The latest Optimist column for Foreign Policy suggests the Peace Corps should move towards a grant-making model akin to the Fulbright program. The extended version, The Peace Corps in a Smaller World: A New Model for the Next 50 Years, is now at CGD.
Charles Kenny
Books, Papers and Articles
Charles Kenny writes about global development — what’s working, what isn’t, and how the world can do better. An economist who spent fifteen years at the World Bank, he is now a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.
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Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding–And How We Can Improve the World Even More, published by Basic Books, is now outin paperback, with a foreword by Bill Gates. A summary is available here and in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Felix Salmon, Tyler Cowen, Nancy Birdsall, Jeni Klugman and Bill Easterly were kind enough to provide advance praise. So far, the book has been discussed/reviewed in Time, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Nation, National Review Online, the London Evening Standard, Economic History Net, the Daily Mail, Daily Kos and the China Post. Kirkus Reviews says the book is "an insightful examination… A poignant and optimistic rebuttal to critics of global development." Lant Pritchett, Madeleine Bunting, Matt Collin, Gregg Easterbrook, Terence Wood, Diane Coyle, Jonathan Power, Ed Carr, Chola Mukanga, Dennis de Tray, Andy Sumner, Dennis Whittle, Ignacio Mas, Daniel Skallman, Daniel Ben-Ami, Duncan Green and Matt Yglesias say (mostly) nice things, too. Patcrick Corcoran says nice things in Spanish. Anne-Marie Slaughter tweeted it was a "Must Read." Bjorn Lomborg and Steven Pinker recommended it to Foreign Policy as a best book of 2011 and Foreign Affairs picked it as one of the best international relations books of 2011 (see Richard Cooper's review). Bill Gates said "it's a fantastic way of looking at what has happened over the last 50 years, and really takes the debate about aid is totally good, aid is totally a waste and explains why its worked in some cases and how we can be smart about it." And then he said a bunch of other nice stuff too in a WSJ book review, in a speech to the World Health Assembly and around the launch of his annual letter. The Washington Diplomat did a long writeup of me and the book here. Foreign Policy features Getting Better in its Book Club series here, the Globalist has it as its book of the week here, I discuss the Africa bits with All Africa here, and I did a 'book chat' with David Leonhardt of the NYT here and he was kind enough to name it his book of the year (the LA Public Library system included it in their list, too). I also discussed optimism in general with the NYT's Mark Bittman here.
There was a launch event in Washington at CGD on March 3rd, and I discussed the topic of the book earlier that day at the New America Foundation. On March 10th I presented the book at ODI in London (sound gets better…). I've discussed it on Gates Notes, KERA's Think, the John Batchelor Show, Kojo Nnamdi and Changesurfer Radio. I was at the University of Oklahoma on April 6 where I spoke about it on KGOU,I was at Town Hall Seattle on April 18th and in LA at the Goethe Institute on April 20th –here's the video. I was in Chicago speaking about the book on May 17th and at UNICEF on June 9th. In late June I was at the Aspen Ideas Festival where I discussed global poverty with David Leonhardt and Esther Duflo, and chatted about the book to Felix Salmon. And I talked about the book and progress in Africa with Jeni Klugman on a recent PBS' Ideas in Action, on Gesprek Op 3 (Dutch TV) during the Veerstichting and at St Scolastica's Alworth Center. More recently, I did a podcast with the Middle Way Society on the topics of the book.
For those interested in some of the academic work that underlies the analysis: Chapter Three on what we know about growth draws from this and this. Chapter Four on Malthus draws on this. Chapter Five about global progress in the quality of life draws on this, this, this, and this. In addition to the papers used in Chapter Five, Chapter Six on income and quality of life draws on this. Meanwhile, two CGD essays, Solow's Return: Inventions, Ideas and the Quality of Life (subsequently published here) and Getting Better in Pictures summarize the argument of the book –the first in an (ever so slightly) more technical direction, the second with graphs.
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Mickey Mouse, Villain is a short article for the print edition of Foreign Policy. It argues that Disney's pursuit of ever longer copyright terms is against American and global interests.
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Invasion of the Alien Cattle is the latest column for FP. The column notes the massive influx of cows into the US and makes the point that immigrant bovines just aren’t a big source of demand for the output of other cows –young calves and the victims of enforced bovine cannibalism aside. So every foreign cow is taking the place of a domestic cow. Conversely, for humans, it doesn’t take the genius of the Soylent Corporation for immigrant workers to make goods, reduce prices and create jobs for others. And arguments that cows don't have cultural differences, so assimilation is easier, don't hold up –because cattle from foreign herds moo differently. The article suggests the only way to redress the bovine/human imbalance is a mooveon.org or minutesteak militia to deal with the bovine menace.
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This week's FP column describes global progress in reducing the number of absolute poor (those living on $1.25 or less), and the increasing concentration of poverty in smaller middle income countries and Africa. It also discusses if this is good news for aid agencies…
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Afro-Pessimism is Misplaced is a comment piece for for This is Africa. It based on some of the arguments from Getting Better which, just in case you were wondering, you can pre-order here
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Co-authored with my brother Robert, the latest FP column is the short version of our paper arguing that governments shouldn't subsidize fiber rollout. I'd wanted the title to be 'insoluble fiber,' but there you go.
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The latest FP column –what will happen in Southern Sudan after independence. (Answer: something between Botswana and Eritrea. What about that for exacting prognostication?).
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This column argues that traditional banks using mobile phones, smart cards and biometrics are likely to reach more people with financial services more quickly than microfinance.
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Charles Kenny 