I finished reading "The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor--and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car! by Tim Harford". A brilliant book, excellently written, lucidly explained, and it is simply unputdownable (if that indeed is a word).
If you have read Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
For my money, a very useful theory that while applied to Cameroon to explain why it is so poor, and its rulers corrupt, could just as easily be applied to India, its politicians, and its endemic corruption. Without going into too much detail, or any detail at all for that matter, the theories of Mancur Olson are invoked many times in this context.
The last chapter of the book is about China and how it grew rich. Towards the end Tim Harford tends to get a bit moralistic and preachy, but given the overall excellence of the book, it can be ignored and excused.
© 2006, Abhinav Agarwal. All rights reserved. Reposted to this blog Nov 2011