Harvard economist Prof. Hausmann to give public lecture on ‘Accessing knowhow for development’

Tuesday, 15 May 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Advocata Institute is organising a public lecture by Prof. Ricardo Hausmann, the Director of Centre for International Development (CID) at Harvard University. The event is to be held on Wednesday 16 May at the Lighthouse at LKI, 24, Horton Place, Colombo 07 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

Prof. Hausmann is a leading expert on development economics and a practitioner on finding enablers for growth in developing countries. He will speak on the topic of ‘Accessing knowhow for development’.

Economies grow by adding new products and services to their production portfolio, and not by producing more of the same kinds of products, argues Prof. Hausmann. The key to such diversification is access to know-how, but know-how often has to come from abroad. This is because it is often easier to move brains to new countries than to move new know-how into brains. In the experience of Singapore, India, Vietnam and most other dynamic economies, three channels of know-how transfer stand out: FDI, immigration and diaspora networks.

In this lecture, Prof. Hausmann explores the relationship between economic development and the accumulation of know-how. He will in particular discuss how to tackle Sri Lanka’s limited export diversification.

Prof. Hausmann and his team at CID has been conducting research on how to diversify Sri Lanka’s exports to compete globally, achieving dynamic growth and upgrading knowhow in the economy.

Before joining the faculty at Harvard, Prof. Hausmann was the Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

The lecture would be followed up Q&A moderated by Murtaza Jafferjee, CEO of JB Securities ltd. For registrations please visit www.advocata.org/events.

Advocata Institute is an independent free-market policy think tank based in Colombo.