View and download the final conference program here.

After some stops and starts due to the pandemic, 100 Years of Economic Development will be held at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, from September 15-17.

From the end of World War I to now, it has been a tumultuous 100 years, during which a host of newly-independent nations began to chart out their own policies, often guided by the emerging discipline of development economics. It is a century that straddled the Great Depression and the Great Recession, witnessed rapid globalization with the creation of multilateral organizations, and attempts at global coordination of policy.

Recent decades have seen major breakthroughs in digital technology, and the rise of Big Tech, compelling us to rethink the foundations of economics and the nature of regulation. These changes have occurred alongside a reckless exploitation of the environment, which has cast a shadow over human sustainability. There is a scramble now, aided by the jolt received from the COVID-19 pandemic reminding us of the urgency of reform, to rectify some of this damage.

This conference is an occasion for a stocktaking of economics and economic policymaking. There will be a combination of plenary panels and keynote addresses, with papers from economists and social scientists from around the world, including developing economies.

We expect the conference to result in several published works. The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the new journal, Oxford Open Economics, have agreed to publish proceedings based on this conference.

Kaushik Basu
Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies, Department of Economics and SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

Administrative Manager: Rick Lee (rick.lee@cornell.edu), Einaudi Center

Advisory Committee: Chris Barrett, Panle Barwick, Arnab Basu, Michele Belot, Nancy Chau, Amrita Dhillon, Brian Dillon, Robert Hockett, Suraj Malladi, Anandi Mani, Ugo Panizza, Sudipta Sarangi

The event is cosponsored by Cornell's Department of Economics (Arts & Sciences) and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.