Poor Numbers

One of the most urgent challenges in African economic development is to devise a strategy for improving statistical capacity Reliable statistics, including estimates of economic growth rates and per capita income, are basic to the operation of governments in developing countries and vital to nongovernmental organizations and other entities that provide financial aid to them Rich countries and international financial institutions such as the World Bank allocate their development resources on the basis of such data The paucity of accurate statistics is not merely a technical problem it has a massive impact on the welfare of citizens in developing countries.Where do these statistics originate How accurate are they Poor Numbers is the first analysis of the production and use of African economic development statistics Morten Jerven s research shows how the statistical capacities of sub Saharan African economies have fallen into disarray The numbers substantially misstate the actual state of affairs As a result, scarce resources are misapplied Development policy does not deliver the benefits expected Policymakers attempts to improve the lot of the citizenry are frustrated Donors have no accurate sense of the impact of the aid they supply Jerven s findings from sub Saharan Africa have far reaching implications for aid and development policy As Jerven notes, the current catchphrase in the development community is evidence based policy, and scholars are applying increasingly sophisticated econometric methods but no statistical techniques can substitute for partial and unreliable data. Best Read Poor Numbers by Morten Jerven For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr really interesting topic, not so great execution value of book vs article summary is very small three takeaways 1 african growth statistics stink They under report the informal sector, rely on faulty population and baseline year estimates, and are often politically motivated Many countries may be due to revise GDP estimates upwards by 50% orwhen they correct these in the coming years 2 international institutions WB and IMF dont help the problem theyre emphasis on generating a...Had some solid points and was well researched but droned on The arguments could ve been conveyed in half the number of pages It also could have beenclearly written but to be fair, it was most likely written for those in the field of development economics and not the general populace.Very good and important message on the problems with data collection and analysis in Africa However, as others have mentioned, it was unnecessarily repetitive.An important response to today s data obsession Jerven calls attention to certain organisations tendency to rank countries on all sorts of measures and figures, such as GDP, without taking a moment to stop and look at whether the estimates are worth the paper they are written on Datasets are like guns if left lying around, someone will use them , he observes.Moreover, he points out why it is a problem that these figures aren t accurate If...Important book, and a great introduction to some of the core challenges of producing and using data for better development policy and practice, with a focus on GDP Unfortunately, it reads like an unedited final draft and the K...Really enjoyed the main idea of this book I saw the author speak about the book before reading it, so I was already familiar with the core concepts I was hoping the book were digger deeper than it did into these examples Overall, an important main idea for development practitioners and economi...Must read for users of African data A good reminder to be cautious when creating new knowledge I would caution though that while some national statistical offices in Africa are in shambles, others are quite go...This is a brilliant read and should be on every African scholars reading list There are one or two proofreading issues along the way, but these don t detract from the overall quality of the book and its insights.Quick read but super interesting Made me really depressed about the state of development economics According to Jerven, it seems like most data on economic growth in Africa is based onpretty much nothing.338.967 J57 2013

• English
• 22 July 2017
Morten Jerven
• Hardcover
• 176 pages
• 0801451639
• Morten Jerven
• Poor Numbers