Prof. explains 'how to get rich without knowing how'

Economics is a tough subject to grasp these days, but last night NYU economics professor William Easterly made it a little easier.

As part of the CAS Scholars Lecture Series, Easterly gave a lecture titled "How to Get Rich Without Knowing How: The Paradox of Development Economics," in which he stressed the importance of a bottom-up approach to ending global poverty.

"Development doesn't require you to be a leader or understand how to achieve economic development," Easterly said. "Yet our refusal to accept this has led to a top-down approach to economics."

According to Easterly, this top-down approach has failed to encourage economic development. Because economic growth can be random and unpredictable, he said, people often incorrectly attribute positive growth to skilled political leadership from the top. He communicated that if an economy demonstrates high economic growth one decade, it is likely to suffer negative growth the following decade.

"A lot of what we get excited about as far as high growth episodes is temporary," he said.

Although Easterly admitted that the initial message of his lecture was far from optimistic, he offered some hope, nothing that there are measures every person can take to help end global poverty if he or she takes on a bottom-up approach to the problem.

"Bottom-up development is hopeful because instead of all depending on a few at the top, we all at the bottom can contribute," he said.

Easterly advises students to "exploit gains from specialization" and fix specific problems — with the aim of attaining a "comparative advantage."

Although second-year Wagner Graduate School of Public Service student Alexander Zeldin said he was glad he attended the lecture, he noted that Easterly's message may be biased.

"I think the biggest thing is to walk away from this and do your own research," Zeldin said. "[Easterly] already has his own data — you don't always know who to trust."

Kelsey Desiderio is a staff writer.