Paul Collier.

PROFESSOR

Paul Collier is a professor at Oxford who has focused on the poorest countries of the world, especially Africa. His new book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford, 2007), addresses the divergence of these poorest countries from the rest of humankind. According to The Economist, it is "set to be a classic."

GEOGRAPHY AND TRADE

By Paul Krugman (1991)

This book is both lucidly written and pathbreaking. It introduced to a wide audience key ideas hitherto available only in complex form concerning the international location of manufacturing. The centerpiece is the analysis of why firms in a particular activity congregate together in one city, or "cluster," and the consequences for trade. The analysis is important for understanding both the explosive growth of export manufacturing in Asia and why some places get left behind.

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IN DEFENSE OF GLOBALIZATION

By Jagdish Bhagwati (2007)

A stunningly lucid sweep of the economic processes that add up to globalization by a master of the subject. The book is a comprehensive analysis. Don't dare pass judgment on globalization until you have read it.

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WHY COOPERATE?

The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods

By Scott Barrett (2007)

Global public goods are the poor relation of globalization: the activities that depend upon cooperation between governments instead of private markets. Climate change is part of it, but the issues are much wider. Barrett provides an engaging and revealing analysis of why global public goods are so inadequately provided, as well as the scope for remedies. Barrett's book is a vital complement to the analysis of the private mechanisms of globalization.

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