“Holidays are best for getting work done,” is the often-repeated adage in the academic world. And, no doubt, it is sad and ironic for such an observation to be true, yet it is.

It is in the “down” time between the semesters that the bulk of reading and research work is done, with scholarly papers written at the time threaded in between the lines with feelings of guilt for not partaking in celebrations. The latter have been hard to enjoy since the pandemic.  And in the post-socialist Europe and the former Soviet Union regular life has been oscillating around the promise of the consumer bliss and devastating tragedies. The fate of the small states still matters.

Adding to the earlier editions of the “ten books” lists, here’s a selection for the upcoming spring. As before, I’ve tried to stay away from the common bestsellers (it is indeed tiring to see every major newspaper recommending the same books to read) and have spiced this list with a range of topics. But hopefully, an attentive reader spots a common trend: economic development in its multifaceted diversity.

Omitting a lengthy explanation, the books in this selection touch on the problems of industrial and competition policies, political economy, economic history, poverty and inequality, as well as the new favorite in the economic development – diaspora for development.

Happy New Year and let’s hope it’s a good one! Enjoy your readings!

1. Elo, Maria and Indianna Minto-Coy (eds.). 2018. Diaspora Networks in International Business: Perspectives for Understanding and Managing Diaspora Business and Resources. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.
2. Galbraith, John Kenneth. 2007 (1967). The New Industrial State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
3. Ironside, Kristy. 2021. A Full-Value Ruble: The Promise of Prosperity in the Postwar Soviet Union. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4. Mirak, Robert. 1988. Torn Between Two Lands: Armenians in America 1890 to World War I. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5. Philippon, Thomas. 2019. The Great Reversal: How America Gave up on Free Markets. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6. Pritchett, Lant; Sen, Kunal; and Eric Werker (eds.). 2017. Deals and Development: The Political Dynamics of Growth Episodes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Ravallion, Martin. 2016. The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
8. Sen, Amartya. 1987. On Ethics & Economics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
9. Suny, Ronald Grigor. 2020. Stalin: Passage to Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
10. Tonoyan, Artyom. 2021. Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press. Minneapolis, MI: East View Press.

By monopoly power here, I’d also like to share the news on the upcoming publication that I had the privilege of editing and working with some of the most brilliant economists – and yes, it again deals with problems of economic development, debt, international capital flows, (dominant-periphery) currencies, and more.

Gevorkyan, A.V. (ed.). [in press]. Foreign Exchange Constraint and Developing Economies. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/foreign-exchange-constraint-and-developing-economies-9781800880498.html