Helen Milner, Director of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School addressed foreign development aid from a geopolitical perspective in the third plenary of GDN’s 12th Annual Conference. In contrast to the previous high-profiled participants who were economists, she comes from the Political Science world. Her presentation argued how aid is an integral part of countries’ foreign policy, and how changes in the international system are transforming aid...

The session, Financial Crisis and the role of Macro-Prudential Policies, sponsored by the World Bank Institute, focused on the role of macro-prudential policies, regulation and financial supervision in the post-crisis scenario. As was proven by the emergence of the crisis, traditional micro-prudential regulations were insufficient; hence, there is room for discussion of new and innovative approaches that may help to achieve financial stability...

The new buzzword around the world is ‘evidence-based policymaking’. But how effectively does research reach and inform policies in the real world, and what is the role of think tanks in bridging this divide? The Directors of three Think Tanks in Colombia, Chile and Equador shared tactical approaches in a session entitled ‘Research Shaping Policy: Latin America’s Experience’, and lived up to their reputation for ‘fierce debate’...

Developing and transition countries try to attract foreign investors. Some give them money, some give them tax incentives. And the most important reason behind these subsidies is that policy-makers believe that FDI has positive effects on domestic firms. Recently, researchers in this area have been focusing especially on knowledge transfer from foreign investors to their local suppliers...