Name: Poor Economics
Rating: 4.328947368421052 (38 reviews)
ISBN: 9781611747522

Esther Duflo

Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee

Two highly regarded economists relay 15 years of research into a smart, engaging investigation of the real nature of global poverty and why current approaches to addressing miss the mark.

A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Poor Economics

In a book based on years of research, the award-winning founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT show how the world's extreme poor truly live.

Chaitanya Baranwal

Poor Economics has been a very enlightening book to read – in essence it is a book that analyses the ground realities of the lives of poor people from an economic and policy perspective, as well as what potential steps can be taken to work towards the intractable problem of world poverty. It starts by addressing that broad strokes argument of "aid versus no aid" or "government intervention vs free market" are not useful. Instead, we need to look at the ground realities and design policies for specific areas such as food, education, health and finances to make any measurable progress. That is how the book is structured – each chapter takes a closer look at such a specific area.

Each chapter starts with specific questions about why poor people act the way they do, ways which might seem strange or unexplainable to more well-off sections of society. The authors present hypotheses, answer those hypotheses by using existing evidence, primarily randomized-controlled trails, and keep building up the argument by introducing more questions and poring deeper into the issue. Each chapter ends with some well-made conclusion about the economics of poor people, as well as some suggestions on designing more effective policies to eradicate poverty.

To me this book has been eye-opening because it uncovers so many assumptions, and sheds light on the massive ways in which the lives of poor people are different from those who earn more. Questions like sending children to school, not investing more in preventive health technologies, ineffectiveness of hunger initiatives, obtaining reliable sources of credit are addressed. All of these point to some generalizable shortcomings – information asymmetry, inefficient institutions, as well as living under tremendous amounts of risk. Although slightly outdated in its facts, I would suggest everyone to read this, since many ideas in the book are still relevant and would be relevant for some time – since we can only chop bit-by-bit at the problem of poverty, instead of solving it in one fell swoop.

Arturo Hernández

This essay really made me think about a lot of the aspects that generate (and maintain) lots of communities in a poverty state. I have never heard before the reflections regarding the idea of a “poverty trap” and how for some it’s really impossible to get out from specific levels of it. I perceive it’s a quite reveling read, one that helps you understand your own privilege.

I understand the purpose of this book as an informative piece of literature, I would love however to have more material to understand how can we, as a community, unite to really do something about this whole situation.

Arihant Verma

Abhijit V. Banerjee

From the award-winning founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, a transformative reappraisal of the world of the extreme poor, their lives, desires, and frustrations.

Barefoot Hedge-fund Managers, DIY Doctors and the Surprising Truth about Life on Less Than 1 Dollar a Day

Jason Lo

Emma Bose

Feyi Fawehinmi 

Ed Macovaz

Eitan Hershkovitz

Cezar Craciun

Tanlyn Roelofs

Alexandra Vo

Hanna Tillmanns 

Faith Ho 

Subasri Srikanth

Loretta Dredger

Varna Sri Raman

Abhijit Banerjee

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics upend the most common assumptions about how economics works in this gripping and disruptive portrait of how poor people actually live. Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer these questions based on years of field research from around the world. Called "marvelous, rewarding" by the Wall Street Journal, the book offers a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty and an intimate view of life on 99 cents a day. Poor Economics shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.

James Paden

Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two practical visionaries working toward ending world poverty, answer these questions from the ground. In a book the Wall Street Journal called “marvelous, rewarding,” the authors tell how the stress of living on less than 99 cents per day encourages the poor to make questionable decisions that feed—not fight—poverty. The result is a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty that offers a ringside view of the lives of the world's poorest, and shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.

Poor Economics A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

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