ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T HIS
BOOK IS the culmination of fifteen years of
collaborative research, and along the way we have
accumulated a great deal of practical and intellectual debts.
Our greatest debt is to our long-term collaborator Simon
Johnson, who coauthored many of the key scientific papers
that shaped our understanding of comparative economic
development.
Our other coauthors, with whom we have worked on
related research projects, played a significant role in the
development of our views, and we would like to particularly
thank in this capacity Philippe Aghion, Jean-Marie Baland,
María Angélica Bautista, Davide Cantoni, Isaías Chaves,
Jonathan Conning, Melissa Dell, Georgy Egorov, Leopoldo
Fergusson, Camilo García-Jimeno, Tarek Hassan,
Sebastián Mazzuca, Jeffrey Nugent, Neil Parsons, Steve
Pincus, Pablo Querubín, Rafael Santos, Konstantin Sonin,
Davide Ticchi, Ragnar Torvik, Juan Fernando Vargas,
Thierry Verdier, Andrea Vindigni, Alex Wolitzky, Pierre
Yared, and Fabrizio Zilibotti.
Many other people played very important roles in
encouraging, challenging, and critiquing us over the years.
We would particularly like to thank Lee Alston, Abhijit
Banerjee, Robert Bates, Timothy Besley, John Coatsworth,
Jared Diamond, Richard Easterlin, Stanley Engerman,
Peter Evans, Jeff Frieden, Peter Gourevitch, Stephen
Haber, Mark Harrison, Elhanan Helpman, Peter Lindert,
Karl Ove Moene, Dani Rodrik, and Barry Weingast.
Two people played a particular