Roger Myerson, eminent theorist and winner of the Nobel in economics, brought his abiding interest in democratic decentralization and development to the World Bank recently. He was hosted by the Development Economics Vice Presidency as a visiting fellow and spent three weeks here writing, thinking and meeting with staff from the Global Practice groups, from the Research Group, and from the East Asia region.
As his main output, Professor Myerson wrote a paper titled ‘Local Foundations for Better Governance: A review of Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao’s Localizing Development’. He presented highlights from the paper to a diverse group of Bank staff on November 13. The paper reflects on the theory and evidence for development strategies that are based on local community empowerment; it stresses that a key to viable democratic development in a nation is to increase the supply of leaders with good reputations for using public resources responsibly.
On the final day of his visit, the professor sat down for a videotaped exit interview where he explained how his Nobel winning ideas connect to international development and summarized the take away recommendations from his paper….Watch the video here.
Interview with Roger Myerson
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