Growth Lab Podcast Series

In this episode of the South Africa Growth Through Inclusion series, Ketan Ahuja, Research Fellow at the Growth Lab, joins Joanne Bate, Chief Operating Officer of South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation, for a discussion on how South Africa can build new engines of economic growth in green industries and how it can use its unique capabilities to help the world decarbonize and develop its economy.

In this episode of the South Africa Growth Through Inclusion series, Alexia Lochmann, Research Fellow at the Growth Lab, speaks with Carel Kleynhans, CEO of Divercity Property Group. Divercity is South Africa's leading investor in well located affordable housing precincts. Carel worked closely with the Growth Lab during its two year research engagement in South Africa and has been instrumental to the teams understanding of post apartheid urban planning, housing policy and patterns of spatial exclusion.

In this episode of the South Africa Growth Through Inclusion series, Chris Yelland, a Johannesburg based energy analyst, engineer and the founder and Managing Director of e-Business Intelligence talks with former Growth Lab Research Manager Kishan Shah. The conversation focuses on the electricity crisis and strategic issues facing electricity and energy sectors in South Africa. Chris has been an expert and a key observer of energy markets for the past several decades and is a frequent commenter and writer on the electricity crisis in the country.

In this episode of the South Africa Growth Though Inclusion series, Tim O'Brien, Senior Manager of Applied Research at the Growth Lab, speaks with Nomvuyo Guma, Chief Director of Microeconomic Policy at the National Treasury and Saul Musker, Director of Strategy and Delivery Support of the private office of the President of South Africa. The discussion centers on Operation Vulindela - a joint initiative of the presidency and the National Treasury. Operation Vulindela has been at work for about three years, focusing on many areas that the Growth Lab has found are most critical to growth and inclusion in South Africa: electricity, water, transport, digital communications and the visa regime.

In this introductory episode, Ricardo Hausmann, the founder and Director of Harvard's Growth Lab and the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School and Andres Fortunato, Research Fellow at the Growth Lab, discuss the key takeaways of their two year research engagement in South Africa.

In this Development Talk seminar, Suman Bery discusses his optimism for India's future growth, whether the energy transition complicates India's growth trajectory, the potential sources of capital for India's energy transition, how to jump start private sector investment in green energy, and how India's engagement with industrial policy should look like moving forward. Speaker: Suman Bery, Vice Chairperson, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog Moderators: Ricardo Hausmann, Director, Growth Lab, and Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy, HKS Akshay Mathur, Edward S. Mason Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School About the speaker: Mr. Suman Bery is currently Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog, in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister. An experienced policy economist and research administrator, Mr. Bery took over as NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson on May 1, 2022. At the time of his appointment, Mr. Bery was a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; a Global Fellow in the Asia Programme of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington D.C.; and a non-resident fellow at Bruegel, an economic policy research institution in Brussels. He was also a member of the Board of the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, New Delhi. From early 2012 till mid-2016, Mr. Bery was Royal Dutch Shell's global Chief Economist based in The Hague. In this capacity, he advised the board and management on global economic and political developments. He was also part of the senior leadership of Shell's global scenarios group. During his time at Shell, he led a collaborative project with Indian think tanks (later published) to apply scenario modeling to India's energy sector.

Speaker: Mamo Mihretu, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, HKS MPA 2009 The Growth Lab worked closely with Mr. Mihretu during our three-year policy engagement in Ethiopia, a country that has established a fragile peace after a devastating civil war. We have studied macroeconomic challenges that the government is trying to address to enable a sustainable post-war recovery. In this talk, Mr. Mihretu discusses the economic reform program currently being implemented in Ethiopia, the challenges they are facing, future prospects and some lessons learned in policymaking.

Speaker: Alain Bertaud, Senior Fellow, New York University's Marron Institute of Urban Management; Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University. Moderator: Diane E. Davis, Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism, Harvard's Graduate School of Design. The discussion revolves around Alain's recent book, "Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities," where he argues operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure.

The Growth Lab's Development Talks is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in international development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy. Speaker: Stefan Dercon, Professor of Economic Policy, Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government Moderator: Clement Brenot, Research Manager, Growth Lab Prof. Dercon's latest book, Gambling on Development: Why some countries win and others lose draws on his academic research as well as his policy experience across three decades and 40-odd countries, exploring why some countries have managed to settle on elite bargains favoring growth and development, and others did not.

Listen to the first episode in this Albania series: 'A Snapshot of the Growth Lab's Research Engagement in Albania'.Listen to the second episode in this Albania series: 'Iterations of a Growth Diagnostic: The Case Study of Albania'.Learn more about the Growth Lab's research engagement with the country of Albania.

