I recently reviewed Anwar Shaikh’s Capitalism – Competition, Conflict, Crises (2016) for the Norwegian journal Agora (see/buy the issue here). The review has also been published online on Manifest Analyse.
I recently published the report Bond to Happen? Recurring Debt Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Rise of Sovereign Bond Issuance. The report assesses risks and opportunities associated with Eurobond issuance in sub-Saharan Africa. The case studies in the report expose a lack of accountability when it comes borrowing processes in a selection of sub-Saharan African countries. In fact, the process of bond issuance is often plagued by lack of transparency and ultimately legitimacy, from the perspective of the citizens of the issuing country. As this is playing out in the context of a defective framework for sovereign lending and borrowing and a flawed system for debt restructuring, issuing Eurobonds entails many serious risks.
Read some coverage of the report:
- Bond to happen? Recurring debt crises in Sub-Saharan Africa and the rise of sovereign bond issuance (December 9th, 2016, Social Watch)
- Bond to happen? Recurring debt crises in Sub-Saharan Africa and the rise of sovereign bond issuance (December 8th, 2016, Righting Finance)
- Are Norwegian Investments in Sovereign Bonds Responsible? (November 9th, 2016, SLUG)
- Bond to Happen? Recurring Debt-Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Rise of Sovereign Bond Issuance (November 9th, 2016, SLUG, in Norwegian)
- Statsobligasjoner i Afrikanske land Рp̴ vei mot nye gjeldskriser? (October 29th, 2016, Dagsavisen, in Norwegian)
- Recurring debt crises in sub-Saharan Africa and the rise of bond issuance (October 7th, 2016, Bretton Woods Project)
- Rapportlansering i Washington (October 7th, 2016, SLUG, in Norwegian)
A paper I wrote with Aleksandr Gevorkyan was recently published in the November 2016 issue of the Review of Development Economics. The article is Assessing Recent Determinants of Borrowing Costs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Empirically the paper finds that sovereign bond yields are significantly influenced by global volatility, commodity prices and global liquidity—all factors that are out of the control of the sub-Saharan economies in question.
The research was picked up by UN News Centre and the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, and we published op-eds on the findings on Interfima, Developing Economics, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, and Seeking Alpha.
Rethinking Economics Norway, an organization I co-founded and am a board member of, officially became an organization this August. The network now consists of more than 60 Norwegian economists, including professors, professionals, and students at all levels (BA, MA, PhD).
We have received a lot of media attention so far (see the website), including this piece by the whole board in Aftenposten and this piece by Ebba Boye and I in Dagens Næringsliv (Norway’s largest business newspaper). There was also a 6 page piece in Klassekampen on our movement, also citing my book review of Anwar Shaikh’s Capitalism.
Several Economics professors have responded to our critique of the Economics discipline, as they do not agree that there is a need for a wider variety of theories to be taught at Norwegian Economics departments. As the Norwegian Economics departments are thoroughly mainstream, we clearly still have a lot of work to do.
I wrote this piece for The New School Economic Review (NSER) blog.
Financial Deepening and Post-Crisis Development in Emerging Markets Current Perils and Future Dawns (ed. by Aleksandr V.Gevorkyan and Otaviano Canuto) was published recently. In it, I have a chapter on the changing character of financial flows to sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 223-245).
Following my book review of Anwar Shaikh’s Capitalism – Competition, Conflict, Crises, I ended up in a debate with a Norwegian philosopher (and Marxist) about Shaikh’s labor theory of value. The debate took place in the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen.
Here is the exchange:
Anwar Shaikh versus seriøs teori (Jørgen Sandemose, May 30th 2016)
Seriøs teori (Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven, June 1st 2016)
Om en uholdbar «verditeori» (Jørgen Sandemose, June 8th, 2016)
På tide å lese boka? (Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven, June 14th 2016)
Den siste replikken (Jørgen Sandemose, June 15th, 2016)
Last week New School Professor Anwar Shaikh was in Norway to launch his new book Capitalism – Competition, Conflict, Crises. For the occasion, I was asked by the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen to write an essay about his book. You can read the full text here.
Last month a group of us at The New School and the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s Young Scholars Initiative working group on Economic Development organized an interdisciplinary and critical conference on regional challenges and competing theories of development. The Debating Development conference brought together professors and students from a variety of regions, institutions, and disciplines. Read more about (and join!) the YSI Economic Development working group.
Coverage and footage of the conference
Ingrid's website 