[lbo-talk] On Raghu

[Julio Huato]

If my memory helps, the paper on the lack of growth effects of foreign
aid that the WSJ note reports on is a paper that Rajan presented in
Boston, at the 2006 AEA annual meeting.  Rajan shared a panel with
other "young stars" (Easterly, Acemoglu, Aghion, and Torsten Persson
come to my mind).  He stood out in the discussion.  I was surprised by
how critical he was of the traditional IMF policies, even though he
was representing the IMF.  (Easterly was bitching about the historical
performance of the World Bank, but he had already left it to join
NYU.)  Rajan brandished some econometrics showing that workers'
remittances beat official aid at inducing growth in poor economies.
He must be getting some attention in San Francisco.  Krugman just
wrote a note on his blog praising him.