Lopamudra Banerjee, Anirban Dasgupta, and Rizwanul Islam (eds.). Development, Equity and Poverty: Essays in Honour of Azizur Rehman Khan. India: Macmillan Publishers India Ltd. 2010. Hardback, 542 pages, Indian Rs 2100.00.

The book, as the title indicates, is collection of articles by the experts in the field of development economics. It is compiled in honour of Professor Azizur Rehman Khan, guru in the field of development economics. Unfortunately, I have not met Professor Khan but his writings were always a source of inspiration. This book is the best present to Professor Khan on his seventieth birthday. Acknowledging the fact that development challenges are becoming more complex and multidimensional, the collection of articles is based on following six themes: First theme focuses on Macroeconomics of Development. Second theme is Growth, Poverty and Inequality Linkages and third is Analysis of Poverty. The forth theme relates to issues of Employment-Intensive Growth. Fifth theme reviews the Labour Markets, Wages and Productivity and the final focus is on Rural Development. Three articles on Macroeconomics of Development focus on role of pricing structure, investment, sources and structure of growth in China and the macroeconomic policy framework to ensure stability, growth and employment. Keith Griffin critically evaluates the existing development theories. In the first instance, he questions the role of relative prices in resource reallocation resulting in change in economic structure. Griffin evaluates different dimensions of the argument. For example the degree of mobility of factors of production across sectors which can impose additional costs. Furthermore, he argues, it may not be the price signal that affects the resource allocation. It is the investment decision that, ” … determines how resources in fact are allocated”.