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Keynote

Keynote Talk

Tuesday, October 25, 2016
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Key Ballroom

Prof. Ricardo Hausmann
Ricardo Hausmann is Director of Harvard's Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department.

He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. His research interests include issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

Visualizing knowhow, technological diffusion and the wealth of nations

Recent theories of the wealth and poverty of nations put the accent on the accumulation of collective knowhow. The fundamental difference between rich and poor countries is not in the average level of individual skills of their citizens but in the kinds of things that can be done collectively. This creates an important visualization problem: how to measure and represent the differential levels of collective knowhow between countries and regions? How to visualize its evolution in time? How to identify more feasible and effective paths for progress? How can visualization help orient the efforts of the public and private sectors in enhancing progress?