Thinking Like an Economist - by Elizabeth Popp Berman

Book Synopsis

The story of how economic reasoning came to dominate Washington between the 1960s and 1980s--and why it continues to constrain progressive ambitions today

For decades, Democratic politicians have frustrated progressives by tinkering around the margins of policy while shying away from truly ambitious change. What happened to bold political vision on the left, and what shrunk the very horizons of possibility? In Thinking like an Economist, Elizabeth Popp Berman tells the story of how a distinctive way of thinking--an "economic style of reasoning"--became dominant in Washington between the 1960s and the 1980s and how it continues to dramatically narrow debates over public policy today.

Introduced by liberal technocrats who hoped to improve government, this way of thinking was grounded in economics but also transformed law and policy. At its core was an economic understanding of efficiency, and its advocates often found themselves allied with Republicans and in conflict with liberal Democrats who argued for rights, equality, and limits on corporate power. By the Carter administration, economic reasoning had spread throughout government policy and laws affecting poverty, healthcare, antitrust, transportation, and the environment. Fearing waste and overspending, liberals reined in their ambitions for decades to come, even as Reagan and his Republican successors argued for economic efficiency only when it helped their own goals.

A compelling account that illuminates what brought American politics to its current state, Thinking like an Economist also offers critical lessons for the future. With the political left resurgent today, Democrats seem poised to break with the past--but doing so will require abandoning the shibboleth of economic efficiency and successfully advocating new ways of thinking about policy.

Review Quotes

"A captivating and detailed historical account of the rise of economics and economists' influence within the US Administration during the 1960s and 1970s."---Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche and Aurélien Goutsmedt, Oeconomia

"An engaging account of the role that economists and government advisors with an economics training played in shaping public policy in the US during the post-war period. . . .Very well written and extremely erudite."---Giulio Zanella, Oeconomia

"Berman is at her best as an archeologist of ideas, digging through archives to excavate the origins of the economic style of reasoning and its takeover of federal policymaking."---Idrees Kahloon, The New Yorker

"It turns out this kind of thinking--what Berman calls 'the economic style of reasoning'--has taken over not just environmental policy but the entire US policy bureaucracy, to dismal results. It's as much something Democrats have done to themselves as anything forced by the right. One always enjoys having one's priors validated by scholars of much greater distinction than oneself, so I was delighted to read the book."---David Roberts, Volts

"The historical account in Thinking like an Economist, which makes up the bulk of the book, is an original, insightful, and persuasive story. . . . Berman provides a fresh perspective emphasizing a wide variety of microeconomic topics, including antitrust law, antipoverty policy, health care, and the environment."---Jason Furman, Foreign Affairs

"

The import of her book is clear to me. It's OK to believe there's value beyond markets and competition, and while efficiency can be a useful goal in many cases, sometimes we should embrace deeper values around fairness, and dare I say it, right and wrong.

"---John Warner, Chicago Tribune

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

"As a non-economist who writes about economics, I felt seen by Berman."---Peter Coy, New York Times

"Berman is well worth reading for deeply researched detail on how market-fundamentalist economics colonized the administrative state and thus weakened progressivism."---Robert Kuttner, American Prospect

"Indispensable. Deeply researched and powerfully argued, it is easily one of the most important studies of American governance in many years."---Simon Torracinta, Boston Review

"This outstanding work is highly recommended. . . . Essential."-- "Choice"

About the Author

Elizabeth Popp Berman is Director and Richard H. Price Professor of Organizational Studies at the University of Michigan and the author of Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine (Princeton).