Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems

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Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Abhijit V. Banerjee (Author), Esther Duflo (Author), James Lurie (Narrator),

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The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day.

Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it.

Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change - these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there - what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable.

In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.

Listening Length

14 hours and 45 minutes
Author

Abhijit V. Banerjee, see all
Narrator

James Lurie
Audible release date

November 12, 2019
Language

English
Publisher

PublicAffairs
ASIN

B07ZWKHM8N
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	14 hours and 45 minutes
Author	Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo
Narrator	James Lurie
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	November 12, 2019
Publisher	PublicAffairs
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07ZWKHM8N
Best Sellers Rank	#50,966 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #16 in Macroeconomics (Audible Books & Originals) #33 in Economic Public Policy #65 in Macroeconomics (Books)

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Hande Z

Hard times indeed, but...

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2020

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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 mistaken. People do not move just because the pay is better elsewhere. In fact, we are blinded into not seeing that people generally do not like to move, and there are many strong reasons for that. There is the issue of connection. People are more likely to move if they have connections in their intended destination. Then there are family ties back home, in contrast to the poor living conditions elsewhere, and so on. The authors also point out that anti-immigrant sentiments have existed from time immemorial, only the subject changes. First people were against Jewish immigrants, then Italian immigrants, then African immigrants, and now, it is Muslim ones. Eventually, the authors say, the immigrants get assimilated, and the nation’s attention (or prejudice) turn to others.

The authors examine and analyse the factors that lead to growth and those that do not. The question whether using GDP is the accurate way to measure growth. In the history of modern times, there has only been one growth spurt, and that ended on 16 October 1973 with the Arab oil embargo – a spurt never to return, say the authors.

The authors presented a detailed and persuasive argument that taxation is beneficial and useful in lowering the inequality gap. They explain that when people get poor, they tend to blame the wrong factors, for example, immigrants for taking away their jobs. Lowering the income inequality is thus a important priority. Unfortunately, politicians do not have the will to impose or increase taxes. The authors further explain that taxing the rich helps but not enough. There should be a wealth tax on the assets of the rich. They present powerful arguments as to why that is so.

This is a remarkable book that covers a wide range of economic topics with an aim of making the dots connect, and disabusing us of seeing magic dots that don’t connect. It is a book worth reading even if one is sceptical about some of its claims – after all, the Messiah of Economics has yet to come.

9 people found this helpful

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Owen Brown

Development Economics with Humor and Modesty

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2023

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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.

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A. Menon

Readable economic overview of many of the topical problems we face today

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2020

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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 positive and that immigrants contribute to society. They do cite those that disagree and their studies, namely the counterarguments of Borja, but then give further evidence to dispute him. From an economists lens they argue well but certainly the arguments that carry the day aren't based on reasoning. The authors also discuss trade policy and make the argument that if labor cannot frictionlessly move as a function of opportunity, classical capitalist arguments will fail in practice. The authors show that this is the case in the US and that the lack of labor mobility means that frictions of trade are real and require new policy thinking. The authors discuss big concepts like materialism and its use in framing economic goals via prioritizing GDP over other measures of wellness. The authors highlight that when policy is framed it is framed in terms of maximizing output and such a narrow goal is questionable. Distributional concerns about where wealth gets concentrated is not discussed enough and maximizing output without concern for distribution is something that should be reconsidered. The authors discuss Robert Gordon's concerns that growth is structurally lower than last century when several foundational technologies enabled decades long windows of productivity growth. They also discuss the statistical measurement of productivity growth coming from the internet and communications revolution and that part of it could be hard to measure but in all, it is less than last decade; though there are some reasons to believe that could change for the better in the coming decades. The consequences of the ICT revolution is also concerns about automation and its consequences. Here the authors give both pictures but highlight that there should be concerns and that concepts like living wage don't have the empirical support as leading to higher well-being that is touted by techno optimists who don't want to deal with the labor problem.

Good Economics for Hard Times gives a readable economist overview of some of the problems faced today and the ways to think about them as well as the cost benefit we face. It is quite even handed and grounded in evidence rather than ideology. That being said, these topics are largely discussed more comprehensively in other books so discussions of Gordon's view on growth and discussions of the consequences of automation are largely overviews of the works of other people. The book is certainly well written and entirely comprehensible so for the interested reader it will have something to offer.

