Stephen C. Smith

Stephen C. Smith is the author of the recently published book, Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works. He is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Research Program in Poverty, Development, and Globalization at George Washington University, where he has been teaching courses on economic development with an emphasis on problems of poverty since 1983.

Smith received his PhD in economics from Cornell University and has been a Fulbright Research Scholar and a Jean Monnet Research Fellow. Smith is the co-author with Michael Todaro of Economic Development, and author of Case Studies in Economic Development. He is also the author or co-author of about three dozen articles in professional refereed journals, and many other publications.

Smith served as organizer and then first director of GWU’s International Development Studies Program in 1990-1996. He has also taught development economics at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. Smith has done onsite work in developing countries on four continents including China, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Peru, Uganda, and Former Yugoslavia. In addition to his main focus on development and poverty reduction, Smith has also conducted extensive research on the economics of employee participation, including works councils, ESOPs, and labor cooperatives, which has included extensive on-site work in Italy and Germany. Smith has been a consultant for the World Bank, the International Labour Office (ILO, Geneva), and the World Institute for Development Economics Research (UN-WIDER, Helsinki), among other agencies.