Good Economics for Hard Times

English language

Published July 27, 2019 by PublicAffairs.

ISBN:: 978-1-61039-950-0

(1 review)

Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems is a 2019 nonfiction book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both professors of economics at MIT. It was published on November 12, 2019 by PublicAffairs (US), Juggernaut Books (India), and Allen Lane (UK). The book draws from recent developments in economics research to argue solutions to the issues facing modern economies and societies around the world, including slowing economic growth, immigration, income inequality, climate change, globalization and technological unemployment. It is their second collaborative book since the publication of their book Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011) and their first since becoming a married couple in 2015. The book's publication comes a month after Banerjee and Duflo were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, shared with Harvard University professor Michael Kremer.

2 editions

Erin reviewed Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit V. Banerjee

Review of 'Good Economics for Hard Times' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was dense! So I did not retain much, though I did take notes to try to keep track of some takeaways. I appreciate how much the authors are trying to solve real problems of poverty and unemployment from irrelevance or automation. They constantly refer to studies to back up their arguments but point out the limitations of the studies. That’s rare in these books, I feel. Economists want to say for sure x is the answer and will result in y when there are so many other factors. I’m no economics expert, so I’m sure there are flaws in this book and arguments against them. But it feels like a sincere effort to address poverty, which is refreshing.