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Oliver Kim
@oliverwkim
Development economist, working on economic growth at @coeff_giving. PhD @berkeleyecon, AB @harvard. Views my own.
DC
global-developments.org
Joined November 2009
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Apr 7, 2021
    Happy birthday to Albert Hirschman, who would be 106 today. Hirschman—anti-fascist, resistance hero, later a development economist—may be the most interesting person to ever take up the profession. 🧵 and blog post on his remarkable life and work. 1/ oliverwkim.com/Hirschman-Stra…
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Apr 6, 2023
    How to pick a setting for your Econ research project
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Dec 6, 2024
    Lee Kuan Yew, on Korean protestors: "The Koreans are a fearsome people. When they riot, they are as organized and nearly as disciplined as the riot police who confront them... When their workers and students fight in the streets... they look like soldiers at war."
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Dec 3, 2024
    "Asian values are incompatible with democracy"
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  • user avatar
    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Apr 7, 2024
    Happy birthday to Albert Hirschman, who would be 109 today. Hirschman—anti-fascist, resistance hero, later a development economist—may be the most interesting person to ever take up the profession. 🧵 and blog post on his remarkable life and work.
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Apr 21, 2021
    THREAD: On the role of bad social science in the Vietnam War—and how not understanding local conditions, and thinking through endogeneity (yes, endogeneity) can lead to policy conclusions with tragic, deadly consequences.
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Sep 3, 2024
    🚨New WP Alert🚨 @JenKuanWang and I analyze Taiwan's 1950s land reform, long seen as central to its economic takeoff—and to the East Asian Miracle. By digitizing archival data, we bring new causal evidence to the table. What we find is surprising! oliverwkim.com/papers/KimWang…
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Aug 28, 2025
    Introducing... China Thinkpiece Bingo!
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Nov 27, 2023
    🚀JMP alert🚀 My paper w @FergJoel applies machine learning to 1970s-80s satellite imagery to revisit one of the 🇨🇳 Chinese Miracle's first major reforms, the Household Responsibility System—the end of collective socialist agriculture. What we found was quite surprising. 🧵
    A NOAA satellite launch—the kind whose data is used in this paper
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Jan 5, 2022
    🧵: At historical growth rates, it will take >2,000 years for 🇸🇳 Senegal to catch up to 🇫🇷 France's 2019 GDP p.c. How long will it take for developing countries reach rich world income levels? I've built a quick tool to simulate growth scenarios: oliverwkim.com/The-Mountain-T…. 1/N
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Apr 7, 2021
    Replying to @oliverwkim
    Hirschman had fought fascism in four countries, earning two graduate degrees along the way. He was still just 25 years old. 11/
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Mar 20, 2022
    🧵 of interesting tidbits (updated as I find them) from Joanne Meyerowitz's "A War on Global Poverty", which I highly recommend for any economist interested in the history of development and foreign aid: (1/?)
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Jul 29, 2025
    Back to blogging after an extended hiatus. Indonesia's nickel policy has become an industrial policy model for the developing world. But what has it done for poverty? (link in reply)
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    Oliver Kim
    @oliverwkim
    Mar 30, 2024
    This is a crazy chart—most African countries have registered **negative** agricultural TFP growth over the last decade. (From new VoxDevLit article by Suri and Udry)
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