Charles Kenny

Books, Papers and Articles

Charles Kenny is the author of Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More (Basic Books: 2011); The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest is Great for the West (Basic Books: 2014) and The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease (Scribner 2021). He spent fifteen years as an economist in the World Bank and now works at a Washington DC think tank, the Center for Global Development, where he researches and advocates for policies governing investment, trade, technology and migration that would be good for both developing and industrialized countries alike. In addition, he is a widely cited researcher on the economics of happiness. Kenny was a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine and was a columnist for Bloomberg Business¸ where he wrote on global development and its impact on the US. He has also written for outlets including the Economist, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Time, the Guardian, Salon and CNN. He has presented at the World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute and Legatum Institute events. He has given talks at numerous colleges and universities. He has appeared on PBS, Al Jazeera, CCTV, Vox, Reuters TV and Bloomberg TV. On radio he has been a guest on NPR and the BBC as well as numerous podcasts. Charles has a history degree from Cambridge University, Masters degrees from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a PhD in Development Studies from Cambridge. The product and beneficiary of transoceanic romances, he thinks globalization is an immense force for good. He can be contacted at charlesjkenny at gmail.

recent posts

Category: Q. Academic writing

  • Why Are We Worried About Income?

    Why Are We Worried About Income? Everything That Matters is Converging was published in World Development 33, 1, 2005.  Convergence of national GDP/capita numbers is a common, but narrow, measure of global success or failure in development. This paper takes a broader range of quality of life variables covering health, education, rights and infrastructure and…

  • Does Development Make You Happy?

    Does Development Make You Happy? Subjective Wellbeing and Economic Growth in Developing Countries was published in Social Indicators Research, 73, 2, 2005. The evidence for any relationship between GDP/capita growth and growth in subjective wellbeing (SWB) in wealthier countries is disputed, at best. However, there are a number of reasons commonly articulated for thinking the…

  • A Short Review of Information and Communication Technologies and Basic Education in LDCs

    A Short Review of Information and Communication Technologies and Basic Education in LDCs: What is Useful, What is Sustainable? was co-authored with Jeremy Grace and published in the International Journal of Educational Development 23 (2003). Information and communication technologies such as radio and television have long been used in education. The advent of the technology…

  • W(h)ither the Digital Divide?

    W(h)ither the Digital Divide?, written with Carsten Fink, was published in info 5,6, in 2003. The "widening digital divide" has the status of fact in most discussions of the global distribution of information and communications technologies (ICTs), and that this divide is a problem is widely accepted. This paper challenges both assumptions. First, looking at…

  • The Internet and Economic Growth in Less-developed Countries

    The Internet and Economic Growth in Less-developed Countries: A Case of Managing Expectations? was published in Oxford Development Studies 31, 1, 2003.  A discussion of the theory of technology and economic growth suggests potentially negative implications for the impact of the Internet on developing countries. Technology in general is undoubtedly central to the growth process,…

  • Can Information and Communication Technologies be Pro-Poor?

    Can Information and Communication Technologies be Pro-Poor? co-authored with Emmanuel Forestier and Jeremy Grace, published in Telecommunications Policy, 26, 11, 2002. There is over 20 years of accumulated cross-country evidence on the link between telecommunications provision and economic growth. Looking at micro-studies from a range of countries including Bangladesh, Botswana and Zimbabwe, there is also…

  • The Price of Oil

    The Price of Oil: is it Low and is that Bad? co-authored with James Bond, was published in the International Journal of Global Energy Issues 17, 4, 2002.  The long-term price of oil should rest near its long run marginal cost (LRMC). Past price history and both demand and natural supply factors suggest that an…

  • Should we Try to Bridge the Global Digital Divide?

    Should we Try to Bridge the Global Digital Divide was published in info 4,3, 2002. The standard set of statistics for measuring the "digital divide" involve per capita use of various information and communications technologies (ICTs). Underlying these statistics is an assumption that higher usage per capita would be a good thing, and ubiquitous usage…

  • Information and Communication Technologies for Direct Poverty Alleviation

    Information and Communication Technologies for Direct Poverty Alleviation: Costs and Benefits was published in Development Policy Review, 20, May 2002. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are powerful tools for empowerment and income generation in developing countries. The cost-effectiveness of different ICTs does vary between developed and less developed countries, however. This article reviews the potential…

  • Prioritizing Countries for Assistance to Overcome the Digital Divide

    Prioritizing Countries for Assistance to Overcome the Digital Divide was published in Communications and Strategies, No. 41, First Quarter, 2001.  In order to provide the right type of assistance to the right countries to overcome the digital divide, some method of prioritization is required. This paper attempts to take a first step in that direction.…