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Photo: (L-R) Prof. Brett Inder, Head, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics; Prof. Abhijit Banerjee; Dr Alan Finkel, Chancellor, Monash University ; Prof. Lisa Cameron, Director, Centre for Development Economics and Prof. Gaurav Datt, Deputy Directo.
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One of the world’s leading advocates in the fight against poverty suggests the only way to solve global poverty is through trialling new initiatives — even if they might fail. Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT, Professor Abhijit Banerjee, outlined his vision to reduce poverty in a keynote address delivered to the 8th Australasian Development Economic Workshop held at Caulfield campus. Professor Banerjee said organisations like AusAID can play an important role. “AusAid has a body of knowledge to tell us what will work and what does not work and can create the opportunities to be a venture catalyst for development,” Professor Banerjee said. Professor Banerjee also used the address to criticise the decision by the Australian Government to cut its foreign aid budget saying Australia is well placed economically to help alleviate poverty. “The current economic crises in Europe will pass, but world poverty will haunt us until we deal with it,” he said. The annual workshop sponsored by AusAID and presented by the Monash Centre for Development Economics, brought together development economists from Australia and around the world, with a particular emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. In 2003 Professor Banerjee co founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a network of 65 developmental economists from around the world, to answer questions critical to poverty alleviation. |
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