Joe Studwell worked as a journalist and author in east Asia for 25 years. He was the founding editor of the China Economic Quarterly and co-founder of the Asian research firm Dragonomics, now GaveKal Dragonomics.
Joe is the author of three books about East Asia, two of which were long-listed for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year. One of the books, How Asia Works, was an Economist Book of the Year, and Bill Gates described it as one of his favourite works on economic development. His latest book, How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier, has been described as “compelling” by Bill Gates, “an essential read” by Justin Yifu Lin, a “hopeful narrative” by Dani Rodrik, and “a dazzling reassessment” by the Financial Times.
Joe is Senior Fellow at African Urban Lab, a group researching urbanisation issues and training mayors and city managers in Africa, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI).