IMF Podcasts

While the world has been focused on the pandemic for the past two years, the rapid rise of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias pose another threat to global public health. Nathaniel Counts is Senior VP for Behavioral Health Innovation at Mental Health America and Assistant Professor at Albert Einstein's School of Medicine. In this podcast, Counts says dementia will vastly increase across the globe as the population age rises with increasing life expectancy and have profound impacts on welfare and economic growth, especially in low- and middle-income countries.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/32cwKQc Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd

Despite all the money and health infrastructure available to them, some of the world's richest countries have suffered higher death rates from COVID-19 than many developing countries. Jay Patel is a researcher at the Global Health Governance Program at the University of Edinburgh and has coauthored along with colleague Devi Sridhar an article about pandemic preparedness in the December issue of Finance and Development. In this podcast, Patel tells journalist Rhoda Metcalfe that regardless of their limited resources, many developing countries in Africa delivered effective containment strategies because of strong local leadership and knowledge sharing. Transcript: https://bit.ly/33hY0xx Read the article at IMF.org/fandd.

For all its strengths in measuring a country's economy, GDP falls short when it comes to gauging the well-being of its residents. For example, per capita GDP numbers today suggest people in the US are better off now than they were before the pandemic, regardless of the enduring social and economic upheaval. The recognition that GDP cannot encompass many dimensions of well-being has prompted a search for measures that reflect a more complete account of what people care about. Miles Kimball is a Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is developing the principles for a national well-being index. In this podcast, Kimball says the index would also serve to grade governments. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3lfnD8c Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd

Pandemics pose significant macroeconomic costs but only recently have garnered the attention they deserve. In this podcast, economist Ruchir Agarwal, sits down with Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, to discuss the role of macroeconomics in public health preparedness. Agarwal heads the IMF's Global Health and Pandemic Response Taskforce. Transcript: https://bit.ly/32KapKk Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd

In this third episode of Women in Economics, distinguished British economist Diane Coyle speaks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about how the lack of diversity within the economic profession is holding it back. Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and author of several books, some of which challenge conventional economic wisdom such as GDP. In this podcast, Coyle says economists need to start working with other disciplines if they are to live up to the influence they have in public policy and help deliver solutions to the complex challenges the world is now facing. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3DydryE Look for the review of Diane Coyle's latest book Cogs and Monsters in the Fall edition of Finance and Development. IMF.org/fandd

It's been almost 2 years since the coronavirus began to disrupt economies across the globe. In this podcast, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath asks Raghuram Rajan about inflation and his views on what Central Banks should be doing to minimize the damage caused by the pandemic. Rajan is a former Governor of the Bank of India and currently the Catherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth. This podcast is an abridged version of their discussion, you'll find a webcast of the full event at IMF.org.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3n69L1m

Despite two brutal COVID-19 waves and the widespread disruptions that ensued, India's economy is set to be one of the fastest-growing major economies for this year and beyond. Following a sharp contraction in GDP last year, India's latest outlook shows growth is expected to rebound to 9.5 percent this year and 8.5 percent in FY2022/23. Luis Breuer is IMF Senior Representative to India, Nepal and Bhutan, and a coauthor of the report. In this podcast, Breuer says India is recovering thanks to its response and scaled-up vaccine production but the pandemic is still clouding the country's outlook.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/2ZvKViG

La planète reste aux prises avec une pandémie qui dure et avec une accélération des changements climatiques. Les solutions à ces défis internationaux doivent mobiliser tous les pays et toutes les régions, y compris l’Afrique subsaharienne, qui possède la population la moins vaccinée au monde et des écosystèmes critiques. La croissance de la région devrait s’établir à 3,7 % en 2021, puis à 3,8 % en 2022. Cela fait suite à la forte contraction de 2020, mais représente toujours la reprise la plus lente par rapport aux autres régions. Papa N'Diaye dirige l'équipe qui produit les perspectives économiques régionales pour l'Afrique subsaharienne. Dans ce podcast, il dit que l'accès aux vaccins est toujours la priorité pour la région.

The world remains in the grip of the pandemic and a seemingly accelerating pace of climate change. Solutions to these global problems must involve all countries and regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa, with the world’s least vaccinated population and critical ecosystems. Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy is set to expand by 3.7 percent in 2021 and 3.8 percent in 2022. This follows the sharp contraction in 2020, but still represents the slowest recovery relative to other regions. Papa N’Diaye leads the team that produces the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, he says access to vaccines is still the priority for the region. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3ppx8EP

The Women in Economics series showcases extraordinary work by extraordinary women in a field dominated by men. In this second episode, journalist Rhoda Metcalfe speaks with Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose work on gender issues and the public value of care work gives voice to the unpaid caregivers who form the economic base for societies around the world. In this podcast, Ghosh says our whole notion of productivity is skewed because most care work is not captured in GDP.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3lUclqA