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Lovedrcmnd.app
How Asia WorksTheir words
Reading How Asia Works was a formative intellectual experience for me—a jolt out of the mathematical slumber of PhD coursework. I have a complex relationship with the text (more on this in a moment), but I still recommend it effusively to anyone who wants to learn about East Asia.
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Their words
What makes Studwell nonetheless compelling to read is his steadfast belief that poverty is a product of policy decisions.
Oliver W. Kim
Development economist; writes Global Developments, on growth, history and the numbers behind them.
Oliver W. Kim did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
Latest Site
What they believe
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There is no known escape from poverty other than climbing the global value chain.
In our world, we know of no escape from poverty other than climbing the value chain.
global-developments.orgSaid 29 Jul 2025This on korrents
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Changed their mind Comparing a poor country’s GDP with South Korea’s at independence is a shallow argument that hides the differences that actually decided the outcome.
Now Having fallen into the East Asia - Africa Trap before, I can tell you precisely why so many people make this mistake.
Said 21 Jan 2025This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
10 February
28 November 2025
29 July 2025
From one piece Indonesia Climbs the Chain 5 beliefs · global-developments.org
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korrents.com
Pollution is a price worth paying for escaping poverty only if the people breathing it are the ones who escape.Their words
It’s one thing if residents of Sulawesi like Mr. Jamal and his family have had to risk exposure to toxic pollutants in a successful escape from poverty. It’s another thing entirely if those bearing most of the burden see few of the benefits.
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Their words
Morowali’s poverty rate has seen a modest decline since 2016, from around 15% to 12%, but this puts it squarely in the middle of the pack of other Sulawesi districts—and not far from the decline in the national average, which fell from 10.9% to 8.6% over the same period.
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Their words
Poverty reduction is never a purely technocratic exercise, and questions about industrial policy can never be entirely divorced from those of political economy—including those of global geopolitics.
+ 2 more
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korrents.com
Industrial policy that grows a poor country’s economy does not automatically reduce its poverty.Their words
But, peering past the hype around Morowali reminds us that we should be careful before assuming that industrial policy must be pro-poor.
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Their words
In our world, we know of no escape from poverty other than climbing the value chain.
12 February 2025
From one piece A World Without Aid? 7 beliefs · global-developments.org
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korrents.com
Aid to African states has been large enough to warp their politics and too small to transform their economies.Their words
As scholars like Nicolas van de Walle have pointed out, aid can also foster an unhealthy dependency—in his coinage, many African states live in a state of “permanent crisis”, where aid is large enough to reshape (and warp) the political economy around it, but not large enough to be fundamentally transform countries’ economies.
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korrents.com
Aid transforms a country only where a capable state with a development plan is already there to spend it.Their words
All this to say: capable states with ambitious developmental plans, when hit with a bazooka of money, can seize the opportunity to transform themselves.
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Their words
The potential end of USAID is an unfolding public health and humanitarian disaster, but it does not permanently doom the task of growth—in large part because these aid flows were far too small to begin with.
+ 4 more
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Their words
American aid obligations in Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, have never exceeded $15 per person
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Their words
The longevity of that consensus is itself remarkable: in 79 years of data, Republican presidents spent an average of $34 billion a year on aid, while Democrats spent $40 billion.
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korrents.com
American aid spending has been flat in real terms since 1945 even as the American economy grew tenfold.Their words
Even as GDP has grown tenfold, US aid budgets have remained basically flat in real terms—the result (one might guess) of a delicate balancing act between bipartisan consensus among elites and a wariness of attracting too much negative attention.
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Their words
For people like me working on global development in the West, the bitter pill to swallow is that aid is not development.
21 January 2025
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On changing their mind
Having fallen into the East Asia - Africa Trap before, I can tell you precisely why so many people make this mistake.
From one piece No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 3 beliefs · global-developments.org
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korrents.com
Japanese colonial rule built a far deeper state in Korea than European rule ever built in sub-Saharan Africa.Their words
The Japanese empire reached far deeper into its colonies than any European empire ever did in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Their words
At independence, South Korea and Taiwan had far higher rates of primary education than most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Their words
Catch-up growth in the 20th century was almost entirely state-led.
