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AFRICANA SEMINAR SERIES
The goal of the seminar series is to bring together
researchers here at New York University and the immediate vicinity,
who have some interest in Africa. We like to describe it with the Zulu
term "Indaba" - a gathering of chiefs for a conversation on matters
of state.
SPRING 2007
March 6
CANCELLED: Getting To The Bottom Of Corruption:
An African Case Study In Community Driven Development
LOCATION: 19 West 4th Street, Room 736
TIME: 6:00
p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
GUEST: Jean Ensminger,
Caltech
Community driven development (CDD) has become an increasingly common model
of project delivery the world over. Put simply, CDD represents an empowerment
of communities at the bottom of the development food chain. Communities
are responsible for choosing projects, selecting leaders, and implementing
and fiscally managing their projects in a decentralized manner. Not only
has the strategy been widely employed by the World Bank, but it has also
been adopted by bilateral donors, NGOs, and developing countries themselves.
Yet despite the enormous proliferation of this model of project delivery,
little data exist to evaluate its effectiveness.
This study reports on a case study from a rural African community where we have
access to unusual detail regarding the individual-level demographics of participants
in one CDD project. We are able to “follow the money” throughout
the community and learn what socio-demographic variables are correlated with
leadership in the project and level of economic benefit from the project. A social
network analysis collected just prior to the project gives us other insights
into some of the dynamics afoot. The data from this project point to losses on
a scale sufficient to render virtually any project dysfunctional. Furthermore,
the losses documented here-on the order of seventy percent-are not
atypical of other CDD projects in the area. This study attempts to provide insights
to answer the question, “What when wrong?”
Book Reading
March 21
SPEAKER: Todd Moss, CGD
TITLE: African
Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors
LOCATION: 19 West 4th St., Room 736
TIME: 6:30-8:00
Refreshments will be served beforehand.
"This compulsively readable and accessible book is a masterpiece of clear thinking,
comprehensiveness, balance, insight, and humor. It will meet the needs of all
those who want to know more about Africa's mixture of disappointment and promise."—William
Easterly, New York University
April 3
CANCELLED:
TOPIC: Entrepreneurialism
in Africa
LOCATION: 19 West 4th Street, Room 736
TIME: 6:00
p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
GUEST: Monique Maddy,
Google
Monique Maddy is Google's first Entrepreneur in Residence and founder of
Adesemi Communications.
April 17
TOPIC: Property
Norms And State Emergence: A Test Of Property Rights Formation
LOCATION: 19 West 4th Street, Room 736
TIME: 6:00
p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
GUEST: Paul Dower,
NYU PhD candidate
This paper presents a model of informal property norms that argues the
dependence of economic value on localized knowledge influences the form
of property institutions; in particular, property rules become more individual
as the importance of localized knowledge increases. The model is then employed
to empirically assess how formal property rights emerge.
FALL 2006
October 5
TOPIC: Multilingualism
in Africa
LOCATION: 110 Fifth Ave., Room 445
TIME: 6:30
p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
GUEST: Eyamba Bokamba,
UIUC
Prof. Bokamba from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is an expert
on multilingualism and the policy implications. This seminar brings the
fields of sociolinguistics, development economics and political economy
together for a discussion of the impact of multilingualism on African societies.
October 19
TOPIC: Expanding
Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions To Estimate the Impacts - View the PDF file
LOCATION: 110 Fifth Ave., Room 445
TIME: 6:30
p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
GUEST: Dean Karlan,
Yale University
A South African lender relaxed its risk assessment criteria by randomly
approving some marginal applications that normally would have been rejected.
Profs. Karlan and Zinman then estimated the resulting impacts using survey
data on borrower behavior and well-being, and administrative data on loan
repayment. The results must be interpreted with caution but suggest that
consumer credit expansions can be welfare-improving.
Conference
November 8 - View the gallery
TOPIC: African
Agriculture
LOCATION: Lipton Hall, NYU Law
TIME: 10:00
p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Confirmed Speakers:
• Klaus Deininger,
World Bank
• Bashir Jama,
UN Millennium Project
• Kim Elliott,
CGD
African agricultural productivity has not seen the dramatic increase in
growth that developing countries such as India and China have experienced.
