About

Kevin P. Gallagher is a Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and serves as the Director of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center). His work focuses on advancing policy-relevant research aimed at promoting financial stability, human well-being, and environmental sustainability on a global scale. Gallagher has held prominent roles such as the Lead Expert on Multilateral Development Bank Reform to the Brazilian Presidency of the G20 and is involved in various initiatives related to climate policy, development, and international finance. He has contributed to efforts on climate, development, and economic policy through memberships in task forces and advisory committees, including the Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF, and the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery Project. Gallagher has also served as a visiting or adjunct professor at several prestigious institutions worldwide, including Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, El Colegio de Mexico, Tsinghua University, and the Center for State and Society in Argentina. His research and publications primarily focus on economic development, trade and investment policy, international environmental policy, and Latin America, with notable works on China’s role in the global economy and sustainable development.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Economics
• Business
• Economic growth
• Finance
• Natural resource economics
• Waste management
• Economic policy
• Financial system
• Archaeology
• Environmental science
• International trade
• Ecology
• Geography
• Agroforestry
• Environmental resource management
• International economics
• Biology
• Development economics
• Engineering
• Market economy

Selected publications

• China's low-carbon technology trade: Facts and implications

  China Economic Review · 2025-05-28 · 10 citations

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• The need for sustainability premium of the early retirement of coal plants: Evidence from Indonesia

  Energy Policy · 2025-08-14

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Developing countries locked out of low-carbon technology trade

  Science · 2025-04-17 · 11 citations

  articleSenior author

  More than 90% of all low-carbon technology trade is between high-income countries and China.

  PublisherDOI

• Debt Sustainability Analysis as if Development Really Mattered

  Development · 2025-05-07

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  PublisherDOI

• Climate transition spillovers and sovereign risk: Evidence from Indonesia

  Energy Economics · 2025-02-10 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The international financial architecture and sustainable prosperity

  Working Paper Series · 2025-03-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The international financial architecture is misaligned with the goals set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement. External financing flows to emerging-market and developing countries (excluding China) need be increasing by at least US$1 trillion annually from 2030 onwards, but the highest level in the past decade was roughly one-third of what is necessary—with net inflows turning negative since 2021. Not only are the levels of capital too low: they are procyclical, destabilizing, have not been growth enhancing in general, and have not generated necessary structural transformation in particular. At exactly the moment when developing countries should be accelerating investment to meet these goals, the UN estimates that 3.3 billion people are living in countries that spend more on external debt service than on education or health. In addition to the international financial architecture’s lack of ability to provide long-run, stable, and countercyclical finance to developing countries, it lacks an adequate ‘global financial safety net’ to prevent and mitigate increasing levels of external shocks including interest rate hikes, war and sanctions, and climate change. In response, developing nations resort to a mix of self-insuring reserve accumulation, private capital markets with unsustainable interest rates, and austerity—all of which further accentuate global imbalances, debt overhangs, and dim growth prospects. As part of broad reforms, multilateral development banks can play a central role in providing long-run, countercyclical finance to developing countries. Furthermore, the global financial safety net needs to be enlarged, deepened, and reoriented; and developing countries need to be a bigger part of the decisionmaking process within the international financial architecture. The costs of inaction on these matters far outweigh the relatively small effort that is urgently needed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• China and the Global Economic Order

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-10-10 · 4 citations

  bookOpen accessSenior author

  This Element examines China's evolving relations with the Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs), specifically the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group from the 1980s through 2025. Using a combination of new qualitative findings and quantitative datasets, the authors observe that China has taken an evolving approach to the BWIs in order to achieve its multiple agendas, acting largely as a 'rule-taker' during its first two decades as a member, but, over time, also becoming a 'rule-shaker' inside the BWIs, and ultimately a new 'rule-maker' outside of the BWIs. The analysis highlights China's exercise of 'two-way countervailing power' with one foot inside the BWIs, and another outside, and pushing for changes in both directions. China's interventions have resulted in BWs reforms and the gradual transformation of the global order, while also generating counter-reactions especially from the United States. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Advancing Climate Policy at the IMF

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2024-10-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  Abstract The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is at the institutional core of the global economic governance system and is uniquely capable of engaging in surveillance functions, especially on cross-border climate risks, providing emergency financing, and engaging in capacity development. This chapter traces the history of the IMF’s engagement on climate change, laying special emphasis on the Fund’s Climate Change Strategy (CCS) launched in 2021. The chapter shows how the IMF has mostly focused on surveillance activities and capacity development in its CCS, with limited integration of climate change into the Fund’s lending toolkit despite the creation of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust. Most crucially, fiscal consolidation requirements that accompany IMF programs erode the investment push that countries need to transition to a low-carbon economy.

  PublisherDOI

• IMF isn’t doing enough to support Africa: billions could be made available through special drawing rights

  2024-10-23

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Easing Africa’s debt burdens: a fresh approach, based on an old idea

  2024-09-26

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  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Joseph E. Stiglitz

  110 shared

• José Antonio Ocampo

  Columbia University

  106 shared

• Dani Rodrik

  98 shared

• Gabriela Plump

  Translational Research Platform for Veterinary Biologicals (India)

  97 shared

• Arjun Jayadev

  97 shared

• Markus Advertisements

  Columbia University

  72 shared

• Usha Swarnam

  Translational Research Platform for Veterinary Biologicals (India)

  72 shared

• Rebecca Ray

  Center for Global Development

  45 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Northeastern University

• M.A.

  Tufts University

• Ph.D.

  Tufts University