Special Presentation of the 2015 AfDB African Economic Outlook Report
Images from the event.
©Asselin: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau
On September 25th, 2016, Dr. Anthony Simpasa, Dr. Abebe Shimeles, and Dr. Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa of the African Development Bank (AfDB) discussed the latest edition of the African Economic Outlook with NYU Professor of Economics, Yaw Nyarko. The theme was Regional Development and Spatial InclusionThe event was free and open to the public. A networking opportunity followed the event.
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Abebe Shimeles
Division Manager, Development Research Department, African Development Bank
Abebe Shimeles, an Ethiopian national, did his graduate studies in economics at Delhi School of Economics, India (MA) and University of Goteborg, Sweden (Ph.D.). His main areas of research are poverty, income distribution, and labor market issues in Africa. Some of his work appeared in refereed journals, books and chapters in books. For the last fifteen years, he has been actively participating in research programs of the African Economic Research Consortium and other institutions such as the UNWIDER. In his early career, he was Assistant Professor of Economics at Addis Ababa University where he taught economics and other courses to undergraduate and graduate students. He worked for a consortium of NGOs who were interested in monitoring the effect of the Structural Adjustment Program on the poor in the mid-90s in Ethiopia. He worked for United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the World Bank before taking up his current position at African Development Bank. Currently, his research interest focuses on labor market integration in the context of improving Africa’s competitiveness in the global economy and others such as growth diagnostics in West Africa and migration and remittances in Africa.
Dr. Anthony Musonda Simpasa
Principal Research Economist, African Development Bank
Anthony Simpasa is an Economist in the Development Research Department, currently officer-in-charge of the Research Networking and Partnerships Division. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cape Town and a Master’s Degree from the University of Botswana. Dr. Simpasa is an AERC alumnus and member of the AERC Research Network, the Global Development Network and African Finance and Economic Association. His research interests include the microeconomics of banking, finance and investment, monetary and exchange rate policy issues, growth empirics and productivity dynamics, and the economics of natural resource windfall revenues. Dr. Simpasa is the task manager of the African Economic Outlook – the Bank’s premier flagship publications and coordinates many other research projects within the division. Prior to joining the AfDB, Anthony worked at the Bank of Zambia for 12 years as an economist.
Professor Yaw Nyarko
Economist, New York University, Director of Africa House
Yaw Nyarko is a professor of Economics at New York University and the Director of the Center for Technology and Economic Development. He is also co-Director of the Development Research Institute, winner of the 2009 BBVA Frontiers in Knowledge Award on Economic Development Cooperation, and Founding Director of NYU Africa House. A theoretical economist, his current work focuses on models where the economic actors engage in active learning about their environments and human capital models of economic growth and development. He is the author of many published research papers and the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including many from the National Science Foundation. He has been a consultant to many organizations, including the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Social Science Research Council.
Dr. Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa
Chief Economist, African Development Bank
Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa has a long and extensive experience in economic and development research garnered at the University of Gothenburg, where he received his Ph.D. in 1988 and later became Associate Professor. At the African Development Bank he has been Director of Research, Regional Director of East Africa (B), Director of Policy, Lead Economist and Head of the Extended Mission to Zimbabwe, and, during his first tenure at the Bank in the early 1990s, he was a senior economist. His latest publication is a debate article for the Society of International Development Journal entitled “Banana Out of Republic? On the Political Economy of Africa’s Transformation.” He has undertaken research collaborations at many universities, including Makerere, Nairobi, Lusaka, Helsinki, and Cornell. He has been an external examiner at the University of Cape Town, Stockholm’s Handelshogskolan, Lund University, and Dar es Salaam. He was a senior economist at the IMF and a fellow and project director at the World Institute of Development Economics Research of the UN University, based in Helsinki
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