This groundbreaking work from the hugely influential economist P. T. Bauer, first published in 1954 and reissued with a new introduction in 1963, is a thorough and detailed analysis of the findings of the Colonial Economic Research Committee, from their investigation into the structure of West African Trade and especially the monopolistic tendencies inherent within it. Materials for the study were collected and analysed between 1949 and 1952, offering an invaluable insight into dominant features of contemporary West African Economies and an analysis of their implications.

Professor Bauer's book, first published in 1961, reviews the major elements of contemporary official Indian development policy, considers their economic implications and their probable political and economic results. He then examines alternative approaches to the promotion of development. The development plans, notably the Second Five Year Plan and the official outlines of the Third Plan, receive major attention, but the author also considers other official policies and measures affecting economic development, which do not usually figure prominently in the formal development plans. Specific themes which Professor Bauer considers are: the influence of social customs and attitudes on economic progress; the relationship between investment expenditure and economic development; inter-relationships between agriculture and industry; the heavy industry programme; the controls over the private section; the relation of Plan finance to the foreign exchange crisis; the role of foreign aid; and the importance of certain major political objectives.

This groundbreaking work from the hugely influential economist P. T. Bauer, first published in 1954 and reissued with a new introduction in 1963, is a thorough and detailed analysis of the findings of the Colonial Economic Research Committee, from their investigation into the structure of West African Trade and especially the monopolistic tendencies inherent within it. Materials for the study were collected and analysed between 1949 and 1952, offering an invaluable insight into dominant features of contemporary West African Economies and an analysis of their implications.

Professor Bauer's book, first published in 1961, reviews the major elements of contemporary official Indian development policy, considers their economic implications and their probable political and economic results. He then examines alternative approaches to the promotion of development. The development plans, notably the Second Five Year Plan and the official outlines of the Third Plan, receive major attention, but the author also considers other official policies and measures affecting economic development, which do not usually figure prominently in the formal development plans. Specific themes which Professor Bauer considers are: the influence of social customs and attitudes on economic progress; the relationship between investment expenditure and economic development; inter-relationships between agriculture and industry; the heavy industry programme; the controls over the private section; the relation of Plan finance to the foreign exchange crisis; the role of foreign aid; and the importance of certain major political objectives.

Based on information collected and processed by the Colonial Economic Research Committee between 1949 and 1952, and originally published in 1954, this book examines the key features of the economies of colonial Nigeria and the Gold Coast. Influential economist Peter Bauer assesses the monopolistic tendencies inherent in West African trade structures as well as the repercussions of the colonial government's own, sometimes biased, preferences. This book will be of use to anyone interested in the economic history of West Africa and the economic effects of colonialism.

Reality and Rhetoric is the culmination of P. T. Bauer's observations and reflections on Third World economies over a period of thirty years. He critically examines the central issues of market versus centrally planned economies, industrial development, official direct and multinational resource transfers to the Third World, immigration policy in the Third World, and economic methodology. In addition, he has written a fascinating account of recent papal doctrine on income inequality and redistribution in the Third World. The major themes that emerge are the importance of non-economic variables, particularly people's aptitudes and mores, to economic growth; the unfortunate results of some current methods of economics; the subtle but important effects of the exchange economy on development; and the politicization of economic life in the Third World. As in Bauer's previous writings, this book is marked by elegant prose, apt examples, a broad economic-historical perspective, and the masterful use of informal reasoning.

Even in impoverished countries lacking material and human resources, P. T. Bauer argues, economic growth is possible under the right conditions. These include a certain amount of thrift and enterprise among the people, social mores and traditions which sustain them, and a firm but limited government which permits market forces to work. Challenging many views about development that are widely held, Bauer takes on squarely the notion that egalitarianism is an appropriate goal. He goes on to argue that the population explosion of less-developed countries has on the whole been a voluntary phenomenon and that each new generation has lived better than its forebears. He also critically examines the notion that the policies and practices of Western nations have been responsible for third world poverty. In a major chapter, he reviews the rationalizations for foreign aid and finds them weak; while in another he shows that powerful political clienteles have developed in the Western nations supporting the foreign aid process and probably benefiting more from it than the alleged recipients. Another chapter explores the link between the issue of Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund on the one hand and the aid process on the other. Throughout the book, Bauer carefully examines the evidence and the light it throws on the propositions of development. Although the results of his analysis contradict the conventional wisdom of development economics, anyone who is seriously concerned with the subject must take them into account.

With style and imagination, this iconoclastic work covers the major issues in development economics. In eight carefully reasoned essays, P. T. Bauer challenges most of the accepted notions and supports his views with evidence drawn from a wide range of primary sources and direct experience. The essays were selected on the basis of their interest to students and general readers from Bauer's book, Dissent on Development: Studies and Debates in Development Economics. Reviewing the previous work, the Wall Street Journal wrote: "It could have a profound impact on our thinking about the entire development question... Quite simply, it is no longer possible to discuss development economics intelligently without coming to grips with the many arguments P. T. Bauer marshalled in this extraordinary work."