Articles by William Easterly: 2019  

‘Good Economics for Hard Times’ Review: Sticky Markets, Tricky Solutions - (Book Review) -Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2019

‘The Levelling’ Review: Masters Versus the Masses - (Book Review) - Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2019

In Defense of Neoliberalism - Boston Review, March 2019

Articles by William Easterly: 2018  

The Anti-Bill Gates - The Weekend Interview, Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2018

Going Beyond the Limits of the Earth With ‘The Wizard and the Prophet’ - (Book Review) - Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2018

Articles by William Easterly: 2017  

How to Solve Global Poverty - (Book Review) - Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2017

This common argument for U.S. foreign aid is actually quite xenophobic - Washington Post, March 31, 2017

Development in a Time of Xenophobia - Journal of International Affairs (SIPA), March 15, 2017

The surprising prevalence of surprises in export specialisation - VoxEU.org, January 16, 2017

Articles by William Easterly: 2016  

Democracy Is Dying as Technocrats Watch – Foreign Policy, December 23, 2016 

Stereotypes Are Poisoning American PoliticsBloombergView, December 16, 2016 

Michael Lewis's 'Brilliant' New Book About Cognitive Bias  – (Book Review) – The Wall Street Journal, December 6 2016

The War on Terror vs. The War on PovertyThe New York Review of Books, November 24, 2016  

Making Sense of Meltdowns – (Book Review) – The Wall Street Journal, July 6 2016

Articles by William Easterly: 2015  
 

Four Centuries of Human Initiative on One City Block The Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2015

The Father of Millions – (Book ReviewThe Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2015

Singing About Fighting Poverty, Slightly Off-Key – The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2014

The SDGs Should Stand for Senseless, Dreamy, Garbled – Foreign Policy, September 28, 2015

Bill Easterly’s take on the SDG’s – William Easterly interviewed, Devex, March 04, 2015

Articles by William Easterly: 2014  

The Leonard Lopate Show – WNYC, May 27, 2014

EconTalk, May 19, 2014

BBC World Service Business Daily (UK), May 9, 2014 (6:35 to 12:45)

Celebrity Musicians Can’t Feed the World – Slate, April 29, 2014

C-SPAN2 Book TV, April 27, 2014

The Tavis Smiley Show – PBS, April 25, 2014

The New York Times Book Review Podcast, April 18, 2014 (starts at 18:00 min remaining)

On Rethinking How We Give International Aid – KUOW-FM (NPR Seattle),  April 18, 2014

Fareed Zakaria GPS – CNN, April 16, 2014

Tech Nation – NPR, April 8, 2014

Dictator Worship – Prospect Magazine (UK),  March 27, 2014

The flaw in Bill Gates’ approach to ending global poverty – Seattle Times, March 24, 2014

The Stream – Al Jazeera, March 19, 2014 (video)

Mind Over Matters – KEXP-FM Seattle , March 29, 2014

Stop Sending Aid to Dictators – Time Magazine, March 13, 2014

How About Aiding Freedom Instead of Autocrats? – The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2014

The New Tyranny – Foreign Policy, March 10, 2014

The Tavis Smiley Show, February 28, 2014

The Takeaway – NPR, February 10, 2014

Aid Amnesia– Response to A Case for Aid by Jeffrey Sachs, Foreign Policy, January 24, 2014

Western vanities that do little to help the world’s poor, Financial Times, January 24, 2014

Articles by William Easterly: 2013  

The Big Aid Debate is Over: The failure of Jeffrey Sachs’ “Millennium Villages.”– Review of Nina Munk’s The Idealist for Reason Magazine, October 04, 2013

The Arrogance of Good Intentions: The reality of African poverty trounces an economist. – Review of Nina Munk’s The Idealist for Barron’s, October 05, 2013

Articles by William Easterly: 2012  

Free Eskinder Nega! – William Easterly, Peter Godwin, Aryeh Neier, Kenneth Roth, Joel Simon, The New York Review of Books, August, 16, 2012

