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Célestin Monga

Célestin Monga

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Célestin Monga, a former managing director at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and a former senior economic adviser at the World Bank, is Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a former vice president and chief economist at the African Development Bank Group. He is the co-editor, (with Justin Yifu Lin) of The Oxford Handbook of Structural Transformation and the co-author (with Justin Yifu Lin) of Beating the Odds: Jump-Starting Developing Countries.

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  1. Rethinking Debt Sustainability in Africa
    op_monga1_ISSOUF SANOGOAFP via Getty Images_CFAfranc Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images

    Rethinking Debt Sustainability in Africa

    Mar 3, 2023 Célestin Monga shows why analysts need a more holistic framework for assessing African countries' “balance sheets.”

  2. An Africa Roadmap for Biden
    monga9_JEWEL SAMADAFP via Getty Images_biden africa JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images

    An Africa Roadmap for Biden

    Jan 27, 2021 Célestin Monga explains how the new administration can engage constructively with the continent on three levels.

  3. The Great Services Illusion
    monga8_EYERUSALEM JIREGNAAFP via Getty Images_ethiopiafactory Eyerusalem Jiregna/AFP via Getty Images

    The Great Services Illusion

    Sep 8, 2020 Célestin Monga offers four reasons why industrialization remains the key to poorer countries’ development.

  4. The Misguided War on Global Value Chains
    monga7_STRAFP via Getty Images_chinamanufacturingcoronavirus STR/AFP via Getty Images

    The Misguided War on Global Value Chains

    May 5, 2020 Célestin Monga shows why dismantling cross-border supply networks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic would be self-defeating.

  5. Economic Policies to Combat COVID-19 in Africa
    monga6_BADRU KATUMBAAFP via Getty Images_africaugandapharmacylinecoronavirus Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images

    Economic Policies to Combat COVID-19 in Africa

    Mar 27, 2020 Célestin Monga proposes four sets of measures to help mitigate the pandemic’s economic impact on the continent.

  1. pisaniferry143_FABRICE COFFRINIAFP via Getty Images_johnkerrychina Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

    Can “Cooperative Rivalry” Work?

    Jean Pisani-Ferry worries that America and China will be unable to find common ground on preserving the global commons.
  2. rajan82_BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIPOOLAFP via Getty Images_jeromepowell Brendan Smialowski/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    The Fed’s Role in the Bank Failures

    Raghuram G. Rajan & Viral V. Acharya

    There are four reasons to worry that the latest banking crisis could be systemic. For many years, periodic bouts of quantitative easing have expanded bank balance sheets and stuffed them with more uninsured deposits, making the banks increasingly vulnerable to changes in monetary policy and financial conditions.

    show how the US central bank's liquidity policies created the conditions for runs on uninsured deposits.
  3. velasco135_Nancy LaneMediaNews GroupBoston Herald via Getty Images_bank run Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

    Policymakers Keep Solving the Wrong Banking Problem

    Andrés Velasco

    When a bank fails, the first response by policymakers and the public is to blame risk-loving speculators, greedy investors, or regulators asleep at the wheel. But quenching our thirst for moral adjudication is a poor basis for policy, because the truth is both simpler and more troubling.

    argues that recent market turmoil has revealed that the sector’s main vulnerability is unavoidable.
  4. ito25_Chip SomodevillaGetty Images_yellen Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    An Insolvency Iceberg?

    Takatoshi Ito considers the risk that other banks will experience liquidity problems as interest rates continue to rise.
  5. skidelsky185_Wiktor SzymanowiczAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_jeremyhunt Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    Can Governments Still Steer the Economy?

    Robert Skidelsky explains why international finance and geopolitics make it harder to influence major performance indicators.
  6. sinn109_ DANIEL ROLANDAFP via Getty Images_financial crisis DANIEL ROLAND/AFP via Getty Images

    Accounting for Casino Capitalism

    Hans-Werner Sinn draws parallels between recent bank collapses and the late-nineteenth-century “founders’ crash.”
  7. zadek25_ FABRICE COFFRINIAFP via Getty Images_creditsuisseUBS Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

    Who Should Be Bailed Out Next?

    Simon Zadek urges rich-country governments to aid debt-distressed poor countries as urgently as they have their failing banks.
  8. callegari1_Getty Images_crowd population Getty Images

    The Population Boon

    Beniamino Callegari & Per Espen Stoknes correct popular myths about the threat of demographic growth to sustainable development.
  9. songwe8_NIPAH DENNISAFP via Getty Images_ghana NIPAH DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images

    Where Is the Global South’s Rescue Brigade?

    Vera Songwe decries the unequal responses to liquidity crises in Silicon Valley compared to the developing world.

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