Meghnad Desai's work presents a significant challenge to economics as currently practised. Poverty, Famine and Economic Development brings together essays which reflect his long-standing interest in economic development. Issues discussed include econometric testing of the disguised unemployment hypothesis, theoretical and applied approaches to famine, poverty in rich as well as poor countries, poverty in Latin America and state involvement in economic development. The volume also includes a discussion of the essay by Lenin which was the basis of the 'New Economic Policy', the first attempt at Market Socialism in the Soviet Union.

The volume also includes a substantial autobiographical preface, in which Lord Desai explains how he became an economist and the influences behind the development of his thought, as well as a specific introduction explaining how he came to produce the papers included in this volume.