Book excerpt: This collection offers a stimulating and insightful overview of the main issues affecting long-term economic growth. The novelty of this book is that it brings together two strands of economic literature, growth and development theories. The communication between different approaches is crucial as it is increasingly understood that growth hinges upon institutional and policy aspects that are generally neglected in the stylized models of growth but highly relevant for developing countries. Government policies and institution design become central to the explanation of divergent growth paths.