Economists, Politics, and Global Poverty (Part I)A reviews of books that are important critiques of economists.

Thus is the first in a series of four book review blogs concerning economists, politics, and global poverty.

The first recommended book is The Bottom Billion (2005) by Paul Collier. This is a fairly balanced account of why one sixth of the world’s population (The Bottom Billion) still live in poverty. 70% of those counties that remain in poverty are in Africa. Collier describes the major causes of poverty to be:

1. Civil war.
2. Mineral wealth which supports the government rather than taxes.
3. Being landlocked and dependent on neighboring counties for transportation.
4. Poor governance.

Much of this can be understood by reading a book review by Niall Ferguson.