• The Best Economics Books of 2024 - Shock Values: Prices and Inflation in American Democracy by Carola Binder
  • The Best Economics Books of 2024 - One from the Many: The Global Economy Since 1850 by Christopher Meissner
  • The Best Economics Books of 2024 - Behind the Curve: Can Manufacturing Still Provide Inclusive Growth? by Robert Lawrence
  • The Best Economics Books of 2024 - Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity by Raghuram G Rajan & Rohit Lamba
  • The Best Economics Books of 2024 - How Economics Explains the World (US)/ The Shortest History of Economics (UK) by Andrew Leigh

The Best Economics Books of 2024, recommended by Jason Furman

2024 was billed as the ‘year of elections’ but calling it the ‘year of economics’ might have been more apt as incumbent governments around the world were kicked out by high inflation, poor wage growth and continuing inequality. American economist Jason Furman recommends the best economics books of 2024, books that shed light on our current predicament and how to get out of it.

  • The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy - Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global Finance by Adair Turner
  • The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy - Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World by Adam Tooze
  • The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy - The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
  • The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy - Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by Brad DeLong
  • The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy - The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War by Robert J. Gordon

The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy, recommended by Martin Wolf

Problems in the world economy can have a profound impact on politics. What’s happening in the US and elsewhere is disturbing, says Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times. He talks us through books to help us reflect on the challenges facing economies. His recommendations include two books that query whether the era of unprecedented economic growth—which has transformed our societies over the last 150 years—is finally coming to an end.

  • New Economics Books - Growth: A History and a Reckoning by Daniel Susskind
  • New Economics Books - How Economics Explains the World (US)/ The Shortest History of Economics (UK) by Andrew Leigh
  • New Economics Books - The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business Is Wrongfnew ec by John Kay
  • New Economics Books - Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia by Stephanie Baker
  • New Economics Books - Default: The Landmark Court Battle over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring by Gregory Makoff
  • New Economics Books - Money Capital: New Monetary Principles for a More Prosperous Society by Haizhou Huang & Patrick Bolton

New Economics Books

Lots of new economics books are published each year, catering to a range of readers. Many are aimed at non-economists, trying to explain what the subject is about. Others focus mainly on how economics has been interpreted or used by politicians, with lots of analysis of ‘neoliberalism’ in particular over the past few years. Within academia, economics is normally expressed in equations, with new work published in article form and only occasionally as books.

  • The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology - The Great Demarcation: The French Revolution and the Invention of Modern Property by Rafe Blaufarb
  • The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology - Gold and Freedom: The Political Economy of Reconstruction by Nicolas Barreyre
  • The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology - Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-1960 by Frederick Cooper
  • The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology - Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India by Nicholas B. Dirks
  • The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology - The Emergence of Globalism: Visions of World Order in Britain and the United States, 1939–1950 by Or Rosenboim

The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology, recommended by Thomas Piketty

Throughout history, social and economic inequalities have been fueled and justified by different ideologies. French economist Thomas Piketty’s latest book, Capital and Ideology, looks at the advent and fall of these ideologies, and how they could evolve in the future. He recommends five great books to better understand these complex and always-evolving ideas, and their consequences for the world.

  • The best books on Economics and the Environment - Predicting Our Climate Future: What We Know, What We Don't Know, And What We Can't Know by David Stainforth
  • The best books on Economics and the Environment - The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma by Michael Bhaskar & Mustafa Suleyman
  • The best books on Economics and the Environment - Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative by Jennifer Burns
  • The best books on Economics and the Environment - Capitalism and Crises: How to Fix Them by Colin Mayer
  • The best books on Economics and the Environment - Stuck Monkey: The Deadly Planetary Cost of the Things We Love by James Hamilton-Paterson

The best books on Economics and the Environment, recommended by Dieter Helm

If you want to take an economy that’s wholly dependent on fossil fuels and turn it into a low-carbon one it’s going to be expensive, says economist Dieter Helm—and the sooner we face up to that reality the better. He recommends books to help us think through the relationship between economics and the environment, including one that really shines a spotlight on our own, individual behaviour.