Humanitarian Economics : War, Disaster and the Global Aid Market. /Gilles Carbonnier.

Humanitarian aid is a multibillion dollar industry whose effectiveness has quite literally life and death consequences for those touched by it. Yet humanitarian economics is a little understood field of study and practice. Gilles Carbonnier's lucid, accessible primer provides an extremely valuable introduction to the main arguments. -- Conor Foley, author of 'The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War'

This book has long been overdue. It is a welcome first analysis of heart-wrenching humanitarian crises from a positive economic perspective. Carbonnier's short and highly readable volume indicates how much humanitarians can and should still learn from economists-and vice versa. -- Tilman Bruck, Director, ISDC - International Security and Development Center, Berlin

In this first attempt at a comprehensive examination of the field of humanitarian economics, Gilles Carbonnier takes a steely-eyed look at the dark side of compassion, and skewers the ambiguous marketplace of morality. In its cost-benefit analysis of the booming kidnap and ransom industry and the inadvertent diversion of humanitarian resources into shady domains, this book's insights are piercing. -- Dirk Salomons, Director, Humanitarian Affairs Program, Columbia University

'Humanitarian Economics' combines rigorous data analysis with creative field observations, and brings the resulting insights to bear on some of the most critical human challenges of our time. This fascinating read will be of great interest to the humanitarian aid community, and to scholars across social science disciplines. -- Edward Miguel, Oxfam Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, and author of 'Africa’s Turn?'