Study Group on Technology, Comparative Advantage, and Development Prospects

August 30, 2018

Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and information and communications technology have the potential to transform a range of industries and services around the world. While the effects of these changes in OECD countries have been broadly researched, their potential impacts in the developing world have received less attention.

New technologies are challenging traditional paths to industrialization, such as export-led manufacturing. At the same time, they may offer new routes for development focused on services over goods, or ideas and people over trade. At question is how rapidly these changes will emerge, whether potential positive or negative consequences will dominate, and under what circumstances.

CGD has convened a study group to explore issues of jobs and paths of economic development in the context of technological change. The study group’s outputs will provide context and direction for global policymaking designed to ensure that the benefits of advances in AI, automation, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are shared across the development spectrum. Instead of working towards a consensus, the group will produce mutually informed but independent viewpoints on a range of potential economic trajectories and what they imply for development.

The study group held its first meeting in July 2018 and will continue for a year. The group will meet three times: in closed sessions in July 2018 and March 2019, and in an open conference in the fall of 2019. Stay tuned for details on the conference.

CGD will release study group members’ research and findings throughout the year.


Study Group Members

Masood Ahmed, President, Center for Global Development

Solomon Assefa, Vice President of IBM Research for Africa & Emerging Market Solutions, IBM

Caroline Atkinson, Co-Chair, CGD Study Group on Technology, Comparative Advantage and Development Prospects

Ann Mei Chang, Executive Director, Lean Impact

Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Shanta Devarajan, Senior Director, Development Economics and Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group

Carsten Fink, Chief Economist, World Intellectual Property Organization

Carl Benedikt Frey, Co-Director and Oxford Martin Citi Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, University of Oxford

Jason Furman, Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University

Ian Goldin, Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Technological and Economic Change, University of Oxford

Isabel Guerrero, Executive Director, IMAGO Global Grassroots

Peter Henry, William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Finance, Dean Emeritus; NYU Stern School of Business

Leping Huang, Head of Semiconductor and Technology Hardware Research, CICC

Charles Kenny, Director of Technology and Development Program and Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development

Molly Kinder, Senior Advisor, New America

Susan Liautaud, Founder and Managing Director, Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited

Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute Partner

Benno Ndulu, Academic Director, Pathways for Prosperity

Amolo Ng’weno, East Africa Regional Director, Finance for Life, BFA Global

Michael Pisa, Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development

Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard University

Abebe Selassie, Director, African Department, International Monetary Fund

Radhika Shah, Co-President, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs

Bright Simons, President, mPedigree

Lindsay Wallace, Director, Strategy and Learning, Mastercard Foundation

Yanqing Yang, Managing Director, Yicai Research Institute; Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Yicai Media Group

Yuen Yuen Ang, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan

Shahid Yusuf, Chief Economist, The Growth Dialogue, George Washington University

Alan Gelb, Senior Fellow and Director of Studies, Center for Global Development

Vijaya Ramachandran, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development