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Banerjee And Duflo Summary

Decent Essays

Poor Economics offers a refreshing insight into the ongoing battle against global poverty in an understandable and reader friendly manner. Banerjee and Duflo begin the book with the assertion that when we see statistics regarding poverty, we have a tendency to ignore them and turn our attention elsewhere. The cause of this reaction is rooted in the belief that poverty is too big to fix, or rather, there is no definitive answer to ending poverty. Poverty, according to them, is much more than just being poor and hungry. Poverty is poor health, poor education, poor quality of life, and difficulty realizing ambitions (Banerjee & Duflo). Banerjee and Duflo have spent the greater part of the last two decades travelling to low-income countries to observe anything and everything related to poverty. Their research is presented in the book as an easy-to-read summary of their findings. It lacks all the fancy terminology and phrases used by economists that only confuse the public. …show more content…

It is very easy to question the rationale of those afflicted by poverty and all too often, we ask questions such as well, why not make a better situation for yourself. Our western mentality causes us to quickly cast judgment and lose our compassion because of missing information and an incomplete understanding of life in poverty. These stories and illustrations used help us see the bigger picture and the underlying causes of poverty. Although these illustrations are descriptive and warming, they are somewhat misleading because they are blatant attempts to emotionally manipulate the reader into thinking the story itself is grounds for developing an opinion. When the data is less than conclusive, it is story

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