Journal of Economic Literature
Book Reviews
2026-09-01
Stephen Devereux of Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex reviews “Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform” by Stephan Haggard, Marcus Noland,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Presents an account of the late twentieth-century North Korean famine, focusing on the origins and aftermath of the crisis, the regime's response to outside aid, and the effect of its current policies on the country's economic future. Discusses famine, aid, and markets in North Korea; the origins of the great famine; the distribution of misery--famine and the breakdown of the public distribution system; the aid regime--the problem of monitoring; diversion; the political economy of aid; coping, marketization, and reform--new sources of vulnerability; and North Korea in comparative and international perspective. Haggard is Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Noland is Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics. Index.”