If the secrets of an African Green Revolution were someday unlocked, it
could bring an unprecedented wealth to the continent. Specialists in agronomy,
trade, agricultural markets, market institutions and other issues speak
and compare notes on how productivity could be changed.
November 21
TOPIC: Property
Norms And State Emergence: A Test Of Property Rights Formation POSTPONED
TO SPRING
LOCATION: 110 Fifth Ave., Room 445
TIME: 6:30
p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
GUEST: Paul
Dower, NYU PhD candidate
POSTPONED TO SPRING
This paper presents a model of informal property norms that argues the
dependence of economic value on localized knowledge influences the form
of property institutions; in particular, property rules become more individual
as the importance of localized knowledge increases. The model is then
employed to empirically assess how formal property rights emerge.
Conference - View the gallery
December 5
TOPIC: Migration
LOCATION: Lipton Hall, NYU Law
TIME: 9:30
p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
SPRING 2006
Thursday,
March 2, 2006
Topic: "The
Impact of Pre-Colonial Institutions" - View the PDF file
Nicola Gennaioli (Stockholm University)
The government of a region before European colonialism is a powerful
predictor of outcomes today. |
Thursday, April 13,
2006
Topic: "Growth with Quality-Improving Innovations"
Philippe Aghion (Harvard University)
A development of the Schumpeterian growth model. |
FALL 2005
Thursday,
October 6, 2005
Topic:"Is
Corruption Socially Efficient? A Field Experiment on Obtaining
a Driving License in India," joint with Marianne Bertand,
Simeon Djankov and Rema Hanna - View the PDF file
Sendhil Mullainathan (Harvard) |
Thursday, October
27, 2005
Topic: "Communities in Conflict Areas"
William Reno (Northwestern) |
FIGHTING WORLD POVERTY:
A CONFERENCE ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
MEETING ON THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Thursday, September 15, 2005
View the PDF file
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SPRING 2005
Thursday,
February 10, 2005
Topic: "Towards an Architecture for the Delivery of International
Development Assistance in Ghana"
Joe Amoako-Tuffour (St.Francis Xavier) |
Tuesday, April 5,
2005
Topic: "The Institutions Debate"
Daron Acemoglu and Ed Glaeser |
Thursday, April 28,
2005
Topic: "Mini-conference on Microfinance"
Organized by Jonathan Morduch
Part 1: Academic Panel: Microfinance
research--what next?
Four economists studying microfinance look at the emerging
issues in the academic study of microfinance. The focus is
on meshing data from recent field experiments with economic
theory.
-- Prof. Jonathan Conning (Hunter)
-- Prof. Rajeev Dehejia (Columbia)
-- Jonathan Zinman (New York Federal Reserve Bank)
-- Moderator: Prof. Jonathan Morduch, NYU
Part 2: Practitioners Panel: Making Microfinance
Work In Africa
Three experts on the practice of microfinance discuss the status
of microfinance in Africa today. They will focus on emerging
trends, problems limiting the development of microfinance in
the region, and innovative solutions from the field.
-- Mr. Lawrence Yanovitch, Director of Policy & Technical Assistance,
FINCA
-- Ms. Phyllis Wanjiku Kibui, Director of Relationship Management,
Women's World Banking
-- Ms. Kiendel Burritt, Senior Technical Advisor, United Nations
Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
-- Moderator: Prof. William Easterly (New York University). |
Tuesday, May 5, 2005
Topic:"The Economics of AIDS Treatment in Developing Countries"
David Canning (Harvard) |
FALL 2004
Tuesday,
November 2, 2004
Topic: "Polygyny, Fertility, and Savings" - View the PDF file
Michele Tertlitt (Stanford) |
Thursday, November
11 , 2004
Topic: "Mini-Conference on Aid Versus Trade"
Bill Easterly & Jonathan Eaton |
Thursday, November
18, 2004
Topic: "Consequences of Early Marriage for Women in Bangladesh"
Erica Field (Harvard) |
Tuesday, November
23, 2004
Topic: "Accounting
for the Effect of Health on Economic Growth " - View the PDF file
David Weil (Brown) |
Tuesday, December
2, 2004
Topic: "The Determinants of Foreign Aid Flows to NGOs"
Anna Fruttero (New York University) |
CONVERSATIONS on ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
IN GHANA, FALL 2004
New York University in Ghana and Ashesi University
co-sponsored a series of evening conversations on Economic Development
in Ghana. Each evening featured keynote speakers, with audience discussion
afterwards. The speakers consisted of university professors, World
Bank and IMF officials, commercial bank officials, investment bankers,
and Ghanaian entrepreneurs.
