Reviews for The poverty reduction strategy initiative

The average rating for The poverty reduction strategy initiative based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-06-21 00:00:00 Calib Batten This is a reprint of a study that Hirschman led for Brookings to evaluate about a dozen World Bank development projects. This is the third of Hirschman's books on development and they came early in his career before he moved on to more general issues of political economy. On its own, the book is well written and insightful, far above the normal fare for this sort of analysis looking at development and foreign investment. In an immediate sense the material seems dated, since these sorts of development projects fell out of favor long ago and attracting foreign investment became more important for most countries than attracting foreign aid. That is probably a good development, since it is problematic that planners in Washington could really direct resource flows to developing nations with superior insight over what the country can do for itself making use of some broader market mechanism. These sorts of projects also became less salient with the end of the Cold War. The book is not without some real insights, however. It is an opportunity to read what a first rate social theorist does when dealing with practical matters of project design and implementation rather than taking the general perspective favored by many academics. Hirschman does not disappoint. His idea of the "Hiding Hand", for example considers the role of overconfidence in project design, with the consequent overestimation of benefits and the underestimation of project costs. The punchline is that project success is greatly aided by dealing with the stresses brought on by overselling and overshooting. This gets to issues of managerial capabilities and organizational learning that are still relevant today. To cite another example, his discussion of "trait making" versus "trait taking" speaks to the importance of understanding how a project fits into the business and societal context in which it must operate, so that sophisticated projects may actually underperform relative to other projects if they do not fit well and raise too many coordination costs. This remains a hot topic today in the evaluation of entrepreneurial ventures. Hirschman's discussions of cost and demand uncertainties is also filled with issues of transaction costs and agency problems that remain relevant for business ventures. I have been trying to catch up on parts of Hirschman's work that I had not read ever since I read the recent wonderful biography of him. This book fits nicely intto that work and presents his work in his first area of interest but one where his contributions have not proven as lasting.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-16 00:00:00 Melissa Cornell While I did give the whole book a 3/5, I 'd give the first chapter a very deserving 5/5. This chapter contains Hirschman's principle of The Hiding Hand, and the book is worth a read if only for this part alone. It may be the more controversial and non-scientific part of the book but it is definitely the more original and thought provoking. In the later parts Hirschman discusses more familiar topics of development projects but still adds his own thoughts and draws alot from principles discussed in his earlier works, especially Strategy. What also makes this book stand out from others discussing similar topics is Hirchman's prose and style which mixes great storytelling along with explanations of the various principles and analysis. The first chapter is recommended for everyone, while the rest is only for readers interested in (development) projects.