Category: History
Book Launch: Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong
On June 4 at 6 pm I will present my latest book at SOAS in London, UK. The title is Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong. In four chapters I deliver a critique of how mainstream macroeconomic literature has sought to explain economic growth...
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Development by Indicators: Knowledge and Governance
In this workshop organized at Nantes by Boris Samuel and me on May 5 and 6, 2015 we will investigate the role of indicators in economic development. We will explore how numbers structure knowledge about economic development and how they give rise to social...
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Towards a new history of economic growth in Africa
Is it only me who thinks it is a bit strange that the most read book on African economic growth, the Bottom Billion, focuses on explaining why African economies are stuck in chronic failure of growth - while African economies on average has been...
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Measuring African Development: Past and Present – Special Issue
In 2013 the chief economist for the World Bank's Africa region, Shanta Devarajan, delivered a devastating assessment of the capacity of African states to measure development and declared “Africa's Statistical Tragedy”. Is there a “statistical tragedy” unfolding in Africa now?If so then examining the...
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A history of economic growth in Africa: why measurement matters
The GDP re-basing in Nigeria again brought measurement to the center of debates on African economic development, just like it happened when Ghana re-based their GDP in 2010. There has been more commentary in mainstream media this time around - and also a fair...
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The History of Poverty in Africa
At the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University, Rhiannon Stephens is organizing what promises to be an excellent conference on the History of Poverty in Africa. Jane Guyer is giving a keynote on Thursday March 6, and then there is a full...
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