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Poor Economics

A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

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Poor Economics

By: Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo
Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
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About this listen

Billions of government dollars, and thousands of charitable organizations and NGOs, are dedicated to helping the world’s poor. But much of their work is based on assumptions that are untested generalizations at best, harmful misperceptions at worst.

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo have pioneered the use of randomized control trials in development economics. Work based on these principles, supervised by the Poverty Action Lab, is being carried out in dozens of countries. Drawing on this and their 15 years of research from Chile to India, Kenya to Indonesia, they have identified wholly new aspects of the behavior of poor people, their needs, and the way that aid or financial investment can affect their lives. Their work defies certain presumptions: that microfinance is a cure-all, that schooling equals learning, that poverty at the level of 99 cents a day is just a more extreme version of the experience any of us have when our income falls uncomfortably low.

This important book illuminates how the poor live, and offers all of us an opportunity to think of a world beyond poverty.

©2011 Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo. (P)2011 HighBridge Company Business Development Business Development & Entrepreneurship Economics Poverty & Homelessness Social Sciences International Development

Critic Reviews

“Reads like a version of Freakonomics for the poor.” ( Fast Company)
“A must... for anyone who cares about world poverty. Poor Economics represents the best that economics has to offer.” (Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics)
“A marvelously insightful book by two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty.” (Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics)
All stars
Most relevant  
An in depth look at problems caused by poverty. With real world analysis and antainable solutions.

enlightened look at the problems of the poor

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This provides great insight into development economics. It leans more on the Easterly school of economics (rather than Sachs) and helped me better understand how wealth and empowerment can come from the people themselves through small economic and political nudges. It also provides great first hand sources from their personal experiences in numerous countries on how the poor interact with great/bad policies that were designed to help them.

The book primarily looks at education, microfinance, health, political institutions, and arguments of giving aid based on supply and demand.

Great insight into economics of poverty

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The book requires concentration but it is so data based you can be confident in its conclusions.

It's data based approach changed the way I thought

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