Ahead of Africa Liberty Forum 2018, Atlas Network CEO Brad Lips sits down with renowned Ghanaian economist George Ayittey to discuss his new economics textbook for Africa: Applied Economics for Africa.
On February 14, 2013 Atlas Network officers met with the renowned Ghanaian economist Dr. George Ayittey to explore what would have the greatest long-term positive impact for liberty and prosperity in Africa. Various projects were discussed, but the discussion turned repeatedly to the lack of sound economics education, which has driven so many disastrously harmful policies.
“We talked about how textbooks are rarely available to students, as I had noted at a number of
African colleges,” said Atlas Network Executive Vice President for International Programs and
Geroge M. Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty, Tom Palmer. “George explained that, when
economics books were in the library, they were often either Marxist tracts or were littered with foreign examples from the U.S. or Europe to which the students could not relate their own
experiences.”
Ayittey proposed to write a new textbook that would explain economics as a useful science and
that would draw on familiar examples and on African history. A commitment was made to
support George’s research and his travels across the continent to gather material for the book.
The result is a complete university-level textbook, Applied Economics for Africa, in which Dr.
Ayittey vividly describes the deep history of market exchange in African societies and explains
that a free and prosperous continent will depend, not on importing socialist ideas from abroad,
but on building upon “its own indigenous heritage of participatory democracy based upon
consensus, free village markets, and free enterprise.”
The result is a thorough economics textbook that has already drawn praise from top economics
educators in Africa and abroad, including Nobel Laureates Vernon Smith and Thomas Sargent.
The book will be published in print and online under a Creative Commons Attribution License
4.0, meaning that it can be reproduced by anyone if they give proper credit to the author and
publisher. It is being published by Atlas Network in association with AfricanLiberty.org, a project
of African Students for Liberty.
“Books for African students are scarce and few college libraries allow books to circulate, so we
hope to enable them to have numerous copies of this book available for students to read,”
continued Palmer. “Moreover, having it all online will enable students who can't get copies to
read them on computers, e-books, and even smart phones.” The book will also be of great
interest to people studying economic development generally, regardless of where they live or
study.
To learn more: atlasnetwork.org