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Dani Rodrik's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Dani Rodrik recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Dani Rodrik's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1
One of the world’s most influential philosophers here considers the ethical issues surrounding globalization. Peter Singer discusses climate change, the role of the World Trade Organization, human rights and humanitarian intervention, and foreign aid, showing how a global ethic rather than a nationalistic approach can provide illuminating answers to important problems.

The book encompasses four main global issues: climate change, the role of the World Trade Organization, human rights and humanitarian intervention, and foreign aid. Singer addresses each vital issue from an ethical...
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Recommended by Dani Rodrik, and 1 others.

Dani RodrikThis is a relatively small book but with a very big idea. (Source)

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2
Essential reading for understanding the international economy--now thoroughly updated

Lucid, accessible, and provocative, and now thoroughly updated to cover recent events that have shaken the global economy, Globalizing Capital is an indispensable account of the past 150 years of international monetary and financial history--from the classical gold standard to today's post-Bretton Woods nonsystem. Bringing the story up to the present, this third edition covers the global financial crisis, the Greek bailout, the Euro crisis, the rise of China as a global monetary...
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Recommended by Dani Rodrik, and 1 others.

Dani RodrikWhat I like about this book is the clarity with which it describes certain dilemmas that financial globalisation creates. (Source)

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3
In 1900 international trade reached unprecedented levels and the world's economies were more open to one another than ever before. Then as now, many people considered globalization to be inevitable and irreversible. Yet the entire edifice collapsed in a few months in 1914.



Globalization is a choice, not a fact. It is a result of policy decisions and the politics that shape them. Jeffry A. Frieden's insightful history explores the golden age of globalization during the early years of the century, its swift collapse in the crises of 1914-45, the divisions of the Cold War...
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Recommended by Dani Rodrik, and 1 others.

Dani RodrikWhat’s very useful about it is that it underscores that economic globalisation is not inevitable (Source)

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4
International trade has shaped the modern world, yet until now no single book has been available for both economists and general readers that traces the history of the international economy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Power and Plenty fills this gap, providing the first full account of world trade and development over the course of the last millennium.


Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke examine the successive waves of globalization and deglobalization that have occurred during the past thousand years, looking closely at the technological and...
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Recommended by Dani Rodrik, Stephen D King, and 2 others.

Dani RodrikThis is really a magisterial tour of the last thousand years of globalisation. (Source)

Stephen D KingWhat’s particularly good about this is the tremendous detail on the way in which different parts of the world used to trade with each other, and how it helps us to think about a world that wasn’t purely European, or European-plus-satellites focused. (Source)

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5
In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the "great transformation" of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi's seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade. less

Satya Nadella"My father recommended this book long ago,” says Nadella of the 1944 classic by a Hungarian-American writer who chronicles the development of England’s market economy and argues that society should drive economic change. (Source)

Mark BlythA story which stretches from 1815 to 1914. He says it was 100 years of peace, although that’s not actually true because if you were a colonial subject it was hardly peaceful. (Source)

Dani RodrikIt makes a rather important point, that the economy has always been embedded in society, and when we try to disembed it from society and treat it like an independent institution, then we’re really going to run into trouble. (Source)

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6
A provocative look at how today’s trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers

Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees.
 
Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today’s trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in...
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Recommended by Dani Rodrik, and 1 others.

Dani RodrikGreat book! Congrats. https://t.co/cGpoma6LpX (Source)

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7
"In evaluating incentives, everything depends on the details: how much in incentives it takes to truly cause a firm to locate or expand, the multiplier effects, the effects of jobs on employment rates, how jobs affect tax revenue versus public spending needs. Do benefits of incentives exceed costs? This depends on the details. This book is about those details. What magnitudes of incentive effects are plausible? How do benefits and costs vary with incentive designs? What advice can be given to evaluators? What is an ideal incentive policy? Answering these questions about incentives depends on... more
Recommended by Richard Florida, Dani Rodrik, and 2 others.

Richard FloridaEvery single person concerned with economic development or city building must read this book. https://t.co/EeuKXLjK72 (Source)

Dani RodrikA great little book on how to design sensible local business incentives by ⁦@TimBartik⁩. This is a model of good applied economics. https://t.co/9hmQKKMAxe (Source)

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8
America’s runaway inequality has an engine: our unjust tax system.

Even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have seen their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Meanwhile, working-class Americans have been asked to pay more. The Triumph of Injustice presents a forensic investigation into this dramatic transformation, written by two economists who revolutionized the study of inequality. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America’s tax system, based on new statistics...
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Recommended by Dani Rodrik, Keith Ellison, and 2 others.

Dani RodrikCongratulations @gabriel_zucman. Just finished reading it. Fantastic book. https://t.co/ZRxkDzpx7a (Source)

Keith EllisonGreat new book by Emmanuel Saez The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay. Saez is advising @BernieSanders and @ewarren campaign. (Source)

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