New York University Economist William Easterly will deliver “The Tyranny of Experts,” a lecture on economic development, on Mon., March 3, 6:30 p.m. at Cooper Union’s Great Hall.
The lecture coincides with the publication of Easterly’s The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor, which posits that the conventional approach to economic development is based on a “technocratic illusion”—the belief that poverty is a “purely technical problem amenable to such technical solutions as fertilizers, antibiotics, or nutritional supplements.” Easterly, co-director of NYU’s Development Research Institute, contends that this approach misses “the real cause of poverty: the unchecked power of the state against poor people without rights.”
Easterly will be introduced by Paul Romer, a professor of economics at NYU’s Stern School of Business and director of its Urbanization Project.
The event is free and open to the public. To register, please click here. For more information, call 212.992.7485 or email dri@nyu.edu. Subways: 6, Astor Place; N, R, 8th Street.
Reporters interested in attending must RSVP to Laura Freschi at laura.freschi@nyu.edu or 212.992.7491.
This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Public Knowledge and NYU Africa House. Funding is generously provided by the John Templeton Foundation and the Thomas Smith Foundation.
EDITOR’S NOTE
The Development Research Institute (DRI) is devoted to rigorous, scholarly research on the economic development and growth of poor countries. An independent and non-partisan organization, DRI builds upon a foundation of academic research comparing aid agency practices and surveying the thinking behind aid projects. For more, go to http://nyudri.org/.