Events

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) invites you to a talk on the book:

Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose

Speaker: Stefan Dercon, Professor of Economic Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Friday, 10 February 2023, 2:00 PM IST at the CPR office conference room (Dharma Marg, New Delhi)

About the Book

In the last thirty years, the developing world has undergone tremendous changes. Overall, poverty has fallen, people live longer and healthier lives, and economies have been transformed. And yet many countries have simply missed the boat. Why have some countries prospered, while others have failed?

Stefan Dercon argues that the answer lies not in a specific set of policies, but rather in a key ‘development bargain’, whereby a country’s elites shift from protecting their own positions to gambling on a growth-based future. Despite the imperfections of such bargains, China is among the most striking recent success stories, but the book focuses on more unlikely cases, such as Indonesia and also, Bangladesh, Ghana and Ethiopia. Gambling on Development is about these winning efforts, in contrast to countries stuck in elite bargains leading nowhere.