By Joseph E. Stiglitz Reviewed by Benjamin Friedman. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize–winning economist, and he deserves to be. Over a long career, he has made incisive and highly valued contributions to the explanation of an astonishingly broad range of economic phenomena, including taxes, interest rates, consumer behavior, corporate finance, and much else. Especially among econ-omists who are still of active working age, he ranks as a titan of the field. In recent years Stiglitz has also been an active participant in economic policymaking, first as a member and then as chairman of the US Council of…
Author: CASADE
By John F. McDonald, Daniel P. McMillen. Reviewed by Professor John O. Ifediora. The second edition of Urban Economics And Real Estate by John F. McDonald and Daniel P. McMillen reminds us, quite forcefully, of the ever-increasing roles cities, metropolis, and regional economies play in the economic welfare of states and nations. In this well-documented book, the reader is made to see clearly the necessary interconnectedness of market forces, public policies, households and business location decisions, and social allocation of resources at local, state and regional levels. Professors McDonald and McMillen begin by explaining the primary objects of the study…
Steven Radelet. Seventeen emerging African countries—home to more than 300 million people—have undergone dramatic changes in economic growth, poverty reduction, and political accountability since the mid-1990s. Another six “threshold” countries have seen promising but less dramatic change. The transformation in these countries has been little noticed by the outside world and is too often overshadowed by negative news from other African countries. But the break from the past is clear. Consider the economic turnaround in the 17 emerging countries: between 1975 and 1995, their economic growth per capita was essentially zero. But between 1996 and 2008, they achieved growth averaging…
Paul Cleveland. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love…
Nicolas van de Walle. Reviewed by Gail Gerhar. This landmark work presents a searching and persuasive political explanation of Africa’s failure to achieve development despite two decades of externally imposed economic reform. First, Van de Walle draws together the growing body of evidence that Africa’s neopatrimonial systems of rule thwart economic progress, and he provides a comparative overview of critiques of structural adjustment reforms. Then, in a devastating analysis of international aid programs, he demonstrates how Western donors and lenders, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have systematically if unwittingly undermined the institutional capacity of African…
Uchechukwu Ngwaba. On 9 December 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law Nigeria’s first ever Health Act. Not surprisingly, this has been widely celebrated by stakeholders across the country and the diaspora as an important milestone for the health sector of Nigeria. The coming on board of this legislation brings to an end close to a decade of activism by stakeholders in the health sector of the country. It now appears that finally an answer to the cry of many Nigerians for critical reform in the health sector has been provided – or is that really the case? To…
The Oil-to-Cash policy initiative by the Center for Global Development to help the lot of Africa’s poor presumes so. This speculative but highly plausible initiative may actually prove useful as a fiscal policy instrument that African governments may deploy to bridge the ever-growing income inequality in the continent; and better yet, help create the ever-useful middle class. The research paper by Marcelo Guigale and Nga Thi Viet Nguyen entitled “Money to the People: Estimates of the Potential Scale of Direct Dividend Payments in Africa,” is both informative and timely. A summary version of this work is presented here. Marcelo…
The idea of a Caliphate within the territorial competence of a sovereign nation is a disturbing one, not least because it signals the existence of another supreme governing body within the state. This outcome not only makes nonsensical the notion of State sovereignty as commonly apprehended, but would also create a precedent that would make inoperable the vast body of international laws that govern the conduct of nations and the standards on which their relationships are based. Boko Haram’s control of territory in Northern Nigeria, and the occupation of vast geographic space in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic…
Alan Gelb and Mariana Dahan. The post-2015 development agenda is being shaped as we speak. The United Nations has recently released a report that synthesizes the full range of inputs received from various stakeholders. These inputs, including ones from the World Bank Group, are a substantive contribution to the intergovernmental negotiations in the lead up to the September 2015 Summit that will officially launch the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda. But today, with 17 goals and 169 targets, the SDGs are a big mouthful for the global development community to chew on, let alone to digest. Some see a…
[S]ince love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. —Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513. All animals experience fear—human beings, perhaps, most of all. Any animal incapable of fear would have been hard pressed to survive, regardless of its size, speed, or other attributes. Fear alerts us to dangers that threaten our well-being and sometimes our very lives. Sensing fear, we respond by running away, by hiding, or by preparing to ward off the danger. To disregard fear is to place ourselves in possibly mortal jeopardy. Even the…