The conversations for this series took place between Sept.
29th and October 6th, 2004.
Moderator: Yaw Nyarko (NYU)
Venue: Ashesi University Campus in Labone (Building
#2 on 2nd Noria Road).
Thursday,
September 30, 2004
Topic: "Is Foreign Aid Good For Africa"
William Easterly (NYU) |
Monday, October 4,
2004
Topic: "Ghana's Economic Development Experience"
Joe Abbey (Center for Policy Analysis, CEPA) &
Ernest Aryeetey (Legon) |
Tuesday, October
5, 2004
Topic: "The Role of the Bretton-Woods Institutions in Supporting
Ghana's Economic Development"
Daniel Boakye (World Bank) &
Alphecca Muttardy (International Monetary Fund) |
Wednesday October
6, 2004
Topic: "The Private Sector and Economic Development"
Kofi Blankson Ocansey (Dixcove Ventures) &
Roland Akosa (Eno International, Washington DC and Accra) &
Ken Ofori-Atta (DataBank) & Robert Danso-Boakye (Trust Bank) |
SPRING 2004
March
12, 2004
Topic: "Boom
Towns and Ghost Countries: Geography, Agglomeration, and Population
Mobility" - View the Word document
Lant Pritchett (Harvard) |
March 25, 2004
Topic: "Kenya’s
Development Path and Factor Prices 1950 - 2000" - View the Word document
Arne Bigsten (Goteborg Univ., Sweden) |
April 15, 2004
Topic: "Wages
and Labor Management in African Manufacturing" - View the PDF file
Marcel Fafchamps (Oxford) |
May 6, 2004
Topic: "Development,
Modernization, and the Social Sciences in the Era of Decolonization:
British and French Africa." - View the PDF file
Fred Cooper (NYU) |
SPRING 2003
February
6, 2003
Topic: "Poverty and Witch Killing in Tanzania"
Edward Miguel (UC Berkeley and Princeton) |
February 20, 2003
Topic: "Stochastic
Wealth Dynamics and Risk Management Among a Poor Population" - View the PDF file
Chris Barrett (Cornell) |
April 10, 2003
Topic: "Economic
Development and the Incidence of HIV/AIDS" - View the PDF file
Desire Vencatachellum (HEC, Montreal) |
April 24, 2003
Topic: "Orphans in Africa"
Anne Case (Princeton) |
May 1, 2003
Topic: "Learning about Quality when Quality is Unobservable:
Information Networks for Health Care Quality in Tanzania"
Kenneth Leonard (Columbia) |
SPRING 2002
March
21, 2002
Topic: "Chieftaincy, Land and Politics: Yorubaland and Asante in
the 20th Century"
Sara Berry, (Johns Hopkins) |
April 4, 2002
Topic: "In Search of Homo Economics: Behavior Experiments
in 15 Simple Societies"
Sam Bowles (UMass Amherst) |
April 25th, 2002
Topic: "Poverty and Vulnerability in Cote d'Ivoire"
Jonathan Morduch (NYU) |
May 2nd, 2002
Topic: "Conditionality, Selectivity and Aid Effectiveness
in Africa"
Ernest Aryeetey (Swarthmore and Univ. of Ghana) |
FALL 2001
November
1, 2001
Topic: "Getting Markets Right in Africa: The Challenge Beyond Reform"
Eleni Gabre-Mahdin, CGIAR |
November 15, 2001
Topic: "The Harambee System in Kenya"
Michael Kremer (Harvard) |
November 29, 2001
Topic: "Markets for Votes: A Field Experiment in Benin"
Leonard Wantchekon (NYU) |
SPRING 2001
February
1, 2001
Topic: "Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming
the Political Legacy of Colonialism"
Mahmood Mamdani (Columbia) |
February 15, 2001
Topic: "Toward a New Paradigm of the African State"
Guy Martin (UVA) |
March 1, 2001
Topic: "Ethnic Enclaves and Communal Enforcement: Evidence