The Roots of Hardship – Review of Why Nations Fail, by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2012

How I Would Not Lead the World Bank – Foreign Policy, March 5, 2012

Articles by William Easterly: 2011  

The Case of Eskinder Nega – with Mark Hamrick, Aryeh Neier, Kenneth Roth and Joel Simon, The New York Review of Books, January 12, 2011 (ungated version)

Thinking, Fast and Slow: Why even experts must rely on intuition and often get it wrong. – Review of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow for Financial Times, November 5, 2011

Correspondence: National, regional, and worldwide estimates of stillbirth rates – with Laura Freschi, The Lancet, September 3, 2011

What Must We Do to End World Poverty? – Podcast on development and individual freedoms, at the Columbia Tikvah-Hertog Summer Institute, August 10, 2011

Benevolent Autocrats – EconTalk, May 30, 2011

Measuring How and Why Aid Works — or Doesn’t – Review of More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan & Jacob Appel and Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2011

The Happiness Wars – The Lancet, April 30, 2011

Tracing Development of Manhattan Block – NPR, March 20, 2011

Technocrats vs Rights – Contestations, February 2011

Response to Nicholas Eberstadt, Global Poverty and Its Sad Persistence – Commentary, January 25, 2011 (Original article here.)

We can’t engineer the result we want in the Ivory Coast – The Guardian, January 14, 2011

Articles by William Easterly: 2010  

Lennon the Rebel, Bono the Wonk -The Washington Post, December 12, 2010

Foreign Aid for Scoundrels – The New York Review of Books, November 25, 2010

Why Are We Supporting Repression in Ethiopia? – The New York Review of Books with Laura Freschi, November 15, 2010

Reinventing the Wheel – Foreign Policy, October 11, 2010

UN Convenes To Assess Global Progress – William Easterly interviewed by Michel Martin, NPR, September 21, 2010

Only Trade-Fuelled Growth Can Help the World’s Poor – Financial Times, September 21, 2010 (ungated version)

Study: Educating Women Saves Millions of Kids – William Easterly interviewed by Maria Cheng, Associated Press, September 17, 2010

The Hazards of Doing Good – Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2010 (ungated version)

If Only Martin Luther King Had Modern Software and Jargon: the Powerpoint Version of “I Have a Dream” (PPT) – Huffington Post, August 27, 2010 (PPT Source)

How Not to Win Hearts and Minds – Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2010 (ungated version)

A High-Five for the Invisible Hand – New York Times, June 3, 2010

Making Foreign Aid Work – Religion and Ethics, PBS, February 19, 2010

Tower of Babble – Foreign Policy, January 6, 2010

Articles by William Easterly: 2009  

African Leaders Advise Bono on Reform of U2 – Huffington Post, November 23, 2009

Human Rights are the Wrong Basis for Healthcare Financial Times, October 12, 2009

Anarchy of Success – Review of L. Mlodinow’s The Drunkard’s Walk and H. Chang’s Bad Samaritans for The New York Review of Books, October 2009 (ungated version)

Out of Burundi, Into America – Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2009

Who is the Target Audience for Celebrity Aid Campaigns? – Huffington Post, August 13, 2009

The Skip Gates Arrest May Not Have Been About Race — But About Something Even Worse – Huffington Post, July 27, 2009

It’s Over: The Tragedy of the Millennium Development Goals – Huffington Post, July 6, 2009

Will US Army’s Development Delusions Cause More Deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan? – Huffington Post, June 19, 2010

Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid – Review of Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid, written for London Review of Books, June 2009, never published

Amnesty International Confuses Poverty and Human Rights – Huffington Post, June 5, 2009

Back to Sachs: Astrology, Despotism, and Africa – Huffington Post, June 2, 2009

Geography Lessons: Correcting Sachs on African Economic Development – Huffington Post, May 29, 2009

Sachs Ironies: Why Critics are Better for Foreign Aid than Apologists – Huffington Post, May 25, 2009

Interview with William Easterly, NYU – Interview published in The Heart of Teaching Economics: Lessons From Leading Minds, by Simon W. Bowmaker (NYU) Edward Elgar Publishing, April 24th, 2009.

