Ernest Aryeetey

Professor Ernest Aryeetey is the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon. He will join on a full time basis from January 2010 onwards the US Brookings institution as senior fellow and director of the Africa Growth Initiative. Part of the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings, the Africa Growth Initiative focuses on Africa’s development challenges, and aims to draw more heavily on knowledge and analysis of Africa researchers.

Aryeetey currently serves as professor and director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana in Legon, and is a member of the Program Committee of the African Economic Research Consortium. His research has focused on economic development in Africa, regional integration, economic reforms and financial systems in support of development and small enterprise development. He has played a prominent role in shaping the economic policy debate in Ghana, and his work on informal finance and microfinance in Africa has influenced the microfinance programs of a number of international development finance organizations.

Aryeetey has also served as a member of or expert advisor to a number of major international commissions and working groups, including as member of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals Task Force on Growth and Poverty Reduction. He studied economics at the University of Ghana and obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Dortmund, Germany. He has published numerous books, journal articles and papers, including Financial Integration and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge 1998), Economic Reforms in Ghana: The Miracle and the Mirage (James Currey 2000) and Testing Global Interdependence (Edward Elgar 2007). Aryeetey has held a number of previous teaching and research appointments, including at the University of London, Yale University, Ohio State University and Swarthmore College. He is a board member of the Global Development Network and also of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER).