Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty – Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Poor Economics presents a transformative investigation into how economically disadvantaged people around the world actually live, make decisions, and respond to interventions. Through rigorous field experiments and randomized trials across five continents, Banerjee and Duflo reject sweeping generalizations and instead ask how small, context-specific changes can yield meaningful improvement. The authors explore why the very poor often borrow to save, pay for treatments they don’t need, start many businesses but few that grow, and attend school yet learn little. Their evidence-driven approach reveals the traps of ignorance, ideology and inertia—and offers practical insight: by listening to the poor, examining behavior, and designing tailored policies, progress in fighting global poverty is possible.