7 April 2024
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Lovedrcmnd.app
The Strategy of Economic DevelopmentTheir words
This is one of those rare economics books that reconfigured my view of the world, made me reconsider views that I once considered silly, and adopt much of its language in my own thinking–so much so that I'm trying to evangelize it to you right now.
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Recommendsrcmnd.app
Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. HirschmanTheir words
If you enjoyed this post, I highly recommend Jeremy Adelman’s biography of Hirschman, Worldly Philosopher, which was my main source.
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Likedrcmnd.app
The Elusive Quest for GrowthTheir words
Read William Easterly’s 2001 The Elusive Quest for Growth, a good summation of development thinking at the time, and the prevailing sense one gets is of frustration.
9 March 2023
22 September 2022
7 April 2021
26 July 2019
7 February 2019
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 19 beliefs, 1 changed mind — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
There is no known escape from poverty other than climbing the global value chain.
In our world, we know of no escape from poverty other than climbing the value chain.
Indonesia Climbs the Chain Said 29 Jul 2025
Industrial policy that grows a poor country’s economy does not automatically reduce its poverty.
But, peering past the hype around Morowali reminds us that we should be careful before assuming that industrial policy must be pro-poor.
Indonesia Climbs the Chain Said 29 Jul 2025
Who gains from a poor country’s growth is a question of political economy and geopolitics, never a purely technical one.
Poverty reduction is never a purely technocratic exercise, and questions about industrial policy can never be entirely divorced from those of political economy—including those of global geopolitics.
Indonesia Climbs the Chain Said 29 Jul 2025
Show 16 more
Indonesia’s nickel boom tripled export value while poverty in the district hosting it fell no faster than the national average.
Morowali’s poverty rate has seen a modest decline since 2016, from around 15% to 12%, but this puts it squarely in the middle of the pack of other Sulawesi districts—and not far from the decline in the national average, which fell from 10.9% to 8.6% over the same period.
Indonesia Climbs the Chain Said 29 Jul 2025
Pollution is a price worth paying for escaping poverty only if the people breathing it are the ones who escape.
It’s one thing if residents of Sulawesi like Mr. Jamal and his family have had to risk exposure to toxic pollutants in a successful escape from poverty. It’s another thing entirely if those bearing most of the burden see few of the benefits.
Indonesia Climbs the Chain Said 29 Jul 2025
Aid is not development: transfers can relieve poverty, but the work that actually lifts a country out of it is not work donors do.
For people like me working on global development in the West, the bitter pill to swallow is that aid is not development.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
American aid spending has been flat in real terms since 1945 even as the American economy grew tenfold.
Even as GDP has grown tenfold, US aid budgets have remained basically flat in real terms—the result (one might guess) of a delicate balancing act between bipartisan consensus among elites and a wariness of attracting too much negative attention.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
Foreign aid was a bipartisan American commitment for eight decades, with Republican and Democratic presidents spending within a few billion dollars a year of each other.
The longevity of that consensus is itself remarkable: in 79 years of data, Republican presidents spent an average of $34 billion a year on aid, while Democrats spent $40 billion.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
American aid to sub-Saharan Africa has never exceeded $15 per person a year.
American aid obligations in Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, have never exceeded $15 per person
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
Ending USAID is a humanitarian disaster that still does not doom growth in poor countries, because the flows were always far too small to drive it.
The potential end of USAID is an unfolding public health and humanitarian disaster, but it does not permanently doom the task of growth—in large part because these aid flows were far too small to begin with.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
Aid transforms a country only where a capable state with a development plan is already there to spend it.
All this to say: capable states with ambitious developmental plans, when hit with a bazooka of money, can seize the opportunity to transform themselves.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
Aid to African states has been large enough to warp their politics and too small to transform their economies.
As scholars like Nicolas van de Walle have pointed out, aid can also foster an unhealthy dependency—in his coinage, many African states live in a state of “permanent crisis”, where aid is large enough to reshape (and warp) the political economy around it, but not large enough to be fundamentally transform countries’ economies.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
Catch-up growth in the twentieth century was almost entirely state-led.
Catch-up growth in the 20th century was almost entirely state-led.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
South Korea and Taiwan began their miracles with far more schooling than their income implied, and African states with far less.
