What I've Been Reading Lately
Arnold Kling
ECONOLOG
I'll excerpt quotes from some of these books below.
The Bottom Billion, by Paul Collier. This book has been highly recommended by other bloggers affiliated with George Mason, and I agree. His thesis is that economic development is taking place at a tolerable place in 5/6th of the world, but one billion people live in failed states. He thinks we know enough about what works and does not work to be able to adopt constructive policies toward the bottom billion. I'll put some quotes below the fold.
econlog.econlib.org
From The Bottom Billion, p. 46:
If there are effective checks and balances on power, the society is saved from patronage politics...this is reinforced by the selection of politicians according to their intrinsic motivation to serve the public. Where patronage politics is not feasible, the people attracted to politics are more likely to be interested in issues of public services provision...But where patronage politics is feasible, electoral competition leaves the corrupt as the winners.
p. 66:
In 2004 a survey tracked money released by the Ministry of Finance in Chad intended for rural health clinics...Amazingly, less than 1 percent of it reached the clinics.
p. 81:
the most dramatic transformation of the size and composition of trade has been during the past twenty-five years. For the first time in history, developing countries have broken into global markets for goods and services other than just primary commodities...Now, 80 percent of developing countries' exports are manufactures...The production of primary commodities is basically land-using, and exporting them is most likely to benefit the people who own the land...manufactures and services offer much better prospects of equitable and rapid development.
p. 167:
For the bottom billion to break into [manufacturing] markets they need protection from Asia...Even with high Asian growth, it will take several decades to open up a wage gap that is wide enough to spur firms to relocate.
From Let Their People Come, p. 64:
the ultimate reason that there is not massively more mobility across national borders is that the citizens of the rich industrial world do not want it. |
