UNU Panel at GDN-UNU - Nicholas H. Stern, World Bank Chief Economist

Contributions to Development

UNU Panel at the Global Development Network (GDN) Annual Meeting 2000 in Tokyo

Nicholas H. Stern
World Bank Chief Economist
Senior Vice President Development Economics

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Nicholas H. Stern became World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics in July 2000.

From 1994 until late 1999, Mr. Stern was Chief Economist at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development where he was also Special Counselor to the President.

Before 1994 his career was mostly in academic life. He was appointed to a Chair (subsequently the Sir John Hicks Chair in Economics) at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1986, and returned to the LSE as School Professor at the beginning of 2000. He was Chairman of the Suntory-Toyota Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines at the London School of Economics, from 1987 to 1993. He has taught and researched at many places including Oxford and Warwick universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore and Delhi, and the People's University of China in Beijing.

His research and publications have focused on economic development and growth, economic theory, tax reform, public policy and the role of the state, economies in transition, and crime and criminal statistics. For more than 25 years he has been studying the economy and society of Palanpur, a village in northern India, where he lived for eight months in 1974-75. His most recent book is "Economic Development in Palanpur Over Five Decades (co-edited with Peter Lanjouw).

Mr. Stern gained his BA from Cambridge and his doctorate from Oxford. He was elected to a Fellowship of the Econometric Society in 1978 (and is currently a Member of Council), to a Fellowship of the British Academy in July 1993, and to a Foreign Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998. He has also served extensively as an economic advisor to businesses, governments and international institutions.

Partial list of publications by Nicholas Stern

Books by Nicholas Stern

1. Economic Development in Palanpur over Five Decades (with Peter Lanjouw), Oxford University Press, 1998.

2. Development Strategy and Management of the Market Economy, Volume I, with Malinvaud et al, 1997.

3. Editor of the Transition Report (the EBRD's main annual publication) and the Transition Report Update from 1994-1999.

4. Tax Policy and Planning in Developing Countries (with Amaresh Bagchi), Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1991.

5. Le Rôle de l'Etat dans le Développement Économique, Editions Payot, Lausanne, 1992. The first annual Conférence Walras-Pareto delivered at the University of Lausanne, 1-3 May 1991.

6. Development Experiences in China and India: Reforms and Modernisation (edited with S.P. Gupta, A. Hussain and W. Byrd), Allied Publishers, Delhi, 1991.

7. The Theory and Practice of Tax Reform in Developing Countries, (with E. Ahmad), Cambridge University Press, 1991.

8. The Theory of Taxation for Developing Countries, (Chapter 1, with D. Newbery), (Chapter 2), (Chapter 3), (Chapter 5 with D. Newbery), (Chapter 11, with E. Ahmad), Chapter 25, with D. Newbery), volume of solicited papers written and edited jointly with D.M.G. Newbery, published by the World Bank and Oxford University Press, 1987.

9. Palanpur: The Economy of an Indian Village, (with C.J. Bliss), Oxford University Press, 1982.

10. Crime, The Police and Criminal Statistics, (with R.A. Carr-Hill), Academic Press, May 1979.

11. Theories of Economic Growth, edited with J.A. Mirrlees. (The Proceedings of a conference of the International Economic Association, in Jerusalem April 1970), Macmillan 1973.

12. An Appraisal of Tea Production on Smallholdings in Kenya, published by the OECD, Paris, January 1972.

Articles by Nicholas Stern 1989-1999

1. "Capital Flows to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union" (with Hans Peter Lankes), in Feldstein, M. (ed), International Capital Flows, pp.57-97, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

2. "Macroeconomic Progress" (with Marina Wes) in Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, The Second Decade: Prospects for European Integration after Ten Years of Transition, pp.19-47, The Hague: Sdu Publishers, 1999.

3. "Making the most of markets" (with Hans Peter Lankes), EIB Papers 40th Anniversary Issue, Vol.3, No.2, 1988.

4. "A Stress Test for the East ", The Banker, pp. 18-21, July 1998.

5. "Promoting an Effective Market Economy in a Changing World (with Willem Buiter and Ricardo Lago) in Szekely, I.P. and Sabot, R. (eds) Development Strategy and Management of the Market Economy Volume II, pp.11-90, Oxford: Clarendon Press (for the United Nations, New York), 1997.

6. "The World Bank as 'Intellectual Actor'" (with Francisco Ferreira) in D. Kapur, J.P. Lewis and R. Webb (eds) The World Bank: Its First Half Century, Volume 2: Perspectives, pp.523-609, Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 1997.

7. "A Framework for a Development Strategy in a Market Economy" (with J.E. Stiglitz) in Malinvaud, E. et al (eds) Development Strategy and Management of the Market Economy Volume I, pp.253-296, Oxford: Clarendon Press (for the United Nations, New York), 1997.

8. "Macroeconomic Policy and the Role of the State in a Changing World" in Malinvaud, E. et al (eds) Development Strategy and Management of the Market Economy Volume I, pp.143-174, Oxford: Clarendon Press (for the United Nations, New York), 1997.

9. "Enterprise Performance and Macroeconomic Control" (with W. Buiter and R. Lago), Banco Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Vol.50, No.200, pp.3-22, March 1997.

10. "The Transition in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: some strategic lessons from the experience of 25 countries over six years" in Salvatore Zecchini (ed) Lessons from the Economic Transition: Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, pp.35-57, Kluwer Academic Publishers for OECD, Paris, 1997.

