Author: Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven

Lecturer in International Development.

What Can We Learn from Alternative Theories of Economic Development?

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven7 Comments

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As people across the world are struggling to understand the rise of Trumpism, anti-establishment and anti-free trade movements, (Tallinn University of Technology), (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and (Tallinn University of Technology) have put together an impressive that can help make sense of what’s going on. As the field of Economics has become increasingly narrow since the 1970s, many important scholars and theories have been excluded from the field, and since forgotten. This Handbook presents rich historical accounts and ideas that can help explain economic and social development, and is a much needed attempt to correct for the existing biases in the field of Economics.Read More »

Philanthropy in Development: Undermining Democracy?

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven6 Comments

The word philanthropy dates back to the Greek word 蠁喂位伪谓胃蚁蝇蟺委伪, . Today the private philanthropy as non-official development assistance (ODA) to developing countries. Such assistance can be through large philanthropic foundations such as the Rockefeller or Clinton Foundation, or through 鈥榙irect giving鈥� platforms such as or . But does what we call philanthropy today deserve its name? Rather than focusing on the actions of specific philanthropic organizations, this piece聽will assess the impact the rise of philanthropy has on global governance and democracy.

Figure 1: Grants by private agencies and NGOsScreen Shot 2016-10-16 at 17.03.14.png
Source: OECD data

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The Trouble with Sub-Saharan African Debt

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven2 Comments

By Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven

Over the past decade, the Sub-Saharan African countries鈥� ability to draw on new debt in international capital markets has become a central characteristic of their development experience. Yet, the determinants of their borrowing costs are driven by external factors where investor perception plays a key role. This raises concerns over the sustainability of the current development model.

In the mid-2000s, 30 African countries received substantial debt reduction through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s Heavily-Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative. Only a decade later, many of the same countries are again facing debt distress. The its members of the dangers of rising debt obligations, while the IMF has called for an the region鈥檚 growth policies.

In our new paper entitled 鈥淎ssessing Recent Determinants of Borrowing Costs in Sub-Saharan Africa鈥� in the of the we trace the latest round of borrowing back to 2006 with Seychelles as the first sub-Saharan African (SSA) country to issue a sovereign bond, with the exception of South Africa, in 30 years. Since then, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, C么te d鈥橧voire, Senegal, Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania, Namibia, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Zambia have all followed suit, accumulating over $25 billion worth of bonds, with a principal amount of more than $35 billion (see Figure 1 for totals by country).Read More »

On the Blogs: Lack of Good Governance at the World Bank

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven1 Comment

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The process of selecting a new World Bank president has started. Pundits are already criticizing the process for being rushed, closed, and favoring the re-selection of the current President Jim Kim. This serves as a reminder of how political the international financial institutions are, although they often present themselves as being technical and apolitcal.

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What Did the Panama Papers Reveal About Africa (and the World)?

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A new by titled Panama Papers and the Looting of Africa provides insights into how complex corporate structures are used deliberately to hide away massive amounts of capital in tax havens. His findings depart from the popular discourse and approach to illicit financial flows, which has generally focused on how developing countries are poorly governed (the so-called ), rather than on systemic failure in the global financial architecture.

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Why Isn鈥檛 The World Bank鈥檚 Choice of Chief Economist More Controversial?

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven4 Comments

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This week it became clear that Paul Romer as its next Chief Economist. As Chief Economist he鈥檒l have the overall responsibility of the Bank鈥檚 research program and be able to shape the developments of the highly influential development institution. Commentators have named the choice of Chief Economist , , , . The choice of World Bank Chief Economist rarely garners this much attention 鈥� so, why the fuss?

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