Listen to the first episode in this Albania series: 'A Snapshot of the Growth Lab's Research Engagement in Albania'.Learn more about the Growth Lab's research engagement with the country of Albania.

Learn more about the Growth Lab's research engagement with the country of Albania.

Read the Productive Ecosystems and the arrow of development paper, published in Nature Communications.Learn more about the authors Neave O'Clery, Muhammed Yildirim, and Ricardo Hausmann.Explore the Product Space via the Atlas of Economic Complexity.

Read the working paper on Emerging Cities as Independent Engines of Growth: The Case of Buenos Aires: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/emerging-cities-independent-engines-growth-case-buenos-aires.

Explore the data on findings: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/academic-research/business-travelLearn more about the Growth Lab's Academic and Applied Research: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/

Read the full working paper: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/you-get-what-you-pay-sources-and-consequences-public-sector-premium-albaniaLearn more about The Growth Lab: www.growthlab.cid.harvard.eduAbout Ljubica Nedelkoska: Ljubica Nedelkoska joined the Center for International Development's Growth Lab as a Visiting Scholar in 2012 and as a Research Fellow in 2013.Before joining the CID, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher and a coordinator of the Economics of Innovation Research Group in Jena, and as a research fellow at the Zeppelin University, both in Germany.Her research area is empirical labor economics, with focus on human capital, human mobility, migration and diasporas, and skill-technology relations. By studying these topics, she aims to understand how economies change their skill portfolios through the processes of on-the-job learning, interacting with technologies, and formal education and training; and how these changes transform the countries’ levels of productivity and development. She is also interested in economic policy and has participated in several economic policy projects in Albania, Sri Lanka, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.She holds a PhD in Economics of Innovation from the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Appalachian State University, North Carolina.

In this Growth Lab podcast, we are joined by Miguel Angel Santos, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Director of Applied Research at CID's Growth Lab, as well as Tim O’Brien, Senior Manager of Applied Research at CID's Growth Lab. Miguel and Tim sat down with CID Student Ambassador Valeria Mendiola to discuss their research from Jordan on Macroeconomic Stability and Long-Term Growth.

Interview recorded on Dec. 4, 2019.To purchase Borderland Battles: Violence, Crime, and Governance at the Edges of Colombia's War: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/borderland-battles-9780190849153?lang=en&cc=us#--About the Annette Idler: Annette Idler is Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She is also the Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Centre, Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. She is Principal Investigator of The Changing Character of Conflict Platform and of the CONPEACE Programme at Oxford. Annette Idler has conducted extensive fieldwork in war-torn and crisis-affected borderlands, including in and on Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Myanmar, and Kenya (on Somalia) analysing people-centred security dynamics.

About Frank Neffke: Frank Neffke is the Research Director of the Growth Lab at the Center for International Development. He joined the team in 2012.His research focuses on economic transformation and growth, from the macro level of structural change in regional and national economies to the micro level of firm diversification and the career paths of individuals. This research has shed light on topics ranging from structural transformation and new growth paths in regional economies, economic complexity and the role of cities, local labor markets, the importance of division of labor, human capital and teams in modern economies, the consequences of job displacement and the future of work.Before joining the CID, Frank worked as an assistant professor at the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.He holds a Ph. D. in Economic Geography from Utrecht University and Master degrees in Econometrics and Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam.

Read the working paper: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/social-mobility-explains-populism-not-inequality-or-cultureFeatured in Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/7a448a34-f588-11e9-b018-3ef8794b17c6Featured in Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/25/canada-election-maxime-bernier-populism-equal-opportunity/

Interview recorded on October 18, 2019.About Semiray Kasoolu: Semiray joined the Center for International Development's Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2017.Prior to joining CID, she worked with the World SME Forum in the Republic of Georgia to diagnose constraints to the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and to design solutions to facilitate their integration into global value chains. She also worked as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs, focusing on portfolio monitoring and analysis.Semiray holds a B.S. in Economics and Accounting from Saint Peter’s University and a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID, 2017) from the Harvard Kennedy School.Her research interests include private sector development and competitiveness and she is passionate about using data science techniques to formulate policy recommendations to contribute to these areas.

