1,721,016 research outputs found
The Influence of Political Distortions on Economic Performance
No full textAlberto Alesina is the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy and Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. In this interview he discusses with Brian Snowdon his views on several important contemporary issues, including politics and the business cycle, budget deficits, currency unions, the European Union, the size of nations, economic growth, inequality, democracy, foreign aid, ethnic fractionalisation, and the welfare state in the US and Europe.
The Power of Ideas
No full textJoel Mokyr is one of the world’s leading economic historians, known internationally for his numerous publications on the history of technology and the Industrial Revolution. He has also written extensively on demographic issues and Irish economic history. In this interview, Professor Mokyr discusses with Brian Snowdon (who provides a background introduction to set the interview in context), a wide range of issues relating to economics, economic history, technology, the Industrial Revolution, and the influence of the ‘Industrial Enlightenment’.
Explaining the ‘Great Divergence’
No full textDaron Acemoglu is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this interview he discusses with Brian Snowdon some of his recent research findings that confirm the key role played by ‘good’ and ‘bad’ institutions in determining the economic performance of countries. He shares his views on a wide range of subjects including economic history, growth theory, the role of institutions and geography in explaining growth and development, the influence of trade on growth, global inequality, and political economy perspectives on economic development.
Beyond the Ivory Tower
No full textStanley Fischer had a long and distinguished career as an academic economist at MIT, and was Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist at the World Bank, before becoming First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in 1994. He is now President of Citigroup International and Vice Chairman of Citigroup. In this interview, Brian Snowdon discusses with Stanley Fischer several important issues relating to the contemporary world economy, including problems of stabilisation, inflation and growth, the economics and politics of transition, exchange rate regimes, the IMF, the East Asian crisis, and globalisation and economic development.
Exploring the Present Through the Past
No full textClaudia Goldin is one of the world’s leading economists and economic historians, and has made a series of outstanding and original contributions particularly to the cliometric (or ‘The New Economic History’) literature. In this interview, Professor Goldin discusses with Brian Snowdon (who first provides a background introduction) several important issues relating to her research on economic history and cliometrics, the economics of slavery, US economic history, corruption in America, the role of human capital and education in US economic development, wage inequality, female labour force participation and the 'Quiet Revolution', the influence of the contraceptive pill, women's surnames, the reversal of the college gender gap, and women in the economics profession.
In Search of the Holy Grail
No full textHaving conducted extensive research in the field of economic growth and development, William Easterly has broad knowledge and expertise on the problems facing developing countries. While working for the World Bank, he travelled extensively in Africa, Latin America and Asia, and is well placed to comment on the key issues and debates surrounding the question of how best to promote increased well-being in the poor countries of the world. In this interview he discusses with Brian Snowdon several of the key controversies that have recently attracted the attention of scholars of economic growth and development.
Back to the Future
No full textJeffrey Williamson is a leading authority on the economic history of the international economy. His interests cover a wide area within the field of economic history and include research on international economic development, the industrial revolution, industrialisation and de-industrialisation, tariff policy, factor price convergence, demography and economic development, and international labour migration. Since the early 1960s he has been a major contributor to the ‘cliometric’ approach to economic history and his research illustrates how history is particularly relevant to the modern debate on ‘globalisation’. In this interview Brian Snowdon discusses with Professor Williamson his more recent research relating to the global economy in historical perspective.
Russia at the Crossroads
No full textTo set the interview in context, Brian Snowdon first traces out some important landmarks in twentieth-century Russian/Soviet Union history. In the conversation that follows, Professor Desai gives her views on a number of key issues relating to the decline of the Soviet system and problems of Russia’s transition to a market economy. Recently, Freedom House has suggested that Russia is at a ‘crossroads’ with respect to its fledgling liberal democracy and market economy. Therefore, also discussed are the prospects for survival of democracy and markets in the new Russian ‘liberal’ order. In the first part of the interview, Professor Desai also comments on the influence of socialist ideas on India’s growth and development strategy.
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