Tobi Lawson

Host at Ideas Untrapped

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Articles

America's New Deal

1 month ago | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

Welcome to another episode of Ideas Untrapped podcast. My guest on this episode is Raymond Fisman, who is the Slater Family Professor in Behavioural Economics at Boston University. He is one of the foremost researchers on corruption and institutional behaviour in the last three decades, and I have been looking forward to talking to him.
To Be Honest

2 months ago | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

Ideas Untrapped platforms and promotes ideas about how countries that are still stuck in poverty and underdevelopment can achieve prosperity. The podcast's audience is from all over the world, and I am incredibly grateful to all of you who listen and give us feedback. I usually frame a lot of the discussion through a Nigerian lens, and this is for two reasons.
Global Value Chains

2 months ago | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

Happy New Year to our listeners. This is the first episode of the year, and I had a conversation with Oliver Harman about global value chains (GVCs), foreign direct investment (FDI), and regional governance in economic development. Oliver and I discussed how GVCs have evolved, the crucial role of multinational enterprises in knowledge transfer, and why regional governments—rather than national ones—are often better positioned to shape policies that maximize benefits from global trade.
Moving from Promise to Progress

Nov 29, 2024 | open.substack.com | Jishnu Das |Tobi Lawson

In this episode of Ideas Untrapped we discussed the challenges and complexities of education, economic growth, and public health systems in developing countries with two brilliant guests James Habyarimana and Jishnu Das. We started off with an example on the rapid expansion of tertiary education in India and its unmet promise of better jobs, which led to discussions on similar dynamics in African contexts.
Learning from East Asia

Nov 24, 2024 | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

In this episode of Ideas Untrapped, I sit down with economist Oliver Kim to explore the complexities of African economic growth and the challenges surrounding industrialisation. We discuss why Africa has struggled to replicate the manufacturing successes of East Asia, touching on issues such as labour costs, political economy, and the global market environment.
Trade-offs and Tensions

Sep 11, 2024 | open.substack.com | Dmitry Grozoubinski |Tobi Lawson

In the episode, Tobi talks to Dmitry Grozoubinski about the politics and complexities of global trade, emphasizing the tension between free trade and protectionism. Dmitry explains how trade policy decisions involve difficult choices that impact both producers and consumers, using Nigeria's food inflation as an example.
Wither Non-consumption

Jun 7, 2024 | 1914reader.com | Tobi Lawson

Last week we were treated to the now-familiar news of another Multinational Corporation (MNC) leaving Nigeria. Kimberly Clark, maker of the popular children's diaper Huggies, announced that it will shut down its production facility - two years after investing $100 million in a factory in Lagos. This continues the worrying trend of the rapid decline of Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria.
The Broken Ladder

May 24, 2024 | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

Trade is one of the oldest economic institutions in the world. For millennia, long before the establishment of states and national borders, people around the globe engaged in mutually beneficial commercial exchanges. Trade has largely been profitable for all parties where there is no conquest, fostering economic growth and cooperation among different groups. Paradoxically, trade policies have always been fraught with controversy.
Beyond GDP

May 10, 2024 | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

In this episode, Tobi talks to David Pilling, Africa editor for the Financial Times. They discussed his book "The Growth Delusion", exploring the significance and limitations of economic growth, particularly in poor countries. David challenges the conventional reliance on GDP to measure economic success, proposing a more nuanced approach that considers wealth distribution, environmental impacts, and overall well-being.
The Dynamics of Growth

Apr 27, 2024 | open.substack.com | Tobi Lawson

In this podcast episode, Tobi interviews Rasheed Griffith - who is the CEO of The Caribbean Progress Institute, and host of The Rasheed Griffith Show explores the adaptability and policy implementation in smaller countries compared to larger ones, noting that smaller nations can change more swiftly due to simpler institutional structures.