Bloggers
Shantayanan Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Africa Region. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, and of the South Asia Region. He was the director of the World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he was on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The author or co-author of over 100 publications, Mr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general equilibrium modeling of developing countries. Born in Sri Lanka, Mr. Devarajan received his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Delfin Go is Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist of the Africa Region at the World Bank. He focuses on macroeconomic issues, aid effectiveness and management, and the exercise on Country Policy and Institutional Assessments (CPIA). He is also undertaking analytical works on macro-micro linkages for probing the distributional consequences and the impact on growth, poverty, and MDG indicators of alternative macroeconomic frameworks, external shocks, levels of aid flows as well as the composition of public expenditure. Previously, Mr. Go served as the Bank's Country Economist and PREM Cluster Leader in Southern Africa - for the group of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia and for Zambia. He first joined the Bank as Research Economist, Public Economics, Development Research Group at DEC and has done research relating to investment and growth in developing countries, trade liberalization, public expenditure analysis, macro-fiscal performance, external debt and adjustment problems, and tools for fiscal analysis. Mr. Go received his PhD. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University.
Contact: dgo@worldbank.org
Selected Publications
Go, D.S.; Kearney, M.; Robinson, S.; Thierfelder, K. An analysis of South Africa's Value Added Tax. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 367. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2005.
Devarajan, S. and Go, D.S. 'The 123PRSP Model' in Francois Bourguignon and Luis Pereira da Silva,The Impact of Economic Policies on Poverty and Income Distribution. Washington, DC: The World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003.
Go, D.S., and Mitrab, P. 'Trade Liberalization, Fiscal Adjustment and Exchange Rate Policy in India' in G. Ranis and L.K. Raut, Trade Growth and Development. Elsevier, 1999.
Devarajan, S.; Go, D.S.; Li, H. Quantifying the Fiscal Effects of Trade Reform Policy Research Working Paper 2162. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1999.
Devarajan, S.; Go, D.S.; 'Simplest Dynamic General-Equilibrium Model of an Open Economy' in Journal of Policy Modeling. Elsevier, 1998.
Devarajan, S.; Go, D. S.; Lewis, J.D.; Robinson, S.; Sinko, P. 'Simple General Equilibrium Modeling' in Joseph Francois and Kenneth Reinnert, eds. Applied Methods for Trade Policy Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Go, D.S. 'External shocks, adjustment policies and investment in a developing economy: Illustrations from a forward-looking CGE model of the Philippines' in The Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, 1994.
Devarajan, S.; Go, D.S.; Schiff, M.; Suthiwart-Narueput, S. The Whys and Why Nots of Export Taxation. Policy Research Working Paper 1684. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1996.
Jorge Saba Arbache is Senior Economist in the World Bank's Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region, and is the director of the Africa Development Indicators. Prior to joining the Bank he was professor of economics at the University of Brasilia, economist at the International Labor Organization, and served in the Brazilian Government, including the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Labor. He has published books and authored and co-authored several articles on development economics, including issues on growth, labor economics, international trade, industrial economics, poverty, and tourism economics. More recently, Mr Arbache has been working on a research agenda on growth acceleration and deceleration and their impacts on poverty, MDGs, long term growth, and governance. He has also been working on issues related to labor markets, demographic changes and the youth in Africa. Born in Brazil, Mr. Arbache holds a bachelor in economics and in law, and a masters and PhD degree in economics.
Elizabeth M. White is Senior Strategy Officer and Program Manager for the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund in the Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region, World Bank. Previously she worked in the World Bank's Operations Policy and Country Services Vice Presidency on the introduction of the Results Agenda to the World Bank and development of an international partnership on managing for results. She has worked with a number of Governments and teams in making an outcome based approach operationally relevant to achieve results.
Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. White was an advisor to a number of development agencies on outcome based strategy and management, where her work covered Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and South Asia, as well as at the State Level Government in the United States. Ms. White also has experience in the private sector (Egypt, Brazil, and US), where she launched three successful businesses - both domestic and international (computer software industry and consumer products industry). In addition, she served as a management consultant for multinational corporations as well as small business enterprises, and as a faculty member for the American Management Association. Her academic background includes economics, engineering, and an MBA in international strategy and business.
