In emerging economies in Africa and Asia, prolonged lockdowns represent a tradeoff—not between saving lives and saving the economy, but between saving some lives from COVID-19 and potentially condemning far more people to hardship and death by other means. Former chief economist of the World Bank, Kaushik Basu, will discuss India’s experience with the COVID-19 emergency and what lessons may be applicable to other low and middle-income countries, especially those in Africa.
Kaushik Basu is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, and former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank (2012-16). From December 2009 to July 2012 he served as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India at the Ministry of Finance. Till 2009 he was Chairman of the Department of Economics and during 2006-9 he was Director of the Center for Analytic Economics at Cornell. He is currently President of the International Economic Association (2017-2020). He was (the fourth) President of the Human Development and Capabilities Association, which was founded by Amartya Sen. He has held advisory posts with the ILO, the World Bank, the Reserve Bank of India and was, for several years, member of the steering committee of the Expert Group of Development Issues set up by the Swedish Government. He has also served as member of the Board of Directors of the Exim Bank of India.
