What do you think?
The Economics of International Development: Foreign Aid versus Freedom for the World's Poor
Foreign aid and overseas military intervention have been important and controversial political topics for over a decade. The government’s controversial target to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid has been widely welcomed by some, but strongly criticised by others. Furthermore, the controversy of the Iraq war rumbles on, even today. This is all happening amongst much instability in many parts of the world.
In this short book, a number of authors challenge the assumption that we can bring about economic development and promote liberal democracies through direct foreign intervention – whether economic or military intervention. The lead author, William Easterly, drawing on his wide experience at the World Bank and as an academic, is a renowned sceptic of intervention. He points out that solutions proposed now to the problem of poverty are identical to solutions proposed decades ago – but the plans of rich governments simply do not successfully transform poor countries. Academics Abigail Hall-Blanco and Christian Bjornskov add further context and put forward empirical evidence that backs up Easterly’s argument. Syvlie Aboa-Bradwell draws upon her own practical experience to give examples of how people in poor countries can be assisted to promote their own development.
This book is essential reading for students, teachers and all interested in better understanding how to help – and how not to help – the world’s most disadvantaged peoples.
In this short book, a number of authors challenge the assumption that we can bring about economic development and promote liberal democracies through direct foreign intervention – whether economic or military intervention. The lead author, William Easterly, drawing on his wide experience at the World Bank and as an academic, is a renowned sceptic of intervention. He points out that solutions proposed now to the problem of poverty are identical to solutions proposed decades ago – but the plans of rich governments simply do not successfully transform poor countries. Academics Abigail Hall-Blanco and Christian Bjornskov add further context and put forward empirical evidence that backs up Easterly’s argument. Syvlie Aboa-Bradwell draws upon her own practical experience to give examples of how people in poor countries can be assisted to promote their own development.
This book is essential reading for students, teachers and all interested in better understanding how to help – and how not to help – the world’s most disadvantaged peoples.
- GenresEconomics
103 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2016
About the author
William Easterly
24 books217 followersWilliam Easterly is Professor of
Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU's Development Research Institute. He is editor of Aid Watch blog, Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Co-Editor of the Journal of Development Economics. He is the author of The White Man’s Burden: How the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006), The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT, 2001), 3 other co-edited books, and 59 articles in refereed economics journals. William Easterly received his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT. He was born in West Virginia and is the 8th most famous native of Bowling Green, Ohio, where he grew up. He spent sixteen years as a Research Economist at the World Bank. He is on the board of the anti-malaria philanthropy, Nets for Life. His work has been discussed in media outlets like the Lehrer Newshour, National Public Radio, the BBC, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Economist, the New Yorker, Forbes, Business Week, the Financial Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, and the Christian Science Monitor. Foreign Policy magazine inexplicably named him one of the world’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals in 2008. His areas of expertise are the determinants of long-run economic growth, the political economy of development, and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He has worked in most areas of the developing world, most heavily in Africa, Latin America, and Russia. William Easterly is an associate editor of the American Economic Journals: Macroeconomics, the Journal of Comparative Economics and the Journal of Economic Growth.
Taken from his website.
Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU's Development Research Institute. He is editor of Aid Watch blog, Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Co-Editor of the Journal of Development Economics. He is the author of The White Man’s Burden: How the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006), The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT, 2001), 3 other co-edited books, and 59 articles in refereed economics journals. William Easterly received his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT. He was born in West Virginia and is the 8th most famous native of Bowling Green, Ohio, where he grew up. He spent sixteen years as a Research Economist at the World Bank. He is on the board of the anti-malaria philanthropy, Nets for Life. His work has been discussed in media outlets like the Lehrer Newshour, National Public Radio, the BBC, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Economist, the New Yorker, Forbes, Business Week, the Financial Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, and the Christian Science Monitor. Foreign Policy magazine inexplicably named him one of the world’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals in 2008. His areas of expertise are the determinants of long-run economic growth, the political economy of development, and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He has worked in most areas of the developing world, most heavily in Africa, Latin America, and Russia. William Easterly is an associate editor of the American Economic Journals: Macroeconomics, the Journal of Comparative Economics and the Journal of Economic Growth.
Taken from his website.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 16, 2020
A rather short but interesting publication on the role of foreign aid for developing countries. Although the book is focusing exclusively on African nations, being born in the poorest country in Europe I felt that this would be a useful read for me. The publication is organized in an unusual manner when after William Easterly take on foreign aid, a number of experts and academics are giving their feedback on it. The author identifies the main issues related to the negative effects of foreign aid, such as being too technical instead of a long term strategic attempt in solving international issues (it happened in my country as well when foreign aid money where used for raises in judges' salaries and restoration made to courthouses with the goal of reducing the rampant corruption in the judiciary instead of using the same amount for judicial reform and certainly the corruption is still there or maybe even increased - because bribes for judges went up - after the raises in salaries) or the idea that foreign aid to dictators is only keeping the longer in power is also true. The only thing that I did not get was the criticism of Bill Gates because I was expecting to see more of an analysis of foreign aid coming from governmental organizations and governments.
