Development Economics

About the Book Gerard Roland's new text, Development Economics, is the first undergraduate text to recognize the role of institutions in understanding development and growth. Through a series of chapters devoted to specific sets of institutions, Roland examines the effects of institutions on growth, property rights, market development, and the delivery of public goods and services and focuses. With the most comprehensive and up to date treatment of institutions on development, Roland explores the important questions of why some countries develop faster than others and why some fail while others are successful. Roland also introduces the latest research related to randomized program evaluation and how it can be used to evaluate different aid programs. What is the effect of de-worming drugs on school participation and learning? How effective are bed nets in fighting malaria? Program evaluation helps determine which programs are best, and which policies have the best ratio in achieving goals of health, education, welfare, and other measures of development. Organized in three key parts, Roland begins by introducing the big issues of development. The second part gives a through treatment of the economics of institutions and why they matter, and the third analyzes development outcomes while building on the institutional framework introduced in part two.