PGC Hosts Breakfast Conversation With Gallagher
The Pardee Graduate Council (PGC), the official graduate student organization of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, hosted a breakfast conversation with Professor of Global Development Policy Kevin Gallagher on March 17, 2017 that covered Gallagher’s current research projects as well as his extensive experience as a scholar of the relationship between international economic policy and sustainable development.
Gallagher kicked off the breakfast conversation by discussing how he became interested in the fields of international relations and global studies as a college student.
“When I was in college one of the big things was Apartheid in South Africa,” Gallagher said. “I got really involved in thinking about that, and was part of a student movement that was a global effort to try to get universities to divest all of their finances that were tied into the South African state. That’s one of the things that got me thinking globally.”
After graduation Gallagher said he worked as a congressional aide before deciding to return to academia to pursue a Master’s degree and PhD at Tufts University.
“I began studying international economics and international institutions, and since then my career has been focused on the extent to which international economic policy and international economic institutions impact development in developing countries,” Gallagher said. “Ever since I got my PhD I’ve been affiliated with research institutions that generate rigorous academic research for policymakers with the aim of not only publishing in journals, but also engaging policymakers to help write legislation and design policy.”
Gallagher discussed some of his current research projects, including work on a database that tracks up-to-date information on Chinese policy bank loans to Latin America by country, lender, sector and year.
“The China Development Bank really helped China grow, but over the past 10 years it has become global,” Gallagher said. “They are not as transparent on their operations so over the past five years we’ve put together a database to try and estimate where they are in the world and we found out the China Development Bank gives out more loans to foreign governments than the World Bank and all of the regional development banks combined. This is a major new source of development finance that can help meet a lot of the major gaps that we have.”
Kevin P. Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University, where he co-directs the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI). GEGI’s mission is to advance policy relevant research on governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment on a global scale. You can learn more about him here and follow him on Twitter @KevinPGallagher.