Development Microeconomics

Rating:
Summary: a very useful distillation of research
Review: This book synthesizes recent research in development microeconomics which extends the field beyond Walrasian general equilibrium paradigm to incorporate such features as informational asymmetries, network externalities, and various types of coordination failures. Topics covered in this volume include such things as household economics, rural credit markets, and the adoption of new techniques. The emphasis is on "applied theory" -- empirical evidence on the theoretical models is mentioned, but not discussed in depth. The arguemnts are presented verbally, graphically, and mathematically. The writing is quite clear. Numerous references are cited in the text and given at the end of each chapter. This small book would be very useful to graduate students and academics. Undergraduate students will probably find the math a little heavy.

Rating:
Summary: A nice and short compendium
Review: This is a fine and succint compendium of some of the most important results in modern Development MicroEconomics. The book is well written, and it can be a very useful guide for advanced undergraduate students, or graduate students who are looking for a short and good guide to some of the most important recent (and less recent) contributions to this literature. This books is a good complement to Deaton's "The Analysis of Household Survey", which truly is the bible of development microeconoics. While Deaton's textbook also surveys a huge amount of empirical results (covering also wonderfully well most of the necessary econometrics), Bardhan and Udry mostly discuss the theory, and the underlying models. Among the covered topics are: Intrahousehold allocation of resources, labor markets, migration, rural land markets, risk and insurance, credit markets, income distribution, technology diffusion (and many others). Chapters are pretty much self-contained, and about 20 pages long. This book really is an excellent starting point if you are looking for a graduate-level introduction to one of the literatures covered here. Most of the math is not forbidding, but advanced calculus, statistics & probability, integrals and derivatives and some dynamic programming will be necessary to understand the book. Highly recommended, I am just sorry I only discovered this book after I left grad school....