In Search of Prosperity

The economics of growth has come a long way since it regained center stage for economists in the mid-1980s. Here for the first time is a series of country studies guided by that research. The thirteen essays, by leading economists, shed light on some of the most important growth puzzles of our time. How did China grow so rapidly despite the absence of full-fledged private property rights? What happened in India after the early 1980s to more than double its growth rate? How did Botswana and Mauritius avoid the problems that other countries in sub - Saharan Africa succumbed to? How did Indonesia manage to grow over three decades despite weak institutions and distorted microeconomic policies and why did it suffer such a collapse after 1997? What emerges from this collective effort is a deeper understanding of the centrality of institutions. Economies that have performed well over the long term owe their success not to geography or trade, but to institutions that have generated market-oriented incentives, protected property rights, and enabled stability. However, these narratives warn against a cookie-cutter approach to institution building. The contributors are Daron Acemoglu, Maite Careaga, Gregory Clark, J. Bradford DeLong, Georges de Menil, William Easterly, Ricardo Hausmann, Simon Johnson, Daniel Kaufmann, Massimo Mastruzzi, Ian W. McLean, Lant Pritchett, Yingyi Qian, James A. Robinson, Devesh Roy, Arvind Subramanian, Alan M. Taylor, Jonathan Temple, Barry R. Weingast, Susan Wolcott, and Diego Zavaleta.

ISBN 0691092699   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780691092690 (What's this?)   Pages 520 Publisher Princeton University Press   Volumes 1 Imprint Princeton University Press   Weight (grammes) 685 Format Paperback   Published in New Jersey Publication date 14 Apr 2003   Height (mm) 229 Writer of introduction Rodrik, Dani   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2002072854   Spine width (mm) 30 DEWEY 338.9   Academic level Professional / Scholarly, Tertiary education

		Acknowledgments
		List of Contributors
Ch. 1		Introduction: What Do We Learn from Country Narratives? by Dani Rodrik		1
Ch. 2		Australian Growth: A California Perspective by Ian W. McLean and Alan M. Taylor		23
Ch. 3		One Polity, Many Countries: Economic Growth in India, 1873-2000 by Gregory Clark and Susan Wolcott		53
Ch. 4		An African Success Story: Botswana by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson		80
Ch. 5		A Toy Collection, a Socialist Star, and a Democratic Dud? Growth Theory, Vietnam, and the Philippines by Lant Pritchett		123
Ch. 6		Growing into Trouble: Indonesia after 1966 by Jonathan Temple		152
Ch. 7		India since Independence: An Analytic Growth Narrative by J. Bradford DeLong		184
Ch. 8		Who Can Explain the Mauritian Miracle? Meade, Romer, Sachs, or Rodrik? by Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Roy		205
Ch. 9		Venezuela's Growth Implosion: A Neoclassical Story? by Ricardo Hausmann		244
Ch. 10		History, Policy, and Performance in Two Transition Economies: Poland and Romania by Georges de Menil		271
Ch. 11		How Reform Worked in China by Yingyi Qian		297
Ch. 12		Sustained Macroeconomic Reforms, Tepid Growth: A Governance Puzzle in Bolivia? by Daniel Kaufmann and Massimo Mastruzzi and Diego Zavaleta		334
Ch. 13		Fiscal Federalism, Good Governance, and Economic Growth in Mexico by Maite Careaga and Barry R. Weingast		399
Ch. 14		The Political Economy of Growth without Development: A Case Study of Pakistan by William Easterly		439
		Index		473

Any book written or edited by Dani Rodrik is likely to be interesting and thought-provoking, and often iconoclastic. This volume is no exception... [I]t is a good volume of case studies, and may serve the added benefit of making US-based development economists attach more value to country studies of the determinants of growth. -- Oliver Morrissey, Journal of International Development

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