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Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty


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Ratings
Book
208
Narrator
34
Release Date
March 20, 2012
Duration
17 hours 55 minutes
Summary
NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • From two winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, “who have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity”

“A wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don’t.”—The New York Times

FINALIST: Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer

Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, or geography that determines prosperity or poverty? As Why Nations Failshows, none of these factors is either definitive or destiny.
 
Drawing on fifteen years of original research, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is our man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or the lack of it). Korea, to take just one example, is a remarkably homogenous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created those two different institutional trajectories. Acemoglu and Robinson marshal extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, among them:
 
• Will China’s economy continue to grow at such a high speed and ultimately overwhelm the West?
 
• Are America’s best days behind it? Are we creating a vicious cycle that enriches and empowers a small minority?

*Includes a downloadable PDF of maps from the book

“This book will change the way people think about the wealth and poverty of nations . . . as ambitious as Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel.”—BusinessWeek
Reviews
Profile Avatar Ashish V. Oct 2024

Perhaps the best book to study the interplay of political and economic institutions and how it predictably leads to prosperity or poverty.

Profile Avatar Ken Cuccinelli Jul 2013

Great book really pinpoints what citizens need to demand Hail to our republic

Profile Avatar Anonymous Oct 2024

This book is everything the morden world wants

Profile Avatar Brian B. Apr 2024

One of my favorite books of all time. Really helped me understand reality vs idealism

Profile Avatar Anonymous Aug 2021

Although the main point of the book is too often repeated ( the contrast between inclusive and exclusive institutes)and perhaps overemphasized, it is an extremely interesting approach to historical models of governance.

Profile Avatar Jaime A. Jul 2021

very good book and narrator

Profile Avatar vivian t Aug 2017

Wow? What a resourceful book on almost every nation in the world. The stories were real, interesting and extremely helpful to guide us to the causes of power, prosperity and poverty. A must read by everyone. Instead of blaming here and there, this and that, read this book and get your facts straight!! Between inclusive and extractive institutions, virtuous and vicious circles, I learned A LOT. Thank you authors. It was extraordinary in every dimension.

Profile Avatar Samuel Lee Aug 2016

Very informative but some of it is repetitive and can drag during certain periods. Good for academics and those interested in studying macroeconomics.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Author: Daron Acemoglu
Read by: Dan Woren
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