Economic Gangsters

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009 "[S]mart and eminently readable ... [F]isman and Miguel try to do for global poverty what [Steven] Levitt did for domestic economic issues. For example, they look at the way 'witches' are killed in Tanzania whenever rainfalls fail and food is scarce; it turns out that families try to save food by executing less-productive elderly women as witches."--Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com's On the Ground blog "Columbia's Ray Fisman and Berkeley's Ted Miguel are two of the most creative and interesting economists I know. Each is driven to better understand just what keeps poor countries in poverty, and they are willing to try some pretty amazing research strategies to figure it out. They have traveled far and wide--both geographically and intellectually--and in their beautifully written book Economic Gangsters, they shine a well-honed statistical spotlight on the twin evils of corruption and violence. The book is a dead-set page turner, and there's nothing more fun than feeling like you are next to them as they travel the world in search of the scoundrels responsible for so much suffering."--Justin Wolfers, Freakonomics blog "Smart and eminently readable."--Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com "[Fisman and Miguel] avoid academic jargon and write for a general audience in explaining how economists study the problem of pervasive endemic poverty... Reminiscent of other lighter looks at economics, e.g., Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics and Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist, this book makes developmental economics both entertaining and accessible to a broad audience."--Library Journal "In this surprisingly spry read, authors and economics professors Fisman and Miguel tackle economic development issues in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, beginning with the question: after decades of independence and billions in foreign aid, why are so many developing countries still mired in poverty? ... This thorough, thoughtful guide to global corruption is an engaging, disarmingly upbeat read for fans of Freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell."--PublishersWeekly.com (starred review) "Like many a good television sleuth (think Jessica Fletcher or Ellery Queen), [Fisman] is also an author, even if there the similarity ends. He has written Economic Gangsters and in it he and co-author Edward Miguel trace the steps oft eh corrupt using not DNA or forensic science but data and statistics. Theirs is a treatment to the truism that when you are looking for clues, follow the money. The book gives half a dozen examples of how data can be used to find corrupt behaviour, particularly in developing countries."--Parminder Bahra, The Times (of London) "Engaging and confidently written, ... Economic Gangsters tackles two big 'institutional' problems of development economics--corruption and violence--through a series of vignettes based on research."--Tim Harford, Reason "In their new book Economic Gangsters, authors Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel try to understand what motivates people to break the law, the consequences of their actions and the implications for prevention. Their effort stands out among many others for their cool-headed application of economic cost-benefit analysis to this shady human behavior."--Shanghai Daily "Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel, two young rising stars of economics, apply the Freakonomics approach to the problems of development in their new book Economic Gangsters. It's a superbly crafted set of essays that raise the bar for clear, accessible pop-economics writing, and offers an excellent overview of recent research into the corruption, violence, and poverty that have long bedeviled the developing world."--Bradford Plumer, The National "Freakonomics for the Third World... So far this is sounding very much like Steven Levitt's and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics: looking for an interesting data set with which to test a certain hypothesis, and indeed the basic approach is similar. The ambition, however, is rather grander."--Tim Worstall, The Daily Telegraph "This book deserves wide readership. Some readers will come for the clever title and the cover's provocative silhouette of a machine-gun-wielding gangster. More, hopefully, will be drawn to the book by reviews like this one and the authors' important message. Economic Gangsters is topical and lively, as its cover suggests, but it is also deadly serious and deeply engrossing. Fisman and Miguel study perhaps the most important question of our day--why some countries grow and prosper while others are trapped in self-reinforcing cycles of violence, corruption, and poverty."--Choice "This is sparkling stuff, and the story is enjoyably retold in Fisman and Miguel's slim new volume, Economic Gangsters. I recommend the book wholeheartedly; it is engaging and confidently written, and it describes research of genuine interest... Economic Gangsters tackles two big 'institutional' problems of development economics--corruption and violence--through a series of vignettes based on research studying the value of political connections, smuggling between China and Hong Kong, the links between rainfall and civil war, witch killings in Africa, and rebuilding Vietnam after 'the American War.'"--Tim Harford, Reason "Analyses of crime and corruption tend, not surprisingly, to be long on description and short on empirical analysis. Statistics on amounts embezzled or number of people killed in a genocide lack precision, where they exist at all. [Economic Gangsters] sets out the clever use of the rare reliable statistics that are available to shed light on particular episodes of corruption or violence, and in particular on whether it is possible to design policies which change the incentives of those behaving in undesirable ways... All in all, this is a very readable book which makes a fascinating contribution to the renaissance of careful empirical microeconomics applied to development."--Diane Coyle, The Business Economist "Fisman and Miguel have turned out another economics tome, written in a friendly and engaging way, yet this one reeks of practicality."--Sacremento Book Review "[A] fascinating and helpful book."--Charles Crawford, LSE British Politics and Policy blog