The three authors chose three very different entry points and perspectives to argue their case: (liberal) democracy for Mounk, inequality in the age of (liberal) capitalism for Milanovic, and (libe
Trio II: The Winter of Our Discontent (Part 1)
“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” John Steinbeck I owe the title of this review to the eponymous book of John Steinbeck who borrow
Inequality and Capitalism (Alone)
Milanovic’s Global Inequality may be a relatively old news by now. Yet, published in 2016, the book is still relevant as it anticipates many developments that we are observing today, such a
The Finance Curse: 2⅓ Books on the Danger of Financialization (Part 2)
With apologies for this digression (which I thought to be important for a more nuanced and informed discussion), let me now return to the three books under review. Hence, it is not so much th
The Finance Curse: 2⅓ Books on the Danger of Financialization (Part 1)
This is a review of three books that warn about the danger of growing financialization of developed economies: The Finance Curse by Nicholas Shaxson (2018) from where the title for this review is b
Explaining UNCDF maturity model
Explanation of the UNCDF three-phase maturity model for innovation, from innovation to consolidation to scaling up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4yg8s2lX3c.
State legitimacy and public sector performance in Uganda
One important issue that causes some controversy concerns efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector and the overall government performance in Uganda. After all, the NRM from the outset esta
Mariana Mazzucato, The Value of Everything – Part 2
Building on the theoretical discussion in the first part, the second part of the book demonstrates how those theoretical shifts practically manifest themselves in modern economies. One is financial
Jervin and Rodrik: Lessons for Africa
This is a review of two books published in the past 3 years, Morten Jerven’s Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong (2015), Dani Rodrik’s Economics Rules (2017). Jerven focuses on Africa whereas R
About the blog
This blog has two parts (at least for now). One presents my reviews on books and publications on development in the developing world. The focus is on development economics but other fields (politic