Democratizing Development Economics

Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, charged that economics, and in particular development economics, must broaden the scope of the questions it asks - thereby also becoming more relevant to today's complex, multi-faceted problems. He discussed the following topics: (i) from hubris to humility; (ii) are we equipped to tackle the pressing issues of the day?; (iii) a new multi-polar world requires multi-polar knowledge; (iv) has development economics lost its way?; (v) re-examining the old truisms; (vi) what we now need to know; and (vii) beyond the ivory tower to a new research model on open data, open knowledge, open solution. He identified four problems that merit future research: economic transformation; inclusive and sustainable development; dealing with risk and vulnerability; and results-based analysis of what works. The Bank remains the largest single source of development knowledge, and this treasure chest will be opened to everyone. We have questions to answer. We need to listen and democratize development economics