Two books on poverty

books ▪ economics ▪ poverty ▪

Thanksgiving weekend gave me a short break away from my microeconomics problem sets. So, I picked up Understanding Poverty, a collection of articles edited by Banerjee, Benabou and Mukherjee which I bought a few months back on a good friend's recommendation. I am not usually fond of anthologies, but this is no usual anthology. This one is a gem!

The articles are written by development-economics superstars, from Banerjee, Duflo, Eswaran and Kotwal, Laffont, Morduch, Tirole, etc. -- you name it. None of the articles has any equation. Yet in the background... , one can almost picture economic models underlying each of these articles. I find it a great read as somebody interested in both the theoretical and policy aspects of development. Highly recommended! I will share some of them once I have time.

Another good book on the subject on my shelf is The Bottom Billion by Oxford economist Paul Collier. I've read patches of it, and they look good. I just need to find time to read it in one go. In the winter break, perhaps...

Update: Here is a review of Understanding Poverty by New York Times's Nicholas Kristof.