Dani Rodrik
Dani Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is currently President-Elect of the International Economic Association, and co-director of Economics for Inclusive Prosperity. He has published widely in the areas of international economics, economic development, and political economy.
Books by Dani Rodrik
Combating Inequality: Rethinking Government's Role
by Dani Rodrik & Olivier Blanchard (editors)
We've all become aware of the problem of inequality in recent years—with a few individuals now richer than entire countries. Where we've had less clarity is around what to do about it. Combating Inequality is a collection of essays by leading economists, edited by Olivier Blanchard (MIT) and Dani Rodrik (Harvard). It's based on a conference on inequality held at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington DC-based think tank. Consider it the collective wisdom of dozens of top economists, several of them also former policymakers. In short, the book we've all been waiting for.
“Dani Rodrik is somebody who, for a long time, has been cautioning about the very gung-ho attitude many economists had towards liberalising trade, including financial flows. For a long time, certainly up until the financial crisis and for a bit afterwards, he was a bit of an outlier among economists because, for most economists, more free trade is without question better. I think now a lot more people would take that point of view…He is another really clear writer, so it’s very accessible. He’s probably still a bit outside the mainstream in his views about this, but he’s somebody who has been much more ‘right’ than many other economists and should absolutely be taken seriously about this.” Read more...
Diane Coyle, Economist
The Globalization Paradox
by Dani Rodrik
Q. Can you tell me about your book, The Globalization Paradox?
“My book…goes back to the 17th century and talks about an early model of globalisation that was sustained by chartered trading companies. It describes the 19th century and the collapse of the gold standard and then comes to the present. Part of the book is historical, part of it is a survey of economists’ ideas about globalisation, and how they’ve gone back and forth from the silly to the more reasonable. It gently pokes fun at various economists, both dead and alive, for their ideas.
I lay out what I call the political trilemma of the world economy. I say that of the following three things – national self-determination, political democracy and hyper-globalisation – we can have at most two, and that we need to make an explicit choice as to which two we want. Many of our troubles stem from the fact we seem to be pushing for all three things simultaneously. We want more economic globalisation, while we embrace democracy and our national sovereignty, and that’s an incompatibility of the first order.’
Q. And what do you advise?
I advocate giving up hyper-globalisation. It’s not an argument against globalisation per se, but it’s an argument against an extreme form of globalisation or pushing for increased globalisation. Because both democracy and national self-determination are also important values. We will have a better, safer, healthier economic globalisation if we accept – and do so explicitly – that democracy will remain mostly a national phenomenon, and that national self-determination is a value in and of itself, because each society has the right to select its own institutions and rules and regulations. And once you accept those, then you have to give up an extreme form of globalisation, and act accordingly.”
Best Books on Globalisation, Five Books interview with Professor Dani Rodrik, December 2010
Interviews with Dani Rodrik
Interviews where books by Dani Rodrik were recommended
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1
Economics for the Common Good
by Jean Tirole -
2
Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy
by Dani Rodrik -
3
Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
by Andrew W Lo -
4
The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return
by Mihir Desai -
5
The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty
by Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider
