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Poor Economics

#1130 of 2,654 all-time

Poor Economics

Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo

6 people recommended it in 5 threads, 2011–2023.

What people on Hacker News said

Pietertje
Banerjee and Duflo give a gripping portrait of how poor people live. They offer an insight in the choices and decisions people make surviving on less than 1 USD a day (corrected for purchasing power). It made me completely rethink my own view on poverty and development aid; stressing even more that in order to help one need to have a complete understanding of the individual's situation and the local boundary conditions.

on HN, 2022

cloudier
Poor Economics is a book in a similar vein that talks about how policies that sound like they would be effective can backfire. (I am a software engineer and found both of these books approachable and interesting.)

on HN, 2022

bmcleod
Poor Economics - Changed my views on some areas of how to combat poverty and poor education. As well as relating a huge amount a detail regarding the unexpected ways people with different backgrounds behave.

on HN, 2011

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