William Easterly

New York University

William Easterly is professor of economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU's Development Research Institute. He is also a non-resident fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington D.C.

Easterly is co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics, and founder of the Aid Watch blog. He spent 16 years as a research economist at the World Bank.

His books include The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006) and The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT, 2001).

Featured Work

OCT 3, 2011 Podcast

Ethics Matter: Economist and Foreign Aid Specialist William Easterly

The best system for discovering new approaches is not to have one planner at the top trying to decide what are going to be the ...

DEC 11, 2008 Podcast

Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other Economic Leaders

Michael Kinsley and William Easterly discuss Bill Gates's controversial proposal for "creative capitalism," in which big corporations integrate doing good into their way of doing ...

JUN 8, 2005 Podcast

Globalization: What's New?

William Easterly, Joseph Stiglitz, and Michael Weinstein discuss the main features of globalization, asking what is new, what drives the process, how it changes politics, ...