Poor Economics Abhijit Banerjee Esther Duflo

"Poor Economics" is a book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors. It offers a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty and an intimate view of life on 99 cents a day. The book is based on years of field research from around the world. The authors reject broad generalizations and formulaic thinking. Instead, they help to understand how the poor really think and make decisions on such matters as education, healthcare, savings, entrepreneurship, and a variety of other issues. They advocate the use of observation, using rigorous randomized controlled testing on five continents, and most importantly by actually listening to what the poor have to say.