Synopsis
Destitution is the main subject matter of this study. It ranges through moral philosophy and political science to anthropology, welfare economics, economic theory and nutrition science. Dasgupta is concerned with reconciling empirical evidence with theoretical analysis, and with presenting a coherent description of the causes of undernourishment. This volume should be of interest to nutritionists and anthropologists in that it presents undernourishment, differences in calorie needs, and the phenomenon of adaptation to low energy intake - genetic, physiological and behavioural. It also addresses the current debate over methods for estimating the incidence of undernourishment, and is written in a style suitable for readers who are not economists, leaving the formal material to be presented in an appendix. This book is placed in the context of philosophical work on general well-being, and with the aim of stimulating research on policies to remedy the state of destitution. Dasgupta uses, for example, modern analytical political philosophy to define the role of the state in the context of resource-poor economies, and concludes from his empirical evaluation of 40 of the world's poorest countries that there is a striking correlation between a country enjoying greater political and civil liberties and performing better in terms of per capita income, life expectancy and the other measurement standards he outlines. He advocates the existence and recognition of both positive and negative rights, and avoids the tendency of development economics works to concentrate on mortality or growth and ingore the role of these rights.
Revue de presse
Dasgupta has produced a tour de force, a book which is a model of good economics. He has addressed a set of questions which are of central importance, questions for which we really do care what the answers are. To answer these questions he has marshalled an array of evidence, empirical studies drawn from a wide range of sources. And he has brought some simple, but deep, theories and ideas to bear on these questions. The book will be a must for every development economist, but its reach should go well beyond that: every economist should be concerned with the questions it raises, and as a model of how good economics should be done, it should be required reading for every graduate student. (Joseph Stiglitz)
Although he is himself a theoretical economist, his models start in political philosophy, and go beyond what most economists think of as economics into the real conditions of life in the South. An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution is in many ways as impressive as Hume, Smith and Marx themselves... No one, however, has gone so far beyond the generalities and brought so much of the many bits of available information together. No one, certainly, has thought it through so hard." London Review of Books
a rich unusual and wide ranging work...When one reads the whole book, one is forced to jettison incorrect impressions of simplemindedness. Without doubt, this is mandatory reading for every social scientist anywhere in the world." Indian Express
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