THE NEXT CONVERGENCE

Michael Spence

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 320 pages, $27)

Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Spence has long been pointing out the frictions that interfere with efficient markets. In recent years Spence has focused on the economics of development and growth, and his interest in laissez-faire's flaws has stayed with him.

His new book, "The Next Convergence," warns of the frictions that arise when the world tries to accommodate both rapidly growing emerging giants like India and China and slow-growing developed countries like the United States. Never before have so many people grown rich so quickly. Japan was the first country to achieve sustained, high-speed growth, but it did so alone. A handful of smallish Asian tigers followed. Spence wonders whether that formula can work when 60 percent of humanity, led by India and China, try the same thing.

Globalization, he notes, has been critical to the rapid growth of emerging markets. But it has also led to rising inequality in the rich countries, and they may well respond by raising protectionist barriers. Or maybe not. Spence is not sure about this or, unfortunately, about many of the other issues he tackles. "The Next Convergence" feels less like a book than a transcript of the author thinking out loud about a hodgepodge of economic issues.

Spence surveys the state of knowledge of growth and development economics. But he breaks little new ground and sticks to broad generalities, offering little in the way of examples or research to prove his point. The text is also thick with such phrases as "suboptimal noncooperative outcomes." Readers new to the field may find this book a useful overview, but only if they can endure the ponderous writing.

This is a pity, because Spence has much to offer from a rich career in research, academia and global policymaking. The reader occasionally glimpses his experiences, in particular in his analysis of China. But overall, Spence has more questions than answers. That in itself is no bad thing. You need humility when evaluating the impact of globalization, he says. But it makes for an unsatisfying book.

THE ECONOMIST