Interview recorded on September 27th, 2019.About Thomas Abt: Thomas Abt is a Senior Research Fellow with the Center for International Development, where he leads CID’s Security and Development Seminar Series. He is also a member of the Campbell Collaboration Criminal Justice Steering Committee, member of the Advisory Board of the Police Executive Programme at the University of Cambridge, and a Senior Fellow with the Igarapé Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both in the United States and globally, Abt writes, teaches, and studies the use of evidence-informed approaches to reduce urban violence, among other criminal justice topics.His new book, Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence - and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets, was published by Basic Books in June 2019. Abt’s work is frequently featured in major media outlets such as the Atlantic, Economist, Foreign Affairs, New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, and National Public Radio.Before joining Harvard, Abt served as Deputy Secretary for Public Safety to Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York, where he oversaw all criminal justice and homeland security agencies, including the Divisions of Corrections and Community Supervision, Criminal Justice Services, Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and the State Police. During his tenure, Abt led the development of New York’s GIVE (Gun-Involved Violence Elimination) Initiative, which employs evidence-informed, data-driven approaches to reduce gun violence. Before his work in New York, Abt served as Chief of Staff to the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked with the nation’s principal criminal justice grant-making and research agencies to integrate evidence, policy, and practice. He played a lead role in establishing the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, a network of federal agencies and local communities working together to reduce youth and gang violence. Abt was also founding member of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, a place-based development effort that was recognized by the Kennedy School as one of the Top 25 Innovations in Government for 2013. Abt received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and a law degree with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Interview recorded on Sept. 5th, 2019About Ricardo Hausmann: Ricardo Hausmann is Director of the Growth Lab at Harvard's Center for International Development and the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School.Previously, he served as the Director of the Center for International Development (2005-2019). He served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee.Hausmann was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. His research interests include issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

Interview recorded on July 2, 2019.About Timothy Cheston: Timothy Cheston joined the Center for International Development's Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2014.Prior to joining CID, Tim worked for the World Bank in the Social Protection and Labor team for the Latin America and Caribbean region, where he led in the design, negotiation, and supervision of major social protection and labor projects and research in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Bolivia, and Belize. His experience also includes research on the use of psychometric screening tools for small business financing in South Africa with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Africa. He also serves on the Board of Empowerment Health, an NGO providing community-based maternal and child health services in Afghanistan. Previously, Tim led remittance research with the Inter-American Dialogue, worked on microfinance with FINRURAL in Bolivia, and lived in the Dominican Republic, serving undocumented Haitian immigrants through the Dominican Literacy Project.His research interests focus on: the role of economic diversification in explaining differences in growth between countries as within them; the use of growth diagnostics to formulate more effective economic strategy-making to unlock structural transformation processes; and the formulation of inclusive growth via productive development policies that better integrate the poor into high-productivity activities.Tim holds a BA in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Interview recorded on May 8, 2019.About Eduardo Levy Yeyati: Eduardo Levy Yeyati, is the Dean of School of Government of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, and the founder and Academic Director of its Center for Evidence-based Policy (CEPE-Di Tella). He is also principal researcher at Argentina´s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), and founding partner of Elypsis, an economic research firm, and a regular consultant for multilateral financial organizations, and public and private institutions.Prior to that, he was an advisor to the Office of the Chief of Cabinet in Argentina (where he led the program Argentina 2030), honorary president of the National Council of Production (which he helped launch in 2016), Director at the Bank of Investment and Trade Credit (BICE), President of the Center for Public Policy (CIPPEC, an Argentine think tank), Head of Latin American Research and Emerging Markets Strategy at Barclays Capital, Financial Sector Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, and Chief Economist of the Central Bank of Argentina.A regular consultant for multilateral financial organizations and public and private institutions in developing economies, and a former Senior Fellow at Brookings (2009-2014) and recipient of Harvard´s Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professorship in Latin American Studies (2006), his academic work on development and emerging market banking and finance is ranked #1 among Argentina´s economists by RePEc´s research database. He is a regular contributor to local and international media. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Engineering from Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Learn more about the project: albania.growthlab.cid.harvard.edu Interview recorded on May 3, 2019.

Read the working paper: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/jordan-elements-growth-strategy.Interview recorded on March 18, 2019.

Learn more about the Sri Lanka project: https://srilanka.growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/.Interview recorded on November 16, 2018.

Interview recorded on October 30, 2018.

Read the research paper: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/currency-devaluations-venezuela.Interview recorded on August 2, 2018.

Read the Working Paper: https://srilanka.growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/blog/does-sri-lankan-economy-need-more-university-graduates.

Interview recorded on April 23rd, 2018.

Read the Growth Diagnostic: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/sri-lanka-growth-diagnostic. 

Read the research paper: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/natural-resources-and-export-concentration-most-likely-casualties-dutch. Interview recorded on February 2018.

Learn more about the Growth Lab's work in Panama: growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/panama.

Read the Working Paper: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/publications/welcome-home-crisis-effects-return-migration-non-migrants-wages-and.

Learn more about the Growth Lab's research project in Venezuela: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/applied-research/venezuela.Interview recorded on November 4th, 2016.