Contact Information:ewhite1@worldbank.org
Recent Publications
Rodriguez-Garcia, R.; White, E.; Terme, R.Timor-Leste: Managing for Results in a Fragile Postconflict Setting in MfDR Principles in Action: Sourcebook on Emerging Good Practices, Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2005.
Rodriguez-Garcia, R.; White, E.; and R. Balasundaram "Results Reporting"in Sustainable Development Law & Policy, Fall 2006.
Kusek, J.; Rist, R.; and E. M. White How Will We Know the Millennium Development Goal Results When We See Them?: Building a Results-based Monitoring and Evaluation System to Give Us the AnswersEvaluation. 2005; 11: 7-26.
White, E. and R. Rodriguez-Garcia, Self Assessments for Development Practioners. Available at http://www.ebookmall.com/ebooks/self-assessment-in-managing-for-results-conducting-self-assessment-for-development-practitioners-rodriguez-garcia-white-ebooks.htm.
Rodriguez-Garcia, R. and E. White. "La Orientacion Hacia la Consecucion de Resultados" in E. Echart, L. Puerto, and J. Sotillo (eds) Globalizacion, Pobreza Y Desarollo. Los retos de la cooperacion internacional, Madrid: Catarata, 2005.
Xiao Ye is an economist in the Africa Region Chief Economist's Office. In addition to providing statistical support to the Chief Economist's Office, she works on a variety of additional projects, including Africa-Asia trade and investment (with AFTPS), poverty assessment for Sierra Leone (with AFTPM & AFTP4), and poverty profiling for the Namibia Country Report (with AFTP1 & PRMPR). She also task manages a regional household survey program that addresses issues in improving consistency, transparency and access for secondary data users and statistical capacity building for National Statistical Offices (with AFTKL).
Contact: xye@worldbank.org
Selected Publications
Performance-Based Aid in Africa : The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment. The World Bank, Washington , DC , 2004. (co-author)
Standardized Survey Bulletin , Ghana , Zambia , Gambia , Malawi , Kenya , and Ethiopia . The World Bank, Washington , DC 2003. (co-author)
Efficiency of public expenditure distribution and beyond, a public tracking survey report. The World Bank, Washington , DC 2002.
Public Health and Education Spending in Ghana,1992-1998, issues of equity and efficiency. Policy Research Working Paper, The World Bank, Washington , DC 2001. (co-author)
Can local level institutions reduce poverty? Rural Decentralization in Burkina. Policy Research Working Paper, The World Bank, Washington , DC 2001. (co-author)
A profile of living standards in Turkmenistan . The World Bank, Washington , DC 2001.
Regional 1998 Poverty Report: Gender, Growth, and Poverty Reduction. The World Bank, Washington, DC, 1998. (core team member)
On-Going Research
Ye, X. (2005)The Discrepancies in GDP Growth Estimates for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Yutaka Yoshino is Economist with a joint appointment in the Office of the Chief Economist and the Office of the Sector Director, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management of the Africa Region. His areas of specialization are international trade, industrial organization, and public economics. His current research interests include: domestic investment climate and economic integration of low-income countries; economic geography and regional integration; and South-South trade and investment and export diversification.
He co-authored the World Bank report Patterns of Africa-Asia Trade and Investment (2004), was a key contributor to Africas Silk Road (2007), and continues working on Africa-Asia trade and investment. His past research also includes several publications on the topic of environmental policies and international trade such as "Testing for Pollution Havens Inside and Outside of Regional Trading Blocs," (with M. Kahn) published in Advances in Economic Analysis and Policy in 2004.
Prior to the World Bank, he was Economic Attaché at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (1995-1998), a summer associate at Resources for the Future (2001), and an undergraduate economics lecturer at theUniversityofVirginia(2002). He obtained masters degrees fromColumbiaUniversity(international relations) and from theUniversityofVirginia(economics), Ph.D. in economics from theUniversityofVirginia.
