Available through Academic Press
"With the Economics of Adjustment and Growth, Pierre-Richard Agénor provides a thorough review of the policy issues, theory and empirical evidence on the relationship between stabilization, structural reform and growth. He give a rigorous, but not overly mathematical, analysis of policy issues associated with economic adjustment, specifically short-run macro-economic management and structural adjustment policies designed to encourage economic growth. He emphasizes the importance of considering the structural features of developing economies when performing economic analyses. These structural economic characteristics affect the transmission of policy shocks and the response of the economy to adjustment policies."
Published in the Journal of Macroeconomics, Spring 2001
"The Economics of Adjustment and Growth provides an excellent review of the policy issues confronting developing economies. It covers both the short-run macroeconomic management and structural adjustment policies aimed at economic growth. It provides a unique and accessible overview of the recent analytical and applied research in development economics. The book is a perfect fit for college and M.A. courses in development economics, as well as a very useful guide to policymakers and practitioners interested in recent advances in the field."
Joshua Aizenman, Dartmouth College
"Agénor's new volume provides a timely marriage of theory and evidence that is both an excellent teaching tool and a valuable reference."
Susan Collins, Georgetown University and The Brookings Institution
"This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of issues, theory, and empirical evidence on the complex relations between stabilization, structural reform, and growth. Pierre-Richard Agénor skillfully blends theory, empirical evidence, and policy lessons on all relevant topics related to growth and development. Brilliantly written, this book is required reading for professional economists and advanced students concerned with adjustment and reform, as well as policymakers in developing countries."
Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, Research Department, Central Bank of Chile
"Adjustment and growth in developing countries have become core issues for macroeconomics, in light of the Asian "miracle" of the early 1990s and the subsequent Mexican and Asian crises. This book shows just how much good macroeconomic theory and empirical work have been done on these topics. Readers will find the extensive discussion of growth and convergence, and the thorough exposition of crisis models, extremely helpful. The exposition in the book is careful and systematic, and the emphasis on the empirical evidence throughout is valuable. As result, the book will be very useful both to graduate students and to their teachers. In addition, it will be helpful to those who seek a well organized account of just how much we have learned in these areas over the past ten years."
David Vines, Oxford University
"The Economics of Adjustment and Growth is an exciting book, focusing on the challenges facing researchers and policymakers in the design and implementation of macroeconomic policies in developing countries. The book is very well written, with a nice balance between a clear exposition of models and an overview of their empirical applications. It summarizes the current state of knowledge and recent experience with policies. I highly recommended it to advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in applied policy issues, as well as practitioners interested in gaining insight into current models and applications."
Joshua Aizenman, Professor of Economics, University of California at Santa Cruz
"Richard Agénor's book provides an excellent and comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic and structural policy issues that are highly relevant for developing countries. Its rigorous, yet intuitive, treatment makes it particularly suitable for postgraduate programmes in development macroeconomics or development finance. It is also well suited for advanced macroeconomic courses that have a development or growth focus, as well as being an excellent up-to-date reference source for policymakers in developing countries."
Panicos Demetriades, Professor of Financial Economics, University of Leicester
"This book brings together recent theory and fresh empirical evidence on all relevant dimensions of economic adjustment and growth. Drawing from the research frontier and the results and insights of worldwide policy experience, it presents a unified treatment in a rigorous but accessible form. Richard Agénor's new book is a primer for academic economists, policymakers, economic analysts, and students in the fields of macroeconomics, development economics, and international finance, both at undergraduate and graduate levels."
Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, Central Bank of Chile
"This book analyzes the short-run contributions of economic policy to economic growth, particularly in developing countries. The transmission of policy shocks are broken down and observed through microeconomic analysis to derive the macroeconomic impact. This book is suitable for economists interested in economic reform or contributing to economic development through an international organization or individual government. It is also suitable for advanced undergraduates studying economic policy and management, political science, or public policy."
Published in the Journal of Macroeconomics, June 2005