards lifestyles and technologies that are more friendly to the environment. We discuss a variety of forces that make the climate trap more or less avoidable, including lobbying by firms, private politics, motivated scientists, and (endogenous) subsidies to green innovation. We are grateful for perceptive comments by Philippe Aghion, David Baron, Xavier Jaravel, Bård Harstad, Elhanan Helpman, Gilat Levy, Linus Mattauch, and Jean Tirole, as well as participants in a Tsinghua University seminar, and LSE and Hong Kong University webinars. We also thank Azhar Hussain for research assistance. Financial support from the ERC and the Swedish Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. yLSE, [email protected]. zIIES, Stockholm University, [email protected] 1 1 Introduction What will it take to bring about the fourth industrial revolution that may be needed to save the planet? Such a revolution would require major structural changes in production as well as consumption patterns. Firms would have to invest on a large scale in technologies that generate lower greenhouse gas emissions, and households would have to consume goods that produce lower emissions. Already these observations suggest that the required transformation can be reinforced by a key complementarity, akin to the one associated with so- called platform technologies (Rochet and Tirole 2003). -
Does Financial Reform Raise Or Reduce Savings?
Does Financial Reform Raise or Reduce Savings? Authors: Oriana Bandiera, Gerard Caprio Jr., Patrick Honohan, Fabio Schiantarelli This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Working Papers in Economics, 1998 Originally posted on: http://ideas.repec.org/p/boc/bocoec/413.html DOES FINANCIAL REFORM RAISE OR REDUCE SAVINGS? By Oriana Bandiera (Boston College) Gerard Caprio Jr. (World Bank) Patrick Honohan (World Bank and CEPR) Fabio Schiantarelli (Boston College) This draft: September 1998 We would like to thank Pierre-Richard AgŽnor, Craig Burnside, Bruce Hansen, Tullio Jappelli, Peter Pedroni, Deborah Wetzel, Stephen Zeldes, participants in seminars at Boston College and the World Bank, and especially Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, and Luis ServŽn for useful suggestions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. DOES FINANCIAL REFORM RAISE OR REDUCE SAVING? By Oriana Bandiera*, Gerard Caprio Jr.**, Patrick Honohan** and Fabio Schiantarelli* (*Boston College, **World Bank) Abstract The effect of financial liberalization on private saving is theoretically ambiguous, not only because the link between interest rate levels and saving is itself ambiguous, but also because financial liberalization is a multi-dimensional and phased process, sometimes involving reversals. Some dimensions, such as increased household access to consumer credit or housing finance, might also work to reduce private savings rather than increasing them. Furthermore, the long-term effect of liberalization on savings may differ substantially from the impact effect. Using Principal Components, we construct a 25-year time series index of financial liberalization for each of eight developing countries: Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Turkey and Zimbabwe. -
Identifying Agglomeration Spillovers: Evidence from Winners and Losers of Large Plant Openings
Identifying Agglomeration Spillovers: Evidence from Winners and Losers of Large Plant Openings Michael Greenstone Massachusetts Institute of Technology Richard Hornbeck Harvard University Enrico Moretti University of California, Berkeley We quantify agglomeration spillovers by comparing changes in total factor productivity (TFP) among incumbent plants in “winning” coun- ties that attracted a large manufacturing plant and “losing” counties that were the new plant’s runner-up choice. Winning and losing coun- ties have similar trends in TFP prior to the new plant opening. Five years after the opening, incumbent plants’ TFP is 12 percent higher in winning counties. This productivity spillover is larger for plants sharing similar labor and technology pools with the new plant. Con- sistent with spatial equilibrium models, labor costs increase in winning An earlier version of this paper was distributed under the title “Identifying Agglomer- ation Spillovers: Evidence from Million Dollar Plants.” We thank Daron Acemoglu, Jim Davis, Ed Glaeser, Vernon Henderson, William Kerr, Jeffrey Kling, Jonathan Levin, Stuart Rosenthal, Christopher Rohlfs, Chad Syverson, and seminar participants at several con- ferences and many universities for helpful conversations and comments. Steve Levitt and two anonymous referees provided especially insightful comments. Elizabeth Greenwood provided valuable research assistance. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. Support for this research at the Boston RDC from the National Science Foundation (ITR- 0427889) is also gratefully acknowledged. [ Journal of Political Economy, 2010, vol. 118, no. -
