Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding--And How We Can Improve the World Even More

As the income gap between developed and developing nations grows, so grows the cacophony of voices claiming that the quest to find a simple recipe for economic growth has failed. Getting Better, in sharp contrast, reports the good news about global progress. Economist Charles Kenny argues against development naysayers by pointing to the evidence of widespread improvements in health, education, peace, liberty -- and even happiness.

Kenny shows how the spread of cheap technologies, such as va...