Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations

Meet the economic gangster. He's the United Nations diplomat who double-parks his Mercedes on New York City streets at rush hour because.
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The book makes a good case for the thesis that development is possible wherever governance is generally good and free of corruption.

Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations by Ray Fisman

It cites many examples about the effect of corruption in Asia and Africa and gives examples of places where development and change worked despite the scourges of poverty and war Vietnam and Botswana. There are also many examples of failure, like Iraq. The authors also give some evidence that economic hardships may be one of the underlying reasons behind civil wars, witch killings and even genocide. I found the history, the stories and the economic experiments fascinating. This book, however would be more useful as reading material, as it often cites numbers and statistics that I would like to see and ponder black and white.

These are hard to grasp fully when listened to. Dec 15, Curt Buchmeier rated it liked it Shelves: Pretty good read, found my mind wandering after about 5 pages or thereabouts so it took me awhile to get thru this one. Tough subject; trying to scientifically measure corruption in various parts of the world. I commend the authors for a noble effort. Economists are not known for page-turners. I would recommend to others interested in social justice. However, the 'solutions' are as unlikely as taking money out of the election process in the US.

Jun 15, Ami Iida rated it liked it Recommends it for: This book is useful to think about the economic incentives. Jun 20, M rated it liked it. Coming from Kenya and reading this nine years after it was written, there's still a direct variation between economic growth and the 'Economic Gangsters', both are on the rise. Otherwise, it was a good read and insightful. Jun 09, Federico Romero rated it really liked it. It's a good attempt of providing information about corruption and poverty.

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It throws interesting information and data. Jul 17, Dylan Groves rated it it was ok. Jan 23, Nicole added it. Fisman and Miguel aim to "As Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel explain at the beginning of their book, there are two main currents of thinking among those who opine on the wisdom of foreign aid: Fisman and Miguel aim to look at corruption and violence in developing countries to determine how prevalent such evils are, how they are caused, and how they can be prevented--and, therefore, what the best way, non-ideologically-speaking, of raising up poor nations might be.


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No one reports the bribes he takes on his income tax returns. So Fisman and Miguel have to come up with creative means of measuring corruption of various types, and this is the most fun part of their book. Economic Gangsters is completely accessible to the general reader, with virtually no economic jargon or concepts more difficult than ""incentives matter,"" but it perfectly captures the exciting, puzzle-solving nature of this kind of academic research.

Without experimental data it's very difficult to determine whether a particular program is actually effective or not or cost-effective or not. Randomized trials, like those carried out for developing medicines, are rare in the field of poverty reduction. But sometimes they are carried out.

For example, local democratic control of public works projects is often touted as an antidote to corruption and skimming of funds. But in Indonesia a test was conducted to compare road building under local control, the thread of a federal audit, and no corruption prevention. Local control did little better than the control group, while those projects that were audited involved significantly less stolen money. Unfortunately, large-scale economic experiments are often impossible and unethical, so some things can never be tested.

But those interested in solutions that actually work should use what information they can. Economic Gangsters provides some of that information, and an interesting look at how to find it.

It also tells some great stories about the incentives economic gangsters respond to, the strange circumstances that sometimes create these incentives, and how governments and other groups can play with them to aim for better outcomes. Oct 07, Elizabeth rated it liked it Shelves: The promo that got me was an interview with the charismatic authors who discussed how mimes were used in Columbia to curb traffic violations.

This is by far the most novel detail based on their central premise — and turned out to be like movie previews delivering the only funny lin Economic Gangsters by Raymond Fisman and Raymond Miguel pp. This is by far the most novel detail based on their central premise — and turned out to be like movie previews delivering the only funny line of the comedy. There is a lot of interesting content. But you have to dig more than Gladwell or Levitt.

Fisman and Miguel present a lot of tables and data that could be footnoted.

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The narrative and the ideas should have be concise and memorable, but their writing style makes it too easy to drift before they can fully realize their point. They are clearly academics and not storytellers. But other authors have covered gangs, prostitution and crime and succeeded in making it compelling. Their discussion of parking scofflaws in New York-based international diplomats as a measure of political corruption is novel and worth reading. When the authors are actually able to frame complex problems in accessible and manageable chunks, the book works and can be thought provoking.

The big questions that Fisman and Miguel tackle: With some more effort and looking beyond the scope of their personal research world, they may have mined better content by taking a similar approach as the book, Super Crunchers. Fisman and Miguel barely ripple the surface of opportunity in the subject matter they explore.

The issues presented by the authors are very important and deserve a bigger voice in the public consciousness. Unfortunately, Economic Gangsters is a few dry bites in what could have been and needs to be a memorable multi-course meal. Apr 03, Ed rated it liked it Shelves: Their conclusions aren't anything new and some of them are wrongheaded.

