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*Economist* forum on Justin Lin and banking in developing countries
Lin is chief economist at the World Bank. You will find the forum here and it includes responses by Antoinette Schoer, Ross Levine, Abhijit Banerjee, Luigi Zingales, Mark Thoma, and others. My comment is here. Excerpt:
I can't decide whether I agree with everything in this essay or disagree with everything in this essay.
I see Mr Lin using the words “should”, “need to”, and phrases like “what matter most” or “not the way to go”. But who or what is the active agent here? The country’s home government? The World Bank? When it comes to all these banking systems, are we simply rooting for particular paths and outcomes—such as small and simple banks—or is Mr Lin making policy recommendations about how to get there? We never know.
Meanwhile, via Kottke, here is the World Cup Stacking Record (recommended).
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 14, 2009 at 02:54 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
No idea, but our government spent $18 million to upgrade the website that explains that the stimulus money isn't being wasted.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/07/18m-being-spent-to-redesign-recoverygov-web-site.html
Maybe we can add a fiscal responsibility website so other countries can learn our mad skills. There should be plenty of bankers looking for work we can send over there.
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 14, 2009 3:30:34 PM
Wikipedia says that is a rather old record. Emily Fox got 7.43 seconds in 2002; the record has since been broken and reset eight times by four people, and currently stands at 5.93 seconds set by Steven Puruggannan this past January.
Do neither Kottke nor Cowen do basic research on important topics before posting?
Posted by: eddie at Jul 14, 2009 3:38:24 PM
"basic research on important topics"
Thanks for the cup check.
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 14, 2009 4:14:23 PM
His English name is Justin Yifu Lin (林毅夫). Lin has a colorful past. So many people usually swam in the other direction that whenever the odd one went the other way, the PRC almost always turned it into a huge PR event. In Lin's case, he and they stayed silent for years, allowing his wife & family to think he was dead.
Posted by: RW Rogers at Jul 14, 2009 8:26:53 PM
Eddie,
You're right about the need for basic research. In the last paragraph of his comment to JL's column, Tyler says "When it comes to financial reform and growth, each country really is different." In more than 20 years as an economic adviser, I always started by explaining to my advisee why the particular situation that he wanted to change was different from all other past situations that appeared to be relevant to its analysis. And I remember that all my colleagues at the WB used to have the same approach for advising on any reform, not just financial reform. I have yet to meet a professional adviser that intentionally ignores the "initial conditions" that make a situation what it is, a combination of circumstances at a given moment.
Posted by: E. Barandiaran at Jul 14, 2009 8:51:19 PM
Great article Some stuff on here i never even knew about. Thanks for the list.
Posted by: supra shoes at Jul 15, 2009 3:07:08 AM
Good article! I don't think that stimulus money could produce the expected results soon!
Posted by: Steve at Jul 15, 2009 6:31:32 AM
Yeah, In the developing countries the banking is not much affected by the crisis.
Posted by: Banking at Jul 17, 2009 8:04:56 AM
