Is opening up to international trade good for everybody?

Do immigrants from poorer countries take away jobs from low-income native workers? Why is inequality exploding everywhere? Does redistribution actually undermine incentives? Should we worry about the rise of artificial intelligence or celebrate it? How do we manage the trade-off between growth and climate change? Is economic growth over in the West? Should we care?

Figuring out how to deal with today’s critical economic problems is the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel, perhaps even than curing cancer – what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life and, perhaps, of liberal democracy itself. We have the resources to solve these problems; what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. Only if we can engage seriously in this quest, and if the best minds in the world work with governments and civil society to redesign our social programs for effectiveness and political viability, will history remember our era with gratitude.

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,G ood Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for intelligent interventions toward a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary book, one that will help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.