The Economic Prospects of Middle-Income Countries
Mon, 4 December, 2023
5:30pm - 7:30pm
We are disappointed to inform you that, due to unforeseen circumstances, the upcoming event with Dr. Yunus has been postponed. The Wenger Lecture will continue as planned, and all those previously registered are invited to attend.
We are pleased to announce that Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, will be joining us along with Christopher Fussner, BA ’79, as part of the Wenger Family Lecture series on International Business and Finance on December 4th, 2023. This lecture will discuss “The Economic Prospects of Middle-Income Countries.” Professor James Foster will serve as the moderator.
The event will begin with a discussion from 5:30 – 6:30 pm, followed by a reception from 6:30-7:30 pm. The event will be hybrid.
About the Speaker:
Indermit Gill is Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.
Before starting this position on September 1, 2022, Gill served as the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, where he helped shape the Bank’s response to the extraordinary series of shocks that have hit developing economies since 2020. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program.
Gill led the World Bank’s influential 2009 World Development Report on economic geography. His work includes introducing the concept of the “middle-income trap” to describe how countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income. He has published extensively on key policy issues facing developing countries—among other things, sovereign debt vulnerabilities, green growth and natural-resource wealth, labor markets, and poverty and inequality.
Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.
Christopher Fussner founded and owns TransTechnology Pte. Ltd. in Singapore in 1988, a major distributor of surface mount technology and semiconductor capital equipment. Headquartered in Singapore, Trans-Tec has 235 employees worldwide with offices in China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam. He has had extensive experience in negotiating and establishing joint ventures, strategic alliances, licenses, distribution networks and sales worldwide. In addition, Mr. Fussner is also founder and owner of Certain Cellars Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, an importer and distributor of fine wines. Prior to forming these companies, Mr. Fussner headed Asia sales for Amistar Corporation based in Seoul, Korea and Singapore. As such, he was responsible for sales and service for electronics manufacturing industry machines in Australia, Asia, and India.
Mr. Fussner began his international career during the late 1978 in Ouagadougou (Upper Volta) Burkino Faso, where he was involved in aid work for Catholic Relief Services. He subsequently joined Church World Services during 1979 – 1980, devoting his time as a refugee resettlement officer in Malaysia, being responsible for the resettlement process of Vietnamese refugees. Mr. Fussner also taught English at the Hyundai Corporation in Seoul, Korea. As a young man, Mr. Fussner also worked in New York as a steamfitter, waiter, busboy, paperboy, and gardener.
Mr. Fussner received his B.A. in History and East Asian Studies from George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs (1979), and his M.I.M. (Master of International Management) at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona (1982). He is proficient in Chinese and French with some knowledge of Korean and Spanish.
About the Moderator:
Professor James Foster is the Vice Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, and Professor of Economics at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autonoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).