Volume 33, Number 18 · November 20, 1986
Anything Goes?
By Peter Bauer
Emerging from Poverty: The Economics That Really Matters
by Gerald M. Meier
Oxford University Press, 258 pp., $10.95 (paper)
Professor Gerald Meier's purpose is set out in the first sentence of his book. He wants to appraise 'the efforts by economists to understand the economics of being poor as well as the policy measures they have proposed that will allow the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America to emerge from poverty.' According to Meier, 'the economists' primary goal must be the elimination of poverty.' Economists since Adam Smith, he notes, have created theories to try to explain why countries are poor and what can be done to improve their economic performance. In one way or another these theories have become the basis for government policies.
Review, 5435 words
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