Rating: 
Summary: Very Good
Review: The writer of this book is something of a maverick, an employee of the World Bank who snips at its policies from the inside. His formula for growth is reasonably simple. It is necessary to create an environment in which there are considerable person incentives. However whilst he says this, he has no magic formula. In fact most of the book is a critique of developmental policies which have not worked. One imagines that the book is very much a popular account of material that appears in academic journals and is well known in the profession. Still the book is written in a bright and wry style which is easy to read and expresses complex ideas in a simple and logical way. The book outlines how initially both the injection of foreign aid and the role of education were seen as the key to growth. The book explains that the popularity of the idea of foreign aid was a belief that poorer countries had a shortage of capital. The injection of capital could lead to growth which would be self supporting. Thirty hears of foreign aid have shown that in the vast majority of cases the injection of capital has no effect at all on the wealth of poorer countries. Instead of development the most common result of foreign aid is the building of white elephants which have not other impact except creating huge debt payments which restrict the normal operation of the economies. In addition education is okay if there is a demand for it but money spent on education can simply lead to the training of experts who quickly emigrate. The key to many of the problems of poorer countries comes from government. The author is not a libertarian who rejects the role of government on an ideological basis. He in fact concedes that there is no relation between taxation levels and growth. He does show how poor government can damage a country in so many ways. Chronic inflation for instance creates an environment in which it is not economically rational to produce but only to speculate. Poor government can result in the failure to build and to maintain infrastructure and services pushing up the costs of production. In so many poorer countries, manufacturers not only face the problems of developing products and selling them but they face poorly maintained roads, power grids without power, phone systems that do not work. Lastly real corruption can make the running of business and an economy impossible. Despite the importance of corruption as one of the key reasons behind whether growth occurs or not, it has only recently been seen as something which economists would discuss. The book is easy to read, in parts amusing but at its heart it shows how important economic growth is to enable huge numbers of people to live with the access to medical care and employment which allows for a certain human dignity. Well worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Baleful capitalist propaganda
Review: This book displays the same sorry imperialist logic that got (so-called) Third World countries into debt in the first place. When milions of people are dying from starvation in the real world, it is irritating to listen to tired self-justifying academic rubbish.
Rating: 
Summary: Hurray for empirical evidence
Review: This book has some very strong points:
1. Concise, light writing style makes for an easy read. One gets the feeling that this author did use some very detailed statistical analysis in reaching his conclusions but spared the reader all of that-- most of economist statistical methodology being inaccesible to most people.
2. Dealing directly with empirical evidence. Most people, when talking about this or that program try to define it by the hoped-for results instead of paying attention to what actually happens when an "experiment" is conducted. Many (Bono/ The Pontiff) have talked about debt relief for other countries, but Easterly actually looks up some numbers to show what were the results of debt relief, if any.
3. Most of the failure of the African continent has been blamed on the inherent stupidity of black people. But Easterley (perhaps) unintentionally shows that most of sub-Saharan Africa suffers from corrupt/ inept/ excessively bureaucratic/ kleptocratic government more than anything. Africans respond to the same incentives as everyone else. It just so happens that no one among the "leaders" has gotten around to creating appropriate incentive structures for African people to prosper.
4. A good highlight of the role of ethnic conflict/ polarization in the role of running a country directly into the ground. It is often repeated again and again at universities what a good idea "Multiculturalism" is in principle. But Easterly shows what often happens in practice, and that is especially useful in understanding just how serious tribal conflict is in keeping Africa going nowhere.
5. There is good discussion of what happens when governments go overboard trying to regulate some industry or another. And evidence that the type of incentive structures are faced by bureaucrats in regulating some market are very different to those who would try to make money in the same market. Two set of people seeing very different aspects of the same situation.
6. In one way or another, this is also very good for people who are blathering on (still) about Communism at Western Universities. An economy is a large, multi-variable entity that does not lend itself to easy, determinstic prediction.
In sum, I don't see anything but useful information being gained from reading this.
Rating:
Summary: A simple and revealing exposition of development economics
Review: This book is likely to spur immense controversy, specially in the current climate of anti-globalization protests. Easterly provides a telling history of well-intentioned but somewhat misguided and didactic development efforts since the Bretton Woods conference. The book speckles careful theoretical exposition with lively anecdotes and "intermezzos" of personal stories from the developing world. This gives the book a humane touch that is often lacking in most economics books. My only problem with the book is that the author is still rather hung up on the singularity of growth as the panacea for allevaiting poverty. While growth could be sufficent condition for alleviating poverty in many cases it might not be a necessary condition in all cases. The author also neglects environmental concerns that are often not properly internalized in short-term growth models. I am also wondering what the World Bank establishment have to say about this. Some of the conclusions are so simple, that I am left to wonder why didn't all these smart people "get it?" Perhaps the Bank has its own set of counter-arguments for Easterle's specific examples, which I will continue to explore. Nevertheless, this is a good read and gives much food for thought.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired by the author's compassion
Review: This book was assigned in my economic development class but unlike a textbook, it was not dry at all. I was inspired by the compassion the author has for developing countries and this is definitely one of the books that has sparked my interest in economic development (I'm considering pursuing a Ph.D in Economics). Easterly writes humbly about the mistakes that have been made before and writes stories that give the readers a glimpse of the destitute in the developing world. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Inspired by the author's compassion
Review: This book was assigned in my economic development class but unlike a textbook, it was not dry at all. I was inspired by the compassion the author has for developing countries and this is definitely one of the books that has sparked my interest in economic development (I'm considering pursuing a Ph.D in Economics). Easterly writes humbly about the mistakes that have been made before and writes stories that give the readers a glimpse of the destitute in the developing world. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant, important, and highly readable book.
