CRADLE Research Papers and Notes

The world stands at a crossroads, with rising anxiety about our capacity to sustain economic and social development while containing political and other conflicts. Attending to these concerns requires a passionate desire to create a better world, and the ability to harness the best ideas and research available.

CRADLE is intended to connect faculty and students at Cornell with leading thinkers in academia, government, international development, civil society, and the private sector. Participants come from different disciplines and vocations, but all share an interest in tackling some of the biggest challenges of our time, from social and institutional development to finance and global economic policy.

CRADLE’s founding directors are Kaushik Basu (economics) and Robert Hockett (law and public policy). Basu served as chief economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016 and is currently president of the International Economic Association. Hockett is senior counsel at Westwood Capital, worked at the International Monetary Fund and the New York Federal Reserve, and advises legislators, regulators, and NGOs at the global, national, state, and local levels.

On this blog you will find analyses by our CRADLE members that call attention to urgent matters at the intersection of development, law, and economics both domestically and abroad.

Advisory board

Cornell members

Christopher B. Barrett (applied economics and management), Robert H. Frank (economics), George A. Hay (law and economics), Ravi Kanbur (economics), Sital Kilantry (law), Muna Ndulo (law), Ted O’Donoghue (economics), Saule Omarova (law)

External members

Daniel Alpert (Westwood Capital and Cornell Law), Stephanie Kelton (Stony Brook University), Zia Mody (AZB & Partners, Mumbai), Sri Mulyani Indrawati (Minister of Finance, Republic of Indonesia), Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University)