- 4 July 2004
- Posted by: Centro Studi D'Agliano
- Category: The Luca d’Agliano Lectures
Second Luca d’Agliano Lecture in Development Economics: “Rethinking Economic Growth in Developing Countries” by Dani Rodrik (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University), 8 October 2004, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Palazzo d’Azeglio, Via Principe Amedeo 34, 10123 Turin, 5.30 p.m. Chair: Amartya Sen
Abstract
The lecture will develop several themes. First, igniting economic growth and sustaining it are somewhat different enterprises, requiring different strategies. Conventional policy wisdom tends to focus on the latter at the expense of the former, and hence has been unable to trigger growth in environments where it has been applied. Second, transitions to high economic growth are typically sparked by a relatively narrow range of policy changes and institutional reforms. Third, the policy changes that initiate these growth transitions often combine elements of orthodoxy with unconventional institutional innovations. The lecture will develop a strategic approach of “growth diagnostics,” illustrating how policies can be targeted on the most binding constraints on growth.
Biography
Dani Rodrik is Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. What constitutes good economic policy and why some governments are better than others in adopting it are
the central questions on which his research focuses. He has published widely on issues related to economic reform in
developing countries, trade policy and political economy, both in books and in economic journals, two of which he
contributes to editing (“Review of Economics and Statistics” and “Journal of Economic Literature”). Dani Rodrik is also
the recipient of a number of important research grants (from the Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller
Foundation) and honors (Leontief Award for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought).
