Reviews of Poor Numbers
It takes a little while, about a year, between publication and when academic reviews start appearing. Andrew Jack at the Financial Times was early with a review of the book before it was published,...
View ArticleInterview with Jeune Afrique
I talk about why I think the emphasis (taken by some journalists) on ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ can distract us from simple but real knowledge problem. Read it here.
View ArticleEconomic data ‘came out of thin air’
No, this is not another reflection from my research on economic data on African economies, but the allegations by Chris Giles in the Financial Times against the inequality data used in Thomas...
View ArticleIs the FT Nit-Piketty?
The saga on the data problems in Piketty’s book continues. Giles responds to the debate that has been unfolding, and notes that the academic community has as a whole been rather forgiving of Piketty,...
View ArticleAre Development Statistics Manipulable ?
That is the question we explore in a new paper I have written with Andrew Kerner and Alison Beatty. Both political scientist at University of Michigan. Most of you would know that there is a GDP per...
View ArticleFive reasons why African growth is slower than the data tell you
One of the things my book Poor Numbers suggested, was that the rise of Africa might not be as impressive as the data tells you. The African Development Bank responded by saying there was nothing to...
View ArticleWhose numbers?
That’s the title of an article written by Adewale Maja-Pearce. He takes stock of the debate on Poor Numbers (between me and some representatives from some statistical offices) – and relates it to the...
View ArticleWhat if everything we know about poor countries’ economies is totally wrong?
The results of a phone interview with Dylan Matthews at VOX. Read the full interview here.
View ArticleWithout a statistical revolution, Africa’s renaissance is built on shaky ground
That is the title of a summary of the debates on the current African growth data written up by Ian Fraser. He is a financial journalist and the author of Shredded: Inside RBS: The Bank that Broke...
View ArticleOvercoming Obstacles to Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa
I am invited to offer my comments by Aubrey Hubry who argues: that inadequate infrastructure, lack of market data, and poor policy implementation impede investment in Africa, despite growing...
View ArticlePodcast: How poor numbers undermine the fight against poverty
It is two years since Poor Numbers was published, and I had a nice conversation with Tom Paulson and Gabe Spitzer at Humanosphere. You can listen to the podcast here. We talked about the importance of...
View ArticlePublic talk in Bordeaux 19 FEB 6 PM: Derrière “l’émergence de l’Afrique”. La...
I am a visiting scholar at “Les Afriques dans le monde” at Sciences Po Bordeaux in the spring term 2015. This event is public and free, it is organized by Vincent Bonnecasse – who contributed a...
View ArticleStatistical Tragedy in Africa? Evaluating the Data Base for African Economic...
On Monday, April 6, 2015 – 10:00am to 11:30am the special issue in the Journal of Development Studies: Statistical Tragedy in Africa? Evaluating the Data Base for African Economic Development which I...
View ArticleDevelopment by Indicators: Knowledge and Governance
In this workshop organized at Nantes by Boris Samuel and me on May 5 and 6, 2015 we will investigate the role of indicators in economic development. We will explore how numbers structure knowledge...
View ArticleWhy so grumpy? The datarevolution and its discontents
In “Big Questions for Big Data and what it can do for African Economic Development” I wrote about some of the basic knowledge problems that remain in development statistics, and concluded that, as of...
View ArticleA reading list for the data revolution
If you have sat through more than two conferences and workshops on the post-2015 development agenda or the Sustainable Development Goals (or tracked #SDGs or #data2015 on Twitter) you will be aware...
View ArticleWhy did economists spend two decades explaining something that never happened ?
For the past two decades, mainstream economists who study African economic growth have been trying to explain something that never happened. Economists have focused almost exclusively on one question:...
View ArticlePower of indicators: an emerging literature
There is a rise of indicators. The so called data revolution is finding its feet, so I do not expect it to let up anytime soon. The Economist provided one overview in their report on ‘How to lie with...
View ArticlePodcast: how economists have misunderstood economic growth in African countries
On Sunday 13 December I was speaking about my book at the CBC Sunday Edition. Listen to the recording here. A few weeks back I was on the Economic Rockstar Podcast – listen to the episode here.
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