Mighty Books

In the June issue of Forbes, its founder - Steve Forbes - praises Doing Business:

"The World Bank's reputation has plummeted in recent years because of alleged cover-ups of extensive corruption and growing doubts about how effective its projects have been in helping countries develop economically. But one of its undertakings is having an enormously positive influence on the global economy--and its cost is a nanofraction of the routine infrastructure undertakings that can end up costing billions of dollars.

Each year the World Bank issues a book entitled Doing Business. It surveys 178 economies--from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe--in regard to their regulations that affect how businesses are started and conducted. Countries are judged in ten categories that span the life of an enterprise, from its launching, to coping with licenses, obtaining credit, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and dealing with bankruptcy or dissolution of the entity.

This book is no mere academic exercise. Governments read it. The other day I ran into an important U.S. official who pointed out that there's now something of a competition in a number of developing countries to see which one can improve most in the Doing Business annual survey."

This made me think: what other books have stirred excitement in development? Here is a first list - readers, please add suggestions.

1. Hernando de Soto's The Other Path ushered in an understanding of the cost of burdensome regulation, namely the exclusion of many people from the formal sector.

2. Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom. As countries go richer, they also become more democratic. Or the other way round?

3. William Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth brought to the fore the discussion on development effectiveness.

4. Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion highlights civil wars, corruption and bad regulations in Africa.

5. Andrei Shleifer and Dan Treisman's A Normal Country focus on Russia in transition. We should have studied this transition more closely.