At independence, South Korea and Taiwan had far higher rates of primary education than most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
Japanese colonial rule built a far deeper state in Korea than European rule ever built in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Japanese empire reached far deeper into its colonies than any European empire ever did in Sub-Saharan Africa.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
Without a stock of trained administrators no development strategy of any kind can even begin, whichever theory of growth you hold.
The fact remains that without a stock of capable administrators, industrial policy and export targeting and infrastructure-building—or even Adam Smith’s minimum of “peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice”—are a nonstarter.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
The newly independent states of Africa were largely European inventions, assembled from peoples who had not previously shared a state.
The relative absence of pre-colonial states meant that the newly independent African states were largely European inventions; modern Kenya, for instance, inherits the boundaries of British East Africa, which was created by pulling together the Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, and Kamba ethnic groups.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
Pre-colonial statehood in East Asia carried through the colonial period and on into the post-independence era.
Precisely how much the ancient continuity of East Asian states matters for development is still a little murky, and the delineation with colonial legacies is still an area of active debate—but the balance of evidence suggests that the legacies of these pre-colonial states stretched through the colonial period, extending even into the post-independence era.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
Africa before colonisation was not stagnant for lacking states: states formed where they paid, and other arrangements suited other places.
African states formed where it was rational to do so, in places like the Ethiopian highlands where population density was high and the disease burden was relatively low.
No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 Said 21 Jan 2025
Beliefs others hold too
Aid is not development: transfers can relieve poverty, but the work that actually lifts a country out of it is not work donors do. 2 hold this
For people like me working on global development in the West, the bitter pill to swallow is that aid is not development.
A World Without Aid? Said 12 Feb 2025
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
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Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 5 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Mixed on How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier
What makes Studwell nonetheless compelling to read is his steadfast belief that poverty is a product of policy decisions.
global-developments.org 10 Feb 2026
Loved How Asia Works
Reading How Asia Works was a formative intellectual experience for me—a jolt out of the mathematical slumber of PhD coursework. I have a complex relationship with the text (more on this in a moment), but I still recommend it effusively to anyone who wants to learn about East Asia.
global-developments.org 10 Feb 2026
Liked The Elusive Quest for Growth
Read William Easterly’s 2001 The Elusive Quest for Growth, a good summation of development thinking at the time, and the prevailing sense one gets is of frustration.
global-developments.org 7 Apr 2024
Show 2 more
Recommends Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman
If you enjoyed this post, I highly recommend Jeremy Adelman’s biography of Hirschman, Worldly Philosopher, which was my main source.
global-developments.org 7 Apr 2024
What others say about Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman →
Loved The Strategy of Economic Development
This is one of those rare economics books that reconfigured my view of the world, made me reconsider views that I once considered silly, and adopt much of its language in my own thinking–so much so that I'm trying to evangelize it to you right now.
global-developments.org 7 Apr 2024
What others say about The Strategy of Economic Development →
Where they publish
Site oliverwkim.com His site and blog on development economics. Has a feed.
Recent
- The Mountain To Climb 28 Nov 2025 At current growth rates, how long will it take for developing countries to catch up to the rich world?
- Some Thoughts on Creativity and Economic Research 9 Mar 2023 As of the fifth year of my economics PhD, I have published zero scientific papers, written a dozen short stories that no one has read, and sold precisely one painting. I am, therefore, one of the last people you should…
- Research Tips 22 Sept 2022 Here are some tips (mostly “life hacks”) with fairly broad applicability to research students. I’ve found that advice more often reflects the experiences of the giver than the needs of the receiver, so reading unpersona…
Show 3 more
- The Real Development was the Friends We Made Along the Way 7 Apr 2021 This is a blog about development economics, and there’s surely no better way to start than by writing about Albert Hirschman–one of the pioneers of the field, and quite possibly the most interesting person to ever becom…
- The RA’s Guide to Busia 26 Jul 2019 Spending a summer doing fieldwork in Busia, Kenya has become a rite of passage for Berkeley development RAs. When I was planning my trip, I wish there’d been a guide with the collected experience of former RAs all in on…
- Welcome! 7 Feb 2019 Hello. I am a first-year PhD student in Economics at UC Berkeley, starting in 2018. I did my undergrad at Harvard College, graduating in 2016, and worked for two years at the New York Fed.
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