Title: Good Economics for Hard Times Pdf
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.
The voice of reason is needed more than ever Banerjee and Duflo show how economists can improve the debate on divisive issues like immigration, trade, inequality, tribalism, and climate change.The many interesting examples in the book include:• How a volcanic eruption off the coast of Iceland, which randomly destroyed some homes while sparing others, created a natural experiment to study the benefits of migration.• How a study on the impact of banning employers from asking job applicants about criminal convictions actually increased racial discrimination in hiring.• Economists used randomized control trials to figure out that it was more effective to give insecticide-treated bed nets to poor families for free than to sell the nets to them at a low cost (so the families would value them) to prevent children from dying from malaria.• Participants who were paid to stop using Facebook for a month were happier and no more bored than before the experiment.• How bankers were found to be more likely to cheat at a dice game if they were encouraged to think of themselves as bankers than if they were encouraged to think of themselves as regular people.Note that one incorrect fact on page 103 deserves updating. The authors state: “Elinor Ostrom, the first (and so far the only) woman to receive the Nobel Prize in economics, …” Of course, the number of women Nobel laureates in economics has doubled since this book went to press.Helps understand the economic issues in today's presidential campaigns! Presidential candidate Andrew Yang postulates a fourth industrial revolution, where many people will be unemployed because of trade and technology—he proposes a “guaranteed basic income.” Elizabeth Warren thinks a “wealth tax” would solve our problems. They both agree with the authors of this book, who propose that people “tend to blame immigration and trade liberalization rather than the increasing vacuuming of resources toward the very rich.” If you wonder if such ideas promoted in the presidential campaigns would solve our problems (or even wonder what they are talking about!), this may be the book for you. Go to the experts: The Nobel prize in economics for 2019 was awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."The authors throw out various theories about how the economy can be fixed. They find the data does not always back up what seems intuitive: For instance, “…tax cuts for the wealthy do not produce economic growth.” They include studies from other countries, as well as the U.S. “A recurring theme of this book is that it is unreasonable to expect markets to always deliver outcomes that are just, acceptable, or even efficient.” The economy is “sticky” because of the idiosyncrasies we humans have, such as reluctance to leave our home and loved ones to pursue a better job.The authors started with the issues of immigration and trade, then went on to problems like inequality (“the evolution of inequality is not the byproduct of technological changes we do not control; it is the result of policy decisions.”) and climate change (how to pay for reducing pollution). They review some of the ideas that have been tried, and where available, data on the effects. They remind us that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) doesn’t reflect things like time with a loved one or enjoying the beauty of nature, but only “those things priced and marketed.”Some quotes: “The spirit of this book is to emphasize that there are no iron laws of economics keeping us from building a more humane world, but there are many people whose blind faith, self-interest, or simple lack of understanding of economics makes them claim this is the case.” “…if collectively we as a society do not manage to act now to design policies that will help people survive and hold on to their dignity in this world of high inequality, citizens’ confidence in society’s ability to deal with this issue might be permanently undermined.” “Good economics alone cannot save us. But without it, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of yesterday.”
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