An economy does not always work according to idealized textbook models. Frequently, economic systems are subject to wide-ranging distortions and require remedy via subsidy and taxes to restore their social optimum. In The Distorted Economy, Hans C.Blomqvist and Mats Lundahl describe how to tackle the various distortions on goods and factor markets and apply their analytic framework to several case studies such as the trade policy of developing countries, apartheid in South Africa and socialist planned economies. The authors offer an important and timely analysis of the cause, effect and...

While the pitiful images of famine victims generally emanate from the very poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the entire region faces an intense economic crisis. Why is this area in a state of near-permanent crisis and perhaps more importantly, what can be done about it?
In Economic Crisis in Africa the authors use country studies to examine how this situation has come about. The book is divided into four parts: Part I presents an overall perspective of the African Crisis and its management; Part II addresses the problems of the external...

This book is concerned with the problem of achieving sustained economic growth in thirteen African countries. These are divided into three groups: the war stricken economics (Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia and Eritrea), the reform strugglers (Kenya, Cape Verde, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe) and the growth seekers (Uganda, South Africa and Lesotho). Virtually all of these countries have gone through a structural adjustment program designed to remove imperfections that make it difficult for the market system to work in an optimal fashion. This title reviews these experiences.

Knut Wicksell is arguably the greatest Swedish social scientist of all time, and poverty was a theme that occupied him all his life. Indeed, it was probably Wicksell's interest in poverty that was the critical factor in drawing him away from his purely mathematical background towards a greater understanding of the social sciences as a whole.

In this outstanding volume, Mats Lundahl, one of the world's leading development economists, examines Wicksell's thinking in the area of poverty, and shows the importance of his contributions to this field.

Economists have moved in recent years beyond analyzing the manner in which the macroeconomies of different countries function and prescribing appropriate policies for dealing with domestic and external imbalances. Increasingly, they have sought to understand the complex interaction between political and economic phenomena. This book considers issues of economic reform in a broad range of settings:

* developed countries
* transition countries
* developing countries

Using country specific cases such as Uzbekistan, Burma and Haiti, it focuses on those...

Haiti, one of the least developed and most vulnerable nations in the Western Hemisphere, made the international headlines in January 2010 when an earthquake destroyed the capital, Port-au-Prince. More than a year later, little reconstruction has taken place, in spite of a strong international funding commitment. Mats Lundahl has written several seminal works on Haiti, and this volume brings together the best of his past work on Haiti's economic and political history, along with a comprehensive introduction and two new chapters which bring the story right up to the present day. Together, the...