False Economy – Review of Alan Beattie’s False Economy for Financial Times, April 13, 2009

Affluence and Ethics. Helping the poor: What can be done must be done. So what truly can be done? – Review of Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save for The Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2009

Random Thoughts of a Development Economist on the Crisis – Talk of the Nation, NPR, March 5, 2009

The Poor Man’s Burden – Foreign Policy, January/February 2009

Articles by William Easterly: 2008  

Foreign Aid Goes Military! – Review of Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion for The New York Review of Books, December 4, 2008 (ungated version)

Development Doesn’t Require Big Government – Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2008

Bill Gates’ Misguided Capitalism – Huffington Post, July 1, 2008

Trust the Development Experts – all 7bn – Financial Times, May 28, 2008

Easterly on “Growth, Poverty and Aid” – An interview with William Easterly, The Library of Economics and Liberty, February 11, 2008

Why Bill Gates Hates My Book – An op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2008

Creative Capitalism: Can It Meet the Needs of the World’s Poor? – Transcript of a panel discussion with William Easterly, Eugene Steuerle and Allen Hammond, Hudson’s Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, January 30, 2008

Articles by William Easterly: 2007  

Foreign Aid: An End to the World’s Worst Poverty? – Interview on "Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria," WETA-TV, PBS, November 16, 2007

Surprised by Opportunity – Review of William Duggan’s Strategic Intuition for The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2007

An Ivory Tower Analysis of Real World Poverty – Review of Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion for The Lancet, October 27, 2007

Don’t Bank on the ADB – An op-ed in The Wall Street Journal Asia, October 2, 2007

Does Giving Aid to the Poor End Poverty? – A discussion with William Easterly, Bram van Ojik, Ralf Bodelier, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, September 20, 2007

Interview on the Riz Khan Show – William Easterly interviewed by Riz Khan, Al Jazeera, May 30, 2007

How, and How Not, to Stop AIDS in Africa – Review of Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure for The New York Review of Books, August 16, 2007

What Bono Doesn’t Say About Africa – The Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2007

The Least Among Us – by Niall Ferguson, The New York Times, July 1, 2007

The Ideology of Development – Foreign Policy, July/August 2007

Interview with Jeffrey Sachs and William Easterly – Pablo Pardo, El Mundo, Madrid, May 26th 2007

Does He Hear the World’s Poor? Don’t Bank on It. – The Washington Post, April 22, 2007

Africa’s Poverty Trap – An op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2007

His Magical Misery Tour – Review of William T. Vollman’s Poor People for The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2007

Articles by William Easterly: 2006  

The Effectiveness of Foreign Aid – An online debate with William Easterly and Steve Radelet, Council on Foreign Relations, November 27, 2006

Dismal Science – Op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, including response from Sachs, November 15, 2006

Is Foreign Aid working? – A debate with Hilary Benn, Cabinet Minister for British aid – The Prospect, November 2006

Interview by Paul Solman, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer – September 21, 2006

4 Ways To Spend $60 Billion Wisely – The Washington Post, July 2, 2006

The Handouts that Feed Poverty – The Los Angeles Times, April 30, 2006

Accountability for Multilateral Development Banks – Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, March 28, 2006

The West Can’t Save Africa – The Washington Post, February 13, 2006

Articles by William Easterly: 2005  

The Utopian Nightmare – Foreign Policy, September/October 2005

Tone Deaf on Africa – The New York Times, July 3, 2005

The White Bands Burden – The Independent, June 5, 2005

A Modest Proposal – Review of Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty for The Washington Post, March 13, 2005

See also Letters for Jeffrey Sachs’s letter to the Editor in response to the book review and the reply from William Easterly (published March 27, 2005).  For a review of Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty in a more scholarly venue and style, click here.

