Harvard Center for International Development Harvard University

Originally recorded on Friday, September 17, 2021 for the CID Speaker Series, featuring ​Philippe Aghion, Professor at the College de France, at INSEAD, and at the London School of Economics. Aghion continued the conversation with our CID Student Ambassador Ana Alvarez after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event where they shared insights from his research and book, The Power of Creative Destruction.

Creative destruction is the process whereby new innovations displace old technologies. This talk will use the lens of creative destruction and of the so-called Schumpeterian growth paradigm to: (i) address some main enigma in the history of economic growth; (ii) question common wisdoms on growth policy design; (iii) rethink the future of capitalism, and how to direct the power of creative destruction to achieve sustained, greener, and more inclusive prosperity.

Philippe Aghion is a Professor at the College de France, at INSEAD, and at the London School of Economics, and a fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the economics of growth. With Peter Howitt, he pioneered the so-called Schumpeterian Growth paradigm which was subsequently used to analyze the design of growth policies and the role of the state in the growth process. Much of this work is summarized in their joint book Endogenous Growth Theory (MIT Press, 1998) and The Economics of Growth (MIT Press, 2009), in his book with Rachel Griffith on Competition and Growth (MIT Press, 2006), and in his survey “What Do We Learn from Schumpeterian Growth Theory” (joint with U. Akcigit and P. Howitt.) In 2001, Philippe Aghion received the Yrjo Jahnsson Award of the best European economist under age 45, in 2009 he received the John Von Neumann Award, and in March 2020 he shared the BBVA “Frontier of Knowledge Award” with Peter Howitt for “developing an economic growth theory based on the innovation that emerges from the process of creative destruction.”

Originally recorded on June 9, 2021, after CID's Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) Faculty Director Rema Hanna's appearance at the HKS Faculty Webcast Series where she moderated a panel on making data-driven policy decisions in uncertain times. Hanna sat down with Sarah Lattrell, CID's Communications and Events Manager, to continue the discussion.

Watch the original panel: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/node/305111

Rema Hanna, faculty chair of Leading Smart Policy Design: A Multisectoral Approach to Economic Decisions and CID's Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) Faculty Director, moderated a panel of Harvard faculty in "Using Data to Create Effective Policy in Uncertain Times". The panel featured Matthew Andrews, Asim I. Khwaja, and Karen Dynan addressing questions about how to use data effectively in making policy decisions and how data can inform policies aimed towards COVID recovery.

The views expressed by the speakers are their own and do not reflect the views of the World Bank Group.

Originally recorded on April 23, 2021 for the CID Speaker Series, featuring ​Paul Corral, Nandini Krishan, Daniel Gerszon Mahler, and Tara Vishwanath, The World Bank. The guests continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador Ana Alvarez, after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event where they shared insights from a new report, “Fragility and Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Poverty.”

Globally, the prevalence of fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) continues to rise. The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has more than doubled since 2012, exceeding 74 million in 2018. A new report estimates that by 2030 up to two-thirds of the global extreme poor may be living in FCS, making it evident that without intensified action, the global poverty goals will not be met.

The new report, “Fragility and Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Poverty,” notes that the 43 countries in the world with the highest poverty rates are in FCS and/or Sub-Saharan Africa. Economies facing chronic fragility and conflict have had poverty rates stuck at over 40 percent in the past decade, while countries that have escaped FCS have cut their poverty rates by more than half. Today, a person living in an economy facing chronic fragility and conflict is 10 times more likely to be poor than a person living in a country that hasn’t been in conflict or fragility in the past 20 years. The authors of this new report will joined us for the CID Speaker Series to discuss their findings.

Live-tweet thread:
https://twitter.com/HarvardCID/status/1385625931725873152?s=20
YouTube recording:
https://youtu.be/TzvfcnOLY9s

Originally recorded on April 30, 2021 for the CID Speaker Series, featuring ​Kate Raworth, Economist & Co-Founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab. Raworth continued the conversation with our CID Student Ambassador after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event where they shared insights from her research and book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist.

Doughnut Economics starts with the goal of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. Achieving this calls for economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. What would it look like to put this into practice at the level of the city? Kate Raworth will present the core ideas of Doughnut Economics and share stories of how the idea is being put into action in cities and places worldwide.

Kate Raworth is an economist focused on making economics fit for the 21st century. Her book Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist is an international bestseller that has been translated into 20 languages, and was long-listed for the 2017 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year award. She is co-founder of Doughnut Economics Ac+on Lab, working with cities, businesses, communities, governments and educators to turn Doughnut Economics from a radical idea into transformation. She teaches at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and is Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

Originally recorded on April 9, 2021 for the CID Speaker Series, featuring Priyadarshani Joshi, Senior Project Officer of Research with the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report.

Priyadarshani Joshi continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador after her appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event where she shared insights from her recent work on understanding how countries are coping with COVID-19 .

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a historic disruption of education systems around the world. The Global Education Monitoring Report is an independent team housed at UNESCO analyses and contributes to the global discussion around educational progress in the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda through authoritative, evidence-based analyses; and by convening perspectives from a range of national and global experts. This presentation focuses on select recent contributions made by the GEM Report team (and others) on understanding how countries are coping with COVID-19 currently, the growing evidence base on financing, equity and systemic concerns, and what strategies are in place to try and recover from the pandemic.

Originally recorded on March 26, 2021 for the CID Speaker Series, featuring Sarah Rose and Erin Collinson from the Center for Global Development and Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Asim I. Khwaja & Dani Rodrik, and moderated by Professor Rema Hanna.

Sarah Rose, Policy Fellow at the Center for Global Development, continued the conversation after her appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event held on March 26, 2021, where she discussed incorporating evidence in US development policy and programming.

As the Biden Administration underscores its priority in utilizing evidence to inform policy, how can development practitioners practically do so? How can USAID and other development officials promote and ensure the collection of accurate and timely evidence, and how can they ensure the use of evidence to inform development policy and programming. During the panel, experts will provide their advice and insights on how to ensure evidence informs US development policy.