Enterprise Africa! in New York and Washington DC

My colleague Karol Boudreaux and her team are presenting the fruit of their research tomorrow in New York (see here). They will also be in Washington DC the rest of the week. Karol has done important research in various parts of Africa over the past two years showing how the enterprising spirit is alive among Africans and in what way it can contribute to development and the reduction of poverty.

The event in New York is jointly organized by The Mercatus Center at George Mason University, by Africa House at New York University, and by the Stern business school at NYU. William Easterly will be speaking tomorrow in New York and Pete Boettke will also address some issues in the field of development. The event tomorrow has more than 250 people registered, including many economists from NYU, and people from various international agencies.

The work of Karol and her team is very important as it shows that not only small pockets of entrepreneurship can exist in terrible conditions (something social scientists have known for a long time), but also that entrepreneurship, under small improvements in the institutional environment, can be more systemic—i.e., occur on a wide basis touching the lives of many. Indeed, in my view, one of the keys to understanding development is to explain the mechanisms by which entrepreneurship moves from local to systemic. It is a very difficult problem, and Karol’s work has moved us a little bit further towards a solution.

Comments

[Matt C.]

I met Dr. Boettke this morning in Union Station. I am assuming that he was headed to this conference. I was truly honored to be able to meet him. Here is how I recounted the episode to my wife.

"I got off my train at Union Station this morning. I was walking down to McD’s to get breakfast and my morning soda. I walked past this gentlemen who looked sort of like my boss and he is saying (or something to the effect), “…now I introduce [William(I now am assuming)] Easterly….” I was like, well that’s not my boss, but he does look really familiar. So I started going through all the people it can be. On my way back towards him it hits me. It’s Peter Boettke of George Mason University Economics Department. He is one of the premier Austrian Economist. So I went up to him and I introduced myself. I finally know how that little girl on American Idol felt as she started crying when Sanjaya sang, although I am still convinced she was crying because it was horrible. I was literally shaking inside. I told him I was a huge fan of his blog and I am sure I pretty much scared the begeezes out of him. I didn’t say anything profound or anything nearly remote to intelligent. So as I walked to my work, I was mentally slapping myself in the head for such a poor first impression."

[Peter Boettke]

Matt,

I was extremley thrilled that you introduced yourself to me. Thank you. And feel free to contact me anytime you want with questions, etc.

Pete