## APOSTLES OF DEVELOPMENT — Six Economists and the World They Made (book review)

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### Overview
- Review by Kalpana Kochhar, director of development policy and finance at the Gates Foundation.
- Appears in F&D, page 65, DECEMBER 2025.
- Book: David C. Engerman, Apostles of Development: Six Economists and the World They Made, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2025, 576 pp., $39.95.
- The book profiles six South Asian economists: Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati, Manmohan Singh, Mahbub Ul Haq, Rehman Sobhan, and Lal Jayawardene.

### Key substantive findings and intellectual contributions
- The six economists acted as intellectual beacons of international development’s formative years, shaping both ideas and institutions.
- Haq and Sen broadened development metrics beyond GDP, contributing to the Human Development Index (HDI), which "remains central to how the development community measures progress."
- Sen, Haq, and Sobhan shifted focus from national to global inequality, linking redistributive justice with reform of international finance.
- Sobhan’s institution-building in Bangladesh (Centre for Policy Dialogue) produced domestic analytical capacity, exemplified by the Independent Review of Bangladesh’s Development launched in 1995 as a counterweight to international financial institutions’ analysis.
- The Delhi School of Economics, with Sen and Singh as faculty, strengthened Southern scholarship and trained cadres who later ran ministries and held senior positions at the IMF, World Bank, and other international institutions.
- Engerman shows how these economists both humanized and democratized development thinking and also became part of a technocratic elite.

### Influence on institutions, policy tools, and debates
- Advocacy to democratize the IMF and World Bank and to channel resources to poorer countries is traced as a continuing struggle; developing economies’ aspirations for greater voice are presented as a historical continuum.
- Discussion of special drawing rights (SDRs) as international reserve assets created by the IMF to supplement official reserves highlights continuity with current debates about redistribution through SDRs or loss-and-damage funds.
- The book links historical debates over the "quality of growth" (poverty alleviation, human welfare) to contemporary demands for new metrics—e.g., for climate equity or social inclusion—drawing from the HDI precedent.
- Parallels are drawn to contemporary policy frameworks such as "mission-oriented finance" and human-centered investment frameworks in climate finance and social policy.

### Policy implications and questions raised
- Historical precedent: developing economies’ push for greater voice and resources at Bretton Woods institutions is not new but an extension of earlier leadership by Sen, Haq, and Singh.
- Measurement and priorities: the move from GDP-centric assessment to multidimensional metrics (HDI) suggests potential for new metrics focused on climate equity and social inclusion.
- Institutional capacity building: Southern think tanks and academic institutions can improve domestic policymaking and reduce reliance on external analyses.
- Governance of expertise: Engerman’s portraits prompt the question of who defines global development expertise today—centralized Washington Consensus economists or more dispersed local communities.

### Notable facts and publication details
- F&D, page 65.
- DECEMBER 2025.
- Book length: 576 pp.
- Price: $39.95.
- Independent Review of Bangladesh’s Development launched in 1995.

*Review by Kalpana Kochhar, F&D, DECEMBER 2025, p. 65.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2025/12/books-kochhar.pdf_