Somik Lall is Staff Director of the World Bank’s 2024 World Development Report, which examines the challenges of economic growth in middle-income countries. He is also an Economic Adviser in the Office of the World Bank Group Chief Economist. Previously, he headed the climate economics and policy team in the World Bank’s Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions vice presidency, where he developed and supervised high-quality research programs on resilience and economic development, the macro-criticality of climate change, and innovations for the low-carbon transition. His other roles include Global Lead for territorial and spatial development and Lead Economist for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk, Resilience, and Land Global Practice. Dr. Lall also teaches at Johns Hopkins University and has been a Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
He has advised senior policymakers in national and city governments on key policy issues in over 25 countries—including Brazil, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. He is widely published in academic and policy journals. His 2021 book, Place, Productivity, and Prosperity, examines the spatial dimensions of productivity growth in developing nations, and provides a new analytic framework to help policy makers arrive at a disciplined view of a place’s economic potential. His 2017 book, “Africa's Cities: Opening Doors to the World,” has over 100,000 downloads and 3 million social media views. He has developed a novel data-driven approach to help city mayors rapidly respond to protect their citizens from the ravages of COVID 19. Listen to his Monocle podcast.