The great and the good are weighing into the World Bank President debate – in addition to the senior Bank staffers coming out in support of Okonjo-Iweala, over one hundred well respected economists have come out for Ocampo. Here’s what they had to say:
We the undersigned economists, endorse the candidacy of Jose Antonio Ocampo for President of the World Bank. Throughout his career Dr. Ocampo has managed and reformed national ministries of finance, agriculture and planning, and regional and global UN Agencies pertaining to economic development and social affairs. Furthermore, he is one of the most noted development economists of our time. It is our view that based his relative merits, Dr. Ocampo is the most suitable candidate for World Bank president.
Signatories (as at 1130 GMT 5th April- more are being added all the time)
Initial Signatories:
Yu Yongding, Academician, China Academy of Social Sciences, China
Kevin Gallagher, Professor, Global Development Policy Program, Boston University, USA
Stephany Griffith-Jones, Financial Markets Program Director, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, New York, USA
Liqing Zhang, Professor and Dean, School of Finance, Central University of Finance and. Economics, Beijing, China
Additional Support:
- Dr. Y Venugopal Reddy, Emeritus Professor, University of Hyderabad, Former Governor – Reserve Bank of India, Hyderabad, India
- Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile
- Andrés Bianchi, Former Governor, Central Bank, Chile; Vice President, Credit and Investment Bank, Chile
- Jerzy Osiatyński, Former Finance Minister, Poland; Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- Leonardo Villar, Appointed Executive Director of FEDESARROLLO, Colombia; Formerly, Chief Economist and Corporate Vicepresident at CAF – Development Bank of Latin America; Member of the Board of Directors of the Colombian Central Bank (Banco de la República)
- Roberto Zahler, Former Governor, Central Bank, Chile; President, Zahler & Co., Santiago, Chile
- Sir Tony Atkinson, Nuffield College, Oxford, UK
- Guillermo Calvo, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Ha-Joon Chang, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK
- Giovanni Andrea Cornia – University of Florence, Italy; Former Director, UNU/WIDER; Former Director, UNICEF-IRC Economic & Social Research Programme
- Roberto Frenkel, CEDES, Argentina
- Gerry Helleiner, University of Toronto, Canada
- Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations; Professor, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK
- Deepak Nayyar, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Distinguished University Professor of Economics. New School for Social Research, New York; Former Vice chancellor, University of Delhi, India
- Lance Taylor, Arnhold Prof of International Cooperation and Development, New School for Social Research, New York, USA
- Frances Stewart, University of Oxford, UK
- John Toye, Dept of international Development, Oxford University, UK
- Manuel Agosin, Dean, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Chile, Chile
- Yilmaz Akyuz, Chief Economist, South Centre, Switzerland; Former Director and Chief Economist, UNCTAD
- Jose Antonio Alonso, Professor of Applied Economics, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
- Elmar Altvater, Free University Berlin, Germany
- Isabel Alvarez, Prof., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
- Enzo Fabio Arcangeli, Retired Professor of Economics. Formerly: Instituto de Economia, Unicamp, Campinas; and Università di Padova, Italy
- Rudi von Arnim, University of Utah, USA.
- Ricardo Bielschowsky, Professor, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janiero, Brazil
- Patrick Bolton, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Dr Stephanie Blankenburg, SOAS, Lecturer, Department of Economics, UK
- Robert A. Blecker, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC, USA
- Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Emeritus Professor, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil
- Ariel Buira, Former Deputy Governor, Bank of Mexico, Mexico
- Jorge Buzaglo, Honorary Associate Professor in Economics, Associate Researcher, University of Stockholm, Sweden
- Sara Calvo, Lecturer, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
- Fernando J. Cardim de Carvalho, Professor of Economics, Institute of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Ana Célia Castro, Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Coordinator Graduate Program in Public Policies, Strategies and Development; Vice-coordinator Institute of Science and Technology in Public Policies, Strategies and Development; MINDS Director (Multidisciplinary Institute for Development and Strategies);IBRACH member (Institute for Brazil and China Studies); Brazil
- J. Celso Cardoso Jr., IPEA, Brasil
- Pedro Cezar Dutra Fonseca, Professor, Economics Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Guglielmo Chiodi,, Professor of Economics, Sapienza Università di Roma, Department of Social Sciences, Italy
- Christopher Cramer, Professor of the Political Economy of Development, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK
- Roy Culpeper, University of Ottawa and Carleton University
- Sulamis Dain, Full Professor, Institute of Social Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Jane D’Arista, Political Economy Research Institute, USA
- Carmen Diana Deere, Distinguished Professor of Latin American Studies and Food & Resource Economics, University of Florida, USA
- Zdenek Drabek, Charles University, Czech Republic
- Amitava Krishna Dutt, Professor of Economics and Political Science, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, USA. Country of citizenship: India
- Prof. Giuseppe Fontana, Head of Economics, Professor of Monetary Economics. LUBS – University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, Universidad de Chile, Chile
- Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor of Economics, Sciences-Po, Paris, France; LUISS, Rome Italy
- Carlos Fortin, Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK
- Dr. Smitha Francis, Economic Research Foundation, New Delhi, India.
