The event is free to attend, and there will be refreshments. There will also be copies of the books for sale. I will also discuss isues covered in my book on Wednesday 23 September at 1pm at the Overseas Development Institute. The event is called: Understanding economic transformation in...
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Category: Book review
Book Reviews: Africa. Why Economists Get It Wrong
The response to my book has been an overwhelmingly positive. I always knew it would divide opinion. Alex De Waal did perhaps provide the most encouraging and ringing support with a review titled "Liberating African Economic History from the Tyranny of Econometrics" Africa: Why...
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A reading list for the data revolution
If you have sat through more than two conferences and workshops on the post-2015 development agenda or the Sustainable Development Goals (or tracked #SDGs or #data2015 on Twitter) you will be aware that there is a certain repetition of ideas. The same soundbites are...
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Reviews of Poor Numbers
It takes a little while, about a year, between publication and when academic reviews start appearing. Andrew Jack at the Financial Times was early with a review of the book before it was published, and Bill Gates similarly asked for a pre-publication copy of...
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Poor Numbers on Bill Gates’ list of best books in 2013
On his blog The Gates Notes, Bill Gates features Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It on his list of “The Best Books I Read in 2013.” Gates writes: “Jerven, an economist, spent four years...
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Africa at Dawn
That's the title of a recent editorial in the Financial Times. The editorial recounts the recent data debates. Most importantly, the FT editorial highlights how important it is to debate data openly and freely and this is in African countries' interest . Referring to...
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A historian’s take on Poor Numbers
The coverage of the debate on African statistics continues, most recently in the Globe and Mail. I am also pleased to see that it is not only politics and media that gets stirred by the book. Recently, Poor Numbers, got coverage in Significance, which is...
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Doing Bad….
I was asked by H-net Diplo to review Coyne's book. Doing Bad by Doing Good is the title. Coyne takes his inspiration from Mandeville and the fable of the bees. If you know the fable you already know how Coyne's book goes. I was not...
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