CEPR/University of Milan Annual Symposium in Labour Economics
CEPR/University of Milan Annual Symposium In Labour Economics 10 and 11 June 2021, online conference* Programme Thursday, 10 June 11.55 -12.00 Welcome address 12:00 - 13:00 Keynote: Eliana La Ferrara (U Bocconi) Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring and Student Outcomes during the COVID- 19 Pandemic (with Michela Carlana, Harvard Kennedy School) 13:00 - 13.45 Matteo Bobba (U Toulouse), Tim Ederer (U Toulouse), Gianmarco Leon-Ciliotta (UPF, Barcelona GSE), Christopher Neilson (Princeton U) and Marco Nieddu (U Cagliari) Teacher Compensation and Structural Inequality: Evidence from Centralized Teacher School Choice in Peru 13.45 - 14:30 Erika Deserranno (Northwestern U), Philipp Kastrau (UPF) and Gianmarco Leon Ciliotta (UPF, Barcelona GSE) Promotions and Productivity: The Role of Meritocracy and Pay Progression in the Public Sector 14:30 - 15:00 Break 15.00 – 15.45 Girum Abebe (Ethiopian Development Research Institute), Stefano Caria (U Warwick), Marcel Fafchamps (Stanford U), Paolo Falco (U Copenhagen), Simon Franklin (QMUL), Simon Quinn (U Oxford) and Forhad Shilpi (World Bank) Matching Frictions and Distorted Beliefs: Evidence from a Job Fair Experiment 15.45 – 16.30 Simon Franklin (QMUL), Clement Imbert (U Warwick), Girum Abebe (Ethiopian Development Research Institute) and Carolina Mejia-Mantilla (World Bank) Urban Public Works in Spatial Equilibrium: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia 16.30 – 17.15 Oriana Bandiera (LSE), Vittorio Bassi (USC), Robin Burgess (LSE), Imran Rasul (UCL), Munshi Sulaiman (BRAC) and Anna Vitali (UCL) Worker Heterogeneity and Job Search: Evidence from a Six-Year Experiment in Uganda 17.15 - 17:30 Break 17.30 – 18.15 Marius Faber (U of Basel), Andrés Sartoz (Princeton U) and Marco Tabellini (Harvard Business School) Local Shocks and Internal Migration: The Disparate Effects of Robots and Chinese Imports in the US Keynote: Sandy Black (Columbia U) 18.15 – 19.15 Where Does Wealth Come From? Presenters are marked in bold. -
The Cost of Doing Nothing: the Price of Inaction in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis
The cost of doing nothing: The price of inaction in response to the COVID-19 crisis Version: 10 July 2020 Authors: Dirk-Jan Omtzigt, Head, Humanitarian Financing Strategy and Analysis Unit, OCHA Ashley Pople, University of Oxford and consultant for OCHA Introduction The global crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in nature. Emerging as a health crisis, the pandemic has become a threat to global prosperity and stability. Keeping in mind the fundamental uncertainty about the trajectory of the pandemic and the economic forecasts, there is common consensus that the global economy will experience the deepest recession since the Great Depression and the broadest collapse in per capita income since 1870. As of 24 June, the IMF projects a -4.9 percent contraction in global GDP in 2020, followed by a protracted and uneven recovery due to the persistence of the shock. The extent to which these downturns are synchronised and spill over across borders makes this crisis relatively unique. Domestically, the OECD and the G20 countries have responded with a large stimulus package estimated at over $11 trillion (approximately 10% of world GDP). In comparison, the cost of protecting the most vulnerable 10 percent of the world from the worst primary and secondary impacts of COVID-19 today is an additional $90 billion – less than 1 percent of the current stimulus package. Relative to high-income countries, “whatever it takes” is a fundamentally different concept in low-income countries due to limited forex reserves, central bank dollar swap lines and fiscal space. Strong multilateral coordination is required to meet the shortfall in financing and support the strengthening of health, education and other social safety nets – now, rather than later.