- Professor Dr. Ulrich Fritsche, Department Socioeconomics, University Hamburg, Germany
- Sarah Gammage, Economist, Chile
- Haihong Gao, Director, Research Center for International Finance, IWEP, CASS, Beijing, China
- Jayati Ghosh, Professor, J Nehru University, New Delhi, India
- Professor Ilene Grabel; Co-Director Graduate Program in Global Finance, Trade and Economic Integration, Josef Korbel School of Int’l Studies, University of Denver, USA
- Barbara Harriss-White, Senior Research Fellow, Area Studies, Oxford University, Emeritus Fellow , Wolfson College, Oxford, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Oxford University, UK
- Prof. Dr. Rolph van der Hoeven, Professor of Employment and Development Economics, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University (EUR), The Hague, The Netherlands
- Stuart Holland, Coimbra Centre for Innovative Management, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal
- Raphael Kaplinsky, Professor of International Development, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
- Celia Lessa Kerstenetzky, Full professor of Economics and Political Theory, Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Jan Kregel, Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Blithewood, Annandale-on-Hudson NY, USA
- Lena Lavinas, Professor of Welfare Economics, Institute of Economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Dic Lo, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, U.K.; and
School of Economics, Renmin University of China, China. - Denise Lobato Gentil, Professor, Institute of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Francisco Luiz C. Lopreato, State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil
- John Loxley, Department of Economics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
- Ricardo de Medeiros Carneiro, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia, Campinas – SP – Brasil
- Peter B. Meyer, President and Chief Economist, The E.P. Systems Group, Inc., United States
- John Miller, Professor of Economics, Wheaton College, Norton, MA, USA
- Alicia Puyana Mitis, Professor, FLACSO, Mexico
- Mritiunjoy Mohanty, Professor, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, India
- Beatriz Nofal, Director International Women’s Forum (IWF), Director KPMG Argentina, Professor UCA (Catholic University Argentina), Former Secretary of -Investments, Under-Secretary of -Industry and Trade and Congress, Representative of Argentina.
- Akbar Noman, Senior Fellow, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, New York USA
- Carlos Octavio Ominami Pascual, Economist; Former Parliamentary member; Former Minister of State to President Patricio Aylwin, Chile
- Gabriel Palma, University Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK. Country of origin: Chile
- Ernesto Ottone, Professor, College d’Etudes Mondiales /Maison des Sciences Humaines, París, France; Chair, Globalization and Democracy, Diego Portales University, Chile and San Martin National University, Argentina; Advisor, Club de Madrid
- Dimitri Papadimitriou, President, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Blithewood, Annandale-on-Hudson NY, USA
- Leda Maria Paulani, University of São Paulo, Department of Economics, Full Professor, Brazil
- Ignacio Perrotini, Full time Professor of Economics, UNAM, Mexico
- Cosimo Perrotta, Former Professor of the History of Economic Thought at the University of Salento, Italy
- Avinash D. Persaud, London Business School & Gresham College, UK and Barbados
- Pascal Petit, CNRS-CEPN University of Paris Nord, France
- Gabriel Porcile, Economist – ECLAC – Division of Productivity and Management, Santiago, Chile; Professor, Department of Economics, Federal University of Parana, Brazil
- Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary, CEPAL, Brazil
- Codrina Rada, Assistant Professor of Economics, The University of Utah, USA
- Kunibert Raffer, Department of Economics, University of Vienna, Austria
- Martin Rapetti, Professor of Macroeconomics, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Jorn Rattso, Professor of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- Sanjay Reddy, Associate Professor of Economics, The New School for Social Research, New York, USA
- Colin Richardson, Adjunct Professor of Economics, Centre for International Security Studies, University of Sydney, Australia
- Jaime Ros, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Kellogg Institute of International Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
- Zdzisław L. Sadowski, Emer. Professor of Development Economics, University of Warsaw, Poland; Honorary President of the Polish Economic Society
- Roger J Sandilands, Professor of Economics, University of Strathclyde, UK
- Claudio Sardoni, Professor of Economics, Department of Social Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- Karl P. Sauvant, Senior Fellow, Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment, Columbia University, NY, USA
- Rodney Schmidt, Vice-President, The North-South Institute, Ottawa, Canada
- Mario Seccareccia, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, and Editor, International Journal of Political Economy
- Stephanie Seguino, Professor of Economics, University of Vermont, USA
- Professor Paul Shaffer, Dept. of International Development Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
- Anwar Shaikh, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, New York, NY, USA
- Peter Skott, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
- Serena Sordi, Professor, University of Siena, Italy
- Irene van Staveren, Professor of Pluralist Development Economics, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands
- Dr Servaas Storm, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Osvaldo Sunkel, Full Member, Chilean Academy of Social Sciences, Politics and Ethics; Profesor,University of Chile; Former Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK; Chairman, Editorial Board, CEPAL Review
