The world of development has rightly been dominated by economists. As with any discipline – whether academic, practical or, in this case, both – the very best thinkers rarely agree on the most effective way to elevate people out of poverty. Do impoverished countries need a “big push” of health care, education and agricultural development to create an environment for investment? Is reliance on the corporate sector the main route to producing both profit and social good? Or do impoverished countries primary need to focus their attention on governance?

The following books represent some of the most compelling explanations of how our world got this way, as well as theories of what is needed to stimulate economic development in the impoverished world. Though the ideas are at times incompatible, together these books provide a readable overview of current thinking.

The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier
In this most recent book, the Oxford economist makes a case for shifting the development discussion away from its current focus on the five billion people who live outside the wealthy western hemisphere to a narrower group: the ‘bottom billion’. Citizens of the bottom billion live in one of fifty countries stuck in one of four traps that make economic growth impossible: the conflict trap, the resource trap, the trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors and the trap of bad governance in a small country. Far from the Millennium Development concerns of immunizations and clean water, Collier’s prescription for bottom billion countries is more focused on changing aid policy, changing trade policy, creating international laws and charters and, most controversially, using international military force to help establish or sustain peace in troubled nations. 

The Elusive Quest for Growth, William Easterly
In this easy to read, angry first book, New York University economist William Easterly argues that the development efforts of the past two decades have created no substantive change for those living in poverty because of a failure on the part of institutions such as the World Bank to apply the economic theories that are supposed to be at the core of their expertise. Easterly relates numerous anecdotes of his sixteen years with the Bank, using the very projects he was involved in as case studies in development initiatives that do nothing – a tactic which reputedly earned him his dismissal from the elite Washington institution. For anyone who has wondered about the claim that countries with World Bank involvement have fared worse in the past three decades than those without, Easterly has your answer.

The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman
Friedman made his name as a New York Times journalist in the Middle East in the nineteen seventies, winning a Pulitzer for his coverage, and a National Book Award for his canonical tome From Beirut to Jerusalem. In The Lexus and the Olive Tree he applies the same reporting, analysis and humor to the subject of globalization. The book is a kind of primer on the subject, outlining the advantages and challenges to a globalized world. He pays particular attention to the tension nations feel between their traditional culture (the olive tree) and the kinds of innovations necessary for global trade (the Lexus), since mismanagement of that tension can result in its extreme form to erosion of traditions and embrace of cultural and economic colonization. He does not say much that is different from what Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz discusses in Globalization and its Discontents, but he gets there in a much more reader-friendly way. 

The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, Benjamin Friedman
The reasons to pursue economic development is not because it is good for businesses, argues Benjamin Friedman, but because it is good for human beings. That is the argument of this door-stop of a book, which suggests that when economies grow robustly, and gain in wealth is relatively well distributed, societies progress socially and politically. Economic stagnation, in contrast, breeds isolationism and selfishness and creates an environment of distrust and suspicion. It is a disturbing position – that humans show humanity towards others based on how wealthy they feel – but a convincing one.

Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1998 arguably because of his specialty in “welfare” economics, a discipline which measures the economic value of an initiative based on how it contributes to the welfare of its beneficiary. Published in 2000, Development as Freedom provides an overview of the writer’s thought on the subject. He pays special attention to the importance of civil and political freedom to a country’s development potential, yet also argues that a foundation of strong educational systems and public health are critical to create a population capable of participating in and helping to sustain growth once it starts.

More Recommendations:
Globalization and its Discontents, Joseph Stiglitz
Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher