 | |
| Author | Jeffrey Sachs |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Development economics |
| Publisher | Penguin Press |
Publication date | 30 December 2005 |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | 1-59420-045-9 |
| OCLC | 57243168 |
| 339.4/6/091724 22 | |
| LC Class | HC59.72.P6 S225 2005 |
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (ISBN 1-59420-045-9) is a 2005 book by American economistJeffrey Sachs. It was aNew York Timesbestseller.
In the book, Sachs argues thatextreme poverty—defined by theWorld Bank as incomes of less than one dollar per day—can be eliminated globally by the year 2025, through carefully planneddevelopment aid. He presents the problem as an inability of very poor countries to reach the "bottom rung" of the ladder ofeconomic development; once the bottom rung is reached, a country can pull itself up into the globalmarket economy, and the need for outside aid will be greatly diminished or eliminated.
In order to address and remedy the specific economic stumbling blocks of various countries, Sachs espouses the use of what he terms "clinical economics", by analogy tomedicine. Sachs explains that countries, like patients, are complex systems, requiringdifferential diagnosis, an understanding of context, monitoring and evaluation, and professional standards of ethics.[1] Clinical economics requires a methodic analysis and "differential diagnosis" of a country's economic problems, followed by a specifically tailored prescription. Many factors can affect a country's ability to enter the world market, including governmentcorruption; legal and social disparities based on gender, ethnicity, or caste; diseases such asAIDS andmalaria; lack of infrastructure (including transportation, communications, health, and trade); unstable political landscapes;protectionism; and geographic barriers. Sachs discusses each factor, and its potential remedies, in turn.
In order to illustrate the use of clinical economics, Sachs presents case studies onBolivia, Poland, and Russia, and discusses the solutions he presented to those countries, and their effects. The book also discusses the economies ofMalawi, India, China, andBangladesh as representative of various stages of economic development.
Sachs places a great deal of emphasis on theUnited Nations'Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a first step towards eliminatingextreme poverty, which affected approximately 1.1 billion people worldwide at the time of publication. Sachs headed theUnited Nations Millennium Project, which worked from 2002 to 2005 to establish the organizational means to achieve the MDGs.
He also offers some specific, immediate solutions, such as increasing the availability of anti-malarial bed nets insub-Saharan Africa, and encouragesdebt cancellation for the world's poorest countries. Sachs states that in order to achieve the goal of eliminating global poverty, clinical economics must be backed by greater funding; he argues that development aid must be raised from $65 billion globally as of 2002 to between $135 and $195 billion a year by 2015.[2]
Sachs argues that the developed world can afford to raise the poorest countries out of extreme poverty; he agrees with the MDG's calculation that 0.7 percent of the combinedgross national product of first-world countries would be sufficient to achieve that goal.[3]
