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Célestin Monga

Célestin Monga

10 commentaries

Célestin Monga, a former managing director at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and a former senior economic adviser at the World Bank, is Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a former vice president and chief economist at the African Development Bank Group. He is the co-editor, (with Justin Yifu Lin) of The Oxford Handbook of Structural Transformation and the co-author (with Justin Yifu Lin) of Beating the Odds: Jump-Starting Developing Countries.

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  1. Rethinking Debt Sustainability in Africa
    op_monga1_ISSOUF SANOGOAFP via Getty Images_CFAfranc Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images

    Rethinking Debt Sustainability in Africa

    Mar 3, 2023 Célestin Monga shows why analysts need a more holistic framework for assessing African countries' “balance sheets.”

  2. An Africa Roadmap for Biden
    monga9_JEWEL SAMADAFP via Getty Images_biden africa JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images

    An Africa Roadmap for Biden

    Jan 27, 2021 Célestin Monga explains how the new administration can engage constructively with the continent on three levels.

  3. The Great Services Illusion
    monga8_EYERUSALEM JIREGNAAFP via Getty Images_ethiopiafactory Eyerusalem Jiregna/AFP via Getty Images

    The Great Services Illusion

    Sep 8, 2020 Célestin Monga offers four reasons why industrialization remains the key to poorer countries’ development.

  4. The Misguided War on Global Value Chains
    monga7_STRAFP via Getty Images_chinamanufacturingcoronavirus STR/AFP via Getty Images

    The Misguided War on Global Value Chains

    May 5, 2020 Célestin Monga shows why dismantling cross-border supply networks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic would be self-defeating.

  5. Economic Policies to Combat COVID-19 in Africa
    monga6_BADRU KATUMBAAFP via Getty Images_africaugandapharmacylinecoronavirus Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images

    Economic Policies to Combat COVID-19 in Africa

    Mar 27, 2020 Célestin Monga proposes four sets of measures to help mitigate the pandemic’s economic impact on the continent.

  1. buiter45_Jabin BotsfordThe Washington Post via Getty Image_jeromepowell Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Price Stability vs. Financial Stability?

    Willem H. Buiter

    If the US Federal Reserve raises its policy interest rate by as much as is necessary to rein in inflation, it will most likely further depress the market value of the long-duration securities parked on many banks' balance sheets. So be it.

    thinks central banks can achieve both, despite the occurrence of a liquidity crisis amid high inflation.
  2. frankel145_ Richard Baker  In Pictures via Getty Images_exchangerates Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images

    Fifty Years of Floating Currencies

    Jeffrey Frankel explains why the shift toward exchange-rate flexibility after 1973 was not a policy failure, as many believed.
  3. harrington34_Drew AngererGetty Images_avril haines Drew Angerer/Getty Images

    What Do America’s Spies Really Think About China?

    Kent Harrington thinks the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment should have delved deeper on the issue.
  4. grafton2_ SIMON MAINAAFP via Getty Images_water SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images

    Waking Up to the World’s Water Crisis

    Quentin Grafton, et al. see three overarching priorities for the first global water conference in almost a half-century.
  5. benami199_BULENT KILICAFP via Getty Images_ukraine BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images

    Peace Requires Betrayal

    Shlomo Ben-Ami shows why Ukraine and Russia will most likely have to pursue an unpopular endgame to stop the bloodshed.
  6. reichlin29_David L. RyanThe Boston Globe via Getty Images_svb David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

    Lessons from the SVB Collapse

    Lucrezia Reichlin

    Although Silicon Valley Bank was not deemed to be systemically important, its insolvency forced the US Federal Reserve to head off systemic contagion and exposed the inadequacy of the FDIC’s partial deposit insurance regime. The financial-stability framework adopted after the 2008 crisis obviously needs another overhaul.

    considers what the bank’s failure should mean for the current financial-stability framework.
  7. foglia4_kentohGetty Images_bankingregulations kentoh/Getty Images

    It’s the Banking Regulations, Stupid

    Antonio Foglia traces the Silicon Valley Bank failure back to fundamental flaws in the prevailing governance framework.
  8. mazzucato52_Mario TamaGetty Images_water agriculture drought Mario Tama/Getty Images

    Confronting the Global Water Crisis

    Mariana Mazzucato, et al. offer a seven-point blueprint for preserving one of the planet’s most important natural systems.
  9. op_haass3_Chris HondrosGetty Images_iraqwar Chris Hondros/Getty Images

    Revisiting America’s War of Choice in Iraq

    Richard Haass considers the enduring lessons from a foreign intervention that was both ill-conceived and poorly executed.

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