Debraj Ray:
Be conversational with student readers

With Development Economics, his first textbook, Ray said he used completely different style from hnis previous work: "With journal writing, you can't chat around. It's a very stiff, formal type of writing. I wrote the textbook to be accessible to young people. I think it's a good idea for a first time author to write the way they speak. If you don't try to make it formal, the ideas flow more easily." His students, who use the book in his popular development economics course at Boston University, say the book reads like he speaks: "They say that it has an informal style that puts difficult material across in a way that is readable and digestable."

Ray picked up his his background in development economics by living in a developing country. He was born in Calcutta amid acute economic problems. Most bright students coming out of high school in the 1970s, said Ray, were interested in these problems. "In the coffee shops in India we were talking about politics," he said. "It was an ordinary conversation in Caluctta at that time. It was a natural thing to be drawn to economics. It was a way to deal with these problems." Ray received his bachelor's in economics from the University of Calcutta's Presidency College in 1977. He received his master's in economics at Cornell University in 1981 and his doctorate in 1983.

When the textbook came out, when Ray was 41, he was a professor of economics at Boston University. He was on the editorial board of five economics journals, including Journal of Development Economics, Economic Theory, and the Journal of Economic Growth. He had taught a course in development economics for 15 years, first at Stanford University and then at Boston. The course was extremely popular, which Ray said was as much a reflection on his teaching as the subject being interesting. He won a Distinguished Teaching Award at Stanford in 1985 and a Gittner Teaching Award at Boston in 1996. "I enjoy teaching undergraduates the most," he said. "It gives me the ability to influence somebody's career and what they think."

Published by Princeton University press, Development Economics sold 40,000 copies in 10 months. "We were expecting a sale of 10,000 copies over three years," said Peter Dougherty, Ray's editor at Princeton University Press. "At this rate we will be reprinting by the end of spring." The book is being used widely, including high-visibility programs at Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT and Yale.

The hardcover book, with black and white text and simple graphics sells for $55. It discusses what Ray calls the "exciting literature" on economic theory. The traditional way to study developing countries is fairly mathematical, said Ray. "I wanted to show that the literature on economic theory can be applied to study the problem of underdevelopment."

Because teachers must have a basic understanding of the literature on economic theory to use the book, it hasn't made a large dent in state and community colleges, he said: "Professors have to invest in the subject before teaching it.

The book will also be published in India, where Ray requested it be offered inexpensively. It will sell there for $20.

Ray gives this advice for first-time authors:

• Write the way you speak. "Don't try to write formally. The ideas will flow more easily."
• Avoid writing linear. "If you're trying to write a large book, write them in the order that is clearest to you. Get your ideas down and worry about the progression of thought later."
• Use simple, direct language.
• Communicate your ideas in a direct, accessible way. "Whatever can be communicated in math, you should also be able to communicate in words."

Ray lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, and, when Development Economcis came out, had an infant son, Riyazz, with his girlfriend Nilita Vachani. He loves to travel. His favorite spots: Spain, Brazil and China. In his spare time he likes to read Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie.

— reported by Kim Pawlak, 1999