Review: This is a brilliant and important book. After you spend only 15 minutes reading the intro & part of chapter 1, you will see very clearly that the topic is of critical importance for the majority of people on this planet. The book is also very well-written: complex material (when it appears) is explained in terms the average college-educated person can grasp, and Easterly intersperses lots and lots of real-world anecdotes to always keep reminding the reader why we should care about this topic. And he succeeds in making us care. In order to have any chance at all of devising policies that will actually succeed in improving the plight of the impoverished peoples of the world, we must first examine what's been tried, and understand why it hasn't worked. This is Easterly's plan for the book. For each main paradigm used to understand economic growth and development, Easterly explains the main concepts, explains the basis for the policies that were tried, and offers his analysis of why these policies failed. Easterly believes there's a common theme in understanding what hasn't worked and what might work, and he explains it clearly in his book. If you are a teacher or student of economics, I especially recommend this book. It very nicely explains the economic intuition behind a LOT of economic theory, including some fairly recent theory that hasn't yet trickled down into undergraduate intermediate level textbooks. It also motivates all the theory with lots and lots of compelling real-world examples. The Elusive Quest for Growth doesn't offer a balanced look at all viewpoints; that is not its goal. Easterly has a strong point of view, which I guess could be labeled "conservative." Some liberals think that conservatives care more about big business than about the poor, or labor, or the environment (and indeed there are many examples of Republican policies in the U.S. that support this view - just look at Bush's record on the environment). However, Easterly's sole concern is helping the poor, not pushing a conservative agenda down the reader's throat. At the time I write this, there are 16 other reader reviews, only 3 of which are negative. Two of these three reviews are almost identical and must have been written by the same person ("T Biamonte from Stamford, CT USA"). This reviewer clearly disagrees with Easterly's politics, but his review in my opinion really doesn't offer any effective criticism of Easterly's book itself, not the writing, or the soundness of Easterly's analysis, or the evidence Easterly uses to support this arguments. So I encourage you to check out this book. ...
Rating:
Summary: A good overview from a dissenting view in the establishment
Review: This is a great book for a non-expert interested in the question of why some countries are rich while others are so persistently poor and volatile. It presents a consistent and pretty clear view of the world, drawing on some of the basic principles of economics. It is written in a conversational, story-filled style that makes it much more interesting than the average economics tome, and avoids a lot of academic jargon. Where the jargon is useful for clarity, he gives reasonably good and original explanations. One warning: don't expect a terribly balanced outlook -- Easterly is a little dismissive of other viewpoints, and does not really give a fair shake to the conclusions he doesn't share. Think of this book instead as one man's opinion on tropical underdevelopment (an opinion well worth reading) and not as a statement of fact.
Rating:
Summary: Individuals respond to incentives
Review: This is a very good book about economic growth and development. By first showing the past failures of economics to achieve the most important goal of economics, a reduction of poverty in less developed nations, Easterly shows that economic theories used out of context or simplistically is very dangerous indeed. However, by explaining the reasons for these failures, the inconsistency between policies and the first law of economics (people respond to incentives), Easterly shows that to a large degree economics properly understood is the solution. Thus beware of any suggested Holy Grail for economic development, instead the process of bringing people out of poverty (or any other measurement of development) requires a comprehensive approach that is incentive consistent at all levels.
Rating:
Summary: A complex subject
Review: This is an excellent book. My own experience in a struggling Eastern European country (with a lot of economic potential) confirms much of what Easterly writes. The tough part is getting incentives right in the face of politics and vested interests. It seems to me that sophisticated laws (and governments that equitably enforce them) create correct incentive structures and effective institutions. History and culture play roles in this. Some transition economies in Europe have a way out: adopting and enforcing the 80,000 pages of EU laws required for admittance. EU law might not be perfect, but it provides many more of the right kinds of incentives than the alternative: laws hijacked by vested interests. Development economics is a very complex subject. If you're interested in seeing additional viewpoints, then I'd also suggest reading Frontiers of Development Economics.
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