Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places

Name: Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places
SKU: 90296
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The world-renowned economist offers a ground-breaking new vision for inclusive prosperity

Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries―from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity than they were at the start of this century. Why have these places fallen behind? And what can we do about it?

World-renowned development economist Paul Collier has spent his life working in neglected communities. In this book he offers his candid diagnosis of why some regions and countries are failing, and a new vision for how they can catch up. Collier lays the blame for widening inequality on stale economic orthodoxies that prioritize market forces to revive left behind regions, and on the arrogant, hands-off and one-size fits all approach of centralized bureaucracies like the UK Treasury. As a result, Collier argues, the UK has become the most unequal and unfair society in the western world.

Yet the core message of Left Behind is hopeful: bringing together encouraging case studies of recovery from around the world, Collier shows how renewal is achievable through a combination of collective learning, moral leadership and local agency. With keen insight, he draws lessons from such seemingly disparate fields as behavioural psychology, evolutionary biology and moral philosophy to share a bold, galvanizing vision for a more inclusive, prosperous world.

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Paul Collier shows how centralized authority and economic orthodoxy have hollowed out communities and deepened the divide between prosperous and neglected places. Ranging across politics, economics, and moral philosophy, he offers a compelling vision for renewal. This tour de force book points the way to a political economy of shared prosperity and common purpose’ — Michael J. Sandel, author of THE TYRANNY OF MERIT

Being left behind is a curse on people, places, and even whole countries. Paul Collier brings his astonishing range of global experiences and interdisciplinary knowledge to forge a guidebook for catching up. He challenges the belief that the market is a trustworthy remedy and catalogues the many collective strategies that have worked in the past and can work again. Great wisdom lies herein — Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate for Economic Sciences

Paul Collier has written another brilliant, must-read book for anyone interested in human progress. I greatly enjoyed this book, you will too — Baroness Dambisa Moyo, author of DEAD AID

Brilliant, orthodoxy-upending … this book is a compelling and practical manifesto for a better future. It is not only required reading but demands action — Andy Haldane, CEO of the RSA

Left Behind is a tour de force. Challenging economic orthodoxies and the “one size fits all” solution of market forces, Paul Collier presents us with a fascinating analysis of marginalized communities in rich and poor countries and how they got that way. More importantly, he tells us how they can lift themselves out of poverty and into prosperity through sound leadership and agency following a bottom-up approach. Reading the book left me with a sense of optimism and hope that those who get left behind need not stay that way — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization

About the Author

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. He is the author of The Future of Capitalism (Handesblatt Prize) and The Bottom Billion, (Arthur Ross Prize), both widely translated. He works with governments and communities around the world. A communitarian, he was awarded the Adam Smith Prize by Glasgow’s Philosophical Society (2023) and the Global Citizenship Award by Belgium’s cooperative movement (2018).