Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems

Good Economics for Hard Times

FROM THE WINNERS OF THE 2019 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS 
 
'Wonderfully refreshing . . . A must read' Thomas Piketty 
 
In this revolutionary book, prize-winning economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. From immigration to inequality, slowing growth to accelerating climate change, we have the resources to address the challenges we face but we are so often blinded by ideology. 
 
Original, provocative and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times offers the new thinking that we need. It builds on cutting-edge research in economics - and years of exploring the most effective solutions to alleviate extreme poverty - to make a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. A much-needed antidote to polarized discourse, this book shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.

Excellent, important, disarmingly down to earth . . .  they seek to shed much-needed light upon the distortions that bad economics bring to public debates while methodically deconstructing their false assumptions.

Not all economists wear ties and think like bankers. In their wonderfully refreshing book, Banerjee and Duflo delve into impressive areas of new research questioning conventional views about issues ranging from trade to top income taxation and mobility, and offer their own powerful vision of how we can grapple with them. A must-read.

Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Compelling, useful, relevant ... Banerjee and Duflo use extensive data to zoom out and show us a wider view of these human dynamics

Excellent ... Few have grappled as energetically with the complexity of real life as Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, or got their boots as dirty in the process ... Readers will be captivated

A canard-slaying, unconventional take on economics ... invigorating ... a treasure trove of facts and findings about the biggest economic issues of the day

A magnificent achievement, and the perfect book for our time. Banerjee and Duflo brilliantly illuminate the largest issues of the day, including immigration, trade, climate change, and inequality.

Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens

Banerjee and Duflo are masters of this terrain . . . Their book is as stimulating as it gets

In this ambitious, provocative book Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo show how traditional western-centric thinking has failed to explain what is happening to people in a newly globalized world: in short Good Economics has been done badly. They cover the most essential issues, including why migration doesn't follow the law of supply and demand, why trade liberalization can drive unemployment up and wages down and why nobody can really explain why and when growth happens. 
 
They seek to reclaim this essential terrain, and offer readers an economist's view of the most pressing political issues, one that is candid about the obstacles we face but optimistic that we can find better ways to overcome them.

A Better Deal for People and Planet

Just Economics

Excellent, important, disarmingly down to earth . . . they seek to shed much-needed light upon the distortions that bad economics bring to public debates while methodically deconstructing their false assumptions

Banerjee and Duflo brilliantly illuminate the largest issues of the day, including immigration, trade, climate change, and inequality

Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens

The lives of the world’s poorest are already harder, hotter, and shorter, thanks to the actions and emissions of the world’s richest. But just as the rich world’s emissions are finally falling, emissions from poorer countries are set to increase drastically. 
 
We seem to be caught in an impossible bind—but it’s not too late to find a way out. In Just Economics, renowned economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo (co-recipients of the 2019 Nobel Prize), and Michael Greenstone propose a radical new approach to combatting the climate crisis, arguing that climate deterioration is inseparable from our polycrisis of mass migration, political instability and the resurgence of populist nationalism. We cannot make progress, they show, without compensating those harmed by climate change and incentivizing developing countries to reduce their emissions, to our benefit too. Morality and self-interest are no longer mutually exclusive. 
 
Based on meticulous original research and years of fieldwork around the world witnessing and quantifying the real impact of climate change on those most affected, this inspiring work shows it’s not impossible to protect the poor while protecting our future—it's just economics.

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Esther Duflo

To cut to the chase: this is the best book about the lives of the poor that I have read for a very, very long time

A page-turner about the micro-economics of aid policy might not sound too probable, but that's what [Banerjee and Duflo] have written, and it is a truly remarkable book . . . unmistakably contemporary, written beautifully

It is the rich and humane portrayal of the lives of the very poor that most impresses. [The authors] show how those in poverty make sophisticated calculations in the grimmest of circumstances … Books such as these offer a better path forward

Overturns many received ideas about what it's like to be poor

A compelling and important read … an honest and readable account about the poor that stands a chance of actually yielding results

Marvellous, rewarding … the sheer detail and warm sympathy on display reflects a true appreciation of the challenges their subjects face

A remarkable work: incisive, scientific, compelling and very accessible, a must-read

Banerjee and Duflo assemble a fascinating assortment of interventions from across the globe in their book … It is engaging and informative

A marvellously insightful book by two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty

It has been years since I read a book that taught me so much

Fact-based, actionable and totally unforgettable insights on the fight to help the poor help themselves

I was fascinated and convinced

The Surprising Truth about Life on Less Than $1 a Day

Why would a man in Morocco who doesn't have enough to eat buy a television? 
Why do the poorest people in India spend 7 percent of their food budget on sugar? 
Does having lots of children actually make you poorer? 
 
This eye-opening book overturns the myths about what it is like to live on very little, revealing the unexpected decisions that millions of people make every day. Looking at some of the most paradoxical aspects of life below the poverty line - why the poor need to borrow in order to save, why incentives that seem effective to us may not be for them, and why, despite being more risk-taking than high financiers, they start businesses but rarely grow them - Banerjee and Duflo offer a new understanding of the surprising way the world really works. 
 
This fully revised edition is updated with two new chapters that bring further insights from the last decade of research.

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Praise for Poor Economics

To cut to the chase: this is the best book about the lives of the poor that I have read for a very, very long time

A page-turner about the micro-economics of aid policy might not sound too probable, but that's what [Banerjee and Duflo] have written, and it is a truly remarkable book . . . unmistakably contempora ...

It is the rich and humane portrayal of the lives of the very poor that most impresses. [The authors] show how those in poverty make sophisticated calculations in the grimmest of circumstances … Book ...

To cut to the chase: this is the best book about the lives of the poor that I have read for a very, very long time

A page-turner about the micro-economics of aid policy might not sound too probable, but that's what [Banerjee and Duflo] have written, and it is a truly remarkable book . . . unmistakably contempora ...

It is the rich and humane portrayal of the lives of the very poor that most impresses. [The authors] show how those in poverty make sophisticated calculations in the grimmest of circumstances … Book ...

To cut to the chase: this is the best book about the lives of the poor that I have read for a very, very long time

A page-turner about the micro-economics of aid policy might not sound too probable, but that's what [Banerjee and Duflo] have written, and it is a truly remarkable book . . . unmistakably contempora ...

It is the rich and humane portrayal of the lives of the very poor that most impresses. [The authors] show how those in poverty make sophisticated calculations in the grimmest of circumstances … Book ...

Books by Abhijit V. Banerjee

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