The Political Economy of Development

The Political Economy of Development

Fall 2010 Reading List

1. What is development?

Sen, Amartya, Development as Freedom, pp. KK

Pritchett, Lant, 2010, Country of Birth Satisfaction Units. Background paper for the Human Development Report 2010. KK

*Srinivasan, T.N., 1994, Human Development: A New Paradigm or Reinvention of the Wheel? American Economic Review 84(2): 238-243. KK

Achebe, Chinua, 1984, No Longer at Ease (New York, Ballantine Books).

2. The State & Development

a. Getting the basics right (or wrong)

Excerpts from: Guest, Robert, 2004, The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives (Smithsonian Books) KK

~ “Of Potholes and Grasping Gendarmes”

~ “Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe, The Vampire State”

~ “Getting the Basics Right”

~ “Health and Efficiency”

Tooley, James, 2009, The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves (Cato Institute).

b. The state as an active partner in development: import-substitution industrialization in Latin America & export-led growth in East Asia

Cardoso, E. A. Helwege, 1995, Import Substitution Industrialization, in Latin America's Economy: Diversity, Trends, and Conflicts (Cambridge: MIT Press). KK

The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy (New York, NY: Oxford University Press), 1993, excerpts. KK

3. The Importance of Good Institutions

Pritchett, Lant, Michael Woolcock, and Matt Andrews, 2010, Capability Traps: Techniques of Persistent Development Failure, Background paper for the 2011 World Development Report on Development, Conflict and Fragile States.

De Soto, Hernando, 2003, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (Basic Books; Reprint edition).

Yunnus, Muhammad, 2003, Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Public Affairs), Introduction and Chapters 4 & 5. KK

4. The Difficulty of Foreign Aid

Easterly, William, 2001, The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (Cambridge: MIT Press), Chapters 1-4.

Mallaby, Sebastian, 2006, The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Penguin Books).

Klitgaard, Robert, 1991, Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa (NY: Basic Books).

5. The Pitfalls of Natural Resource Wealth

Guest, Robert: "Digging Diamonds, Digging Graves” KK

Karl, Terry, 1999, Reflections on The Paradox of Plenty, Journal of International Affairs 53(1): 31-48. KK

Wood, Geoffrey, 2004, Business and Politics in a Criminal State: The Case of Equatorial Guinea, African Affairs 103 (413): 547–567. KK

Luciani, Giacomo, Allocation vs. Production States: A Theoretical Framework, in Belbawi and Luciani (eds) The Rentier State. KK