The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (The MIT Press) - Softcover

Easterly, William R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262550423 ISBN 13: 9780262550420

Publisher: MIT Press, 2002

Synopsis

Title: The Elusive Quest for Growth( Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics) <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: WilliamEasterly <>Publisher: MitPress

About this title

Review:

A highly readable and iconoclastic treatment of the determinants of economic growth.

--Richard N. Cooper, Foreign Affairs

It is impossible to convey the depth and range of TheElusive Quest for Growth.

--Bruce Bartlett, The Wall Street Journal

Synopsis:

Since the end of World War II, economists have tried to figure out how poor countries in the tropics could attain standards of living approaching those of countries in Europe and North America. Attempted remedies have included providing foreign aid, investing in machines, fostering education, controlling population growth, and making aid loans as well as forgiving those loans on condition of reforms. None of these solutions has delivered as promised. The problem is not the failure of economics, William Easterly argues, but the failure to apply economic principles to practical policy work. In this text, Easterly shows how these solutions all violate the basic principle of economics, that people - private individuals and businesses, government officials, even aid donors - respond to incentives. Easterly first discusses the importance of growth. He then analyzes the development solutions that have failed. Finally, he suggests alternative approaches to the problem.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0262550423
• ISBN 13: 9780262550420
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356