We are extremely pleased and thrilled to see our collaboration with the esteemed international news and commentary provider Project Syndicate and our new book THE PRINCETON ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE WORLD ECONOMY go live on their website.  They bring some of the world’s most distinguished voices to a global community that includes 431 leading newspapers in 150 countries. 

Together with the great folks at Project Syndicate, we’ve created a “Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy ” feature that appears on their homepage.  Click on the Wiki to find out the answer to the word of the day–or Terms of Trade!

Over at Foreign Policy, Dan Drezner recently posted his favorites for the short list of the International Studies Best Book of the Decade Award. His top five included three Princeton titles: A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World by Gregory Clark; Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity by Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales; and After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars by G. John Ikenberry.

You can see his entire list here. Which Princeton titles would make your top five?

Yesterday The Riz Khan Show interviewed Emile Nakhleh, author of A Necessary Engagement, as part of their program on The US’s Middle East Challenge. The complete program is available below in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Feizal, Uttar Pradesh, India
Feizal’s story illustrates the effect of resource constraints on health-seeking behavior.
Feizal’s ten-member family lives on a household monthly income of $36, largely comprised of his earnings selling aluminum pots and supplemented by his son’s earnings as a tailor’s apprentice. His wife and daughters roll bidis (cheap cigarettes) to sell. Although their income is low, the family stocked away significant savings in preparation for one daughter’s wedding.

When Feizal fractured his thighbone, the family was suddenly without its main breadwinner. He didn’t have insurance, and because he didn’t want to spend the money the he’d saved for his daughter’s wedding, he went to a less expensive, traditional doctor. But the break got worse, and the family was forced to spend nearly $250 (two-thirds of their income for a whole year) on a modern doctor and hospital fees. Feizal’s father paid for the rest, and Feizal finally went back to work eight months after the accident.

During Feizal’s health crisis, the family’s financial net worth deteriorated but did not turn negative. They avoided taking on expensive, interest-bearing loans to make ends meet, and instead drew down savings, took small interest-free loans from friends and neighbors, and used shop credit to buy household goods.

In the end, though, the costs of the accident—both the direct cost of treatment and the indirect cost of lost wages—pushed the family deeper into poverty. If Feizal could have relied on an insurance product, paying small amounts dispersed over time, he would have had the incentive to seek early, high-quality care at a much lower cost.

Feizal’s financial diary and those of other survey participants are available at http://www.portfoliosofthepoor.com/portfolios.asp

From over at the Free Exchange blog at The Economist:

I CAUGHT an interesting panel last night on a the new book “Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day“. It documents the financial lives of some of the world’s poorest people. What many people may not realise about low income is that it tends to be variable and unpredictable. Even if you earn just $2 a day, chances are you’ll earn $5 one day and zero the next. So the image of living hand to mouth is often inaccurate. Poor people must have some savings to survive, but many lack access to traditional banking. They end up resorting to elaborate ways to transfer wealth across time. Often this means simply stuffing money in their mattress or using a money guard (another person to hold the money for them). But this leaves their savings vulnerable to theft and fire.

And this is hardly a problem exclusive to the poor in third world countries. As the blogger notes:

What struck me about the stories of the poor in Bangladesh and Africa was how many aspects of their financial lives I saw teaching financial literacy in a homeless shelter in New York City. The women I spoke to were smart and financially savvy (they certainly had a keener instinct when it came to fraud), while being shut out of formal banking channels.

The Financial Access Initiative and Africa House Present:

Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day
A panel discussion followed by a book signing and wine and cheese reception

Authors: Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven
Published by Princeton University Press

Thursday, May 7th
6 - 8 pm
NYU Law School, Lipton Hall
108 West 3rd St.
New York, NY 10012

Click here to RSVP.

Opening remarks:
Rogan Kersh
Associate Dean, NYU Wagner School of Public Service

Panel Discussion Participants:
Matthew Bishop
Chief Business Writer/American Business Editor, The Economist
Daryl Collins
Co-author, Portfolios of the Poor, Senior Associate, Bankable Frontier Associates
Bill Easterly
Professor of Economics, NYU, author of The White Man’s Burden
Jonathan Morduch
Co-author, Portfolios of the Poor, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, NYU and Managing Director, Financial Access Initiative
Yaw Nyarko
Professor of Economics, NYU, Director of Africa House

John Hulsman, co-author with A. Wess Mitchell, on the new book THE GODFATHER DOCTRINE: A Foreign Policy Parable, discussed and debated the book with Eli Lake of the New Republic and Washington Times over at our friends Bloggingheads.tv.  A very lively chat!  Watch for yourself…

In response to our recent publication of John Hulsman and A. Wess Mitchell’s new book THE GODFATHER DOCTRINE: A Foreign Policy Parable, Chicago Tribune movie editor Mike Esposito wrote a very interesting piece on the book, asking his readers to submit ideas on other movies that can be used as foreign policy parables.  He suggests “Stalag 17″ and “Jaws” as his favs.  What a neat idea!  Can you think of any?  We’d love to hear your ideas.  I’m thinking Lord of the Rings, but maybe that’s too obvious!  Thoughts?     

Former CIA front man on Islamic relations Emile Nakhleh has been speaking about his new book A NECESSARY ENGAGEMENT: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World and what the Obama Administration can do reinvent our relations with our Muslim neighbors.  He speaks with Ken Silverstein on Harpers.com today and part 2 of the interview will appear tomorrow.  Also, Robert Ellman over at the Intrepid Liberal Journal spoke with Emile this past weekend. 

The book seems especially timely considering today’s news coming from Iran regarding their willingness to engage in a new dialogue with the United States.

Professor Archibugi discusses his reasons for writing The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy and his hopes for a future of change in the international climate. He spoke with Professor Rob Briner at Birkbeck University of London’s School of Management and Organizational Psychology.

We have been very pleased with the international interest Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel’s ECONOMIC GANGSTERS: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations has received–from Hong Kong to the UK to Australia–and now to Shanghai.  The Shanghai Daily ran this review in their pages today. 

Fisman and Miguel’s claim-to-fame was a fascinating study they did in 2006 that measured corruption based on the the traffic tickets diplomats in NYC received.  Chris Shea for the NY Times wrote about it here