Why do property rights matter?

It's been a pleasure to meet with Claire, Zach and Ben Freeth, who have worked tirelessly on behalf of The Mike Campbell Foundation, and thank you to the Royal Geographic Society for hosting the event.

I'm an economist from North Carolina, in the United States, and a common question I get is: So why are YOU so interested in Zimbabwe?  About 20 years ago, I was a young graduate student working on my doctoral thesis in North Carolina on something nothing to do with Zimbabwe.  One day I was called into my graduate advisor's office, and he said he had an opportunity for me to work at the World Bank as a research assistant for a summer and I jumped at the opportunity. But it had nothing to do with my thesis, and would set me back three to four months. Would I go anyway?