Contact: yoshino@worldbank.org
Selected publications:
Domestic Constraints, Firm Characteristics, and Geographical Diversification of Firm-Level Manufacturing Exports inAfrica, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4575, March 2008."Testing for Pollution Havens Inside and Outside of Regional Trading Blocs," (with M. Kahn), Advances in Economic Analysis and Policy, Vol. 4, No. 2, Article 4, 2004. (Reprinted in D.Fullerton ed., Economics of Pollution Haven, Edward Elgar Publishers, 2006.Pattern of Africa-Asia Trade and Investment: Potential for Ownership and Partnership (with T. Toyoshima), World Bank 2004."Multilateral Trade Agreements and Market-Based Environmental Policies," (with C. Fisher and S. Hoffman), in J. Milne, K. Deketelaere, L. Kreiser, H. Ashiabor, eds., Critical Issues in International Environmental Taxation: International and Comparative Perspectives, Richmond Law and Tax Ltd., 2003."Trade and the Environmental Agreements," (with C. Fisher and S. Hoffmann), Sustainable Development Issue Backgrounder, Resources for the Future, 2002."Inter-Linkages among Trade, Environment and Development and Implications toJapan," GRIPS Development Forum Policy Minutes, No. 15, 2002.
Other policy-oriented papers:
Migration, Agglomeration, and Pollution: An Economic Geography Model of Trade and the Environment. Mimeo. 2006.Key technical background papers for Africas Silk Road: China and Indias New Economic Frontier. 2006Sectoral Growth and Export Promotion Strategies forNigers Agricultural Products, (with J-M Marchat), World Bank Africa Region Private Sector Group, 2005.
Gozde Isik is a consultant conducting a wide range of economic research and analysis pertaining to the work of the Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region. She is currently working towards her Ph.D. in economics at the George Washington University focusing on private sector development, trade and investment.
WALY WANE is an Economist in the Development Research Group (Public Services Team). He joined the bank in August 1999 after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Toulouse in April of the same year. His research interests include the analysis of the impact of the complex incentive structure at the frontline provider level incentives provided by both government and local communities on the determination of both the quality and quantity of supplied public services. He is also currently involved in the design of diagnostic tools for tracking public expenditures in Chad and Senegal.
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Ms. Marilou Uy is the Sector Director for the Africa Financial and Private Sector Development Department at the World Bank. Previously, she served as Director of the Financial Sector Operations and Policy Department in the Financial Sector Vice-Presidency (FSE) as well as Chair of the Financial Sector Board from 2002 to 2007. Ms. Uy joined the World Bank in 1985 as part of the Young Professionals Program. Since then, Ms. Uy has worked on trade policy, investment climate, and financial sector issues in various operational departments in Latin America, Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, and globally. She was also part of the Development Economics Group's research team that prepared "The East Asian Miracle" in 1991, in which she focused on financial sector issues, together with Joseph Stiglitz. In 1993, Ms. Uy also worked with the World Bank's Financial Management and Country Credit Worthiness Department. In 1996, she became the Division Chief of the Private Sector Development and Finance Division in the South Asia Department. In 1998, she became the Sector Director of the Finance and Private Sector Development Department in the South Asia Region. Prior to joining the World Bank, Ms. Uy pursued her graduate studies in economics and finance at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Samuel Munzele Maimbo is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist in the World Banks Africa Finance and Private Sector Unit. He has expertise in a range of financial sector areas, having focused on emerging and conflict-afflicted countries since the mid-90s. Specific areas of focus have included banking and financial sector, formal and informal remittance systems, financial sector reforms in conflict affected countries, rural finance, micro-finance, housing finance, and private sector development. A Rhodes Scholar, Samuel obtained a PhD in Public Administration from the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, England in 2001; a MBA (Finance) Degree from the University of Nottingham, England in 1998; a Bachelor of Accountancy Degree (with Distinction) from the Copperbelt University, Zambia in 1994. He is also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), United Kingdom and a Fellow of the Zambia Institute of Certified Accountants (FZICA).
