Global Development Matters Special Meetup

In their new book Economic Gangsters, Raymond Fisman and co-author Edward Miguel take readers into the secretive, chaotic, and brutal worlds inhabited by these lawless and violent thugs. These two sleuthing economists follow the foreign aid money trail into the grasping hands of corrupt governments and shady underworld characters. Spend time with ingenious black marketeers as they game the international system. Follow the steep rise and fall of stock prices of companies with unseemly connections to Indonesia’s former dictator. See for yourself what rainfall has to do with witch killings in Tanzania—and more.

On Thursday, October 16th, please join us for a special Meetup beginning at 4:30pm, as we welcome Dr. Raymond Fisman, Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise and Research Director of the Social Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School. CGD research fellow, Michael Clemens, will serve as moderator.

We anticipate a lively discussion with Raymond Fisman, who along with co-author Miguel, uses economics to get inside the heads of these gangsters, and propose solutions that can make a difference to the world’s poor, including cash infusions to defuse violence in times of drought and steering the World Bank away from aid programs most susceptible to corruption.

“Economic Gangsters is a fascinating exploration into the dark side of economic development… Subjected to their genius, seemingly inconsequential events (like New York City parking tickets and Suharto catching a cold) become potent tools in understanding how the world really works. Rarely has a book on economics been this fun and this important.”— Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics