Finn Tarp

Research interests

• Development economics
• Poverty
• Income distribution and growth
• Micro- and macroeconomic policy and modeling

Teaching and supervision

I have over the years lectured at a great variety of institutions and places around the world, including countries in both the North and the South and have supervised a large number of students at bachelors, masters and PhD level at the University of Copenhagen. The focus in my teaching has been and remains development economics and its diverse sub-components. I am not at present teaching on a regular basis at the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen.

Recent publications

• Mozambique at a Fork in the Road: An Institutional Diagnostic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Editor with A. Cruz, I. Ferreira and J. Flento.
• ‘Assessing the Impact of Covid-19 in Mozambique in 2020’. Published online in The European Journal of Development Research. With V. Salvucci.
• ‘Imports, Supply Chains and Firm Productivity’. World Development, vol. 172, 2023. With C. Newman and J. Rand.
• 'Good Business Practices Improve Productivity in Myanmar’s Manufacturing Sector'. Journal of Development Studies, vol. 59(8), 2023. With P. Falco, H. Hansen, J. Rand and N. Trifkovic.

Most downloaded publications (source: RePEc)

• ‘On the Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth’. The Economic Journal, vol. 114(496), 2004, pp. F191-FF216. With C.-J. Dalgaard and H. Hansen.
• ‘Aid and Growth Regressions’. Journal of Development Economics, vol. 64(2), 2001, pp. 547-70. With H. Hansen.
• ‘Business Cycles in Developing Countries: Are They Different?’ World Development, vol. 30(12), 2002, pp. 2071-88. With J. Rand.
• ‘Financial Liberalization, Financial Development, and Economic Growth in LDCs’. Journal of International Development, vol. 15(2), 2003, pp. 189-208. With T. B. Andersen.

Most cited publications (source: Google Scholar)

• ‘Aid and Growth Regressions’. Journal of Development Economics, vol. 64(2), 2001, pp. 547-70. With H. Hansen.
• ‘Aid Effectiveness Disputed’. Journal of International Development, vol. 12(3), 2000, pp. 375-98. With H. Hansen.
• ‘On the Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth’. The Economic Journal, vol. 114(496), 2004, pp. F191-FF216. With C.-J. Dalgaard and H. Hansen.
• Foreign Aid and Development: Lessons Learnt and Directions for the Future. London and New York: Routledge, 2000,512 pages. Editor, assisted by P. Hjertholm.

Media presence

• ‘Overcoming the challenge of illicit financial flows - Four pieces of advice for policymakers’. WIDERAngle, October 2023.
• ‘How institutions matter in Mozambique’. WIDERAngle, October 2023.
• ‘From Monterrey to Addis Ababa, and What Has Happened Since?’. WIDERAngle, March 2023.
• ‘In Memory of Martin Ravallion - A Global Leader in Development Economics (19 March 1952 – 24 December 2022)’. WIDERAngle, January 2023. With T. Addison and K. Sen.
• ‘Forskere: En Universel Basisindkomst Kan Have Langvarige Positive Effekter’. Udvikling, 4 April 2022. With S. Jones (in Danish).
• ‘Poverty and Vulnerability Dynamics in Myanmar’. London School of Economics, 18 February 2022. With I. Ferreira and V. Salvucci.

Metrics

• Google Scholar information (as of 19 June 2024):

• February 2024 RePEc rankings are available at https://ideas.repec.org/top/ They include a top 1% world wide rank among 68,785 authors and a top one Danish and a top nine Nordic position based on the average publications rank score the last 10 years.

See Link to personal website for full details.

X posts by Finn Tarp.

Education

• 1989 - 1992 University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Doctoral dissertation (lic. polit.) in Economics.
• 1977 - 1978 University of Copenhagen, Denmark. M.Sc. (cand. polit.) in Economics.
• 1976 - 1977 University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, USA. Graduate student of Economics.
• 1972 - 1976 University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Student of Economics (stud. polit.). 
• 1967 - 1970 Aalborg Katedralskole, Denmark. Danish studentereksamen. High school with specialization in mathematics and physics.

Employment

• 2002 - present Professor of Development Economics, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen.
• 2009 - 2018 Director, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, Finland.
• 1996 - present Coordinator of the University of Copenhagen Development Economics Research Group (DERG).
• 2000 - 2002 Visiting Professor, National Economics University (NEU), Hanoi, Vietnam and Senior Economist/Project Coordinator at the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM).
• 1991 - 2002 Associate Professor in Development Economics, Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 1988 - 1991 Assistant Professor in Development Economics, Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 1987 - 1988 Macroeconomist/Agricultural Planner (Teamleader), FAO/Ministry of Agriculture, Maputo, Mozambique.
• 1986 - 1987 Project Coordinator/Planning Economist, FAO/Ministry of Agriculture, Maputo, Mozambique.
• 1981 - 1986 Programme Officer/Economist, Maputo, Mozambique.
• 1980 - 1981 Economist (FAO Associate Expert), Maputo, Mozambique.
• 1978 - 1980 Programme Officer (FAO Associate Expert), Mbabane, Swaziland.
• 1977 - 1978 Instructor, Economic Principles, University of Copenhagen.
• 1975 - 1976 Research assistant, social cost/benefit project concerning care of the elderly funded by the Organization of Danish Communes.
• 1975 - 1976 Instructor, Economic Principles, University of Copenhagen.
• 1971 - 1972 Teacher, primary and secondary school, Aalborg, Denmark.
• 1970 - 1971 Military service, Denmark.

Professional activities (current)

• 2019 - present    Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER.
• 2019 - present    Member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Development Research ZEF, University of Bonn. Since 2022 chair of ZEF’s Advisory Board.
• 2018 - present    Member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Institute of New Structural Economics, University of Peking.
• 2018 - present    Member of the University of Copenhagen review panel under the Research and Innovation Council (KUFIR).
• 2009 - present    Member of the Board, Journal of Development Studies (JDS).
• 2009 - present    Editor, Sustainability Science (SUST).
• 2004 - present    Resource person, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi, Kenya. Since 2015 chair of the thematic group one on poverty, labour markets and income distribution.
• 2001 - present    Full Member, European Development Research Network (EUDN).
• 1999 - present    External Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.

Special honours

• November 2015 Conferred a Knighthood, Order of the Dannebrog, by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
• January 2014 The Vietnamese Government Medal of Honour for Support to the Planning and Investment System.
• November 2011 The Vietnamese Government Development Merit ‘Medal for the Cause of Science and Technology’.
• August 1996 The University of Copenhagen Institute of Economics’ Award for excellent and inspiring teaching.
• January 1979 The Zeuthen award of the Danish Economic Society (Socialøkonomisk Samfund) based on the thesis Growth and Income Distribution in Developing Countries.

See Link to personal website for full details.

X posts by Finn Tarp