No comments about The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development.

4 comments about Economics of Development, Fifth Edition.

1. This is an excellent academic book ,but it needs updating in light of the recent global developments. Basically it is missing a detailed analysis of The spread and effects of Globalization. Maybe there is a new edition in print now ???



2. This is one of the best books in economic development ever published. Written in plain english, so it's easy to understand, even for non-economics students. Highly recommended for graduate students, professors, and professionals interested in economic issues of developing countries.



3. This book, although extremely long, wastes no space in its presentation. Of all economic textbooks I have encountered, this is the only one that explains clearly and precisely everything about world development, citing failed and successful examples in history. If you ever wondered what the driving forces behind policies in the world were, you need this book. Priceless.



4. I read this book for my introductory economic development course and was engrossed by it. The chapter on population was particularly interesting, and caused me to pick up a few references from it. If you want to include a detailed mathematical treatment of growth theory, you may need to go beyond the text. However, the intuition and motivation for all topics covered by the book is strong. I found myself reading more than just the assigned chapters, and with excitement.
   
   This is, of course, the only introduction I've had to the topic (besides more detail on growth theory in another course). Therefore, I have no idea if something is missing. However, if you want an engaging text, this is your book.

3 comments about Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Studies in Rationality and Social Change).

1. Przeworski's writing is always penetrating. This is the best work that I've ever read in the literature of political economy and comparative politics. Although his approach is too much immersed in rational-choice, he knows the history of political philosophy. Although he is basically a Marx-oriented scholar, he correctly understand what neo-classical theories are lacking. Adam Przeworki is a rare intellectual who combine science with philosophy. is worth buying and worth reading although somehow technical.



2. Adam Przeworski is one of the top five political scientists of the world. "Democracy and the Market" is amazing and should be read by everybody that wants to know why democracies last (or don't). Przeworski is probably one of the few writers that compare the situation in East Europe with the situation in Latin America. And he does it perfectly. A bit technical at times but a very contemporary work of Political Science. A must buy.



3. I read this book in 1995 and I have never found a better one in analyzing democratization since then. His idea on democracy as a result of "spontaneous compliance" is so powerful that nothing else can actually stimulate more on a research direction for the preconditions of democratization process in countries like China.
   
   It can be read together with his "Democracy and the Rule of Law", which addresses the question of why governments act or do not act according to laws, and interprets the rule of law as a strategic choice of actors with powerful interests (rather than as an exogenous constraint on politicians), and concludes that the rule of law emerges when no group is strong enough to dominate the others and political actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to law.
   
   Unfortunately, Adam Przeworski is later on obsessed with math, statistics, graphs, and aggregate analysis instead going deeper into specific political culture, which is yet another sad example of how mathematical academics continues to ruin more economists and political scientists (States and Markets: A Primer in Political Economy, 2003). The point is, applied mathematics and statistics concern with correlation, social scientists concern with causation. Mathematics and statistics are good tools, but social scientists are not technicians. If all they can do is applying mathematics and statistics without institutional analysis or policy analysis, they are in a wrong career.

1 comments about Restoring Growth in Puerto Rico: Overview and Policy Options.

1. "Restoring Growth" is intelligently written, citing particular policy problems and solutions to the problems. However, the challenge with some American policymakers is the assumption that American economic development occurred through a vacuum of laissez faire policies, while history pointedly challenges this notion.
   While I do respect the perspective of competition and small enterprise innovation as the book eloquently elaborates on, the book also ignores the historical development of colonial-style institutions on the island and the inability to connect politics with economics.
   While it is important to understand and dissect economic theory apart from other social sciences, it is necessary to combine social science disciplines, politics and economics, in order to understand a complex world.
   I think "Restoring Growth" is a must read for people interested in Puerto Rico and Development. A challenge for this book (and any other book for that matter) is when states and state interventionist policy is perceived as being generally all the same is grossly misleading.
   The book is a good argument to include in the mix on Puerto Rico Development, but more scholarly literature that challenges the book's assumptions should create interactive dialogue.

No comments about Principles of Health Economics for Developing Countries (Wbi Development Studies).

1 comments about Creative People at Work: Twelve Cognitive Case Studies.

1. Interesting approach and worth the price, if you're serious. The editors have invited, or collected, analysis and/or interpretation from a variety of writers so that each of the individuals discussed in the book is seen from the perspective of a different "theory"--if you will--of creativity. As a reader, therefore, one has an overview of approaches to creativity. What sets this book apart is the opening text, written by the editors, about creativity and how the boundaries broken by creators differ according to the time in which the creator lived. They also maintain a respect for the mystery of creativity, and have interesting commentary on the successes and failures of different approaches that have been made in understanding it.
   
   I've read seriously about creativity and genius for the past 15 years; this is a book for the serious reader, which is a relief given the onslaught of books promising to make the reader "more creative" or books that fail to present creativity as a kind of dialogue among wild freedom, cool assessment, knowledge of and skill in one's field, and the metaphoric willingness to jump off a cliff and sometimes fail in spectacular ways and other times taking off.

No comments about The Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Consumption (Earthscan Readers Series).

No comments about Remittances and Development: Lessons from Latin America (Latin American Development Forum) (Latin American Development Forum) (Latin American Development Forum).

No comments about Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890-1943 (Political Development of the American Nation.).

2 comments about The Law-Growth Nexus: The Rule of Law And Economic Development.

1. If institutions and rule-of-law matter, China, a country still weak in rule-of-law, is then regarded as a counter-example of the institution-driven argument for growth. To find a way out of this observation, this book borrows Dani Rodrik's idea that "the onset of economic growth doesn't require deep and extensive institutional reform", and "sustaining high growth in the face of adverse circumstances requrires ever stronger instituions". To me, this is not persuasive.
   
   Focusing rule-of-law on property rights, contract laws, financial laws, and their enforcement is necessarily on the right track, yet it is still too narrow. Growth is not only about the encoursagement of individual's productive efforts, it is also about the control of individual's distributional and destructive efforts. Looking from a historical perspective with these three types of efforts in mind, a legal interpretation of China's growth is therefore weak. And that's why it is regarded as a counter-example. A true explanation for China's case has to be both political and cultural.
   
   One of the interesting aspects of China's legal reality is its weak enforcement. All the "transaction costs" are heavily in the personal connections (guanxi), just like those that are heavily spent in the American legal procedurism. It is tough to explain how such enforcement impact economic performance. But a simple legal view won't help.



2. This book is about the role of law in economic development. It contrasts this hypothesis with 2 other explanations (why only 2?), namely geography (e.g. Jeffrey Sachs), and cultural (e.g. Weber, Harrison). The argument is not persuasive, which explains why little has been done to show this nexus among development analysts. To be sure, rule of law is important to ensure property rights are protected and reduce "taking" (predation) rather than "making" (cf. Olson). But other factors are more decisive, particularly political economy, which is neglected in this book. There is a lot in the book about legal history and rise of institutions, but I do not find them persuasive or interesting, as they have been covered elsewhere.