When: Tuesday 18 April, 6pm-9pm
Where: In-Person Event taking place at Iveagh House Ballroom, Department of Foreign Affairs, St Stephens Green, Dublin
Registrtaion now closed.
DSAI is delighted to host Professor Howard Stein at Iveagh House, the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The evening will be opened by a representative of Irish Aid, and moderated by Dr David Nyaluke, Vice-Chair of the African Scholars Association and DSAI Business and Development Study Group Convenor.
If you can't attend our in person event - why not join Prof Stein's online live stream Guest Lecture from Belfast on Thursday 20th April at 4pm. See here for more detail.
Abstract:
The trajectory of development in sub-Saharan Africa remains puzzling to mainstream economists. Poverty stays stubbornly high, growth has been uneven, and life expectancy has continued to lag relative to other regions, despite governments adopting policies inspired by neoclassical economics. Economists have used a host of extraneous explanations for what some have called “Africa’s tragedy,” including ethnicity, geography, colonial history, the legacy of the slave trade, poor governance, poorly developed social capital, and other things.
This talk provides a critical review of the mainstream understanding of inequality in Africa and illustrates how policies arising from standard economics have exacerbated conditions. It will argue that the effort to understand income inequality needs to transcend neoclassical economics to focus on the evolution of the institutions, related economic structures, and the way Africa has been integrated into the global economy, all of which determine current and historical patterns. It will discuss the institutional approach to income distribution and explore the patterns we have observed in sub-Saharan Africa through this lens.
About the Contributors:
Keynote Speaker - Howard Stein is a Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and the Dept. of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. He is a development economist educated in Canada, the US and the UK. He has also published more than a dozen books and edited collections and more than 100 journal articles, book chapters and reviews. He has held various academic appointments at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Hitotsubashi University, Japan, Sussex University; UK, University of Lisbon, Portugal; and University of Leiden, Netherlands. He has undertaken research in a variety of African countries on foreign aid, finance and banking, neoliberalism, the methodology of Randomized Controlled Trials, health and gender, climate change, industrial policy, export processing zones, agricultural policy, African overpayment on sovereign bond issues, poverty and rural property right transformation, income inequality, Chinese economic relations and the institutionalization of neoclassical economics.
Moderator - Dr David Nyaluke is Vice-Chairperson of the African Scholars Association Ireland, UCD Proudly Made in Africa Fellow in Business and Development and Convenor of DSAI Business and Development Study Group. He researches and teaches on 'Doing Business in and with Africa' and on sustainable development across 15 business schools and departments of business in universities, colleges and institutes of technology in Ireland. David's current research is within the area of Africa and the international trade system. His research questions focus on how can the international trade system be reformed in various sectors to foster sustainable development in Africa and globally. Before joining UCD College of Business and Proudly Made in Africa, David completed a PhD from Dublin City University (DCU). His doctoral thesis investigated trajectories of political and economic development transformation of African states from independence into the 21st Century.