Development Drums

Jun 03 2022 40 ep. 4.2k

Development Drums Podcast artwork

Development Drums takes an in depth look at key issues in international development and global poverty.

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Episode 48: Stefan Dercon – Gambling on Development

Jun 03 2022 92 mins

Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. He is a former DFID chief economist and a policy advisor to the UK foreign secretary. Stefan Dercon argues that countries develop if they achieve an elite bargain, in which the country’s elites gamble on a future with economic growth

Episode 47: Todd Moss – The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

Sep 17 2015 55 mins

Bestselling author Todd Moss is a former senior State Department official who led America’s response to coups and crises in West Africa. He is also my colleague at the Center for Global Development, where he is a Senior Fellow and Chief Operating Officer. Todd’s first two books feature a fictional hero, Judd Ryker, an analyst in State Department. In The Golden Hour, Ryker i

Episode 46: Morten Jerven

Jun 07 2015 68 mins

Morten Jerven explains why we know less than we should about what is happening in African economies, and why this is leading economists to the wrong recommendations. His first book, Poor Numbers: How We are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do About It explained the problems with Africa’s economic data; an his new book, Africa: Why Economists Get it Wrong s

Episode 45: Mind, Society and Behaviour (Varun Gauri)

May 03 2015 75 mins

Behavioural economics is hot. In this edition of Development Drums, I talk to Varun Gauri, Senior Economist with the Development Research Group of the World Bank and Co-Director of the World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior. Varun explains the principles of behavioural economics, and discusses how they apply to development economics. He also discusses how these

Episode 44: The Data Revolution

Sep 15 2014 45 mins

Everyone seems to be talking about the data revolution these days. In this episode of Development Drums, I speak with two people who have thought more about what it is, how to make it happen, and what it means for development than just about anyone else. Claire Melamed is the Director of the Growth, Poverty and Inequality Programme at ODI. She was previously the Head of Policy at A

Episode 43: Complexity

Jul 24 2014 75 mins

In this episode of Development Drums, I speak with Ben Ramalingam and Stefan Dercon about whether complexity and systems thinking offers actionable insights for better development interventions. Ben Ramalingam is an independent researcher who has worked with development and humanitarian organisations including UN bodies, NGOs, the Red Cross movement, and government agencies. He is

Episode 42: The Idealist (Nina Munk on Jeff Sachs)

Mar 10 2014 57 mins

Nina Munk’s latest book, The Idealist, is about Jeffrey Sachs and the Millennium Villages Project. It is also a book about the efforts that people in industrialised countries make to help poor people. It is a book about vision, passion and hubris. In this episode of Development Drums, Nina Munk tells the story of how she came to write the book, and what she learned about Jeff

Episode 41: The Great Escape (Angus Deaton)

Dec 21 2013 71 mins

Angus Deaton, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University, talks about his book, The Great Escape, which brings together his research into health, well-being, and economic development. In his book, Professor Deaton talks about the great

Episode 40: Why Nations Fail

May 04 2013 70 mins

Daron Acemoğlu and James Robinson talk about their best-selling book, Why Nations Fail. In Why Nations Fail, Acemoğlu & Robinson argue that institutions matter for development and prosperity. Economic institutions can be broadly inclusive, leading to sustained economic prosperity, or extractive, enriching elites but doing little for the majority of the population. So far, th

Episode 39: Bob Geldof (full version)

Mar 22 2013 72 mins

This is the unabridged version of an interview with Bob Geldof; the shorter edited version is available separately as Development Drums number 38. Bob Geldof is a singer, songwriter, author, actor and part-time political activist. As lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, Geldof had chart success with Rat Trap and I Don’t Like Mondays. In 1984, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure brought to