The Age of the Development Expert

William Easterly:

Foreign Policy magazine just released its top 100 Global Thinkers for 2009. Twelve out of the top 100 were what is loosely called “development experts:”

Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart (20), Paul Collier (36), Jeffrey Sachs (39), William Easterly (39), Esther Duflo (41), Muhammad Yunus (46), Amartya Sen (58), George Ayittey (76), Paul Farmer (83), Jacqueline Novogratz (85), Andrew Mwenda (98).

With the obligatory caveats about the more well-deserving who were omitted and questionable rankings, it is nice to see the diversity of the list: female and male, Central Asian, South Asian, African, European, and American, pro-aid and anti-aid, self-c onfident experts and those who don’t believe in experts (e.g. me), and even good experts and bad experts (kidding)?!

I took a development seminar with Professor Easterly a few years back and it's great to see him make the list. It’s also nice seeing how many other economists were chosen.