Gain Insight into Economic Challenges with Abhijit V. Banerjee's 'Good Economics for Hard Times'

Owen Brown: So worth reading! Well written, well conceived, excellent bibliography.

A lightning speed review of development economics, poverty and its alleviation (or attempts to do so) some of the problems in the attempts, tempered with the understanding that we understand little, the humility to think we don't have all the answers, the hope that by trying what we know, and instituting on a large scale some of the solutions that have worked with randomized control trials, we can make the world a much better place. One where people are treated with dignity, one where happiness is provided a place in the sun, as much as is formal economic growth. Highly recommended.

United States on Jun 16, 2023

os: ‘Good Economics’ is an enjoyable and engaging book that anyone with an interest in socio/political/economic affairs will find interesting to read. Take it as read, this not a book that admires of libertarian style readers will appreciate. The authors feel that the state – with is power to legislate, tax and subsidise and promote activities that the free market might otherwise ignore, is a powerful tool for delivering useful social outcomes. (examples: less pollution/improved social and occupational mobility and more efficient land use) l Even more important is the fact that states need to collaborate much more with each other in order create gains not just for the ‘elites’ but for all citizens, who and wherever they are. But this not an old fashioned centralist ‘big government’ line of argument. Rather, that the markets need to regulated or in some cases cajoled to be more efficient in order to deliver gains that can generate socially optimised outcomes. So, looking at areas such as patents, land rights, universal income, employment and training subsidies, information provision and ‘nudges’ to change business and consumer behaviour in appropriate ways.

The...

United Kingdom on Aug 15, 2021

B.Sudhakar Shenoy: Shutting out immigrants, trade barriers, global warming and divisive politics for example are some hotly debated topics of the last decade. While everyone is interested in making this planet a better place to live in, narrow interests, misplaced political priorities and misguided populist rhetoric have sadly led to a highly polarized world.
Sound economic theories have taken a backseat in such a scenario. This book debates key policy issues, slicing and dicing every topic from historical, social, political, and economic perspectives, with deep insights. It is an intellectual pursuit of making our planet a better place to live in.

Unfortunately, Economics is not a perfect science either. It operates in a constant flux of diverse social, political, and cultural scenarios. Hence, when one policy succeeds in one nation, it fails miserably elsewhere. It is in this context that the authors’ randomized control trials won them the Nobel Prize in Economics 2019.

Public perception of different professions differs widely. It is not surprising that politicians end up at the bottom of the pack, while nurses top the list in terms of whom we can trust. Surprisingly, economists...

India on Jan 03, 2021

JamesJames: This book arrived a little late but I’ll still give 5 stars based on the content for the authors sake and not the sellers.

Firstly the edition of this book is one of the nicest I’ve held recently, it’s a really nice paper bound hardback, the paper is high gsm and feels really nice to touch.

This is the second book I’ve read on economics from someone who had no real understanding beforehand, I bought it as it was one of the bill gates summer reading list books, really glad I bought it!

The book starts off with talking about the public perception of economists and how there is a large distrust, usually pedalled by ‘bad economics’ and politicians.

Some fascinating things I’ve learned since reading:

- Economics is not a perfect science, it’s hard to compare data between countries and periods in time, however most often things improve because we learn from past mistakes (e.g. the Great Depression).

- Immigration IS a good thing, the argument that the more people arrive to our developed countries the more people are out of work as the supply demand model would indicate, though this isn’t true as when people move to a new...

United Kingdom on Aug 30, 2020

A. Menon: Good Economics for For Hard Times looks at many of the issues consuming policy makers of today from an economist lens. It does not side with over simplified invisible hand ideas and instead focuses on many of the consequences of "market failures" that occur naturally and how they are occurring on a variety of scales in a variety of problems. The authors do not try to make all encompassing predictions but rather discuss several topics in some detail that are quite topical. For a general audience the book is both readable and informative though little/none of it is particularly revolutionary. The authors try to remind readers that there are no big picture solutions to the large issues we face, but with more disciplined economic reasoning we can at least face those problems with a better toolkit than our emotions.

The author discusses many contentious issues including immigration, trade and growth. The authors start with two of the most charged issues of the day, namely the consequences of immigration to wages and the consequences of trade to employment opportunities. For the former, they give their arguments for the general economics consensus wisdom that immigration is a net...

United States on Jun 18, 2020

Hande Z: There is a fundamental problem with economists – they are seldom right. Could the problem be economics itself? This is an underlying theme in this book even as the authors strived to discover why economists do not agree with each other, and why the public often do not agree with the government and the economists who advised them.

The authors discuss whether free trade is the solution for poor economic growth, or is free trade the problem? They study countries (such as India) that have gone through different approaches and arrived at uncertain conclusions. After opening up to trade – in return for IMF money – it took India more than a decade after 1991 to see economic growth. They discuss the economic benefits of tariffs versus free trade. The conclusions are far from clear, because trade and growth are a complex mix, but it seems that tariffs often backfire.

Economic growth id not entirely dependent on trade, and even in trade, one factor stands out in contrast to capital – labour. Once the authors launch into the supply of labour, we see the problems of immigration and racism. The authors point out that the traditional bias against immigrant workers is...

United States on Jan 24, 2020

Len: In the past, economics is seemed primarily based on theory. Adam Smith had an idea that the invisible hand would improve economic output and thereby the lifestyles on which it would depend. Milton Freedman wanted a return to the economic freedom proposed by Smith as the best way to fix stagflation of the 1970s and early 80s. Marx believed that each should give according to their ability and receive according to their needs. And, of course, John Maynard Keynes believed in a little of each. However, these theories are so overarching that gathering data to support a particular proposed policy is not always possible.
For example, the proposition that decreasing taxes to the rich improves economic output or GDP is completely debunked by this husband and wife team. They say there’s no data to support. It simply means a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich and very rich. Tying aid to the poor to conditions such as food stamps is less efficient than just giving them money. As well, the poor as less likely to take advantage of aid if it’s tied to conditions. People may find jobs after they lose them to automation but they won’t find jobs of equal pay and...

Canada on Jan 22, 2020

Rule 62 Ken: According to an anecdote about President Harry Truman, the President once said of his economic advisers, "Whenever I ask their opinion, they say on the one hand, so-and-so; but on the other hand, so-and-so. I would like to meet an economist with one hand!" Good Economics for Hard Times is a recent work by the 2019 Nobel Prize winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, and while this esteemed husband and wife team each possess both of their forelimbs, they are quick to acknowledge that they don't have all of the answers to the perplexing problems that world governments will confront as they head into the 2020s. As the title of the book suggests however, the authors advocate for a compassionate and kinder, gentler brand of economic policy making in an approach to alleviate global poverty, not just in the third world, but in developed nations in North America and Europe, where the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.

The authors tackle such perplexing issues as the economic impacts of immigration and refugee migration, trade wars, the widening income gap, the pros and cons of universal basic income, how the increasing presence of artificial intelligence...

Canada on Jan 12, 2020