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Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose
£14.50£15.20 (-5%)
In the last thirty years, the developing world has undergone tremendous changes. Overall, poverty has fallen, people live longer and healthier lives, and economies have been transformed. And yet many countries have simply missed the boat. Why have some countries prospered, while others have failed? Stefan Dercon argues that the answer lies not in a specific set of policies, but rather in a key ‘development bargain’, whereby a country’s elites shift from protecting their own positions to gambling on a growth-based future. Despite the imperfections of such bargains, China is among the most striking recent success stories, along with Indonesia and more unlikely places, such as Bangladesh, Ghana and Ethiopia. Gambling on Development is about these winning efforts, in contrast to countries stuck in elite bargains leading nowhere. Building on three decades’ experience across forty-odd countries, Dercon winds his narrative through Ebola in Sierra Leone, scandals in Malawi, beer factories in the DRC, mobile phone licences in Mozambique, and relief programmes behind enemy lines in South Sudan. Weaving together conversations with prime ministers, civil servants and ordinary people, this is a probing look at how development has been achieved across the world, and how to assist such successes.
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Additional information
| Publisher | C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd (27 April 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 360 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1805260081 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1805260080 |
| Dimensions | 21.59 x 3.68 x 13.87 cm |
by Tim Boyd
Excellent review of literature in the area an interesting and thought provoking read
by Joe Zhang
1) The literature reviews are very good.
2) The two concepts (elite bargain, and development bargain) seem to be confusing at times.
3) why some poor countries win and some lose? Having read the book, I’m still unclear. The author deserves credit for saying that “it depends. There are no silver bullets”.
by Ranil D
If you want to understand what truly drives development this is the book for you. It’s written in an accessible, fun, way and is packed with anecdotes, stories and data but make no mistake: it is a serious piece of work. Dercon lays out his thesis of why some places develop while others languish, and how trajectories change. He also has something to say about what outsiders can do, and the pretty severe limits to this.
It could only have been written by him. He combines real pedigree as an academic economist, a Professor at the University of Oxford and the Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, with more than a decade as the most senior technocrat in one of the largest aid agencies in the world. He knows better than most both what progress has been made and the relatively humble role played by aid and donors.
A must read.
by Eduard J. Bomhoff
Annoying self-centered writing. Few hard numbers. A very disappointing book