David Roodman

Senior Fellow
Microfinance, foreign aid, Commitment to Development Index, debt and debt relief
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Education: B.A. in theoretical mathematics, Harvard College, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1990.
Media Contact: Jessica Brinton

David Roodman is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development focusing on microfinance, debt relief, and climate change. His book Due Diligence asks bottom-line questions about what we know about the benefits of microfinance, and what that implies for how it should be supported. He wrote the book through a pathbreaking Microfinance Open Book Blog, where he shared questions, discoveries, and draft chapters.

Roodman has been architect and manager of the Commitment to Development Index since the project's inception in 2002. The Index ranks the world's richest countries based on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5 billion people living in poorer nations; it is widely recognized as the most comprehensive measure of rich-country policies towards the developing world.

Roodman has written several papers questioning the capacity of common cross-country statistical techniques to shed light on what causes economic development. He co-authored a 2004 American Economic Review paper that challenged findings of World Bank research that aid works in a good policy environment. His non-technical Guide for the Perplexed builds on analysis of methodological problems and fragility in other studies. Among econometricians Roodman is best known for his computer program xtabond2, which implements the Arellano-Bond and Blundell-Bond generalized method of moments estimators. xtabond2 is one of the most downloaded add-ons ever for the commercial statistics program Stata. In 2011, Roodman ranked in the top 10 on the RePEc list of top young economists in the world.

Roodman previously worked at the Worldwatch Institute, where he wrote three monographs on environmental issues, and one on debt, Still Waiting for the Jubilee: Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World Debt Crisis. He authored the book The Natural Wealth of Nations: Harnessing the Market for the Environment, which Foreign Affairs called "required reading for legislators around the world.” The Japanese edition garnered him a selection as one of "The Outstanding Young Persons" of 2003 by the Osaka Junior Chamber, which led to an audience with the Emperor and Empress.

Roodman spent academic year 1998–99 on a Fulbright in Vietnam. He has never taken a course in economics or statistics.

New Popular Working Papers Books Other CGD Pubs Events Selected Works
  • Microfinance has been whiplashed by the hype cycle. Where it once was seen as a powerful treatment for poverty, recent headlines have favored phrases such as “borrower revolt,” “doesn’t work after all,” and “suicide.” What to make of this cacophony? David Roodman seeks the...

  • David Roodman he offers practical recommendations to those involved in providing microfinance services, including donors, social investors, and microfinance leaders.

  • My guest on this week’s Wonkcast is David Roodman, senior fellow and author of the long-awaited book, Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance. After more than three years of unprecedented investigation into the movement, David was able to cut through the hype and come to...

  • Readers of David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis of whether microfinance is the boon many think it is.

  • How well did the 22 rich countries that belong to the OECD Development Committee (OECD-DAC) perform in terms of supporting development in 2011? In this week’s Wonkcast, my guest David Roodman, architect of the Commitment to Development Index (CDI), explains some surprising results of the newly...

  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5 billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich-country policies that affect...

  • Mohammed Yunus has been forced by a Bangladesh court to step down as the head of the Grameen Bank, leaving the world to wonder what will become of the institution that helped inspire the microfinance revolution. On this week’s Wonkcast, we consider the rise and uncertain future of...

  • The largest crisis in the history of microfinance is now unfolding in India. After five years of growth so fast it has been described as “indescribable,” and after a lucrative initial public offering (IPO) by the leading firm, the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh has cracked down. Amid...

  • A crisis is unfolding in India's microcredit sector that-- beyond its immediate effects on borrowers and lenders-- will greatly affect the future of financial services for the poor. I'm joined by David Roodman, senior fellow here at the Center for Global Development and author of the forthcoming...

  • Ranking the Rich - Nov 17, 2010

    In this two-minute 2006 video clip, CGD’s David Roodman explains the purpose and approach of the Commitment to Development Index, which ranks how well rich countries support development across seven different policy areas. Moises Naim, then editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy Magazine; and...

  • Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance (CGD Brief) - Jan 4, 2012

    David Roodman he offers practical recommendations to those involved in providing microfinance services, including donors, social investors, and microfinance leaders.

  • Commitment to Development Index 2011 - Nov 1, 2011

    The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5 billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich-country policies that affect...

  • Commitment to Development Index 2010 - Nov 4, 2010

    The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich country policies that...

  • The Arc of the Jubilee - Oct 26, 2010

    The Jubilee 2000 movement, which called for the cancellation of the foreign debts of the poorest nations, became one of the most successful international, nongovernmental movements in history. David Roodman provides thumbnail assessments of Jubilee 2000 from several perspectives, deemphasizing...

  • Twenty Concrete Steps to Improve the United States’ Commitment to Development - Jul 19, 2010

    The United States ranked 17th in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index with strengths in trade and security but weaknesses in aid and environment. This CGD Note describes how the United States could boost its score.

