The Africa NextGen Economist Prize, created by Jeune Afrique and The Africa Report, in partnership with the African Development Bank, has been awarded to Abdoulaye Ndiaye, a 37-year-old Senegalese economist, assistant professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and affiliated with the Finance for Development Lab.
Presented in Kigali, on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum, the prize aims to spotlight a new generation of African economists whose research helps renew economic thinking on the continent and inform public policy. For this first edition of the Africa NextGen Economist Prize, the jury chose to recognize Abdoulaye Ndiaye for the rigor, originality, and relevance of his research in addressing the economic challenges facing African states.
Selected from more than 70 candidates from 14 African countries, Abdoulaye Ndiaye is a graduate of École Polytechnique and holds a PhD from Northwestern University in the United States. He conducts research at the intersection of public finance, development economics, and political economy. His work seeks to identify the institutional and market constraints that limit African states’ ability to ensure households, mobilize domestic resources, and preserve macro-financial stability. His research focuses on unemployment insurance in economies with high levels of informality, tax productivity, and sovereign debt management, with findings that can be directly applied to the design and evaluation of public policies.
