Michael Clemens
ExpertiseEconomic growth and development; foreign aid effectiveness; economic history, international migration InitiativesEngaging Fragile States, Migration and Development, Zimbabwe's Crisis and FutureResearch TopicsAid Effectiveness, Capital Flows/ Financial Crises, Economic Growth, Inequality, Migration and Population, Millennium Development GoalsEducationPh.D. (2002), Harvard University, Economics; M.A. (1997), The Johns Hopkins University, Geography and Environmental Engineering; B.S. (1994), California Institute of Technology, Engineering and Applied Science BackgroundMichael Clemens currently investigates the effects of skilled-worker emigration on developing countries. Together with Nancy Birdsall, he leads CGD's Migration and Development Initiative. He studies skilled professionals from Africa and the South Pacific, and what happens in their home countries after they leave. He joined the Center after completing his PhD in Economics at Harvard, where his fields were Development and Public Finance, and he wrote his dissertation in Economic History. The central question of all his research is what the past experience of today's rich countries can teach about the future of today's poor countries. Under this broad umbrella, his past writings have focused on the effects of foreign aid, determinants of capital flows and the effects of tariff policy in the 19th century and the historical determinants of school system expansion. Clemens has served as a consultant for the World Bank, Bain & Co., the Environmental Defense Fund, and the United Nations Development Program, and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute. He has lived and worked in Brazil, Colombia, and Turkey. |
