Stephen Gelb is Principal Research Fellow and Lead on Private Sector Development at ODI. He has a PhD in economics, and thirty years of research and policy experience in South Africa, where he was an adviser to President Mbeki and the government on macroeconomic policy and public expenditure and on international investment and trade policy. He worked for a South African development finance institution, and established an independent policy research institute in Johannesburg.
He has taught postgraduate economics, political science and development studies in South Africa, Canada, the US and Switzerland, and has consulted for the World Bank, UN agencies and a number of African and Asian governments. He has written extensively on macroeconomics, foreign direct investment, and political economy in South Africa; and on many issues related to FDI and value chains in Africa and Asia.
His work has been shaped by a long-standing interest in businesses’ strategy and decision processes, and their economic and political effects. His current research focusses on corporate strategy and collective action; on economic resource flows linked to migration; on the renewal of political economy; and on enterprise and skills development in low-income countries.