Skip to main content

Economic Development

An Economic Development Reading List

Prepared by Ian Vásquez

Read This First

On the Importance of Good Institutions for Economic Development

On the History of Economic Growth

  • The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective by Angus Maddison (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2001)
    Attempts to calculate growth rates around the world for the past 1000 years, with thoughtful discussions of the world economy during that period.
  • The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor by David S. Landes (W.W. Norton & Company, 1998)
    A readable economic history of how cultural and institutional factors explain the economic performance of countries.
  • Property and Freedom by Richard Pipes (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999)
    An historical review of the importance of property rights to economic growth, the rule of law and freedom.
  • How the West Grew Rich by Nathan Rosenberg and L. E. Birdzell, Jr. (Basic Books, 1986)
    An in‐​depth history of the factors that explain the West’s escape from poverty: its institutions and its political pluralism.

On the Failure of Foreign Aid