Book Review--Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Abstract

The prosperity of a nation is often associated with the happiness of her people, while poverty is associated with discontent. Consequently, factors that foster the economic prosperity of a country are of great interest to economists, policymakers, and the public. Identifying these factors is equivalent to investigating why some nations are rich (and why some are poor). Such a question has been one of the central questions for economists and social scientists to tackle in their research over the past twenty years.