African Successes.

African Successes

Volume I: Government and Institutions

Volume III: Modernization and Development

Volume II: Human Capital

Volume IV: Sustainable Growth

Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson, and David N. Weil, editors The University of Chicago Press, 2016 $110.00 each (cloth)

Studies of African economic development frequently focus on the daunting challenges the continent faces. From recurrent crises to ethnic conflicts and long-standing corruption, a raft of deep-rooted problems has led many to regard the continent as facing many hurdles to raising living standards.

Yet Africa has made considerable progress in the past decade, with the GDP growth rate exceeding five percent in some regions. The African Successes series looks at recent improvements in living standards and other measures of development in many African countries with an eye toward identifying what shaped them and the extent to which lessons learned are transferable and can guide policy in other nations and at the international level.

The first volume in the series, African Successes: Government and Institutions considers the role governments and institutions have played in recent developments and identifies the...