October 3, 2026
Useful and accurate in his excoriation of the technocratic approach to international aid, and the hypocrisy of the western order on its supposed values of democracy and freedom.
Easterly is also almost right about human rights: he says that peoples' rights are absolutely key to development and well-being and it's only after people have these rights that technical solutions start to become relevant.
This is due to both corruption and the inherent short-termism and lack of systemic problem-solving of mosquito nets et al.
But of course, perhaps unsurprisingly, he takes the liberal western definition of democracy on, completely and uncritically. He frames all of this in terms of individual and property rights end of.
This is something I find very strange given his otherwise thorough demolition of the traditional liberal assumptions. There is a whole discussion in the Q&A segment over China, and the fact that China is way better at capitalism than the capitalists, and Easterly admits that the Chinese have more freedom and democracy than westerners traditionally think.
... But then the first companion piece by Abigail R. Hall basically opens by uncritically glazing von Mises and Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, which is not only a truly dogshit book, but is completely incompatible with the empirical reality of China's success.
I'm certainly not saying that China is economically communist because it's not. But to pretend that China isn't successful precisely because of their long-term central planning and our lack of it is pure willful ignorance.
There's no discussion of short-term and long-term thinking, the limits of representative democracy vs other forms, the corrosive power of capital formation on social institutions, behavioral economics and the limits of revealed preferences. No discussion of culture and traditional ways of life, no discussion of induced demand or social ethics of a healthier society. No discussion of the corrosive tendencies of inequality or the utter mindlessness of the abstraction of Pareto optimality.
Nor is there a discussion of the failure of the capitalist value-form to account for anything that isn't an exchange of a unit of good/service for another (think externalities, infinitely reproducible goods like software, the inability for it to internally handle rewarding invention, hence the necessity of Intellectual Property).
He's right about peoples' power and he's right about colonialism, but he doesn't have the faintest clue about the deeper mechanisms of these concepts. He's like a pond-strider gliding along the surface of phenomena, assuming that the water is walkable for all of God's creatures.
Easterly is also almost right about human rights: he says that peoples' rights are absolutely key to development and well-being and it's only after people have these rights that technical solutions start to become relevant.
This is due to both corruption and the inherent short-termism and lack of systemic problem-solving of mosquito nets et al.
But of course, perhaps unsurprisingly, he takes the liberal western definition of democracy on, completely and uncritically. He frames all of this in terms of individual and property rights end of.
This is something I find very strange given his otherwise thorough demolition of the traditional liberal assumptions. There is a whole discussion in the Q&A segment over China, and the fact that China is way better at capitalism than the capitalists, and Easterly admits that the Chinese have more freedom and democracy than westerners traditionally think.
... But then the first companion piece by Abigail R. Hall basically opens by uncritically glazing von Mises and Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, which is not only a truly dogshit book, but is completely incompatible with the empirical reality of China's success.
I'm certainly not saying that China is economically communist because it's not. But to pretend that China isn't successful precisely because of their long-term central planning and our lack of it is pure willful ignorance.
There's no discussion of short-term and long-term thinking, the limits of representative democracy vs other forms, the corrosive power of capital formation on social institutions, behavioral economics and the limits of revealed preferences. No discussion of culture and traditional ways of life, no discussion of induced demand or social ethics of a healthier society. No discussion of the corrosive tendencies of inequality or the utter mindlessness of the abstraction of Pareto optimality.
Nor is there a discussion of the failure of the capitalist value-form to account for anything that isn't an exchange of a unit of good/service for another (think externalities, infinitely reproducible goods like software, the inability for it to internally handle rewarding invention, hence the necessity of Intellectual Property).
He's right about peoples' power and he's right about colonialism, but he doesn't have the faintest clue about the deeper mechanisms of these concepts. He's like a pond-strider gliding along the surface of phenomena, assuming that the water is walkable for all of God's creatures.
May 19, 2019
The case for foreign aid, especially to autocrats, is not strong. Cold comfort as I struggle with Georgia’s courts and judges.
April 19, 2022
A succinct - yet effective - introduction into foreign aid and international development.
Easterly and the accompanying commentaries effectively problematise the debate surrounding the long term success of foreign aid versus economic and political freedom, for the world's poor. Building on the works of Hayek and Buchanan, the book successfully evidences the failings of applying 'technical solutions' to the more opaque socio-political reality of poverty.
An easy and accessible quick read, this book is for anyone interested in a high-level examination of the problems surrounding foreign aid in Africa. No prior knowledge is necessary.
Easterly and the accompanying commentaries effectively problematise the debate surrounding the long term success of foreign aid versus economic and political freedom, for the world's poor. Building on the works of Hayek and Buchanan, the book successfully evidences the failings of applying 'technical solutions' to the more opaque socio-political reality of poverty.
An easy and accessible quick read, this book is for anyone interested in a high-level examination of the problems surrounding foreign aid in Africa. No prior knowledge is necessary.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews