How can developing countries grow their economies? Most answers to this question center on what the rich world should or shouldn't do for the poor world. In The Quest for Prosperity, Justin Yifu Lin-the first non-Westerner to be chief economist of the World Bank-focuses on what developing...

Introduction: the art of engineering prosperity in unlikely places -- The tyranny of litanies -- Unpleasant truths about institutional and financial development -- The economics of chance: policy prescriptions as laundry lists -- The mechanics of failure and the secrets of success -- Ambitious...