Books by Alain Desrosières
“He’s really showing that the modern state could not exist without the development of statistics, and vice versa. The evolution of statistics is triggered by the state. As the state needs more systems in place, statistics come to back it up. Econometrics, as an example, came together in the 1930s as a fusion of economics and statistics, and it was triggered by the American New Deal. Suddenly we had all these new programs that the Roosevelt administration was launching, and we had no way of gauging whether any of them worked. So suddenly economists and statisticians said, ‘Okay, we need new methods to see if when we give farmers a certain amount of money in a certain period of time, that leads to positive gains—or not.’ So Desrosières’s whole book is focused on that evolution, and he has an amazing number of historical examples. It’s one of those completely eye-opening works that is really special.” Read more...
The best books on Industrial Policy
Danny Crichton, Journalist
Interviews where books by Alain Desrosières were recommended
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1
Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective
by Ha-Joon Chang -
2
Creating the Cold War University: The Transformation of Stanford
by Rebecca Lowen -
3
Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization
by Alice Amsden -
4
The Politics of Large Numbers: A History of Statistical Reasoning
by Alain Desrosières & Camille Naish (translator) -
5
The Collapse of Complex Societies
by Joseph Tainter
The best books on Industrial Policy, recommended by Danny Crichton
The best books on Industrial Policy, recommended by Danny Crichton
Government intervention in the economy played a key role in the East Asian economic miracle and, further back, the development of countries that have traditionally championed free markets around the world. As the merit of state leadership in key industries returns to mainstream debate, Danny Crichton of venture capital firm Lux Capital recommends five outstanding books for understanding industrial policy.
