The timeliness of the volume can hardly be overstated ... The book's importance lies in its original choice of analytical framework, and its principal conclusions.
Judith Heyer has worked on different aspects of rural development in Kenya and in Tropical Africa. Her work on Kenya has included work on agricultural policy issues related to production and marketing, food policy, and poverty. She has also worked on villages in South India with a special interest in gender, caste, and class. She has been a Fellow and Tutor in Economics at Somerville, and University Lecturer at Oxford University since 1975. and before that lectured
at the University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Frances Stewart is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the International Development Centre, University of Oxford and a fellow of Somerville College. Her major research interests concern the impact of development processes on poor people. She has worked on appropriate technology, basic needs and the impact of adjustment policies on poverty. Recent work has focussed on the economic and social causes and consequences of large scale violent conflict, as well as on group behaviour.
Rosemary Thorp has been the Lecturer in the Economics of Latin America at the University of Oxford since 1971. Before that she taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research has been in the field of economic history of Latin America and the macro economic management problems of that continent. She has worked extensively on Peru, Chile, and Colombia.