from Trade Credit Relationships of African Firms"
Ray Fisman (Columbia) |
March 22, 2001
Topic: "The Ethio-Eritrean Conflict and HIV/AIDS: Hidden Casualties"
Pam DeLargy United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA |
March 29, 2001
Topic: "Bypassing Health Centers in Tanzania: Revealed Preferences
for Quality"
Ken Leonard (Columbia) |
April 12, 2001
Topic: "Worms: the Educational Effects of Treatment of Primary
School Children for Intestinal Helminths"
Michael Kremer (Harvard) |
April 26, 2001
Topic: "Ethnic Conflicts and Economic Development in Africa"
Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong (Univ. of South Florida) |
SPRING 2000
February
3, 2000
Topic: "Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Africa"
Nicolas Van de Walle (Michigan State University) |
February 17, 2000
Topic: "Why does Africa have a lot of Ethnic Conflicts?"
Paul Collier (World Bank) |
March 2, 2000
Topic: "Quality and Price in the Global Market: How Nigerians
Tell a Fake"
Jane Guyer (Northwestern Universit) |
March 23, 2000
Topic: "Confronting Aids: Difficult Public Sector Choices
for Africa"
Mead Over (World Bank) |
FALL 1999
September
30, 1999
Topic: "Civil War Termination: A Case Study from Sudan"
Roy Licklider (Rutgers) |
October 14, 1999
Topic: "Eritrea and the Problems of Nationalism and Conflict
in Africa"
Craig Calhoun (NYU and SSRC) |
November 4, 1999
Topic: "Rwanda, Burundi and the African Great Lakes Crises:
Contagion Effects of Narrow-Based Regimes and Implications for
Regional Stabilitys"
Leonce Ndikumana (U. Mass Amherst) |
November 18, 1999
Topic: "The Logic of Civil War Settlement: Stakes, Expectations,
and Optimal Agreements in Africa"
E. Wood (NYU) |
December 1, 1999
Topic: "How did Highly Indebted Poor Countries become Highly
Indebted? Reviewing two Decades of Debt Relief"
William Easterly (World Bank) |
SPRING 1999
February
11, 1999
Topic: "In Search of Africa"
Manthia Diawara (NYU) |
February 18, 1999
Topic: "African Traditional Healers, Incentives and Skill
in Health Care Delivery"
Kenneth Leonard (Columbia) |
March 4, 1999
Topic: "Learning and Innovation - the Adoption of Pineapple
in Ghana"
Chris Udry (Yale) |
March 25th, 1999
Topic: "Aid Priorities"
Veena Siddharth (Oxfam International) |
April 22, 1999
Topic: "Micro-Finance in Kenya"
Ashok Rai (Harvard, HIID) |
May 6, 1999
Topic: "Issues in Large Scale Development Projects: A case
study"
Philippe Benoit (Principal Private Sector Development Specialist,
World Bank) |
FALL 1998
October
1, 1998
Topic: "Africa and the Evolution of the International Debt Regime"
Tom Callaghy (Univ. of Pennsylvania) |
October 15, 1998
Topic: "Political Implications of the Size and Shapes of African
Countries"
Jeffrey Herbst (Princeton University) |
October 29, 1998
Topic: "Africa in Chaos"
George Ayittey (American University) |
November 5, 1998
Topic: "Dictatorships as a Political Dutch Disease"
Leonard Wantchekon (Yale) |
December 10, 1998
Topic: "Democracy Forged from Below: South Africa's Transition
and its Legacy"
Elizabeth Wood (NYU) |
For more information about previous Africana Seminars,
please click here.
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