For example the authors have a very different view of the result of corruption in Indonesia than does Ha-Joon Chang the author of "Bad Samaritans: Any intelligent politician or policy-maker should read this book. We know in general terms that corruption and stupidity aplenty are out there. But what particular bad behaviour is leading to which particularly bad outcomes? Which good behaviour or cleverly targeted incentives might lead to better outcomes?

Do complicated government rules to try to stop corruption inadvertently make it worse? Or are those rules brought in by corrupt politicians precisely to create new opportunities for corruption? Could systematic corruption become a perverse force for stability? This final question is now a hot topic indeed across the Middle East. Fisman and Miguel offer ingenious if problematic attempts to measure these elusive phenomena. They look at stock exchange prices of major Indonesian corporations close to former President Suharto to try to identify how much money his family might have purloined.


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    • They ask whether increased police salaries in Kenya simply make corrupt police officers richer. They pore over Hong Kong container statistics 2, containers per hour move through Hong Kong to explore how different tariffs on frozen chicken and turkey meat encourage smuggling. Not surprisingly, the book falls short of giving definitive answers: There was a problem filtering reviews right now.

    Please try again later. Eight years ago, as I crossed the Uganda-Kenya border, I was sequestered in a shack, interrogated, threatened with prison, and ultimately required to pay a bribe by border guards. After that harrowing experience, I returned to my hotel and recounted the story to the first friendly face I saw: Ted and his colleague Ray spent the succeeding years studying violence and corruption in poor countries; and this sweet book is the latest fruit of those labors.

    What can economics tell us about corruption and violence around the world? More, perhaps, than you'd expect. Ray and Ted use surprise changes in a dictator's health to measure the value of political connections in Indonesia, rainfall to capture the effect of recessions on violence in Africa, and tricks in the trade data to reveal smuggling.

    That's not to mention the parking tickets - Chapter Four. They present their clever research in surprisingly clear English, and they draw on the related research of other economists as well.

    Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations

    They really know how to tell a story: I was captivated by the opening recounting of Kenyan author Ngugi's woes and delighted by the creative policy making of Antanas Mockus, mayor of Bogota. It's hard not to compare popular economics books today to Freakonomics: Gangsters has the advantages of Ted and Ray's witty, pleasant voice, more of a thematic focus, and none of the self-adulation that took away some Freakonomics' shine.

    Despite the focus on corruption and violence, ultimately the book is presenting a miscellany of work that is related but isn't and perhaps cannot be circumscribed into a larger theory. Occasionally I found myself wishing a central theory like you find in Malcolm Gladwell's books. But then again, those theories usually aren't convincing for exactly the reason that Ted and Ray don't have one: I really enjoyed the clear policy recommendation of Rapid Conflict Prevention Support in Chapter 6, and I look forward to more clear recommendations in the next book.

    Again, Ted and Ray are careful and tend not to recommend policies that don't have clear evidence to stand on. The main policy recommendation, ultimately, is more evidence-based policy making, particularly randomized trials of development programs but with a healthy view of the realistic scope for these kinds of trials. This book won't just show you that economists can be clever although it will show you that: It shows that economics, cleverly applied, can illuminate some of the most intractable development problems of our time.

    I strongly recommend it. And if you don't trust me, Publishers Weekly said that in this "surprisingly spry" read, "fascinating insights abound" [1]. Take it from both of us and learn something. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This book is a useful addition to other books examining the development question.

    In addition to takes head on the issues of corruption and violence which can lay waste to the best laid plans.


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    The correlation between the weather and violence is interesting but when seen against the more harsher climes of the north shouldn't the African be able to adapt and thrive? With corruption isn't it that our elite have little to no experience in wealth creation and therefore see corruption as means to an end beyond just greed? But I am more than glad to have happened on this offering.

    These two authors have come together to provide the reader with a nuanced and complicated view of development. Mainly, because development is complicated.

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    They provide specific stories, research, and ideas about how some problems can be solved. They start us on the path of finding a broader theory by figuring out piece by piece what works. Insightful, though provoking, and incomplete; which is exactly as it was designed. One person found this helpful.

    This book should get an award for the most misleading title of the year. It is a beach ball approach to global corruption and should be read with milk and cookies on the side of the pool. Chapter 2 "SUHARTO" one of the most corrupt regimes and war criminals of the 20th century, mind you ; is completely negligent on the points of authentic history. The attitude presented can be summed up by a two line quote from page It was big business.

    If you are looking for true leads in the world of black market politics and dirty money pools; don't waste your time here. The only thing more misleading than the title are the 'pre-release' editorial reviews loaded with praises that are carefully crafted to sell a book that fails to rise to any level of competency. OK but not great,. It's scary to read and apply this information to today's world this book has opened my eyes.

    See all 20 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published on December 10, Published on October 16, Published on March 11, Published on September 20,