Kimenyi joins African development work at Brookings

Mwangi S. Kimenyi, associate professor of economics, is a new senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, where he has joined the Africa Growth Initiative.

Kimenyi is founding executive director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, which provides research and policy analysis to the government and private sector in Kenya.

At UConn his research has centered on the African economy and the institutional factors that seem to thwart development on a continent renowned for its rich natural resources.

He is on leave from his faculty position in CLAS while serving as a senior fellow at Brookings.

“With my colleagues in the Africa Growth Initiative, I am confident we can amplify the policy debate in Africa and bring greater voice to solving the needs of the continent,” he said.

He has called for institutional reform in Africa to improve service delivery and for improving the function of markets where poor people participate.

He wrote a prescription for reform policies for Africa for a United Nations program, and last year he delivered the keynote address to a meeting of economists in the African Division of the World Bank.

Kimenyi studied at the University of Nairobi and received master’s degrees in economics and international affairs from Ohio University. He received a PhD in economics from George Mason University.

He has written several books and articles on economic growth and development in Africa, the economics of poverty, and governance in developing countries.