Christian Westerlind Wigstrom

New Resources

Can rural public works affect agricultural wages? Evidence from India, CSAE working paper
The Determinants of Earnings Inequalities: Panel data evidence from South Africa, CSAE working paper
CSAE Research Summary 2012
Financial Architecture and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism in Tanzania, CSAE working paper
Media Freedom and Democracy: Complements or Substitutes in the Fight against Corruption?, CSAE working paper
Market Integration and Border Effects in Eastern Africa, CSAE working paper
How to improve knowledge and take-up of public services by the poor: The case of the RSBY National Health Insurance in India, iiG Briefing Paper 20

CSAE and Merton College

Biography

Christian is a final-year DPhil student in International Relations at Oxford University supervised by Paul Collier and Kalypso Nicholaides. He completed the MPhil in Economics at Oxford in 2008 and holds a first class degree with distinction in PPE from the University of York. His thesis seeks to explain the failure of regional integration organisations (RIOs) in Africa. Considering the seemingly bottomless enthusiam for RIOs among African leaders it is surprising that we see so little de facto integration. And considering the lack of de facto integration it is surprising that African leaders exhibit such enthusiasm for RIOs. At least at first glance. It turns out that in many parts of Africa RIOs are set up to fill functions other than to facilitate regional integration.

In parallel with his research Christian is also working as an economic advisor to Robert Skidelsky in the House of Lords. In 2010, they come out with a co-edited volume titled ‘The Economic Crisis and the State of Economics’ published by Palgrave Macmillan. Christian has also been involved with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) in New York.