Good Economics for Hard Times

Good Economics for Hard Times

Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems

Summary

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.

Reviews

  • 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.
    Yanis Varoufakis, Observer

About the authors

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Abhijit Banerjee is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT and the author of Poor Economics. He has been named as one of Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 global thinkers and has served on the U.N. Secretary-General's panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
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Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT and the author of Poor Economics. Duflo is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, and has received numerous academic honors and prizes including the Infosys Prize, the Dan David Prize, a John Bates Clark Medal, and a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship.
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