Ideas in Development

Why Dani Rodrik changed his mind on manufacturing

This episode might sound a little different to normal, as it was recorded live. For decades, the standard prescription for growth in developing countries was clear: industrialise. Dani Rodrik used to argue that manufacturing was the escalator that could lift workers out of low productivity, and economies out of poverty. So what happens when the escalator stops working? Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School, joins Ideas in Development to explain why he has become a manufacturing skeptic, what the evidence from Ethiopia, India and beyond tells us about where growth is actually coming from, and what an industrial policy fit for a services-led future should look like. Read the full show notes on our Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/ [https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/]

Adopt AND innovate: How Brazil and Taiwan did both

How can developing countries catch up with the technology frontier? The standard debate frames it as a choice between adopting technology from abroad and innovating at home. Karthik Tadepalli argues that this dichotomy is false – and that two of the twentieth century's most striking development stories show why. In this episode of Ideas in Development, Karthik takes us from Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which licensed chip technology in the 1970s and went on to spin out UMC and TSMC, to Brazil's Embrapa, which unlocked an area three times the size of Texas for farming and helped to turn a food-importing country into the world's largest agricultural exporter. We discuss why human capital came before results in both stories, how the spin-off model worked at ITRI, the concept of ‘induced innovation’ that shaped Embrapa's research priorities, and why surviving the politics mattered as much as getting the science right. Karthik's articles on Taiwan (in the Asterisk magazine) and Brazil (on his Substack) are both linked in the show notes on our Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/ [https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fideasindevelopment.substack.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctphillips%40cepr.org%7C4bdae6b1272f4c1f95a308deb26bd3e5%7Cdd672081708b4fbe86b6e69b0d273523%7C0%7C0%7C639144373354621370%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FAt%2FiBKThdU7XyLXhTMQsK9lzLU4womtbQraigdAMSg%3D&reserved=0]

S3 Ep7: The perfect city?

What does a perfect city look like in a low- or middle-income country – and how do you get there? In the closing episode of our cities series, Ed Glaeser joins Kurtis Lockhart and Oliver Hanney for a wide-ranging conversation on what makes cities work. He sets out the three foundations every city needs (safety, mobility, education), why infrastructure without the right incentives and institutions fails, what 19th-century New York's cholera outbreaks teach Lusaka about water, why “bus good, train bad” still holds, and what the medieval European city has to offer sub-Saharan Africa's fastest-growing urban regions. We also discuss the political art of being a great mayor, why "capacity eats policy as a light afternoon snack," and his three priorities for African cities over the next decade. Read the show notes on our Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/ [https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/] Check out the Africa Urban Lab: https://www.aul.city/ [https://www.aul.city/]

S3 Ep6: Cities of opportunity, not powder kegs

Are African cities a powder keg of restless youth – or the most promising place to build prosperity, peaceful politics and shared civic life? Leonard Wantchekon joins Ideas in Development to argue that African cities should be seen as a youth opportunity, not a youth problem. We discuss recent unrest in Kenya and Tanzania, his work showing that clientelism is overwhelmingly a rural phenomenon, and that deliberation and decentralisation are the institutional minimums African cities should be reaching for. Leonard then lays out what deliberation, decentralisation and a renewed urban culture could do for the next generation of African city dwellers. Read the show notes on our Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/ [https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/] Check out the Africa Urban Lab: https://www.aul.city/ [https://www.aul.city/]

S3 Ep5: How crime takes over cities

How does organised crime take over a city – and can mayors act before it does? Chris Blattman, economist and political scientist at the University of Chicago, joins Oliver Hanney and Kurtis Lockhart on the Ideas in Development cities series to explain how street gangs evolve into powerful criminal confederations, why cities like Medellín can have low homicide rates and still be almost completely captured, and what the "terrible trade-off" between violence, criminal power and political corruption means for policymakers. We then discuss the perils faced by fast-growing African cities, where the conditions for organised crime to take root are quietly assembling. Read the show notes on our Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/ [https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/] Check out the Africa Urban Lab: https://www.aul.city/ [https://www.aul.city/]