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Planet Money: The Indicator

Planet Money: The Measure Of A Tragedy

June 19, 2018

Ricardo Hausmann on NPR's Planet Money: The Indicator podcast

The Venezuelan economy has collapsed. Years of economic mismanagement and a deepening political crisis have led to a recession that has almost no parallel in recent memory.

But explaining just how bad things have gotten is also really hard because the normal economic indicators that we use to measure a country's economy have started to sound so so unfathomable — 25,000% inflation, for example — that it feels impossible to get our heads around them.

Ricardo Hausmann, a...

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Immigration key catalyst for development

May 17, 2018

Daily FT

Reforming immigration law to allow free movement of people through progressive laws could tackle Sri Lanka’s chronic economic challenges of narrow exports, low Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and limited innovation, a top expert said yesterday, outlining many examples of countries that have experienced growth spurts by opening up their labour markets.   

Prof. Ricardo Hausmann is Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government....

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Authers’ Note: Turning and turning in the widening gyre

May 7, 2018

2026 Growth Projections in the Financial Times

Some parts of the world do not follow a cycle, but may actually enjoy secular growth over the next decade or so. The only problem is that you will need courage and a lot of due diligence to take advantage.

The latest edition of the Atlas of Economic Complexity by Harvard’s Center for International Development was published last week. It shows the countries best positioned to grow thanks to their networks of diverse and transferable skills. Their projected winners might provide some:

I...

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Harvard offers hope on SA economy

May 4, 2018

The Sunday Times

Researchers at Harvard’s Center for International Development are predicting that South Africa's economy will grow at 4.9% annually until 2026. This‚ says banking's Michael Jordaan‚ "would be radically transformative".

It's also optimistic‚ as the International Monetary Fund recently forecast SA economic growth to strengthen to 1.5% in 2018 and to 1.7% in 2019.

Harvard's CID report ranks South Africa in 66th place.

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With projected growth of 7.9%, India tops list of fastest growing economies for coming decade

May 4, 2018

India TV News

India tops the list of the fastest growing economies in the world for the coming decade and is projected to grow at 7.9 per cent annually, ahead of China and the US, according to a Harvard University report. 

The Centre for International Development at Harvard University (CID) said in new growth projections on Thursday that countries that have diversified their economies into more complex sectors, like India and Vietnam, are those that will grow the fastest in the coming decade. 

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Harvard economist calls for tariff reforms to increase exports

February 9, 2018

Robert Lawrence/Sri Lanka project - Daily FT

Making a compelling case against tariff regimes, renowned Harvard economist Dr. Robert Lawrence yesterday called for a simpler system with significantly lower tariffs in order to increase Sri Lanka’s exports.

Delivering a lecture on protectionism organised by the Advocata Institute in Colombo, Prof. Lawrence, who is the Faculty Chair of the Practice of Trade Policy program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, said that imposing tariffs is the wrong way to raise revenue, highlighting the need for tax reforms...

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These 5 Countries Expect Major Economic Growth for the Next Decade

October 15, 2017

Tim Cheston - Capitalism.com

New research shows that the global economy is making a major turn toward rapid economic growth, and will continue trending in that direction over the coming years.

That’s according to the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University, which recently released their projections for the fast growing economies in the next decade. After analyzing global trade data from 2015 — the most recently available data — the CID concluded that the global economy trending upward.

So which countries are...

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Iconoclast with a Mission

September 8, 2017

Ricardo Hausmann profile in IMF's Finance and Development

In nearly 40 years of navigating government, academia, and international financial institutions, Ricardo Hausmann has been on a quest to discover what makes some countries succeed and others fail. He likes to think of development as a game of Scrabble. “The process of development is really the process of accumulating letters and figuring new words that can be put together. And that’s the arrow of development,” he explains, sitting in his sun-filled office at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government....

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