Poor countries become rich not by following in suit of their predecessors but rather by overcoming their own highly specific constraints.

While economic globalization can be a boon for countries that are trying to dig themselves out of poverty, success usually requires following policies that are tailored to local economic and political realities rather than obeying the dictates of the international globalization establishment. One Economics, Many Recipes shows how successful countries craft their own unique growth strategies and what other countries can learn from them.  - Princeton University Press

Where Latin American government leaders once looked at free trade agreements as solely about trade and trading policies, they are increasingly viewing them as the next beacon of hope in the long and arduous road of economic reform. Integrating the Americas: FTAA and Beyond discusses how these governments have become embroiled in a larger set of issues affecting both institutions. This work, based on a conference sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, examines how this free trade process is surging ahead, while at the same time taking on a broader set of issues including institutional reform, transparency, the environment, labor, and social cohesion. The payoffs to the strategy of liberalization, privatization, and openness have been meager and disappointing to date. Will the FTAA be able to reverse this and allow Latin America to reap the benefits of globalization? - Harvard University Press

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The economics of growth has come a long way since it regained center stage for economists in the mid-1980s. Here for the first time is a series of country studies guided by that research. The thirteen essays, by leading economists, shed light on some of the most important growth puzzles of our time. How did China grow so rapidly despite the absence of full-fledged private property rights? What happened in India after the early 1980s to more than double its growth rate? How did Botswana and Mauritius avoid the problems that other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa succumbed to? How did Indonesia manage to grow over three decades despite weak institutions and distorted microeconomic policies and why did it suffer such a collapse after 1997?

What emerges from this collective effort is a deeper understanding of the centrality of institutions. Economies that have performed well over the long term owe their success not to geography or trade, but to institutions that have generated market-oriented incentives, protected property rights, and enabled stability. However, these narratives warn against a cookie-cutter approach to institution building.

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Policy makers in the developing world are grappling with the new dilemmas created by openness to trade and capital flows.  What role, if any, remains for the state in promoting industrialization?  Does openness exacerbate inequality, and if so what can be done about it?  What is the best way to handle turbulence emanating from the world economy, and the fickleness of international capital flows in particular?  This book argues that successful integration in the world economy requires a complementary set of policies and institutions at home.  Policy makers have to reinforce their external strategy of liberalization with an internal strategy that gives the state substantial responsibility in fostering the accumulation of physical and human capital and in mediating social conflicts. - Excerpted from abstract

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"The world economy faces a serious challenge in ensuring that international economic integration does not contribute to domestic social disintegration. The book focuses on the three major sources of tension between globalization and social stability: the transformation of the employment relationship, conflicts between international trade and social norms, and the pressures brought to bear on national governments in maintaining domestic cohesion and social welfare systems."  - Institute for International Economics

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