5 people found this helpful

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chulsa

Good Economics for hard times

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2024

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good content!

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Carl Scheider

Lots of economics research in here, well down, about our trying times

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2020

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Very well done. I've read a LOT of economics in the past few years. These Nobel Prize winners wrote a wonderful study of Poverty economics - and they followed it up with this one. This discipline might actually become a science some day. They get behavioral economics - they understand about controlled experiments - and they are worried about our economic future - as well they might be. So they take the controversial economic decisions of our trying times, and explain the best research they have found - and point out how WRONG most of our government programs are. And how and why they are so blindly supported by the general public.. This is NOT rocket science - but it is advanced psychology. NOW - if we could just get this down to a 1 minute commercial for the super bowl - we might actually make some headway on getting the world's economy back on track. Well - at a minimum - you can help. Read it, refer it to friends - remember the stories and do not let those folk get away with their simplistic arguments. Thanks - we are all in this together and I'm counting on you. Thanks, Red Green.

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AMANDA CARLA RAMOS PENA

Excellent!

Reviewed in Brazil on April 10, 2023

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Realy great read.

Gama

Empaque

Reviewed in Mexico on May 9, 2020

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Me lo enviaron en una caja grande y suelto de esta forma me imagino que se estuvo deslizando a lo largo del viaje y llego ligeramente maltratado pero lo limpié y ya quedo bien.

One person found this helpful

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Rule 62 Ken

Compassionate Economics for the 2020s

Reviewed in Canada on January 12, 2020

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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 will affect the job prospects of present and future generations, what to make of slowing rates of growth in developed nations and even the economics of climate change. It is apparent that the authors have researched these topics extensively as this book cites studies and projects from around the globe, providing examples of early indicators of successes in other nations, as well as looking at some historical failures.

While not overtly political, the authors are academically disparaging of the economic policies of the 1980s and 90s which presumed that a welfare state was the cause of global economic woes. They are critical of those who promote the belief that welfare programs only serve to promote laziness and kill a desire for self-betterment. They also argue that the notion that those who receive such benefits will only "drink it away" in unsupported by data, while at the same time noting that how a program is framed and delivered can impact its effectiveness. The authors also challenge the generic portrayal of free trade as a rising tide that raises all boats, noting that free trade improved the lives of many, but it also left many adrift and worse off. They cite the success of Donald Trump, the Brexit vote and other populist-themed world events as examples of those who were tuned into this message. Conversely, they mention Hillary Clinton's promise to "put a lot of coal miners out of work" as an example of those who were oblivious to the pain suffered by those left in the wake of globalization. While the candidate's remark may have been intended as a promise to deliver cleaner air, what was lost was empathy for those in the losing column of recent economic change.

The authors acknowledge that there are no easy answers to preventing the casualties of economic change. While they are not generally against tariffs or even trade wars in the appropriate case, they argue that the consequences of such action must be carefully thought out. Specifically, it must be considered who the winners will be and who will lose, and a plan must be put in place for how to help those whose jobs are displaced by cheaper products from abroad and by technological disruption.

One area where the authors are clear in their criticism is in their conclusion that tax breaks for the wealthiest do not create the economic growth that politicians promise. They argue that rates of taxation, especially on those in the highest income percentiles are unduly low and the growing gap in income disparity contributes to a host of social problems. While raising taxes on these groups will not fund programs such as a universal basic income by themselves, the authors are confident that this is part of the solution.

Portions of the book require great concentration for those of us without a formal background in economics. The micro-economics are often as interesting as the macro-economics such as when the authors describe smaller experimental programs in different locations. The book does not offer a panacea for the economic challenges which now present themselves. But if elections ever become about policy and not personalities, this is a great source for intelligent discussion of how to face the economic future with compassionate and empathy.

8 people found this helpful

B.Sudhakar Shenoy

For a better, saner, more humane world

Reviewed in India on January 3, 2021

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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 too are at the bottom, slightly above politicians.

