Book reviewInstitutions and prosperity: A review of Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson, Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2011, pp. 375 and Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson,

This article reviews 'Pillars of Prosperity' by Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson and 'Why Nations Fail' by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Both books are focussed on the role of institutions in determining the wealth of nations and the review compares and contrasts the different approaches contained in the two texts. The review also attempts to locate the texts within the broader literature in development and political economics and to link them to other recent work in these areas.

► Review of Besley and Persson 'Pillars of Prosperity' and Acemoglu and Robinson 'Why Nations Fail'. ► Inclusive and extractive institutions. ► Common-interest, redistributive and repressive states.