Resumen en español

Since the end of World War II, economists have tried to figure out how poor contries in the tropics can attain standards of living approaching those of countries in Europe and North America. Many remedies have not delivered the solutions promised. The problem in not the failure of economics but the failure to apply economic principles to practical policy work, argues the author. In this book he shows how these solutions all violate the basic principle of economics, that people - private individuals and businesses, government officials, even aid donors - respond to incentives. In this book the author combines modern growth theory with anecdotes from his fieldwork for the World Bank.