These two volumes of readings attempt to bring some degree of structure to a relatively diffuse field. Because of the sheer volume of high-quality work in development economics research, they are intended as a sampling of work at the frontier of the field, rather than as a comprehensive...

In this paper I shall focus, to a large extent, on (a) institutional impediments as outcomes of distributive conflicts and (b) the collective action problems they exacerbate and (c), in view of the critical need for coordination, on a more complex and nuanced role of the state, which many states...

Egalitarian theorists, since Rawls, have in the main advocated equalizing some objective measure of individual well-being, such as primary goods, functioning, or resources, rather than subjective welfare. This discussion, however, has assumed, implicitly, a static environment. By analyzing a...