Finn Tarp

Finn Tarp
File:Closing remarks (10036702275).jpg
Born	(1951-04-13) April 13, 1951
Nationality	Danish
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen
Occupation	Professor of Development Economics at the University of Copenhagen Director of UNU-WIDER
Website	www.econ.ku.dk/ftarp/ information at IDEAS / RePEc

Finn Tarp (1951–present) is a Danish Professor of Development Economics at the University of Copenhagen (where he completed his MSc and PhD) and Director of UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, Finland.

Biography

Professor Tarp has some 37 years of experience in academic and applied development economics research and teaching. His field experience covers some 20 years of in-country work in 35 countries across Africa and the developing world more generally, including longer-term assignments in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Vietnam.

Professor Tarp is a leading international expert on issues of development strategy and foreign aid, with an interest in poverty, income distribution and growth, micro- and macroeconomic policy and modeling, agricultural sector policy and planning, household and enterprise development, and economic adjustment and reform.

He has published almost 90 articles in international academic journals—including The Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Economic Review, European Economic Review, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, World Development, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Land Economics, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Economic Geography, Feminist Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, and Climatic Change—alongside five books, 14 edited book volumes and special journal issues and more than 40 book chapters.

In addition to his university positions, Finn Tarp has held senior posts and advisory positions within government and with donor organizations, and he is member of a large number of international committees and advisory bodies. They include the European Union Development Network (EUDN) and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). He is also a member of the World Bank Chief Economist’s 15 member ‘Council of Eminent Persons’ advising the Chief Economist and he has been awarded the Vietnamese Government Medals of Honour for ‘Support to the Planning and Investment System’ and the ‘Cause of Science and Technology’.

On 20 November 2015 Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark awarded Finn Tarp with the Order of the Dannebrog.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

Professor Finn Tarp is the author of more than 75 articles in internationally refereed journals, they include:

• ‘Assessing Foreign Aid's Long Run Contribution to Growth and Development’. World Development, vol. 69, 2015, pp. 6–18. With C. Arndt and S. Jones.
• ‘Political Connections and Land-related Investment in Rural Vietnam’. Journal of Development Economics, vol. 110, 2014, pp. 291–302. With T. Markussen.
• ‘Industry Switching in Developing Countries’. World Bank Economic Review, vol. 27(2), 2013, pp. 357–88. With C. Newman and J. Rand.
• ‘Measuring Agricultural Policy Bias: General Equilibrium Analysis of Fifteen Developing Countries’. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 92(4), 2010, pp. 1136–48. With H. T. Jensen and S. Robinson.
• ‘On US Politics and IMF Lending’. European Economic Review, vol. 50(7), 2006, pp. 1843–62. With T. B. Andersen and T. Harr.
• ‘On the Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth’. The Economic Journal, vol. 114(496), 2004, pp. F191-FF216. With C.-J. Dalgaard and H. Hansen.
• ‘Aid and Growth Regressions’. Journal of Development Economics, vol. 64(2), 2001, pp. 547–70. With H. Hansen.

Books

He has published several books, which include:

• Taxation in a Low-Income Economy: the Case of Mozambique. London and New York: Routledge, 2009, 383 pages. Editor with C. Arndt. ISBN 978-0-415-74652-6
• Facing the Development Challenge in Mozambique: An Economy-wide Perspective. IFPRI Research Report 126, Washington D.C., 2002, 189 pages. With C. Arndt, H. T. Jensen, S. Robinson, and R. Heltberg. ISBN 978-0896291317
• Foreign Aid and Development: Lessons Learnt and Directions for the Future. London and New York: Routledge, 2000, 512 pages. Editor, assisted by P. Hjertholm. ISBN 978-0-415-23363-7
• The South African Economy: Macroeconomic Prospects for the Medium Term. London and New York: Routledge, 1996, 219 pages. With P. Brixen. ISBN 978-0415142601
• Stabilization and Structural Adjustment: Macroeconomic Frameworks for Analysing the Crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. London and New York: Routledge, 1993, 212 pages. ISBN 0415081807

Working Papers

Professor Tarp is the author of almost 98 Working Papers, among them:

