Authors: Karl F. Seidman.
Hardcover, 520 pages
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc
Publication Date: 2004-06-22
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    “Incredible.  What a major contribution, just to pull together the diverse array of information out there about development finance into one volume.  I consider this book an ‘education’ for the lay reader, and a fabulous resource for the practitioner of development finance.” –Dr. Rhonda Phillips, AICP, CED, University of Florida

“This is the most comprehensive and best-written economic development text in the market. This would be a good text for a graduate level course and would work well with a one-semester teaching plan. . . The main strength of the book is the author’s ability to summarize concepts, programs, and institutions and then draw from them issues, lessons, and challenges.”  –John S. Strong, School of Business, College of William and Mary 

Economic Development Finance is a comprehensive and in-depth presentation of private, public, and community financial institutions, policies and methods for financing local and regional economic development projects. The treatment of policies and program models emphasizes their applications and impact, key design and management issues, and best practices. A separate section addresses critical management issues for development finance programs: program and product design, the lending and investment process, and capital management.  Case studies are included throughout the book to help readers develop their skills and apply policies and tools to real practice issues. A glossary of finance terms is also included.

Economic Development Finance provides a foundation for students and professionals in the technical aspects of business and real estate finance and surveys the full range of policies, program models, and financing tools used in economic development practice within the United States.   

Learn more economic development strategies on Karl F. Seidman's Web site at www.kfsconsulting.com
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Authors: Judith Tendler.
Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication Date: 1998-09-16


Reviews :

   

In Good Government in the Tropics, Judith Tendler questions widely prevailing views about why governments so often perform poorly and about what causes them to improve. Drawing on a set of four cases involving public bureaucracies at work under the direction of an innovative state government in Brazil, the book offers findings of significance to the current debates about organization of the public-sector workplace, public service delivery, decentralization, and the interaction between government and civil society. The case chapters represent four different sectors, each traditionally spoken for by its distinct experts, literatures, and public agnecies -- rural preventive health, small enterprise development, agricultural extension for small farmers, and employment-creating public works construction and drought relief. With findings that cut across these sectoral boundaries, the book raises questions about the policy advice proferred by the international donor community. It shifts the terms of the prevailing debate away from mistrust of government toward an understanding of the circumstances under which public servants become truly committed to their work and public service improves dramatically.

"The traditional focus on trying to eliminate 'rent-seeking' by reducing the state's role has made a contribution but lost much of its charisma. Theoreticians and practitioners alike are looking for new ideas and Tendler offers a quite intriguing set of them. The cases demonstrate surprising counter-intuitive results that will be of interest even to those with little substantive interest in the particular setting described. Theoretical novelty and elegant use of evidence combine to make this book a clear winner." -- Peter Evans, University of California at Berkeley

...

Authors: World Bank.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Publication Date: 2007-10-19
Edition: 2008

Reviews :

    The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. World Development Report 2008 seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the World Development Report....

Authors: Joel Mokyr.
Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication Date: 2004-10-18


Reviews :

    The growth of technological and scientific knowledge in the past two centuries has been the overriding dynamic element in the economic and social history of the world. Its result is now often called the knowledge economy. But what are the historical origins of this revolution and what have been its mechanisms? In The Gifts of Athena, Joel Mokyr constructs an original framework to analyze the concept of "useful" knowledge. He argues that the growth explosion in the modern West in the past two centuries was driven not just by the appearance of new technological ideas but also by the improved access to these ideas in society at large--as made possible by social networks comprising universities, publishers, professional sciences, and kindred institutions. Through a wealth of historical evidence set in clear and lively prose, he shows that changes in the intellectual and social environment and the institutional background in which knowledge was generated and disseminated brought about the Industrial Revolution, followed by sustained economic growth and continuing technological change.

Mokyr draws a link between intellectual forces such as the European enlightenment and subsequent economic changes of the nineteenth century, and follows their development into the twentieth century. He further explores some of the key implications of the knowledge revolution. Among these is the rise and fall of the "factory system" as an organizing principle of modern economic organization. He analyzes the impact of this revolution on information technology and communications as well as on the public's state of health and the structure of households. By examining the social and political roots of resistance to new knowledge, Mokyr also links growth in knowledge to political economy and connects the economic history of technology to the New Institutional Economics. The Gifts of Athena provides crucial insights into a matter of fundamental concern to a range of disciplines including economics, economic history, political economy, the history of technology, and the history of science....

Authors: Keith Pezzoli.
Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2000-07-31


Reviews :

    foreword by John Friedmann

In many areas of the world, environmental degradation in and around human settlements is undermining prospects for both socioeconomic justice and ecological sustainability. To explore the issues involved in this worldwide problem, Keith Pezzoli focuses on a dramatic instance of conflict that grew out of the unauthorized penetration of human settlements into the Ajusco greenbelt zone, a vital part of Mexico City's ecological reserve.

The heart of the book is the story of what happened when residents of the Ajusco settlements fought relocation by proposing that the areas be transformed into productive ecology settlements. Pezzoli draws upon urban and regional planning theory and practice to examine biophysical as well as ethical and social sides of the story, and he uses the Mexican experience to identify planning strategies to link economy, ecology, and community in sustainable development....

Authors: Malcolm Gillis. Steven C. Radelet. Donald R. Snodgrass. Michael Roemer. Steven Radelet. Donald Snodgrass.
Hardcover, 761 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date: 2001-03
Edition: 5th

Reviews :

    This textbook, from present and past members of the Harvard Institute of International Development, emphasizes sustainable development, trade and industrialization, and managing an open economy....

