Highlights from the 3rd Bolivian Conference on Development Economics (BCDE 2011)

The Third Bolivian Conference on Development Economics was held at the Catholic University of Bolivia in La Paz last month with approximately 170 participants and 50 presenters, including keynote speakers Santiago Levy from IADB and James Robinson from Harvard.

The principalorganizers were the Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD), the Society of Bolivian Economists (SEBOL), the Catholic University of Bolivia (UCB) and the Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences (BCDE), receiving financial support from Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), the Danish Embassy in La Paz, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE), Fundación Estás Vivo, Banco Sol, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Instituto de Investigaciones Socioeconómicas (IISEC), Banco Nacional de Bolivia and Boliviana de Aviación (BOA).

The conference took place over two days, the 14th and 15th of November, with keynote lectures in the morning, parallel sessions of contributed papers during the day, plenary sessions by the end of the day, and social activities in the evenings. James Robinson started the conference with a keynote lecture on the role of institutions for economic development, arguing that institutions have very strong and persistent effects on development, and that the institutions in Bolivia so far have not managed to provide the incentives and opportunities necessary for equitable development. It is still too early to tell whether the recent institutional changes in Bolivia constitute an improvement, but Professor Robinson suggested there is reason for optimism. 

After a whole day of excellent parallel sessions, there was a panel session on “Checks and Balances in the New Bolivian Constitution” with contributions from James Robinson (Harvard University), Victor Hugo Cardenas (Ex-vice-president of Bolivia), Carlos Toranzo (ILDIS), Diego Ayo (UMSA) and Luis Tapia (CIDES). By the end of this session, I believe most people were convinced that there are no checks and balances in the new Bolivian constitution at all. But James Robinson suggested that this should not necessarily worry us; that we were perhaps asking too much of our constitution.

The second day started with a great keynote speech by Santiago Levy about changing the social security system in a way that would eliminate informality. It showed an impressive combination of technical mastery, political experience and presentation skills, which is rare to see.

The annual Assembly of SEBOL took place during lunch the second day. Here the new Board of Directors was instituted (President: Pablo Selaya; Vice-President: Lykke Andersen; Secretary General: Boris Branisa; Treasurer: Kathlen Lizarraga; Directors: Miguel Urquiola, Beatriz Muriel, Antonio Saravia, Elizabeth Jimenez and Carlos Gustavo Machicado). Possible venues and keynote speakers for next year’s conference were discussed.

The conference ended with a cocktail party, where the President of the Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences presented the Award for Best Development Economics Paper presented at the conference to Francisco Galarza from Universidad del Pacífico, Peru, for the paper “Risk preferences and demand for insurance in Peru: A field experiment.” At the same opportunity, Francisco was appointed Foreign Research Fellow of the Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences, receiving a great honor and a symbolic silver pin with the seal of the Academy.

Given the great success of the first three versions of the Bolivian Conference on Development Economics, the organizers look forward to making next year’s conference even better than this year, with outstanding keynote speakers, top quality submitted papers, inspiring panelists and great people from all over the World. We warmly welcome suggestions from the readers.

* Scientific Manager, Conservation International – Bolivia. The author happily receives comments at the following address: landersen@conservation.org.