PERI researchers Léonce Ndikumana, Karmen Naidoo and Francisco Perez examine the landscape of national development banks in Africa. They show that while national development banks do not lend more relative to commercial banks, they tend to focus more on medium-term and long-term lending as prescribed by their mandate. Medium- and long-term lending is associated with lower non-performing loan ratios as well as higher returns on assets. The evidence suggests that empowering national development banks with enhanced lending capacity and operational autonomy would significantly help alleviate the shortage of medium-term and long-term credit in African economies.

PERI researchers Léonce Ndikumana and James Boyce present updated estimates of capital flight from 30 African countries over the period 1970-2018. Over this 49-year period, this group of countries lost a combined $2 trillion through capital flight. This far exceeds the $720 billion of external debt owed by these countries as of 2018, making them effectively ‘net creditors’ to the rest of the world. Capital flight persists as a major obstacle to development financing in Africa. The paper calls for urgent action to stem the financial hemorrhage and to devise strategies to repatriate stolen assets stashed offshore.

In this interview with C.J. Polychroniou, PERI researcher Peter Arno describes his work on a range of public health and related issues, including his highly influential contributions on AIDS treatment programs, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Medicare for All. Connecting Medicare for All with COVID vaccine programs, Arno notes that “The driving force to vaccinate the American people en masse parallels that of Medicare for All: to provide universal, affordable healthcare to everyone. One of the most significant outcomes of the pandemic may be increased political momentum for Medicare for All.”