Authors: Lael Brainard.
Paperback, 175 pages
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Publication Date: 2007-05-04


Reviews :

   

In a world where boundaries and borders are blurred and seemingly distant threats can metastasize quickly, the battle against global poverty has become a fight of necessity--not simply because morality demands it, but because global security does as well. Just as poverty begets insecurity, the reverse is also true. Too Poor for Peace? explores this damaging pattern of mutual reinforcement in its many different facets, bringing the latest lessons and intellectual framework to bear in the search for vehicles to improve both economic conditions and physical security.

Contributors: Colin E. Kahl (Georgetown University), Vinca La Fleur (Vinca La Fleur Communications), Edward Miguel (University of California, Berkeley), Jane Nelson (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard), Anthony Nyong (International Development Research Centre, Nairobi), Susan E. Rice (Brookings), Robert I. Rotberg (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard and World Peace Foundation), Marc Sommers (Tufts University and Boston University), Henrik Urdal (International Peace Research Institute, Oslo), and Jennifer L. Windsor (Freedom House).

...

Authors: Andrew Moravcsik.
Paperback, 420 pages
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication Date: 1998-12


Reviews :

    The creation of the European Community ranks among the most extraordinary achievements in modern world politics. Observers disagree, however, about the reasons why European governments have chosen to coordinate core economic policies and surrender sovereign prerogatives. In this eagerly awaited book, Andrew Moravcsik analyzes the history of the region's movement toward economic and political union.

Do these unifying steps demonstrate the preeminence of national security concerns, the power of federalist ideals, the skill of political entrepreneurs like Jean Monnet and Jacques Delors, or the triumph of technocratic planning? Moravcsik rejects such views. Economic interdependence has been, he maintains in his provocative argument, the primary force compelling these democracies to move in this surprising direction. Politicians rationally pursued national economic advantage through the exploitation of asymmetrical interdependence and the manipulation of institutional commitments.

Focusing on Germany, France, and Britain, Moravcsik examines the five decisive agreements that propelled integration forward. He seeks to reintegrate the historical study of European unity with theoretical inquiry into the sources of international cooperation....

Authors: Allen L. Hammond; William J. Kramer; Robert S. Katz; Julia T. Tran; and Courtland Walker.
Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: World Resources Institute and International Finance Corporation/World Bank Group
Publication Date: 2007-03-19


Reviews :

    Four billion low-income consumers, a majority of the world s population, constitute the base of the economic pyramid (BOP). New empirical measures of their aggregate purchasing power and behavior as consumers suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy. This volume, based on unique access to the household income and consumption surveys of developing and transition countries, offers a new and compelling perspective on low-income communities worldwide. Drawing on income data from 110 countries and standardized expenditure data from 36 countries across the globe, The Next 4 Billion is an important first look at the market opportunity represented by four billion individuals who make up the BOP. The analysis for the first time provides a quantitative assessment and characterization of BOP markets, at several levels of analysis....

Authors:
Hardcover, 437 pages
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Publication Date: 2008-04-01


Reviews :

   

Slow job growth, declining home values, a diminishing tax base, and concentrated poverty are but a few of the growing obstacles for well-established but struggling cities. Challenged by decades of globalization, technological change, and dramatic demographic shifts away from the urban core, these former industrial powerhouses—particularly in the Northeast and Midwest—have been eclipsed by burgeoning American cities with a viable niche in the new economy.

In Retooling for Growth, experts present new frameworks, cutting-edge analysis, and innovative policy solutions through which the nation's government, business, civic, and community leaders can sculpt a sustainable and supportable economy for older industrial areas. The unique focus on rehabilitating weak market cities outlines ideas for reshaping the role of public agencies, the workforce, business organizations, and technology. Implementation of these measures addresses challenges such as fostering entrepreneurship, reducing poverty and inequality, and maintaining and augmenting the number of skilled professionals who reside and work in a community, among others.

This collection of essays offers practical, achievable strategies for revitalizing industrial areas and building upon the potential of existing but overlooked resources of economic, physical, and cultural significance. In this important volume, leading authorities provide a thought-provoking analysis of healthy economic development practices for both public and private sectors.

"The future health of our older industrial cities will be determined by their ability to adapt to these changes, reshaping local, state, and federal policies and harnessing the power of private investment to boost global competitiveness." From the Foreword by Bank of America chairman and CEO Kenneth Lewis and Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania

Contributors: Chris Benne (University of California-Davis), Angela Glover Blackwell (PolicyLink), Pamela Blumenthal (George Washington University), Andres Cruz (Optimal Solutions Group), Laurel Davis (Optimal Solutions Group), Jeff Finkle (International Economic Development Council), Mick Fleming (American Chamber of Commerce Executives), Radhika Fox (PolicyLink), Kimberly Furdell (George Washington University), Shari Garmise (International Economic Development Council), Edward W. Hill (Cleveland State University), Pauline O. Hovey (Greene Education Foundation), Richard Kazis (Jobs for the Future), Randall Kempner (Council on Competitiveness), Kenneth Lewis (Chairman and CEO, Bank of America), Daniel Luria (Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center), Ann Markusen (University of Minnesota), Stephen Moret (Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce), Shari Nourick (Nourick & Associates), Jeremy Nowak (The Reinvestment Fund), Manuel Pastor (University of Southern California), Edward Rendell (Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania), Joel Rogers (University of Wisconsin), Marlene Seltzer (Jobs for the Future), Greg Schrock (University of Illinois-Chicago), Mark Turner (Optimal Solutions Group), Rachel Weber (University of Illinois-Chicago), Harold Wolman (George Washington University and Brookings Institution).

...