Why nations fail

The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Bibliographic Data

ID5839207
AuthorsMorten Jerven (0000-0002-7302-3575, Simon Fraser University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume33
Issue3
Pages386-388
Publication date2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeREVIEW
Review ofWhy Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, Daron Acemoglu, 2013
VenueCanadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne d études du développement (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0225-5189 • E-ISSN: 2158-9100
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02255189.2012.717885
OpenAlexW2036438994
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited6

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Many of them with additional co-authors, such as Simon Johnson. Cooper (2005 Cooper, F. 2005. Colonialism in question: theory, knowledge, history, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 17) suggests a typology of doing history ahistorically: "story plucking, leapfrogging legacies, doing history backward, and the epochal fallacy". Why nations fail provides very good examples of all of these typologies. Austin (2008) Austin, G. 2008. The 'Reversal of fortune' thesis and the compression of history: perspectives from African and comparative economic history. Journal of international development, 20: 996-1027. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] refers to their 'reversal of fortune' thesis as 'compression of history'. The validity of one their most important results depends on the unlikely case that malaria does not have an impact on current-day development, other than through institutions (Acemoglu et al. 2001 Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. 2001. The colonial origins of comparative development: an empirical investigation. American economic review, 91(5): 1369-1401. [Crossref], [Web of Science (R)] , [Google Scholar]), a contention many, for instance Bloom and Sachs (1998) Bloom, D. E. and Sachs, J. D. 1998. Geography, demography, and economic growth in Africa. Brookings papers on economic activity, 29: 207-296. [Crossref], [Web of Science (R)] , [Google Scholar] would disagree strongly with. Albouy (forthcoming) Albouy, D. Y. forthcoming. The colonial origins of comparative development: an empirical investigation: comment. American economic review, [Google Scholar] has shown that their settler mortality rates are based on mistaken or conflicting evidence, and that when this is taken into account the empirical results are no longer robust. The authors do take care to note that current-day Congo does not cohere with the historical Kingdom of Kongo, yet it is implicitly argued that the institutional heritage lingers in this very discontinuous political history. To their credit, they engage with the case of China, a country that is currently growing, but they argue it has extractive institutions and therefore its growth is not sustainable. Thus, China in their theoretical framework is a failure, not a success, in the making

Prosperity · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · International Development and Aid · Natural Resources and Economic Development

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub