VoxTalk Vaults

Simon Evenett interviewed by Viv Davies, 22 July 2011

Simon Evenett of the University of St Gallen talks to Viv Davies about the 9th Global Trade Alert report, which suggests that G20 governments’ resolve to resist protectionism has faltered since the Seoul summit. Evenett describes murky protectionism, the impact of the crisis on the BRICs and the least developed countries, and how WTO rules are being circumvented. The interview was recorded in London on 18 July 2011.

Timothy Hatton interviewed by Viv Davies, 15 July 2011

Tim Hatton of the Australian National University talks to Viv Davies about his book on asylum policy, which assesses what asylum policies have achieved and argues that policy towards asylum seekers should be based on historical insight, quantitative evidence and a realistic view of the political economy of asylum policy. Hatton presents the case for a fully integrated Europe-wide asylum policy. The interview was recorded on 13 July 2011.

Paul Collier interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 08 July 2011

Paul Collier of Oxford University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about how low-income countries that are rich in natural resources can harness the opportunity for development in a way that benefits all their citizens. The interview was recorded in June 2011 after a ‘blue-sky’ conference on development policy-making organised by CAGE, the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy at the University of Warwick.

László Halpern interviewed by Viv Davies, 01 July 2011

László Halpern of the Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences talks to Viv Davies about a forthcoming report on the impact of the crisis on European business. The report finds considerable heterogeneity across countries and firms - for example, exporters contracted more than non-exporters, while importers suffered less of a decline - and highlights the policy trade-off between the benefits of export-oriented strategies versus outsourcing. The interview was recorded in Nottingham on 7 June 2011.

Tim Besley interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 24 June 2011

Tim Besley of the London School of Economics talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the importance of a country’s fiscal capacity and legal capacity for its development prospects – and the link to policy debates about ‘fragile states’. The interview was recorded in London in June 2011 after a ‘blue-sky’ conference on development policy-making organised by CAGE, the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the World Economy at the University of Warwick.

Viral Acharya interviewed by Viv Davies, 17 June 2011

Viral Acharya of New York University talks to Viv Davies about capital requirements and measuring systemic risk. Acharya describes the development of the NYU Stern systemic risk rankings of US financial institutions and what he considers to be the dismal failure of the Basel risk-weight approach to addressing systemic risk. He cautions against the blanket call for more capital and instead recommends for more capital against systemic risk contributions of financial firms. He also discusses the shadow banking sector and how banking risk and sovereign risk are becoming dangerously intertwined. The interview was recorded in London on 2 June 2011.

Paul Romer interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 10 June 2011

Paul Romer of NYU’s Stern School of Business talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his vision of dysfunctional poor countries kick-starting their own development by creating new cities with new rules – what he calls ‘charter cities’. The interview was recorded in London in June 2011 at a ‘blue-sky’ conference on development policy-making organised by CAGE, the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy at the University of Warwick.

Ian Goldin interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 03 June 2011

Ian Goldin, director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, ‘Exceptional People’, co-authored with Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan. They discuss how migrants have fuelled human progress over centuries, the benefits for sending and receiving countries, and why pressure from both demand and supply could lead to a doubling of cross-border migration flows over the next few years. The interview was recorded in Oxford in May 2011.

Peter Sutherland interviewed by Viv Davies, 27 May 2011

Peter Sutherland talks to Viv Davies about the final report of the high-level trade experts group, published this week, on 'World Trade and the Doha Round'. The report traces the imminent failure of the Doha Round back to what the authors consider to be "a deficit of political leadership"; they also make the case for why the WTO matters. The interview was recorded in London on 24 May 2011.

Markus Brückner interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 20 May 2011

Foreign aid has a significant positive effect on real per capita GDP growth in the least developed countries if account is taken of the quantitatively large and negative reverse effect of GDP growth on foreign aid. That is the conclusion of research by Markus Brückner of the University of Adelaide, which he discussed with Romesh Vaitilingam in an interview recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Glasgow in August 2010