世行将任命保罗•罗默为首席经济学家

The World Bank is set to appoint Paul Romer, a longtime advocate of the economic power of human capital and student of urbanisation, as its new chief economist¹, bringing arguably the highest-profile name to the role since Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz.

世界银行(World Bank)将任命保罗•罗默(Paul Romer)为新任首席经济学家。罗默长期倡导人力资本的经济力量，并长期研究城市化。他将是自诺贝尔奖得主约瑟夫•斯蒂格利茨(Joseph Stiglitz)以来获得这一任命的最知名人物。

Mr Romer, a US economist who teaches at New York University, is expected to replace Kaushik Basu later this year. A spokesman for the bank would not confirm Mr Romer’s appointment but others within the institution did. His name is expected to be presented to the World Bank’s board as soon as Monday and announced publicly later in the week.

罗默是一名在纽约大学(New York University)执教的美国经济学家，预计他将在今年晚些时候接替考希克•巴苏(Kaushik Basu)。世行的一名发言人不愿证实罗默的任命，但该机构内部的其他人士证实他将获得任命。预计他的名字最早将在周一被提交世行董事会，本周稍后正式宣布。

The move would put an important and occasionally provocative² voice in economics in charge of the bank’s research department.

此举将让经济学界一个重要且偶尔引发争论的声音负责世行的研究部门。

His 1990 paper arguing the case for “endogenous growth” — the theory that knowledge and innovation can spur growth — is considered one of the most influential³ papers in economics of the past 30 years.

他在1990年发表主张“内生增长”——知识和创新可以刺激经济增长的理论——的论文，被认为是过去30年里最有影响力的经济学论文之一。

“It’s an impressive choice,” said Scott Morris, a former US Treasury⁴ official who follows the World Bank for the Centre for Global Development. “It’s more in the [Larry] Summers and Stiglitz mold of picking an American superstar economist.”

“这是一个令人印象深刻的选择，”美国财政部前官员、现在为全球发展中心(Centre for Global Development)追踪世行动态的斯科特•莫里斯(Scott Morris)表示。“这更像是挑选一名美国超级明星经济学家，拉里•萨默斯(Larry Summers)和斯蒂格利茨那种级别的。”

He added: “The bank’s ability to recruit Romer also seems to me to reflect some reputational gains in the last few years, where the bank has been seen as more activist⁵ and more relevant to a range of pressing global issues.”

他补充说：“在我看来，世行有能力延揽罗默，似乎也反映了近几年世行的声誉有些提升，如今世行被视为更加积极，对一系列紧迫的全球问题更加投入。”

In recent years Mr Romer has focused on the power of cities to transform economies and how to deal with the rapid urbanisation seen in the developing world.

近年罗默专注于城市在经济转型中的力量，以及如何应对发展中世界正在出现的快速城市化。

He has called, for example, for turning impoverished⁶ cities in the developing world into vast “reform zones” to spur economic growth and change, citing the example of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, which in the 1990s became a living laboratory for the economic reforms that set off China’s rapid growth.

例如，他呼吁把发展中世界的贫困城市改造为巨大的“改革区”，以刺激经济增长和改革，他援引了中国南方城市深圳的例子；上世纪90年代，深圳成为推行经济改革的实验室，这一改革开启了中国的快速增长。

Mr Romer is an ardent⁷ supporter of the power of economic growth to reduce poverty and will be joining the World Bank at a time when slowing emerging economies are presenting it with a host of new challenges. Economists⁸ at the bank last month warned that slowing developing economies had set back their efforts to catch up with rich economies like the US by decades.

罗默强烈支持借助经济增长的力量来减少贫困，他加入世界银行之际，新兴经济体增长放缓正给世行带来种种新的挑战。上月该行经济学家警告称，发展中经济体增长不断放缓，已经使它们赶上美国等富裕经济体的努力倒退了几十年。