Journal of Economic Literature
Book Reviews
2026-09-01
Anand V. Swamy of Williams College reviews “Reinventing Foreign Aid” by William Easterly,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Nineteen papers examine how to improve foreign aid and reduce poverty in the developing world. Papers discuss making aid work; the use of randomization in the evaluation of development effectiveness; whether it pays to be ignorant--a simple political economy of rigorous program evaluation; solutions when the solution is the problem--arraying the disarray in development; donors and service delivery; the illusion of sustainability; an aid-institutions paradox--a review essay on aid dependency and state building in sub-Saharan Africa; why aid agencies exist; absorption capacity and disbursement constraints; donor fragmentation; the International Monetary Fund and economic development; the knowledge bank; debt relief and fiscal sustainability for heavily indebted poor countries; making vaccines pay; whether we can build a better mousetrap--three new institutions designed to improve aid effectiveness; competing with central planning--marketplaces for international aid; placing enterprise and business thinking at the heart of the war on poverty; avoiding hubris--and other lessons for reformers; and seven deadly sins--reflections on donor failings. Easterly is Professor of Economics and Codirector of the Development Research Institute at New York University. Index.”