  • What (Not) to Expect of Microfinance in Haiti - Testimony for the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade - Apr 26, 2010

    David Roodman testifies before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade about supporting Haiti's private sector

  • Introduction to Microfinance for Development, Georgetown University (Syllabus) - Dec 7, 2009

    This course explores the role of microfinance in economic development. It will discuss how poor people in poor countries use financial services such as credit and savings; the history and practice of delivering such services; what is known about their contribution to development; and how stories...

  • Commitment to Development Index 2009 - Oct 22, 2009

    The 2009 Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world's richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond simple comparisons of foreign aid, the CDI ranks countries on seven themes: quantity and quality of foreign...

  • The 2008 Commitment to Development Index: Components and Results - Dec 4, 2008

    This CGD brief summarizes the results of the 2008 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which ranks 22 of the world's richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. The Netherlands comes in first on the 2008 CDI on the strength of...

  • The Commitment to Development Index for Africa: How Much Do the Richest Countries Help the Poorest Continent? - May 12, 2008

    How committed are the world's richest countries to the development of Africa, the world's poorest continent? Rich countries are usually compared on how much foreign aid they give as a percentage of their GDP, but helping Africa involves much more than aid. CGD's Commitment to Development Index has...

  • Net Aid Transfers data set (1960-2009) - Updated January 28, 2011 - Jan 25, 2008

    David Roodman, creator of the Commitment to Development Index (CDI), has devised a measure of foreign aid flows that takes into account the interest payments that developing countries make to rich country creditors. The Net Aid Transfers data set, which is a component of the CDI, is now available...

  • Macro Aid Effectiveness Research: A Guide for the Perplexed - Working Paper 135 - Dec 10, 2007

    The argument about whether foreign aid "works" rages on. Recently, Paul Collier sought a practical middle path between William Easterly's development pessimism and Jeffrey Sach's development boosterism. How can smart people draw such contradictory conclusions from the same data? This new working...

  • The Commitment to Development Index 2007 Report - Oct 25, 2007

    Each year since 2003, the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) has ranked 21 rich countries on their dedication (or not!) to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poor countries. The CDI moves beyond simple comparisons of aid funding and in so doing embodies the mission of CGD,...

  • How Do the BRICs Stack Up? Adding Brazil, Russia, India, and China to the Environment Component of the Commitment to Development Index - Working Paper 128 - Oct 10, 2007

    In this working paper CGD research fellow David Roodman explains how the four biggest developing countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China, a group Goldman Sachs dubbed the "BRICs" -- stack up to their rich-country counterparts on the environment component of the annual Commitment to Development...

  • The 2007 Commitment to Development Index: Components and Results - Oct 10, 2007

    This CGD brief summarizes the results of the 2007 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which ranks 21 of the world's richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. The Netherlands comes in first on the 2007 CDI on the strength of...

  • How to Do xtabond2: An Introduction to "Difference" and "System" GMM in Stata - Working Paper 103 - Dec 6, 2006

    This working paper by CGD research fellow David Roodman provides an original synthesis and exposition of the literature on a particular class of econometric techniques called "dynamic panel estimators," and presents the first implementation of some of these techniques in Stata, a statistical...

  • Building and Running an Effective Policy Index: Lessons from the Commitment to Development Index - Mar 13, 2006

    The Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which ranks 21 countries across six policy areas, is widely seen as the most comprehensive and substantive measure of rich country policies towards development. In response to requests from other would-be index builders, CDI architect David Roodman...

  • Rich Country Tariffs and Subsidies: Let's Do the Numbers - Dec 13, 2005

    The ninth negotiating round, named the "Doha" Round for the city in Qatar where it was launched, has proven to be unique, because many developing countries are flexing their political muscle as never before. As a result, the Doha Round seems destined to fail unless rich countries cut the trade...

  • 2005 Commitment to Development Index - Aug 29, 2005

    The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) of the Center for Global Development ranks 21 of the world’s richest countries by evaluating their stance on seven domains of government policy to determine how those policies affect developing countries. This brief summarizes the components and results...

  • Anarchy of Numbers data set - Jul 1, 2004

    CGD working paper 32, "The Anarchy of Numbers: Aid, Development, and Cross-country Empirics" submits seven aid-growth studies to robustness testing and finds that most are fragile. The data used in the paper are in Excel (data set) and Stata formats (4-year and 5-year aggregates). Full results...

  • The Anarchy of Numbers: Aid, Development, and Cross-country Empirics - Working Paper 32 - Aug 15, 2003

    *REVISED Version May 2007Recent literature contains many stories of how foreign aid affects economic growth: aid raises growth in countries with good policies, or in countries with difficult economic environments, or mainly outside the tropics, or on average with diminishing returns. The diversity...

  • Aid, Policies, and Growth data set - Feb 27, 2003

    CGD working paper 26, "New Data, New Doubts: Revisiting "Aid, Policies, and Growth" by CGD non-resident fellow William Easterly, research fellow David Roodman, and Ross Levine (also published as "Aid, Policies, and Growth: Comment" in the American Economic Review, June 2004), concludes that the...

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