Money is not a Cure-All for Africa’s Poor – The Times Higher Education Supplement, March 11, 2005

Comment on: “Latin America in the rear view mirror,” (with Ross Levine and David Roodman) Journal of Monetary Economics Vol 52 Issue 1, January 2005, pp.109-112

Articles by William Easterly: 2003  

Playing the Aid Game – Forbes, August 11, 2003

As the World Turns – The Washington Post, July 13, 2003

In Search of the Holy Grail: The Elusive Quest for Growth and Development, Interview by Brian Snowdon, World Economics, Volume 4, 2003

Articles by William Easterly: 2002  

Manifest Destiny – The Washington Post, September 22, 2002

Give the Poor A Choice – by Dennis Whittle and William Easterly, The Financial Times, August 26, 2002

Cartel of Good Intentions – Foreign Policy, July/August 2002

A Grand Tour of Crises – The Financial Times, June 3, 2002

Tired Old Mantras at Monterrey – The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2002

The failure of economic development, Interview in Challenge Magazine, January/February 2002

Articles by William Easterly: 2001  

Think Again: Debt Relief – Foreign Policy, November/December 2001

Does Foreign Aid Add Up? – Foreign Policy, July/August2001

The Failure of Development – The Financial Times, July 4, 2001

Articles by William Easterly: 2000  
Articles by William Easterly: 1990's  

Comment on Dani Rodrik, “Governing the Global Economy: Does One Architectural Style Fit All?” – Brookings Trade Forum 1999, edited by Susan M. Collins and Robert Z. Lawrence

Comment on Joel Slemrod, “Taxation, Prosperity, and Growth” – Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1996:1

Book review of A. Aslund, How Russia Became a Market Economy – Finance and Development, December 1995

Could inflation stabilization be expansionary?, (with Michael Bruno) – Transition Newsletter, Volume 6, Number 7-8, July-August 1995

What we can learn from the Soviet collapse, (with Stanley Fischer) – Finance and Development, December 1994

Living on Borrowed Time: Lessons of the Soviet Economy’s Collapse, (with Stanley Fischer) – Transition, Volume 5, No. 4, April 1994, pp. 1-3

The Determinants of Economic Success: Luck and Policy (with Lant Pritchett) – Finance and Development, December 1993, pp. 38-41

Financing the Storm: Russia’s Inflation Crisis, (with Paulo Viera de Cunha) – Transition, Volume 5, No. 4, October-November 1993, pp. 4-6

Ten Questions and Answers about Public Sector Deficits, (with Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel) – CEC Outreach Note #10, World Bank, May 1993

Book review of P. Krugman, Geography and Trade – Finance and Development, Vol. 29, No. 4, December 1992

Projection of Growth Rates –  CEC Outreach Note #5, World Bank, November 1992

Culture is Not an Obstacle to Growth, (with Lawrence Summers) – WE/MBI (Russia), June 1, 1992

Culture Is Not To Blame, (with Lawrence Summers) – Financial Times, op-ed page, April 15, 1992

Economic Policy and Economic Growth – Finance and Development, Vol. 28(3):10-13, September 1991

Inflation and Stabilization, comments on Stephan Haggard – The New Political Economy and Development Policymaking, edited by G. Meier, International Center for Economic Growth, 1991

Press about DRI:  

A Long History of a Short Block: The Greene Street Project” Article by Mina Seckin. Future of Storytelling. October 5th, 2015

NYU Economist: Embrace the Element of Surprise in Urban Planning” Article by Oscar Perry Abello. Next City. October 5th, 2015.

What Cities Tell Us About the Economy” Article by Tim Harford. Financial Times. September 18th, 2015

Brothels, Artists, and Exorbitant Real Estate on One NYC Block” Article by Allison Meier.  Hyperallergic. August 14th, 2015

From Brothels to Luxury, Mapping 400 Years on One NYC Block” Article by Greg Miller. Wired. August 4th, 2015

The Economics Lessons in a Single New York City Block” Article by Laura Bliss. Citylab. August 3rd, 2015