The Quest for Prosperity

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix Prologue xix An Intriguing Offer xx Strange Childhood Memories from Africa xxi 1 New Challenges and New Solutions 1 The Bane of Excess Capacity 3 The Apparent Mystery of Economic Success 5 Taking Einstein's Joke Seriously: A New Structural Economics 8 2 A Battle of Narratives and Changing Paradigms 13 Giving Meaning to One's Life 14 The Evolution of Growth 17 Deciphering the Mystery of Poverty and Wealth 20 Robert Lucas and the Drycleaner's Daughter 26 Explaining Convergence and Divergence 29 Development Thinking: A Tale of Progress, Waves, Fads, and Fashion 33 The Frustrating Search for New Answers 42 The Need for New Strategic Thinking 45 3 Economic Development: Lessons from Failures 49 Viability as the Hidden Ingredient to Economic Success 52 The Political Economy of Dreams and Ignorance 61 "Do Not Look Where You Fell but Where You Slipped" 67 Not Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater 71 4 Lessons from Successful Catch-up Countries 76 Squaring the Circle: The Contribution of The Growth Report 78 Recognizing That Some Countries May Have Found the Holy Grail 85 Modern Economic Growth: The Secret of Advanced Countries 97 5 A Framework for Rethinking Development: A New Structural Economics 102 Why Burundi Is Not Switzerland 104 Understanding Economic Development: A Conceptual Framework 108 The Optimal Speed and Sequencing of Prosperity 112 Putting New Wine in New Bottles 117 6 What Would Be Done Differently under the New Structural Economics? 121 Fiscal Policy: Free Airplanes, Railroads, and Bridges? 123 Money to Impoverish--or Money to Enrich 127 Surviving Wealth: Public Revenue Management in Resource-Rich Countries 130 Financial Development: Those Bankers We Love to Hate 136 The Need for Poor Countries to Choose Their Type of Foreign Capital 139 Sorting Out the Paradoxes of Trade Policy 141 Deciphering the Mysteries of Human Development 143 7 Putting the New Structural Economics into Practice: Two Tracks and Six Steps 147 To

Justin Yifu Lin is founding director and professor at the China Centre for Economic Research at Peking University. From 2008 to 2012, he served as chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank. His many books include Demystifying the Chinese Economy and Economic Development and Transition. He is a corresponding fellow of the British Academy, and a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.