QUY-TOAN DO is an Economist in the Poverty Team of the Development Research Group. Since joining the Bank as a Young Economist in 2002, his research has focused on institutions and their relationships to economic development. In recent papers, he investigated the impact of land titling on agricultural investments and credit access; he also looked at the political economy of institutional development by investigating several mechanisms that could potentially link the distribution of wealth to the quality of institutions. He holds an MA from Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Toulouse, and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ricardo Gazel, a citizen of Brazil, received his B.A. degree in Economics from University of Minas Gerais, Brazil in 1981. He worked in the private and public sector in Brazil and spent one year conducting economic research in the Brazilian Amazon. He completed his graduate education at the University of Illinois, earning a M.A. in Economics in 1990 and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1994.
He joined the Bank in December 2007 as senior economist for Angola where he lives currently. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked for the Inter-American Development Bank, Federal Reserve Bank and University of Nevada. He has published many articles, book chapters, and monographs in the area of regional growth, the impacts of international trade on regional economies, and the economics of gambling.
Michele Zini is a Research Analyst at the World Banks Office in South Africa, with the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Unit. Previously, he worked at London Economics, a private economic consultancy based in London, UK. He holds a Masters Degree in Political Economics from the LSE and a BA in Economics from Bologna University, Italy.
Charlotte Lundgren is a JPO Economist working in the Uganda Country Office of the World Bank. She has a background working on global economic policy issues and economic monitoring/forecasting with the Swedish Ministry of Finance and the Swedish Central Bank.
Noro Aina Andriamihaja, a Malagasy national, assumed her current position as Economist of the World Banks Madagascar Country Office from February 2006. In her current position, she is in charge of the economic monitoring of the economic situation of the country and any macro economic development especially the monitoring and evaluation of the Madagascar Action Plan. She is currently contributing to the current Country Economic Memorandum of Madagascar and is part of the PRSC team. She is also coordinating the activities of the joint donors budget support under the joint donors budget support framework in Madagascar, where the World Bank acts as a lead donor.
Prior to joining the Bank, Noro served as Economist at the International Monetary Funds resident representative office in Madagascar for five years and worked as a regional Economist in an USAID financed Management of Environmental Support Project.
Noro Aina Andriamihaja holds a Master of Economics degree in Macroeconomics from the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Khwima Nthara, a Malawian national, is a World Bank Senior Economist for Malawi. He joined the Bank in February 2005. In his current position, he is responsible for the implementation of the Banks Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) work program which includes the provision of budget support through Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs), and undertaking analytical work such as country economic memoranda, public expenditure reviews, and poverty assessments. During 2005-2006, he was also task team leader for the Malawi HIPC completion point program.
Prior to joining the World Bank, Khwima was country manager for Deloittes Development Consulting Department, country manager for the DFID-funded Trade and Poverty Project in the Ministry of Trade, and economics lecturer at Chancellor College, University of Malawi. During this time, he also consulted widely for NGOs, Government, and Development Partners.
Khwima holds doctorate and masters degrees in economics of developing countries from the University of Cambridge, England.
Preeti Arora is a Senior Country Economist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit of the World Banks Southern Africa Region. Her work experience includes working on conflict/post conflict countries, LICUS, lower middle income countries and MICs. She did her post graduate studies at the Delhi School of Economics and Washington State University. Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Arora taught Economics at the University of Delhi.
Emilie A. Mushobekwa is Economist, working for the World Bank in DR Congo since 2003. She also performs the role of Respectful Workplace Advisor (RWA) for the World Bank Group in the country office since a few months.
She has previously worked for the DRC Ministry of Planning as Economist-Analyst in the Department of Macroeconomic Studies, and for the Central Bank of Congo, successively in the Department of Foreign Exchange and the Department of Studies. In the latter department, she held various positions including Deputy Chief of the Public Finance Service, and Chief of the Technical Secretariat for Monetary Policy Consultative Group.
