Working Papers

The Role of Growth Slowdowns and Forecast Errors in Public Debt Crises, Paper for NBER Conference, December 2011.

Benevolent Autocrats, August 2011.

Commercial Imperialism? Political Influence and Trade During the Cold War, (with Daniel Berger, Nathan Nunn, and Shanker Satyanath), updated February 2011. Web Appendix.

African Export Successes: Surprises, Stylized Facts, and Explanations (with Ariell Reshef) December 2010

Superpower Interventions and their Consequences for Democracy: an Empirical Inquiry (with Shanker Satyanath and Daniel Berger) March 2010

The power of exports, (with Ariell Reshef and Julia Schwenkenberg), World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5081, October 2009

Big Hits in Manufacturing Exports and Development, (with Ariell Reshef), October 2009

The European Origins of Economic Development, (with Ross Levine), April 2009

Highlighted

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

The Roots of Hardship - Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2012

The Case of Eskinder Nega - New York Review of Books, January 12, 2012

Review of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow - The Financial Times, November 5, 2011

Benevolent Autocrats by William Easterly, August 2011

World Bank Investigation Commitment Clock - How long has it been since the Bank promised an investigation into Ugandan land grabbing?

PODCAST: Prof. Easterly speaks about development and individual freedoms at the Columbia Tikvah-Hertog Summer Institute. What should we do to end world poverty? Not only do we not know, but that's the wrong question to ask.