Economic Development

by E. Wayne Nafziger

Book Overview

E. Wayne Nafziger analyzes the economic development of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and East-Central Europe. The book is suitable for those with a background in economics principles. Nafziger explains the reasons for the recent fast growth of India, Poland, Brazil, China, and other Pacific Rim countries, and the slow, yet essential, growth for a turnaround of sub-Saharan Africa. The fifth edition of the text, written by a scholar of developing countries,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052176548X
• ISBN13: 9780521765480
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 856 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.9" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

No complaint

The book itself has great and useful information. If you want to know about economic history, buy this book. Thanks to the writers.

Depressingly orthodox account

This is one of the leading textbooks in its field, by the University Distinguished Professor of Economics at Kansas State University. It is hugely thorough and covers the entire subject in five parts: the principles and concepts of economic development, income distribution, growth factors, the international economics of development, and development strategies. Unfortunately, however, this is a most orthodox account. After citing the `widening relative gap, between GDP per capita of the richest country vis-à-vis that of the poorest country', he concludes, "income per capita in poor countries grows faster than in rich countries, as expected with diminishing returns in neoclassical growth theory." He seems to be overriding the evidence to reach the conclusion needed by the theory. According to the UN, "54 countries are poorer now [2003] than in 1990." He admits that debt relief initiatives have not been enough: "the immediate effect in decreasing actual debt-service payments, once the debtor meets conditions, is small." He accepts, "To reduce poverty and income inequality, a society may need to enact land reform, mass education, and other such programs straightaway rather than waiting until after growth is well under way." This should include birth control programmes, because "low birth rates increase equality by decreasing unemployment." He writes, "Land redistribution to the poor usually increases LDC [less-developed countries] agricultural output, at least after a period of adjustment." It needs redistributing: the landlord classes of Latin America and Africa currently sit on 2.7 billion hectares of unused land - 64% of all suitable land - that could be used to grow crops (Food and Agriculture Organization estimate). 90% is in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Angola, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia. A World Bank review of the `transition' economies found that privatisation had no positive effect on growth. Two other studies found that Polish, Czech and Hungarian companies were less efficient and profitable after privatisation, because the buyers just looted from them, at the expense of the workers and the public. He writes, "Since the early 1990s ... the international economy has been less volatile." Really? What about the Mexican crisis of 1994, the Asian crisis of 1997-99, Russia and Brazil in 1998, Turkey in 2000, Argentina in 2001-03, and the whole world in 2007-? He writes naively, "Unlike Western democracies, political control in LDCs tends to be held by a relatively small political elite." He believes, "the market allocates scarce resources efficiently among alternative means." Cuba rates just one index entry, Venezuela none and Nicaragua none. He grudgingly acknowledges that Cuba "provided economic security and met most of the basic needs of the bulk of the population", but fails to mention the effects of the 50-year US blockade. He defines liberalisation as `movement toward the market' and concludes by argu