Completely updated and revised in this eighth edition, Leading Issues in Economic Development, covers the main issues in economic development through professional journal articles by leading scholars. These articles are edited to provide greater accessibility to an undergraduate audience and organized thematically using overview essays along with explanatory notes and comments. This distinctive approach allows for a variety of perspectives while keeping the most important overall themes in sight.
This extensive collection of articles and essays is prefaced with an introductory section that covers the measurement of development, recent economic performance of less developed countries, and the discipline of development economics. It also provides historical perspective on how the world divided into rich and poor countries and treatments of international trade, human resources, investment and finance, urbanization and the informal sector, agriculture, income distribution, political economy, as well as development and the environment.

Countries in the Middle East have very different economies, even if they are often grouped together. In The Economics of the Middle East, James Rauch focuses on the drivers of their distinctiveness, including the effects of their natural endowments, geographic locations, and interactions with the global economy. This book evaluates the socioeconomic trajectories of three groups of Middle Eastern States: Sub-Saharan African, fuel-endowed, and "Mediterranean." It compares these groups both to each other and to developing countries in other regions with similar characteristics. Rauch draws on basic approaches to economic development to enhance understanding of important issues, such how policies on gender, education, health, and the environment affect development. His comparative perspective sheds light on how and why the Arab countries, Iran, and Turkey have done better or worse than similar countries in other regions. His analysis throughout is supported by data that are well organized and clearly presented. Rauch develops new insights on topics as diverse as unemployment, urbanization, corruption, and the importance of intraregional flows of investment and migrants. The result is a fascinating and balanced overview of the socioeconomic performance of the Arab countries, Iran, and Turkey that presents a new lens on the economics of the Middle East.