Table of Contents

Preface
Why Egyptians filled Tahrir Square to bring down Hosni Mubarak
and what it means for our understanding of the causes of
prosperity and poverty
 
1. So Close and Yet So Different
Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, have the same people,
culture, and geography. Why is one rich and one poor?
 
2. Theories That Don’t Work
Poor countries are poor not because of their geographies or cultures,
or because their leaders do not know which policies will enrich
their citizens
 
3. The Making of Prosperity and Poverty
How prosperity and poverty are determined by the incentives
created by institutions, and how politics determines what
institutions a nation has
 
4. Small Differences and Critical Junctures: The Weight of History
How institutions change through political conflict and how
the past shapes the present
 
5. “I’ve Seen the Future, and It Works”: Growth Under Extractive Institutions
What Stalin, King Shyaam, the Neolithic Revolution, and the
Maya city-states all had in common and how this explains why
China’s current economic growth cannot last
 
6. Drifting Apart
How institutions evolve over time, often slowly drifting apart
 
7. The Turning Point
How a political revolution in 1688 changed institutions in
England and led to the Industrial Revolution
 
8. Not on Our Turf: Barriers to Development
Why the politically powerful in many nations opposed the
Industrial Revolution
 
9. Reversing Development
How European colonialism impoverished large parts of the world
 
10. The Diffusion of Prosperity
How some parts of the world took different paths to prosperity
from that of Britain
 
11. The Virtuous Circle
How institutions that encourage prosperity create positive feedback
 
12. The Vicious Circle
How institutions that create poverty generate negative
feedback loops and endure
 
13. Why Nations Fail Today
Institutions, institutions, institutions
 
14. Breaking the Mold
How a few countries changed their economic trajectory by
changing their institutions
 
15. Understanding Prosperity and Poverty
How the world could have been different and how understanding
this can explain why most attempts to combat poverty have failed
 
Acknowledgments
Bibliographical Essay and Sources
References
Index

About the Author

Daron Acemoglu is the Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. In 2005 he received the John Bates Clark Medal awarded to economists under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. He is also the co-author of The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

James A. Robinson, a political scientist and an economist, is the David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University. A world-renowned expert on Latin America and Africa, he has worked in Botswana, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. He is also the co-author of The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

Reviews

“Should be required reading for politicians and anyone concerned with economic development.”—Jared Diamond, New York Review of Books

“. . . bracing, garrulous, wildly ambitious and ultimately hopeful. It may, in fact, be a bit of a masterpiece.”—The Washington Post

“This is an intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve. It should be widely read.”—Financial Times

“Why Nations Fail is a splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor.”—The Wall Street Journal

“The main strength of this book is beyond the power of summary: it is packed, from beginning to end, with historical vignettes that are both erudite and fascinating.”—The Observer (UK)

“A brilliant book.”—Bloomberg

“Why Nations Fail is 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

“A wonderfully readable mix of history, political science, and economics, this book will change the way we think about economic development.”—Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics

“Without the inclusive institutions that first evolved in the West, sustainable growth is impossible, because only a truly free society can foster genuine innovation and the creative destruction that is its corollary.”—Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money

“Two centuries from now our great-great-great grandchildren will be, similarly, reading Why Nations Fail.”—George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in economics, 2001

“It’s the politics, stupid! That is Acemoglu and Robinson’s simple yet compelling explanation for why so many countries fail to develop. But they also document how sensible economic ideas and policies often achieve little in the absence of fundamental political change.”—Dani Rodrik, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

“A brilliant and uplifting book—yet also a deeply disturbing wake-up call.”—Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers and professor at MIT Sloan
 
“This highly accessible book provides welcome insight to specialists and general readers alike.”—Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and The Origins of Political Order

“This intimate connection between political and economic institutions is the heart of [the authors'] major contribution, and has resulted in a study of great vitality on one of the crucial questions in economics and political economy.”—Gary S. Becker, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1992

“This not only a fascinating and interesting book: it is a really important one . . . to understanding the successes and failures of societies and nations.”—Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001