PERI's research on economics for the developing world explores how we might advance the mutually supportive goals of sustainable livelihood security, the consolidation of peace in war-torn societies, and democratization of economic power at the local, national and international levels.

Reflections on Development Economics: An Interview with Keith Griffin

January 2011 -- In an interview conducted by James Boyce for the journal Development and Change, Keith Griffin reflects on his career and the current state of development economics. Griffin is Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Riverside, and former President of Magdalen College, Oxford University. A prominent critic of orthodox economic development strategies, his books include Underdevelopment in Spanish America; The Political Economy of Agrarian Change; and Alternative Strategies for Economic Development.

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Effective International Aid to Postconflict States

October 2010 -- In recent years, the core objective of development assistance to postconflict countries and fragile states has been building governance structures that secure public confidence through security, justice, economic well-being, and social services. Yet tensions persist between these objectives and the business-as-usual policies of international agencies. In this background paper for the World Bank’s World Development Report 2011, James K. Boyce and Shepard Forman consider how international aid can more effectively help build resilient states and durable peace. They discuss the need to strike a balance between prioritizing aid to ‘good performers’ to maximize economic growth, and providing aid to ‘poor performers’ to prevent conflict and build peace.

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Beyond Inflation Targeting

January 2010 - This volume, edited by Gerald Epstein and Erinc Yeldan, develops concrete, country-specific alternatives to inflation targeting, the dominant policy framework of central bank policy that focuses on keeping inflation in the low single digits to the virtual exclusion of other key goals. Chapters focus on alternative policy goals, such as employment creation, poverty reduction and sustainable development, and themes such as class attitudes toward inflation and unemployment and the gender impacts of restrictive monetary policy. The authors show that to reach policy goals beyond inflation control, central banks must look beyond traditional financial policy instruments.

Peace and the Public Purse: Economic Policies for Postwar Statebuilding

In the aftermath of violent conflict, how do the economic challenges of statebuilding intersect with the political challenges of peacebuilding? How can the international community help lay the fiscal foundations for a sustainable state and a durable peace? In this edited volume, James Boyce, (Director of PERI’s Development, Peacebuilding, & the Environment Program), and Madalene O’Donnell (United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations) lift the curtain that often has separated economic policy from peace implementation.

Drawing on recent experiences in war-torn societies such as Uganda, Cambodia, Bosnia, Guatemala, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan, and Palestine, this book brings to life a key dimension of how peace and states are built.

>> Order Peace & the Public Purse from Lynne Rienner Publishers

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