Oxford University Press, USA
Economics Rules: Why Economics Works, When It Fails, and How to Tell the Difference
Key Metrics
- Dani Rodrik
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Hardcover
- 9780198736899
- -
- -
- Business & Economics > Economics - Theory
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Dani Rodrik argues that the multiplicity of theoretical frameworks - what economists call 'models' that exist side by side is economics' great strength. Economists are trained to hold diverse, possibly contradictory models of the world in their minds. This is what allows them, when they do their job right, to comprehend the world, make useful suggestions for improving it, and to advance their stock of knowledge over time. In short, it is what makes economics a 'science' a different kind of science from physics or some other natural sciences, but a science nonetheless.
But syncretism is not a comfortable state of mind, and economists often jettison it for misplaced confidence and arrogance, especially when they confront questions of public policy. Economists are prone to fads and fashions, and behave too often as if their discipline is about the search for the model that works always and everywhere, rather than a portfolio of models. Their training lets them down when it comes to navigating among diverse models and figuring out which one applies where. Ideology and political preferences frequently substitute for analysis in choosing among models.
So the book offers both a defence and critique of economics. Economists' way of thinking about social phenomena has great advantages. But the flexible, contextual nature of economics is also its Achilles' heel in the hands of clumsy practitioners.
Author Bio
Dani Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He rejoined the Kennedy School in July 2015 after two years at the Institute for Advanced Study as the Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science. He is a co-director of the Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (EfIP) network and president of the International Economic Association. He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London) among other research organizations.
Professor Rodrik's research focuses on globalization, economic growth and development, and political economy. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the inaugural Albert O. Hirschman Prize of the Social Science Research Council and the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. He was included in Prospect magazine's World's Top 50 Thinkers list (2019) and in Politico magazine's 50 list (2017). His work has been profiled in The Harvard Magazine, Finance & Development, Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the New York Times.
Professor Rodrik is the author of Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy (2017). The book was awarded the George S. Eccles Prize for Excellence in Economic Writing by the Columbia Business School in 2019. He is also the author of Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science (2015) and The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy (2011). His articles have been published in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and other academic journals.
His previous books include One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth (2007), The New Global Economy and Developing Countries: Making Openness Work (1999), and Has Globalization Gone Too Far? (1997). Professor Rodrik's monthly columns on global affairs are published by Project Syndicate.
Professor Rodrik holds a Ph.D. in economics and an MPA from Princeton University, and an A.B. from Harvard College.
Source: Harvard University
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