Africa has come a long way since the economic turmoil of the 1980s, the decade of "structural adjustment". Growth has been strong, yet poverty remains high. Underlying the shortage of good livelihoods and high social inequality is the lack of diversification in Africa's economies-in contrast to...

PART ONE. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH. -- Patterns of development -- Measuring economic growth and development -- Economic growth: concepts and patterns -- Theories of economic growth -- States and markets -- PART TWO. DISTRIBUTION AND HUMAN RESOURCES. -- Inequality and poverty -- Population --...

Establishing peace and reconstructing Africa's war-damaged economies are urgent challenges. For Africa to recover, communities must reconstruct, private sectors must revitalize, and states must transform themselves. Thus, unless communities rebuild and strengthen their livelihoods, neither...

East Asia has three of the most powerful economies on earth, but they are losing steam. Dwight Perkins draws on extensive experience in the region to explain the reasons for this rapid economic growth since the 1960s and to ask if the recent slowdown is a local phenomenon or typical of all...

Taking both a historical and a comparative view, Perkins explores the nature of economic growth in East Asia. He focuses on ten sites in East and Southeast Asia that achieved a substantial degree of economic success: China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,...