Good Economics for Hard Times cover art

Good Economics for Hard Times

Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Good Economics for Hard Times

By: Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo
Narrated by: James Lurie
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Two prize-winning economists 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, globalisation 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 audiobook, 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, read by James Lurie, 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.

© Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Economics International Politics & Government Theory Africa Capitalism Thought-Provoking Economic disparity Economic Inequality Socialism Taxation Latin American US Economy Social justice Tariff Export

Listeners also enjoyed...

One Billion Americans cover art
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution cover art
Free Speech and Why It Matters cover art
Naked Money cover art
The Most Important Thing cover art
Why Nations Fail cover art
Capital in the Twenty-First Century cover art
Unbound cover art
The Fate of Abraham cover art
The Profit Paradox cover art
Intellectuals and Race cover art
Applied Economics cover art
Knowledge and Decisions cover art
Intellectuals and Society cover art
The Capitalist Manifesto cover art
Wealth, Poverty, and Politics cover art

Critic reviews

Excellent, important, disarmingly down to earth . . . they seek to shed much-needed light upon the distortions that bad economics bring to public debates while methodically deconstructing their false assumptions.
Not all economists wear ties and think like bankers. In their wonderfully refreshing book, Banerjee and Duflo delve into impressive areas of new research questioning conventional views about issues ranging from trade to top income taxation and mobility, and offer their own powerful vision of how we can grapple with them. A must-read. (Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century)
Compelling, useful, relevant ... Banerjee and Duflo use extensive data to zoom out and show us a wider view of these human dynamics (Bill Gates)
Excellent ... Few have grappled as energetically with the complexity of real life as Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, or got their boots as dirty in the process ... Readers will be captivated
A canard-slaying, unconventional take on economics ... invigorating ... a treasure trove of facts and findings about the biggest economic issues of the day
A magnificent achievement, and the perfect book for our time. Banerjee and Duflo brilliantly illuminate the largest issues of the day, including immigration, trade, climate change, and inequality. (Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens)
Banerjee and Duflo are masters of this terrain . . . Their book is as stimulating as it gets
All stars
Most relevant
One must declare an irritation in my world view has been edited by reading this book. I mean, who knew? Economists seem to actually be aware that some other things like people exist. They can even show a feeling towards them. Totally amazed. Amazon recommended this book to me. I thought I’d maybe get 10 or 12 pages in before getting bored. But no. I read it all the way to the end and found very little in here I could argue with.

I guess my mythical preference will have to change. Or grow. But not very fast one assumes.

Thank you.

World view changed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I wish everyone in the world would read this book. An excellent assesment of where economic theory currently stands

A book everyone should read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

highly recommended, thought provoking and some, really interesting examples.i really enjoyed the book, Well worth a listen. would highly recommend it

superb, made economics really interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I liked it, very well documented and well written. No surprise considering the authors. Very well read!

What I didn't fully enjoy was that some chapters are too long and sometimes the use of statistics/surveys seems exaggerated and you tend to miss the point and lose focus (or at least it happened to me).

Pretty good, definitely worth a listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book explains complex and highly sensitive subjects in a straightforward, methodical way. would highly recommend.

An exceptional book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews