Lelo Nxumalo

It has been a while since I penned my thoughts and I just wanted to take this opportunity to very briefly reflect on what has been happening since I graduated in May. I made the decision to accept an offer from Bright Vision Consulting (BVC) and move to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I work as an Economic Consultant getting my hands dirty applying some of the frameworks I learned at Harvard. BVC was started by a fellow HKS alum, and we work primarily with state and federal authorities on the most pressing challenges in Malaysia. In this season of giving thanks (at least in America), I just wanted to say that it is a great privilege to be able to do what I do. I am grateful each day for the opportunity to not only be alive but also feel alive doing work that really matters! Photo Credit: Pancho  

One of the many things I learned from graduate school was the importance of having a theoretical framework within which to situate a perceived problem you seek to address. Not every problem is amenable to such conceptual grounding so it is worth articulating one for yourself so that you don't get led astray in your pursuit of feasible policies. Many of the issues I discuss in my blog can be viewed from policy frameworks used in public policy schools. Other frameworks I have had to acquire from personal research. To that end, one book that I think will stand the test of time is  Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2012). The  key message in this tome (it is 546 pages long) is that  n ations fail because their extractive economic institutions do not create the incentives  needed for people to save, invest, and innovate. Extractive political institutions support these economic institutions by cementing the power of those who benefit fr...

When Thomas Piketty came to speak at the Harvard Kennedy School last month I could not attend due to a class conflict. I later read The Economist 's review titled A Modern Marx , which called Piketty's Capital a "blockbuster" and "a great piece of scholarship", but also "a poor guide to policy". Professors and colleagues kept talking in similar terms until I was finally convinced that I should read it for myself. So, I started reading the book a few days ago. As a student of development economics interested in the evolution of inequality, I am finding it difficult to put the book down. This is not because it affirms my education but because it calls into question the theories predicting a plateauing or lessening of inequality such as the famous Kuznets curve. Piketty explains the Kuznets curve: According to this theory, inequality everywhere can be expected to follow a “bell curve.” In other words, it should first increase and then de...

In these last few days before graduation I have found myself with some free time to reflect and read books I have been meaning to read. Two of those books are 13 Banker s by Simon Johnson & James Kwak, and  Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises by former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. I got the idea  from a course I took recently at the Harvard Law School: BGP 264: Capital Market Regulation taught by Professors Hal Scott and Robert Glauber . BGP 264 Is a primer in US capital market regulation and the course explores the evolution of regulation focusing on changes adopted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.  The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (or Dodd-Frank) was signed into federal law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. It was the US's response to the recession, and sought to–among other things– end the problem of institutions deemed too big to fail (TBTF). Below is a brief response to whether the Act succee...

My interest in macroeconomics predates my time at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It partly stems from a personal experience of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe as well a desire to understand global economic and financial developments in a coherent model. My graduate thesis is a study of the risks associated with euro bond issuance by commodity-dependent sub-Saharan African countries. The relevant framework for this is the Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA), which I summarize below. Written under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey Frankel–a preeminent macroeconomist who served in President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers–my thesis recommends issuance of commodity bonds as a mitigant to unsustainable debt. I have already blogged about my findings elsewhere, so I would like to use this post to reflect on some of the macro theories and models that I have learned. Here is an outline derived from one of my favorite courses at the Kennedy School– API-120: Advanced Open Econom...

Using Tableau to visualize data on life expectancy in Africa  

Order here . I am excited to present the ninth edition of the Africa Policy Journal.  I am grateful to those who helped make it a success. Bakary Seckan, the former Editor-in-Chief made the transition seamless. Timothy Cheston, Tomoo Okubu, and Sarah Glavey helped publicize the Journal to the greater Harvard community and recruit new editors at the 2013 Student Club Fair sponsored by the Kennedy School Student Government (KSSG). We worked closely with both KSSG and Student Services to publicize and finance our activities. I am particularly grateful to Joyce Hahn, APJ’s Managing Editor whose fundraising skills and management prowess made this edition a reality. I thank the following editors for their commitment to APJ throughout the year: Elizabeth Bennett, Aubrey Merpi, Ngozika Amalu, Kimberly Fernandes, Tim Cheston, Sarah Glavey, Tomoo Okubu, Ding Xu, and Bhekinkosi Sibanda. We launched our 2014 Call for Submissions on October 15 th 2013. We reached a diverse ...