The always reliable Arts and Letters Daily points to a new essay on "The Mystery of Development." As the article starts out saying, "2005 was a big year for international development. But there are strict limits on what outsiders can do to help poor countries." Continue reading ...
We have addressed questions of international development quite often ... most of the time motivated by reporting on our current projects in the field. Peter Leeson and I, for example, will be presenting a paper at the LSE in May addressing questions of development, freedom and entrepreneurship at a conference organized by Tim Besley and which will include papers by Andrei Shleifer and Daron Acemoglu—among others.
As discussed within the first few weeks of this site, William Easterly has an amazing book coming out which challenges the 'big plans' for ending world poverty through government action that is most evident in the work of Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs. Easterly's The White Man's Burden: Why The West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good is the perfect antidote to the fatally huburistic 'big plans' of Stiglitz, Sachs and the politicians, Hollywood actors and Rock Stars they inspire.
This is a really fascinating article. I think the focus on the role of law in economic development is sorely neglected. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a law student! I enjoy the blog, keep it up!
Posted by: Siddartha Rao | March 09, 2006 at 12:34 PM