Reddit reviews The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics

http://williameasterly.org/

http://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Quest-Growth-Economists-Misadventures/dp/0262550423/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318643614&sr=1-1&tag=acleint-20

There are also a ton of peer reviewed academic studies available but those you can find yourself if you're interested enough.

The irony is that Africa is filled with centrally planned, statist authoritarian economies, ruled by left wing tinpot tyrants who are idolized by useful idiot hipster liberals who see them as enemies of imperialism and racism (zimbabwe, libya, ethiopia, somalia until the early 90's), and that the government seizure and redistribution of the land of productive farms, price controls on food, and food tariffs are some of the causes of starvation in Africa. Free markets also cannot be blamed for obesity; the rube goldberg complex of subsidies, price supports, tariffs, and tax credits that make up America's sovietized agriculture sector make sugar and healthy foods expensive while encouraging the overproduction of corn.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elusive-Quest-Growth-Misadventures/dp/0262550423

http://www.amazon.com/Africa-Unchained-Blueprint-Africas-Future/dp/1403973865/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374259470&sr=1-2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0262550423/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=&sr=

To go along with the theme of development from the perspective of a world bank and NYU economist

If anyone is interested in further reading on this topic, we read The Elusive Quest for Growth for my economic growth class. It's a solid read but, unfortunately, is more a list of the many, many things we've tried that have failed, rather than any key plan for success.

There's a concept in economic development that if you give something out for free people may not value it. So sometimes instead of giving out free condoms in Africa, you charge a small fee so people don't blow them up as balloons at soccer games. (Source is this book: https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Quest-Growth-Economists-Misadventures/dp/0262550423).

Look I don't care if I didn't solve this non profit's every wish, they said they wanted certain features in the app and we made. The fact that someone couldn't spend 5 minutes to promote an app I personally spend 120 hours of my time making shows that they really didn't need a mobile app, or we should've charged them so they'd value it.

The comment does exist, and hasn't been moderated. Reddit's servers may be having an issue.

Here's the reply again:

"This is really somewhat hilarious. You're dismissing the plurality view of the academic field because I "haven't posted evidence of it" (even though the research we're discussing actually supports that conclusion, if you read the paper), and it hurts your feelings.

Fine, here are some citations. Since you don't even know what "literature" means, I'll leave out things behind paywalls:

Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth? by William Easterly

The Elusive Quest for Growth by William Easterly

Institutions as the Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson

Coffee and Power by Jeffrey M. Paige

The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

The Anti-Politics Machine by James Ferguson

Social Cohesion, Institutions, and Growth by William Easterly, Jozef Ritzen, and Michael Woolcock

African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis by Nicolas Van de Walle

Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

Doing Bad by Doing Good by Christopher Coyne

From Subsistence to Exchange by Peter Bauer"

As a note, several of these are ones that one of the mods posts when asked about good books on development.

Hace poco terminé una vuelta más a How Asia Works, que es uno de mis favoritos. Ahora estoy releyendo The Elusive Quest for Growth y empezando con Stages of Economic Growth

If throwing money at problems solved them then the Baltimore and DC school system would be the best in the country.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elusive-Quest-Growth-Misadventures/dp/0262550423

That book is all about how foreign aid money does not actually cause economic benefit. Throwing money at things usually doesnt work and can cause certain unintended negative consequences, some of which are quite terrible, ie keeping corrupt politicians in power.