Why Nations Fail - by Daron Acemoglu & James A Robinson (Hardcover)

About the Book

Two of the world's best and most erudite economists turn to the hardest issue of all: why are some nations poor and others rich? Written with a deep knowledge of economics and political history, this is perhaps the most powerful statement made to date that institutions matter.' A provocative, instructive, yet thoroughly enthralling book.--Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University.

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER - From two winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, "who have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country's prosperity"

"A wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don't."--The New York Times

FINALIST: Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer

Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, or geography that determines prosperity or poverty? As Why Nations Fail shows, none of these factors is either definitive or destiny.

Drawing on fifteen years of original research, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is our man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or the lack of it). Korea, to take just one example, is a remarkably homogenous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created those two different institutional trajectories. Acemoglu and Robinson marshal extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, among them:

- Will China's economy continue to grow at such a high speed and ultimately overwhelm the West?

- Are America's best days behind it? Are we creating a vicious cycle that enriches and empowers a small minority?

"This book will change the way people think about the wealth and poverty of nations . . . as ambitious as Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel."--BusinessWeek

Review Quotes

"Should be required reading for politicians and anyone concerned with economic development."--Jared Diamond, New York Review of Books

". . . bracing, garrulous, wildly ambitious and ultimately hopeful. It may, in fact, be a bit of a masterpiece."--The Washington Post

"This is an intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve. It should be widely read."--Financial Times

"Why Nations Fail is a splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor."--The Wall Street Journal

"The main strength of this book is beyond the power of summary: it is packed, from beginning to end, with historical vignettes that are both erudite and fascinating."--The Observer (UK)

"A brilliant book."--Bloomberg

"Why Nations Fail is a wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don't."--The New York Times

"A wonderfully readable mix of history, political science, and economics, this book will change the way we think about economic development."--Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics

"Without the inclusive institutions that first evolved in the West, sustainable growth is impossible, because only a truly free society can foster genuine innovation and the creative destruction that is its corollary."--Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money

"Two centuries from now our great-great-great grandchildren will be, similarly, reading Why Nations Fail."--George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in economics, 2001

"It's the politics, stupid! That is Acemoglu and Robinson's simple yet compelling explanation for why so many countries fail to develop. But they also document how sensible economic ideas and policies often achieve little in the absence of fundamental political change."--Dani Rodrik, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"A brilliant and uplifting book--yet also a deeply disturbing wake-up call."--Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers and professor at MIT Sloan

"This highly accessible book provides welcome insight to specialists and general readers alike."--Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and The Origins of Political Order

"This intimate connection between political and economic institutions is the heart of [the authors'] major contribution, and has resulted in a study of great vitality on one of the crucial questions in economics and political economy."--Gary S. Becker, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1992

"This not only a fascinating and interesting book: it is a really important one . . . to understanding the successes and failures of societies and nations."--Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001

About the Author

Daron Acemoglu is the Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. In 2005 he received the John Bates Clark Medal awarded to economists under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. He is also the co-author of The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

James A. Robinson, a political scientist and an economist, is the David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University. A world-renowned expert on Latin America and Africa, he has worked in Botswana, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. He is also the co-author of The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.