- Giuseppe Tattara, Economics Department, University of Venice, Italy
- Victor Tokman, Presidential Advisor to President of Chile Ricardo Lagos; Assistant Director General, ILO; Regional Director for the Americas, Director of the Employment and Development Department and Director of Regional Employment Program LA and the Caribbean
- Andras Uthoff Botka, Director (s), Instituto de Administración de Salud de la Facultad de Economía y Negocios, University of Chile, Chile
- Gianni Vaggi, Full professor of Economics, University of Pavia, Italy
- Alessandro Vercelli, Professor, Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development, University of Siena
- K. Vela Velupillai, Professor of Economics, University of Trento, Trento, Italy; Senior Visiting Professor, Madras School of Economics, Chennai, India; Emeritus Professor, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
- Matías Vernengo, Associate Professor, University of Utah, USA
- Ulrich Volz, Senior Researcher, German Development Institute & Visiting Professor, School of Economics, Peking University, China
- Robert Wade, Professor of Political Economy and Development, Department of International Development (ID), London School of Economics, UK
- Thomas E. Weisskopf, Professor Emeritus of Economics and in the Residential College University of Michigan, USA
- Timothy A. Wise, USA, Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University
- Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos, Head of the Economic Policy and Economic History Department, Economics Institute – State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
- Prof. Stefano Zambelli, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italy
we the unemployed and employed hereby endorse Antonio Ocampo for President of the World Never in the history of the world has there been a more qualified candidate than Antonio Ocampo
There are prominent women economists, including several who have served Democratic US presidents. Few weigh in for Ocampo, and other than long-retired Bank managers, how many for Ngozi? He iimterest in talent as an MD focused more on gender and nationality, with the latter winning in several well-known appointments when nationality trumped all.
135 endorsements. Impressive. 129 from men. 6 from women. Does this stark imbalance indicate the gender composition of his colleagues? Does that world still exist, at Columbia?
Maybe he doesn’t know many women as colleagues, which could be a real problem at the Bank.
To allay such fears, perhaps he could explain how he views larry summer’s infamous theorizing about women’s brains at Harvard?
“We seem to have blind faith in the power of the outside thinker and the anti-establishment figure to bring about change. From consultants who’ve never managed a balance sheet to presidential candidates who’ve never held public office, we have a fascination with the belief that fresh thinking can solve any problem. But while leaders can bring in all the new ideas in the world, if they don’t have the knowledge of an institution’s inner workings, it can take so much time to enact change that they lose the patience of the people waiting for it. All too often, they’re out of a job before those new ideas and fresh approaches have a chance to take hold and gain momentum.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/why-the-world-bank-could-use-nigerias-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-as-leader/2011/04/01/gIQAL7gWxS_blog.html
Ocampo has by far more policy making, technical and diplomatic experience and skills than the other two candidates. As many observers and serious economists have commented, if the decision is based on true merits and capabilities due the demands and challenges the post represents, Jose Antonio Ocampo must be the next president of the World Bank.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala would be the first insider World Bank president. Others have joined with “no experience in the internal workings and dynamics” of the Bank and done well.
At a critical time for the Bank, and its direction and credibility vis-a-vis MICs and its other owners, a new set of eyes and hands would be highly desirable. Let us hope the Bank’s board gives the need for a fresh viewpoint due weight in their interviews and consensus decision.
Anyone who has no experience in the internal workings and dynamics of the morld bank is definately going there to learn… For maybe like 3yrs? Where is the sense in that? I suggest square pegs will do fine in square holes.
The world bank needs to be runned by an accountant not an economist…. As far as i m concerned economist have no say on this issue…
I don’t think the endorsement of economists or the unemployed counts much, unless one is looking for Nobel candidates, or presidential contenders.
And, Jesse, these were former Bank insiders who endorsed Ngozi in the letter they are trying to get into the FT. Most of them retired long before she returned to the Bank and an MD, and did not have the opportunity to watch her leadership and management effectiveness in that role.
I find your comments interesting. On the previous post you highlight the endorsement of 39 former WB managers as important and telling, but here, the endorsement of over 100 prestigeous worldwide economist is not good because they caused the crisis? Maybe you forget that those 39 WB former directors also contributed to the crisis.
Perhaps these days it could be more prudent not mentioning the endorsement of economists, who did little to nothing to prevent the crisis, and instead list the endorsement of 100 unemployed, that would be more significative.
Awesome ! , Jose Antonio Ocampo is recognized by the most prestigious and experienced economist of the world to be the best candidate for the World Bank’s President based on merits .