Populist nationalism overrides sound economic principles as seen in recent times. In the USA, there is now a public perception that is averse to immigration. The land of immigrants has forgotten the greatness of the land created by the melting pot of global cultures. It is this unique character that has created a land of opportunities and a great nation. Immigrants are hardworking and entrepreneurs at heart. It is shown that migrant labour does not depress wages as widely feared. In fact, their work frees up higher paid professionals to work more, on more productive pursuits, thereby raising all boats. Immigrants top the list of all professionals and Silicon Valley billionaires. Yet, this fact was recently trumped by political campaigns creating fear about immigration, and resentment in society.

Global trade is another example. While self-reliance is a great objective, it often narrows down into inward looking protectionist policies that shun imports and raise tariffs. This makes good politics in the short term, protects local businesses but eventually hurts consumers, blunts the nation’s global competitiveness and stunts economic growth. In fact, labour working in poorer nations are bigger beneficiaries of free trade, as amply demonstrated by the IT and ITES companies in India. It also brings in better technologies, creates a talent pool, attracts foreign investments, and leads to export led growth, as in the case of South Korea. The Stolper-Samuelson theorem is a brilliant academic work in this area.

The chapters on concepts on economic growth, global warming and automation are equally interesting. Rich in content, unbiased, bold, and brilliant, this book is unputdownable.

Ultimately, sound reason and good economics prevail, as we have seen recently. Let us unite, and not divide. ‘There are no blue states or red states, but only Unites States of America.’ Let us not build walls but spread love. Let us strive to make this most beautiful planet a better home for all.

15 people found this helpful

"freiername"

Sehr gute populärwissenschaftliche Darstellung

Reviewed in Germany on November 25, 2020

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"Good Economics for Hard Times" ("Gute Ökonomie für harte Zeiten") ist eine populärwissenschaftliche Darstellung, wie ich sie mir wünsche. Sie nimmt den Leser mit auf eine Entdeckungsreise durch die Wirtschaftswissenschaften und stützt sich dabei auf empirische Fakten statt auf vorgefasste Meinungen. Der Schreibstil der Autoren ist sehr angenehm, oft augenzwinkernd, selten auch mal wütend, wenn es um ständig wiederholte, aber unbewiesene Vorurteile geht. Letztere scheinen ein zentrales Problem der Wirtschaftswissenschaften zu sein (soweit ich das anhand verschiedener Bücher beurteilen kann); oft lässt die Ideologie nicht einmal mehr zu, die Theorie an der Realität zu messen, was für eine echte Wissenschaft eigentlich unverzichtbar ist.

Das Wissenschaftler-Ehepaar hat den Wirtschaftsnobelpreis 2019 für ihre Armutsforschung bekommen (siehe ihr Buch "Poor Economics"), in der sie ungewöhnliche Methoden angewandt hatten - nämlich statistisch auszuwerten, wie gut verschiedene Maßnahmen tatsächlich wirken. Darauf kommen sie auch in diesem Buch oft zurück. Weitere Beispiele stammen zumeist aus den USA und Indien (Banerjee), in Europa hauptsächlich aus Frankreich (Duflo). Das behandelte Spektrum ist aber durchaus umfassend, wie man anhand der Kapitel erkennen kann: Einleitung - Migration (national und international) - Handel - Wahrnehmung und Entscheidungen - Wachstum - Umweltverschmutzung und Klimawandel - Automatisierung und Ungleichheit (auch ein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen wird diskutiert) - Gesetze und Steuern (mit interessanten Gedanken zu Korruption) - Sozialleistungen - Schlusswort. Das macht vier Kapitel zu den Grundpfeilern der Wirtschaftstheorie und vier Kapitel zu aktuellen Herausforderungen.

[NACHTRAG und Randbemerkung: "Migration" alias "Mobilität", also dass die Arbeiter zur Arbeit ziehen (oder umgekehrt), ist bekanntlich eine Voraussetzung dafür, dass der Arbeits"markt" überhaupt wie ein Markt funktionieren kann. Dieses Kapitel steht daher im Basisteil des Buchs ganz am Anfang, nicht unter den aktuellen Themen, und zieht Folgerungen in allen späteren Kapiteln nach sich.]

Ich wünsche mir mehr Bücher wie dieses; Themen gäbe es sicherlich noch genug. Wäre es nicht schön, wenn die Wirtschaftswissenschaften zu einem Berater der Politik werden könnten anstatt zu einem Teil von ihr?

12 people found this helpful

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