• ‘The Real Exchange Rate, Foreign Aid and Macroeconomic Transmission Mechanisms in Tanzania and Ghana’. University of Copenhagen. Institute of Economics. Discussion Papers, 2014(02). With K. Juselius and A. A. Reshisd.
• ‘The Happy Farmer: Self-employment and Subjective Well-being in Rural Vietnam’. WIDER Working Paper 2014/108. With T. Markussen, M. Fibaek, Nguyen Do Anh Tuan.
• ‘What is the Aggregate Economic Rate of Return to Foreign Aid?’. WIDER Working Paper 2014/089. With C. Arndt and S. Jones.
• ‘Productivity-enhancing Manufacturing Clusters: Evidence from Vietnam’. WIDER Working Paper 2014/071. With E. Howard, C. Newman, and J. Rand.
• ‘Exporting and Productivity: The Role of Ownership and Innovation in the Case of Vietnam’. WIDER Working Paper 2014/070. With C. Newman, J. Rand and T.T.A. Nguyen.
• ‘Learning by Exporting: The Case of Mozambican Manufacturing’. WIDER Working Paper 2014/066. With A. Cruz, C. Newman, and J. Rand.

Book Chapters

He has published 25 international refereed book chapters, including:

• ‘Access to Land: Market and Non-market Land Transactions in Rural Vietnam’. Chapter 7 (pp. 162–86) in S. Holden, K. Otsuka, and K. Deininger (eds.) Land Tenure Reforms in Asia and Africa: Assessing Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. With Luu Duc Khai, T. Markussen and S. McCoy. ISBN 9781137343802
• ‘Aid, Growth, and Development’. Chapter 2 (pp. 20–53) in G. Mavrotas (ed.) Foreign Aid for Development: Issues, Challenges and the New Agenda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-19-958093-4
• ‘Aid and Development: The Mozambican Case’. Chapter 14 (pp. 235–88) in S. Lahiri (ed.) Frontiers of Economics and Globalization: Theory and Practice of Foreign Aid, Elsevier, 2007. With C. Arndt and S. Jones. ISBN 978-0444527653
• ‘Reconstruction, Reform and State Capacity in Guinea-Bissau’. Chapter 13 (pp. 206–27) in T. Addison (ed.) From Conflict to Recovery in Africa, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. With J. Kovsted. ISBN 978-0-19-926103-1
• ‘Aid Effectiveness Disputed’. Chapter 4 (pp. 103–28) in F. Tarp (ed.) Foreign aid and Development: Lessons Learnt and Directions for the Future. London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 1–14. With H. Hansen. ISBN 9781280202469
• ‘Structural Adjustment and After: Which Way Forward?’ Chapter 18 (pp. 344–65) in E. Aryeetey, J. Harrigan and M. Nissanke (eds.) Economic Reforms in Ghana: The Miracle & the Mirage. London: James Currey, 2000. With E. Aryeetey. ISBN 0-86543-843-9

Current Professional Activities

• Member of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) advising the Chief Economist of the World Bank.
• First substitute member, Danida Appropriation Committee. Nominated by the Council for Development Policy and appointed by the Minister for Development Cooperation.
• Member of the Advisory Board, The Centre for Globalization and Development at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
• Member of the Board, Journal of Development Studies (JDS).
• Editor, Journal Sustainability Science (SUST).
• Member of the International Advisory Group, Trinity International Development Initiative, Dublin, Ireland.
• Resource person, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi, Kenya.
• Senior Associate, Mekong Economics Ltd., Vietnam.
• Invited Member, European Union Development Network (EUDN).
• External Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
• Member, Editorial Board, Journal of International Development (JID).

Special Honours

• January 2014 - The Vietnamese Government Medal of Honour for Support to the Planning and Investment System.
• November 2011 - The Vietnamese Government Development Merit ‘Medal for the Cause of Science and Technology’.
• August 1996 - The University of Copenhagen Institute of Economics’ Award for excellent and inspiring teaching.
• January 1979 - The Zeuthen award of the Danish Economic Society (Socialøkonomisk Samfund) based on the thesis Growth and Income Distribution in Developing Countries.
• November 2015 - Conferred a Knighthood, Order of the Dannebrog, by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

External links

• University of Copenhagen page on Finn Tarp
• UNU-WIDER page on Finn Tarp
• Finn Tarp CV
• RePEc page on Finn Tarp
• Finn Tarp's profile on Google Scholar