Academic and Reference Books

This important book provides a cogent critique of the nature of Southeast Asian capitalism. It argues powerfully that the crises are due not to excessive regulation, but to too much financial liberalisation and a consequent undermining of monetary and fiscal governance. While recognising some macroeconomic problems and abuses of state intervention in the region, the book also highlights the nature and implications of IMF and domestic policy responses which exacerbated the crises.

The current volume on Quality of Public Investment in Bangladesh embodies the results of a set of in depth surveys carried out by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in order to examine the quality of design, implementation and monitoring of eight of the major public sector undertakings in Bangladesh. Whist an executive summary of the major findings of this pioneering investigation has appeared as a separate chapter in Growth or Stagnation?

The reputation of the Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD), coordinated by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) is by now well established. Each of the IRBD volumes has received critical acclaim both in Bangladesh and abroad because of the richness of the information and the quality of the analyses presented. The current volume, IRDB 1999 is the fourth in the series and continues the tradition set by earlier volumes.

Providing microcredit to the poor has become an important antipoverty scheme in many countries. Microcredit helps the poor become self-employed and thus generates income and reduces poverty. In Bangladesh, these programs reach about five million poor households. But microcredit programs are just one of many ways of reducing poverty. Are these programs cost-effective? This book addresses the question, drawing on the experience of the well-known microcredit programs of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, the Rural Development-12 project, and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee.