Students are expected to research and select a book that deals with one of the “Development” issues covered in class. This assignment is an individual submission. The selected book must NOT be a textbook.
Guidelines for Book Review:
A full book review may concern only one book. Its length is about 1500-2000 words. It should give readers an engaging, informative, and critical discussion of the work. The review should follow the Guidelines below.
The review should consider (please use as your outline):
• The intended audience for the book and who would find it useful
• The background of the author(s)
• The main ideas and major objectives of the book and how effectively these are accomplished
• The context or impetus for the book – – political controversy, implications of the book for research, policy, practice, or theory
• A comparison with other works on this subject
• Constructive comments about the strength and weaknesses of the book
The front page of your review should include:
• Your first and last name
• Your student id
• Author(s) or editor(s) first and last name(s) (please indicate if it is an edited book)
• Title of book
• Year of publication
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Number of pages
• Price (please indicate paperback or hard cover) if available
• ISBN
The text book we use for this course:
Economic Development, 12th edition, by Todaro and Smith.
The topics we have covered:
1. What’s Economic Development
2. Comparing Economies
3. Classical Theory of Development
4. Education, Health
5. Development Policymaking (state and market)
6. International Trade
7. BOP, Debt, Crises & Stabilization
8. Foreign Aid & Investment
9. Finance and Fiscal Policy
Book recommendations:
Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo. 2019. Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems.
Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo. 2011. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty.
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2013. Why Nations Fail.
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2019. The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.
Piketty, Thomas. 2017. Capital in the Twenty-First Century.