Benno J. Ndulu is Governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania. Stephen A. O'Connell is Eugene M. Lang Research Professor of Economics at Swarthmore College. Robert H. Bates is Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University. Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford. Chuwuma C. Soludo is Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

• List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; 1. Policy plus: African growth performance 1960–2000 Benno J. Ndulu and Stephen A. O'Connell; 2. Opportunities and choices Paul Collier and Stephen A. O'Connell; 3. Anti-growth syndromes in Africa: a synthesis of the case studies Augustin Kwasi Fosu; 4. Domestic interests and control regimes Robert H. Bates; 5. Sacrificing the future: intertemporal strategies and their implications for growth Paul Collier and Jan Willem Gunning; 6. The political geography of redistribution Jean-Paul Azam; 7. Political conflict and state failure Robert H. Bates; 8. Shocks, risk and African growth Jan Willem Gunning; 9. The evolution of global development paradigms and their influence on African economic growth Benno J. Ndulu; 10. Political reform Robert H. Bates; 11. Endogenizing syndromes Paul Collier and Robert Bates with Anke Hoeffler and Steve O'Connell; 12. Harnessing growth opportunities: how Africa can advance Paul Collier, Jan Willem Gunning, Stephen A. O'Connell and Benno J. Ndulu; Index.

'This book is chock-full of fascinating data, interesting hypotheses, and country details; it is a rich review of Africa's troubled postcolonial economic history that will be a reference and an inspiration for political economists for years to come.' Foreign Affairs