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Review
Jeni Klugman, Director and Lead Author, Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme
"This book is an important and welcome counterweight to much of the doom and gloom that pervades popular and policy discussions about Africa. It makes important contributions in documenting the major advances in aspects of human development that have intrinsic value--health, knowledge and empowerment--that have been experienced by people in the poorest parts of the world, drawing attention to the role of ideas and innovation. Yet Charles Kenny does not shy away from the fact that, as underlined by the 2010 Human Development Report, not all good things go together. The extent of poverty and inequality, including but not only in terms of incomes but other dimensions of well being, remains a major concern. There are important implications for policy makers in developing countries, and the basic message of realistic optimism should inform all those interested in development assistan
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As the income gap between developed and developing nations grows, so grows the cacophony of voices claiming that the quest to find a simple recipe for economic growth has failed. Getting Better, in sharp contrast, reports the good news about global progress. Economist Charles Kenny argues against development naysayers by pointing to the evidence of widespread improvements in health, education, peace, libertyand even happiness. Kenny shows how the spread of cheap technologies, such as vaccines and bed nets, and ideas, such as political rights, has transformed the world. He also shows that by understanding this transformation, we can make the world an even better place to live. Thats not to say that life is grand for everyone, or that we dont have a long way to go. But improvements have spread far, and, according to Kenny, they can spread even further.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
interesting propositions about what lifts quality of life,
This review is from: Getting Better (Hardcover)
Kenny argues that while income continues to diverge across the world, life is nonetheless getting better for most people: there's intrinsically (barring market problems which have been the causes of past famines) enough food to go round, there's convergence in the quality of life (life expectancy, literacy, satisfaction with life), and that's because the buying power of a 2000 dollar is a great deal more in terms of the things that matter (eg medicines) these days, and because some of the critical things are life are free (knowledge about how diseases transmit for example - the germ theory that says "wash your hands" and knowledge how to treat diarrhoea).No-one knows what causes growth, a short review concludes: investment, technological change, "less government intervention" (privatisation etc), or a "network of property rights, markets systmes and democratic decision-making, have all failed the empirical test of explaining the data, in Kenny's view. Eastern Europe grew fast enough under Communism. So it's just as well that things are working out in despite of growth convergency - indeed it's hard to tell what will work, in Kenny's view - for instance the spread of TV and soap operas with characters with small family size in Brazil has as much impact on fertility rates as two additional years of education for women. This is quite a hard book to read: I suspect it falls uneasily between being a popular text and an academic treatise. It's crammed with footnote references and academic argument against rival views - I would suspect it won't exactly win academic arguments either though... But well worth reading.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Neccessary, though not sufficient,
By tequilamockingbird - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Getting Better (Hardcover)
After so many years of development-bashing, it began to feel like there was just no hope for sorting out the problems in the developing world. Even more depressingly, authors like Dambisa Moyo managed to court global fame, peddling views which were not only highly partisan, but poorly researched and ignored any contrary evidence.So Charles Kenny's book is certainly a ray of sunshine; an island of hope in the sea of negativity. So of course the temptation is to hold this up and say 'ha! we knew we were right all along. development does work!' The book - which trumps the aforementioned Moyo on almost every level in terms of research, clarity of thought, balanced argument and all the rest, certainly does offer a new perspective on the progress of the poorest in the world. But 'poorest' is perhaps the wrong word to choose, as the central conceit of the book is that the relentless measurement of income as an indicator of quality of life - the 'dollar a day' epidemic - is misleading, because as his research shows, there is almost no link at all between growth in income and improvement of quality of life. In countries where there has been no growth at all, certain indicators like life expectancy have improved by as much as 50%, and conversely in countries where there has been steep economic growth such as China or Botswana, there is often a decrease in life indicators. Kind of seems illogical doesn't it? One can buy into it fully, and accept that it takes someone with a totally new take and perspective to blow apart orthodoxies, and Charles Kenny is that man. One can put the shutters up, and just say no way, one man can't change the tide of all the other naysayers. But perhaps the middle ground, and which i felt, was that my pleasure at the positive measure was mixed with a slight discomfort that exactly matches how i feel when i read a negative book on development, written econometrically. The thing is that econometrics doesn't, to me, seem to really capture the subtelties of development, nor the human dimension. It looks at national statistics, often over decades, and from times when collection methods were patchy and unreliable at best. Just because the data show a correlation, does it mean that this is positive evidence? The outcome of Kenny's analysis too, is potentially dramatic. If, as he suggests, we simply don't know how to foster economic development and growth, should we stop trying, and simply allow the hugely complex and context driven forces do their work? He suggests africa's time will come, as have all other regions, but is this enough for the people in africa who are struggling today? But, like all development books, this should not be read alone. All the different theorists add their ideas into the development mix, and it is up to us to decide which parts we feel are right. There is no one answer, nor will there ever be; those who suggest there is are wrong. But this is an intelligent, well researched book that hopefully will be the start of a trend of analysis that looks beyond cliche, sees the bigger picture and the longer term, and most of all is positive and hopeful. People's lives depend on it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Curb your Pessimism,
By Jonathan Andreas - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Getting Better (Hardcover)
I read an earlier draft, but this is an excellent antidote to the widespread pessimism about the world. Much of the pessimism about economic development is due to mutilitarianism: an overemphasis on measuring GDP. This book puts development into a fuller context. And it isn't as pie-in-the-sky as Sachs' books.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great update on an under-reported story,
By Nathaniel Levin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Getting Better (Hardcover)
Charles Kenny is a distinguished economist whose optimism is well grounded in reality. He skillfully debunks the myth that development aid is doomed to failure and a waste of money. This is an excellent supplement to the 2010 U.N. Human Development Report. Both books bring the little-recognized good news that over the last 40 years and more the world, in most places and on average, has indeed become much better. If we look past the dire headlines to the less widely reported truth, we come to understand that in fact the human race has achieved great things over the last generation or so. We are living in a goldent age, even if the New York Times does not choose to report it.I'll quote some vital statistics from the latest UN HDR--Since 1970 (a) average life expectancy at birth has increased from 59 years to 70; (b) percentage of enrollment in school of high school aged kids has increased from 55% to 70%; and (c) per capita annual income has doubled from $5,000 to $10,000 (purchasing-power-adjusted). Much of this amazing progress was possible (and will continue to be possible), as Kenny points out, because the costs for basics are or have become cheap. It doesn't cost much in local currency to staff a basic educational system, and low cost medical interventions can have a huge effect in raising the performance of developing world health systems. Yes, there are still hundreds of millions who live in terrible poverty, there is extreme inequality, and the environmental sustainability of tthe world economy is in doubt. Nevertheless, as Kenny argues, there is reasons to hope that even the children of the poorest families will live better lives than their parents. |
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