William Russell Easterly (born September 7, 1957) is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, specializing in

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

. He is a professor of economics at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, joint with Africa House, and co-director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. He is a Research Associate of

NBER The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

, senior fellow at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, and a nonresident senior fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. Easterly is an associate editor of the ''

Journal of Economic Growth The ''Journal of Economic Growth'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in economic growth and dynamic macroeconomics. It was established in 1996 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media.The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics'' (2001); ''The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good'' (2006), which won the 2008 Hayek Prize; and ''

The Tyranny of Experts ''The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor'' is a 2014 book by the development economist William Easterly. It traces the history of the fight against global poverty, and examines the structural incent ...

: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor'' (2014), which was a finalist for the 2015 Hayek Prize.

Biography

Born in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

and raised in

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, Easterly received his BA from

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

in 1979 and his Ph.D. in economics from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

in 1985. From 1985 to 2001 he worked at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

as an economist and senior adviser at the Macroeconomics and Growth Division; he was also an adjunct professor at the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

. Easterly then worked at the

Institute for International Economics The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), known until 2006 as the Institute for International Economics (IIE), is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by C. Fred Bergsten in 1981 and has been led by ...

and the

Center for Global Development The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, directo ...

until 2003, when he began teaching at New York University.

Academic work

Easterly has worked in many areas of the developing world and some

transition economies A transition economy or transitional economy is an economy which is changing from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. Transition economies undergo a set of structural transformations intended to develop market-based institutions. T ...

, most heavily in Africa, Latin America, and Russia. Easterly is skeptical toward many of the trends that are common in the field of foreign aid. In '' The Elusive Quest for Growth,'' he analyzes the reasons why foreign aid to many third world countries has failed to produce

sustainable growth Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desir ...

. He reviewed the many “ panaceas” that have been tried since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

but had little to show for their efforts. Among them is one that has recently come back into fashion:

debt relief Debt relief or debt cancellation is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. From antiquity through the 19th century, it refers to domestic debts, in particu ...

. That remedy has been tried many times before, he argues, with negative results more often than positive, and calls for a more scrutinizing process. In ''The White Man's Burden'' (the title refers to

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's famous poem of the same name), Easterly elaborates on his views about the meaning of foreign aid. Released in the wake of

Live8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005 ...

, the book is critical of people like

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...

and

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

(“The white band's burden”) and especially of fellow economist

Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...

and his bestselling book ''

The End of Poverty ''The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time'' () is a 2005 book by American economist Jeffrey Sachs. It was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. In the book, Sachs argues that extreme poverty—defined by the World Bank as incomes of ...

''. Easterly suspects that such messianic do-good missions are ultimately modern reincarnations of the infamous

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

conceit of yore. He distinguishes two types of foreign aid donors: “Planners”, who believe in imposing top-down big plans on poor countries, and “Searchers”, who look for bottom-up solutions to specific needs. Planners are portrayed as

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

, while Searchers are more realistic as they focus—following

Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...

—on piecemeal interventions. Searchers, according to Easterly, have a much better chance to succeed. In ''

'', Easterly analyzes a broader shortcoming of the development community's efforts—failure to recognize the importance of the rights of the poor. Development, he argues, is narrowly focused on the material well-being of its intended beneficiaries. Development "experts" champion technical solutions such as

mosquito nets A mosquito net is a type of meshed curtain that is circumferentially draped over a bed or a sleeping area, to offer the sleeper barrier protection against bites and stings from mosquitos, flies, and other pest insects, and thus against the di ...

or latrines, believing they will end poverty. Easterly argues that these technical solutions by experts fail to address the core of the problem. The lack of individual rights, including political and economic ones, prevents the poor from implementing bottom-up, spontaneously emerging solutions to development problems, and from defending their interests from abusive

dictators A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times ...

. Development organizations often side with abusive autocrats by lauding their development achievements (which, economic analysis shows, cannot be credited to leaders) and ignoring their dismal

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

records. The first step, Easterly argues, is to at least open a debate, a discussion about why the rights of the poor matter. Sachs responded to Easterly's arguments, leading to a prolonged debate. Sachs accused Easterly of excessive pessimism, overestimating costs, and overlooking past successes.

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...

has praised Easterly for analysis of the problems of foreign aid, but criticized his sweeping debarment of all plans, lacking the due distinctions between different types of problems, and not giving the aid institutions credit for understanding the points he is making. Easterly responded to Sachs in a letter in ''Foreign Policy'' in January 2014. Easterly has also produced a critical review of, and received a rebuttal from,

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

economist

Ha-Joon Chang Ha-Joon Chang (; ; born 7 October 1963) is a South Korean institutional economist, specialising in development economics. Chang is the author of several widely discussed policy books, most notably ''Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strateg ...

, to which he offered a counter-rebuttal. Easterly's work has been discussed in media outlets such as

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'', the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'', and the ''

Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

''.

Publications

* Easterly, William (2014). ''

: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor''. Basic Books * Easterly, William (2006). ''The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good''. Penguin * Easterly, William (2001). '' The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics''. MIT Press

Book section

* ''Channels from Globalization to Inequality: Productivity World versus Factor World'', pp. 39–81, from ''Brookings Trade Forum: 2004 - Globalization, Poverty, and Inequality'', (2004, Brookings Institution Press) Three co-edited books, and more than 60 articles in refereed economics journals.

References

External links

Aid Watch
A blog written by William Easterly and Laura Freschi of the Development Research Institute between January 2009 and May 2011. *
Easterly's expert page at the Brookings Institution
*

A critical review of Jeffrey Sachs's blueprint for a new foreign aid initiative, "The End Of Poverty."

* Abridgements o
''The Elusive Quest for Growth''
an
''The White Man's Burden''

The Man Without a Plan
Book review of "White Man's Burden," published in Foreign Affairs. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Easterly, William 1957 births Living people Bowling Green State University alumni American political writers People from Bowling Green, Ohio MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni New York University faculty American development economists 21st-century American economists Economists from Ohio Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 21st-century American male writers Member of the Mont Pelerin Society

Biography

Academic work

Publications

Book section

See also

References

External links