Gratuitous book recommendation

How will the international community respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing world? Will we see deeper and more sustained cooperation, or a reversion to crude power politics? To answer such questions, it is natural to turn to the international relations literature. I’ve just read Dan Drezner’s little introduction to the subject in one sitting, and if there’s a funnier social science book that has been published in the last couple of decades I’d be interested to hear about it.

Poor Economics

One of the most important economics books aimed at wider audiences to emerge in the last few years is Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Banerjee and Duflo are two of the leading economists of their generation and are particularly associated with the use of randomised controlled trials in development economics. However, this book is broader in its scope and tackles a wide range of issues in the economics of poverty, development economics and the economics of the family. The book has ten chapters and two major sections, one dealing with individual behaviour among the poor and the second dealing with the role of institutions. Like the best popular economics works, each chapter deals with very big issues backed with the recent literature but presented in a punchy and readable fashion. It is a cracking read. The first section deals with nutrition, public health interventions, education interventions and fertility. The second section looks at insurance for the poor, microcredit, savings and entrepeneurship. Chapter 10 sets their argument in the overall context of development debates raging between people like Sachs and Easterly.

The book pushes strongly for the continued development of experimental approaches to economic development that attempt to find workable solutions that large-scale philantrophic and government funding initiatives could be aimed toward. It is important reading for anyone working in microeconometrics and development economics broadly defined and also would be great reading for anyone in Ireland working around the area of foreign aid policy. I open up this thread for anyone who wants to debate aspects of the book or the surrounding issues. From an irisheconomy perspective, it is worth thinking about how the ideas in the book might influence how the Irish government directs the overseas aid budget.

Ireland: Stability Programme Update

The government has revised its macroeconomic and fiscal projections – the updated stability programme is available here.

Daniel Gros: Ireland and the Euro Crisis – Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Daniel Gros spoke at the IIEA on this topic today –  presentation is here.

John Bruton: Time to turn our attention to the things we can change

John Bruton writes today on the downside of grievance and the upside of a positive surprise on the deficit-reduction effort: Irish Times article here.