Stephen C. Smith

Contact Information

Email: ssmith@gwu.edu

Address:
The George Washington University
Economics Department
Monroe Hall 340
2115 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Stephen C. Smith
Professor of Economics and International Affairs
Chair, Department of Economics

Stephen Smith’s work focuses on economic development, with an emphasis on solutions to poverty. He also researches economic development strategies, developing country financing issues, and the economics of adaptation to climate change in low-income countries. In addition, he has conducted extensive research on the economics of cooperatives, works councils, and codetermination.

The 13th edition of Economic Development, which he co-authors with Michael Todaro, was published in May 2020. Selected new 13th Edition material can be made available for instructors using the textbook.

Prof. Smith is author or coauthor of over 50 journal articles, and many other publications including Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works.
He has received awards and fellowships including appointments as Fulbright Research Scholar, Jean Monnet Research Fellow, IZA Research Fellow, Visiting Fellow and Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution, Fulbright Senior Specialist, and most recently UNICEF Senior Research Fellow during his sabbatical in 2018.

Details on some of his other publications and downloadable working papers may be found on RePEc. You can also view citations to his work on Google Scholar.

Some of his recent discussion papers include:
Do Constraints on Women Worsen Child Deprivations? Framework, Measurement, and Evidence from India,” with Alberto Posso and Lucia Ferrone

Works Councils and Workplace Health and Safety Promotion in Germany,” with Uwe Jirjahn and Jens Mohrenweiser

“Development Economics Meets the Challenges of Lagging U.S. Areas: Applications to Education, Health and Nutrition, Behavior, and Infrastructure,” forthcoming in Place-Based Policies, Jay Shambaugh et al., eds., Washington: Brookings Institution, September 2018

“Nonunion Employee Representation: Theory and the German Experience with Mandated Works Councils,” with Uwe Jirjahn, IIEP Working Paper 2017-22, published in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Vol. 89, 1, 2018

“Can Agricultural Extension and Input Support Be Discontinued?
Evidence from a Randomized Phaseout in Uganda,” with Ram Fishman, Vida
Bobic, and Munshi Sulaiman. IZA Discussion Paper 12476, July 2019

“Person Equivalent Headcount Measures of Poverty,” with James E. Foster and Tony Castleman, IIEP Working Paper #2015-10; Published in Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy, edited by Kaushik Basu and Joseph Stiglitz, Palgrave MacMillan, 2016

“Agricultural Extension and Technology Adoption for Food Security: Evidence from Uganda,”with Yao Pan and Munshi Sulaiman, IIEP Working Paper #2015-11, forthcoming in American Journal of Agricultural Economics

“The Two Fragilities: Vulnerability to Conflict, Environmental Stress, and their Interactions as Challenges to Ending Poverty,” in The Last Mile in Ending Extreme Poverty, Washington, Brookings Institution Press, July 2015

“Do Foreign Owners Favor Short-Term Profit? Evidence from Germany,” with Verena Dill and Uwe Jirjahn, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 40, 123–140, 2016

“Multidimensional Targeting and Evaluation: Framework and Application to a Poverty Program in Bangladesh,” with Virginia Robano, IZA Discussion Paper 7593