I have done my research and writing predominantly on economic policy issues, be it trade and aid, development strategy, or food security. The articles are overwhelmingly policy-oriented; they tend to echo or represent the climate of debate, thinking and research in the different periods when they were written. The selection of articles was made in such a way that they fulfil, as far as possible, one or several of the following criteria: 1) they represent my main thinking and writing on that particular issue; 2) they were prominent in debate and discussion among academic economists/policy analysts during the time when they were written; 3) they retain some relevance and/or are of major or continuing interest in the current academic/policy discussions.

“This volume presents the collected wisdom of a distinguished economist whose academic contributions have been immensely enriched by his varied experience inside policymaking institutions at both the national and international levels.”

Nurul Islam (of Bangladesh) is currently a research fellow emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, where he joined as a senior policy adviser to the director general in 1987. At IFPRI, Islam is conducting research on trade, macroeconomic policy, and agricultural development strategy. Prior to this, he was the assistant director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, Economic and Social Policy Department, deputy chairman of the Bangladesh Planning Commission, chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, director of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, and chairman of the Department of Economics at Dhaka University. Islam received a B.A. and an M.A. in economics from Dhaka University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, U.S.A.