New books on economic development, blog reviews . . .

A former student and a very good friend of mine asked me for recommendations on recent books on economic development, here you go:

More than good intentions. Here

The book's strength is that it offers a very concise summary of a wide range of these types of [randomized] trials in areas as diverse as promoting teacher attendance to encouraging efficient fertiliser use to sexual health interventions. Anyone working in the aid field should certainly read this book but I think it is also has a more general readership in terms of anyone involved in the design and evaluation of policies in any area, whether from the donor side, the evaluation side or the implementation side.

Getting better. Here

The book, reviewed last week in the New York Times, argues that life in Africa and in most of the developing world has improved in recent decades at rates unprecedented in mankind’s history. Although economic growth hasn’t always kept pace, people in Africa today can expect to live longer, healthier, happier, better educated lives than their parents or grandparents.

Globalization paradox. Here

As Polanyi was to the self-regulating and unbridled market in the 20th century, so is Dani to self-regulating and unbridled globalization in the 21st.