Emilie A. Mushobekwa is Graduate in Economics, option Monetary and International Economy from the University of Kinshasa, and has a qualification in Public Finance from the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris, France. She also holds a Certificate of Intermediate English from George Washington University, Washington, DC.
She contributed to several works, publications, programs and meetings in the field of economic management, public sector and poverty reduction.
Julio is a senior country economist for Zambia. Before joining the Bank in 2005, he worked at the Institute of International Finance, as an advisor to the Government and the Central Bank of Nicaragua, and he taught economics at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid. He obtained a Ph. D. in Economics from Boston University in 1992.
John S.Wilson is a Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank. Mr. Wilson currently directs research on trade costs, business facilitation, transparency, and economic development. He also provides expertise in lending operations and has worked on projects in the Latin America, Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern and Central European regions.
Mr. Wilson was previously Vice President for Technology Policy at the Information Technology Industry Council in Washington, D.C. and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Economics. He was also a Senior Staff Officer at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council and Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University. He has degrees from Wooster College and Columbia University in New York.
Gaël Raballand is a Senior Transport Economist in the World Bank Africa region. He received his PhD in economics and has co-authored a World Bank book on transport in Africa (Transport Prices and Costs in Africa) ; he is now editing, with Thomas Cantens, a special issue of Afrique Contemporaine on Customs reforms and development in SSA (forthcoming).
Phindile Ngwenya is Research Analyst with the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) team in the Pretoria Office in South Africa. Prior to joining the Bank, she was a Senior Economist with the Economic Policy Division at the National Treasury and before then she was Economics Lecturer at Bond South Africa. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics and Statistics from the University of Swaziland and a Masters degree in Environmental Economics from the University of Pretoria.
Tijan M. Sallah is an economist and currently manager, Capacity Development and Partnerships Unit of the Africa Region, the World Bank. He has published articles and books extensively on political economy, agricultural development, literary and art criticism, ethnography, biography, poetry, and short stories. Described by critics as one of the most important African poets and writers following the generation of Nobel Laureate playwright Wole Soyinka and novelist Chinua Achebe, Sallah's most recent books are a biography of Africa's most famous novelist, Chinua Achebe: Teacher of Light and Dream Kingdom: New and Selected Poems. His works have been featured over NPR and the BBC
MARTIN RAVALLION is Director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He has held various positions in the Bank, since he joined as an Economist in 1988. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, and has taught economics at L.S.E., Oxford University, the Australian National University, and Princeton University. His main research interests over the last 25 years have concerned poverty and policies for fighting it. He has advised numerous governments and international agencies on this topic, and he has written extensively on this and other subjects in economics, including three books and over 170 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of ten economics journals, is a Senior Fellow of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development, a Founding Council Member of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality and he serves on the International Advisory Board of the International Poverty Reduction Center, Beijing.
Norbert Schady, a German national, is a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He received his B.A, from Yale University in 1990, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1998.
His main research areas include early childhood development, conditional cash transfers, and the impact of income shocks on human capital outcomes. Recently, he completed a Policy Research Report on Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty (joint with Ariel Fiszbein). He has worked on Latin America, East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. In September he will be taking up a position as Economic Advisor, Social Sectors, at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Praveen Kumar is the World Bank's Lead Economist for Zimbabwe. Before taking this position, he worked as Lead Economist for Kenya. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, US.
Kathleen Beegle is a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank.
Her research interest includes the measurement of poverty dynamics, socio-economic dimensions of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and methods in household survey data collection.
Some of her current work includes studies of coping strategies among households in Tanzania using a 13-year longitudinal survey and a study of marriage transitions and HIV in Malawi based on a new panel survey of young adults. She has also studied the causes and consequences of child labor.
As member of the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) team, she has expertise in the design and implementation of household survey operations and use of household surveys for poverty and policy analysis. Under the LSMS-ISA program to study agricultural productivity and economic development in Africa, the LSMS team will field national panel surveys in 7 African countries. LSMS-IV activities focus on field experiments to improve survey design.
She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University in 1997 and worked at RAND from 1997-2001 before joining the World Bank.