11. "Tax Reform and Stabilisation in Sri Lanka" in Mario I. Blejer and Teresa Ter-Minassian (eds), Macroeconomic Dimensions of Public Finance: Essays in honour of Vito Tanzi, pp.413-439, London: Routledge, 1997.

12. Transition Report Update, Chief Economist's Office, EBRD, April 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999.

13. Transition Report, in an annual series by the Chief Economist's Office, EBRD, November 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999.

14. "Value-Added Tax Options for India" (with Robin Burgess and Stephen Howes), International Tax and Public Finance, Vol.2, No.1, pp.109-141, May 1995.

15. "The Reform of Indirect Taxes in India" (with Robin Burgess and Stephen Howes) pp.113-166 in Robert Cassen and Vijay Joshi(eds), India: The Future of Economic Reform, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.

16. "Tax Reform in India" (with Robin Burgess), Indian Journal of Applied Economics, 3, pp.1-81, 1994.

17. "Taxation and Development" (with Robin Burgess), Journal of Economic Literature, 31, 762-830, June, 1993.

18. "Comment on 'James Meade and Benevolence' by Frank Hahn" pp.264-268 in A.B. Atkinson (ed), Alternatives to Capitalism: the Economics of Partnership (Proceedings of a conference held in September 1991, in honour of James Meade by the International Economic Association at Windsor), Macmillan/St Martin's Press, 1993.

19. "The Role of the State, Ownership and Taxation in Transitional Economies" (with Athar Hussain), Economics of Transition 1(1), 61-87, 1993.

20. "Economic Reforms and Public Finance in China (with Athar Hussain), Public Finance, 47 (supplement), 289-317, 1992.

21. "Discussion on 'Structural Factors and Tax Revenue in Developing Countries: A Decade of Evidence', by Vito Tanzi", pp.286-289 in Open Economies: Structural Adjustment and Agriculture, Ian Goldin and L. Alan Winters (eds.), Cambridge University Press 1992.

22. "From the Static to the Dynamic: Some Problems in the Theory of Taxation", Journal of Public Economics (Special Issue: ISPE/NIPFP Conference on Taxation and Planning), 47(2), 273-297, March 1992.

23. "Project Appraisal and Development Policy", Rivista di Diritto Finanziario e Scienza Delle Finanze, 645-656, December 1991.

24. "On the Recent Increase in Death Rates in China" (with A. Hussain), in Development Experience in India and China, S.P. Gupta, N. Stern, A. Hussain and W. Byrd (eds.), Allied Publishers, New Delhi 1991.

25. "Public Policy and the Economics of Development" (The Alfred Marshall Lecture, 31 August 1990, Lisbon), European Economic Review, 35, 241-271, April 1991.

26. "Effective Demand, Enterprise Reforms and Public Finance in China" (with A. Hussain), Economic Policy, 12, 141-186, April 1991.

27. "Prices, Taxes and Planning", Ricerche Economiche, 44, 303-320, April 1991.

28. "The Determinants of Growth", Economic Journal, 101, 404, January 1991. Also published in The Future of Economics, John D. Hey (ed.), Basil Blackwell 1992.

29. "Poverty in Palanpur" (with P. Lanjouw), World Bank Economic Review, 5, 23-33, January 1991.

30. "Social Security in Developing Countries: What, Why, Who and How?" (with R. Burgess), in Social Security in Developing Countries, E. Ahmad, J. Drèze, A.K. Sen, and J. Hills (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1991.

31. "Roundtable Discussion on Development Strategies: The Roles of the State and the Private Sector", Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics 1990, pp.425-429 (Supplement to the World Bank Research Observer), World Bank, Washington DC, 1991.

32. "Spending on Alcohol - Evidence from the Family Expenditure Survey 1970-1983" (with A.B. Atkinson and J. Gomulka), Economic Journal, 100, 808-827, September 1990.

33. "Policy Reform, Shadow Prices and Market Prices" (with J. Drèze), Journal of Public Economics, 42, 1?46, June 1990.

34. "The Employment of Married Women in the UK; 1970-1983" (with J. Gomulka), Economica, 57, 171?199, May 1990.

35. "How should ignorance of response to incentives affect tax rates?", Economics Letters, 32(4), 335?338, April 1990.

36. "Comments for the Closing Panel" presented at the World Bank Conference on Tax Policy in Developing Countries, Washington DC, March 1990, in Tax Policy in Developing Countries, Javed Khalilzadah-Shirazi and Anwar Shah (eds.), Washington DC: The World Bank.

37. "Principles of Taxation for Developing Countries" (with E. Ahmad) in Public Policy and Economic Development: Essays in Honour of Ian Little, M.FG. Scott and D. Lal (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1990.

38. "Tax Reform and Shadow Prices for Pakistan" (with E. Ahmad), Oxford Economic Papers, 42, 135?159, 1990. Also published in Taxation, Private Information and Capital, P.J.N. Sinclair and M.D.E. Slater (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

39. "Uniformity versus Selectivity in Indirect Taxation", Economics and Politics, 2(1), 83?108, March 1990.

40. "Comment on 'Social Sector Pricing Policy Revisited' by E. Jimenez", Proceedings of the World Bank Conference on Development Economics 1989, pp.143?147, (Supplement to the World Bank Economic Review and The World Bank Research Observer), World Bank, Washington DC, 1990.

UNU Panel on Contributions to Development