Albert Hirschman

What is economic development? What does it take to make it happen? What can we learn from the days Britain was still a developing country?  Eminent Indian economist, Pranab Bardhan, recommends the best books to better understand economic development.

Despite the large number of brands, most Americans buy their beer from just two companies. Consumer choice in the new digital economy is hardly better. Economist Jason Furman, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under Barack Obama and now a professor at Harvard, recommends books to better understand market competition.

Harvard economist Richard Freeman recommends the best books to get an understanding of the history and theory of labour unions.

The sociologist Will Davies discusses five of the best books about moral economy: the study of norms, values, principles and ethics within the space of the economy.

“You have to understand people first before you can understand how to devise an economic system for them” argues Robert J Shiller, the Yale economics professor and Nobel laureate. He chooses five books that explore who we fundamentally are, as human beings, and how that will determine the shape of a successful capitalism.

If you were the last person alive and had to leave a testament to how our world worked, which five books would you choose? Political economist Mark Blyth makes his ‘desert island’ choices.