MACMILLAN Explaining Growth: A Global Research Project (International Economic Association Series)

Explaining Growth is an attempt to compile the most comprehensive assessment of growth in developing and transition countries. The focus on growth does not imply the old mistake of seeing economic wealth as the ultimate measure of well being. Rather, the project takes the view that growth provides the opportunity to use resources well-while stagnation robs countries of the power to act. The project recognises that there are many paths toward growth, some leading to dead-ends and others onwards to sustainable prosperity for all. Designed in two phases, the first phase has sought to review and discover broad similarities and comparable experiences in six regions spanning the developing world. In each region, studies were undertaken on four themes-sources of growth, markets and growth, microeconomic determinants of growth, and the political economy of growth. These reviews provide the framework for the second phase of the project, in-depth country case studies. This volume bridges the two phases. It summarises the main results of the regional analyses and sets the stage for the country studies. About the Author GARY MCMAHON is Principal Economist with the Global Development Network. He previously worked at the World Bank, the International Development Research Centre, and Laurentian University. He has publications on a wide range of subjects in development economics and has edited 6 books on development and transition economies. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Western Ontario. LYN SQUIRE is currently director of the Global Development Network. During a long career at the World Bank, he has served as the Director of the 1990 World Development Report on Poverty, Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa, and Director of the Research Department.