“If you read just one book about economics make it Andrew Leigh's clear insightful and
remarkable (and short) work.” —Claudia Goldin recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics
and Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University A sweeping engrossing history of
how economic forces have shaped the world—all in under 200 pages One of The Economist 's Best
Books of the Year In How Economics Explains the World Harvard-trained economist Andrew Leigh
presents a new way to understand the human story. From the dawn of agriculture to AI here is
story of how ingenuity greed and desire for betterment have to an astonishing degree
determined our past present and future. This small book indeed tells a big story. It is the
story of capitalism – of how our market system developed. It is the story of the discipline of
economics and some of the key figures who formed it. And it is the story of how economic
forces have shaped world history. Why didn’t Africa colonize Europe instead of the other way
around? What happened when countries erected trade and immigration barriers in the 1930s? Why
did the Allies win World War II? Why did inequality in many advanced countries fall during the
1950s and 1960s? How did property rights drive China’s growth surge in the 1980s? How does
climate change threaten our future prosperity? You’ll find answers to these questions and more
in How Economics Explains the World. “Can a short book survey the full history of something so
vast and remain readable? To find out read How Economics Explains the World by Andrew Leigh.
In simple clear language—and less than 200 pages—it does exactly what its title promises. …
Leigh canters through the history of human progress pausing briefly to explain the economic
forces and ideas that drove it forward. … Along the way readers meet the big economic thinkers
who sought to explain these forces. Both finance aficionados and mere novices will read savour
and return to this book.” – The Economist “The Best New Books to Read about Finance”
