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  • Published: 24 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781837312405
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $26.99
Categories:

Poor Economics

The Surprising Truth about Life on Less Than $1 a Day




A fully updated edition of the seminal work in which the Nobel Prize-winning economists upend assumptions by revealing the unexpected choices that the poorest people make

Why would a man in Morocco who doesn't have enough to eat buy a television?
Why do the poorest people in India spend 7 percent of their food budget on sugar?
Does having lots of children actually make you poorer?

This eye-opening book overturns the myths about what it is like to live on very little, revealing the unexpected decisions that millions of people make every day. Looking at some of the most paradoxical aspects of life below the poverty line - why the poor need to borrow in order to save, why incentives that seem effective to us may not be for them, and why, despite being more risk-taking than high financiers, they start businesses but rarely grow them - Banerjee and Duflo offer a new understanding of the surprising way the world really works.

This fully revised edition is updated with two new chapters that bring further insights from the last decade of research.

  • Published: 24 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781837312405
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $26.99
Categories:

Praise for Poor Economics

A marvellously insightful book by two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty

Amartya Sen

It has been years since I read a book that taught me so much

Steven D. Levitt

A page-turner about the micro-economics of aid policy might not sound too probable, but that's what [Banerjee and Duflo] have written, and it is a truly remarkable book . . . unmistakably contemporary, written beautifully

Guardian

A compelling and important read … an honest and readable account about the poor that stands a chance of actually yielding results

Forbes

To cut to the chase: this is the best book about the lives of the poor that I have read for a very, very long time

Economist

Marvellous, rewarding … the sheer detail and warm sympathy on display reflects a true appreciation of the challenges their subjects face

Wall Street Journal

It is the rich and humane portrayal of the lives of the very poor that most impresses. [The authors] show how those in poverty make sophisticated calculations in the grimmest of circumstances … Books such as these offer a better path forward

Financial Times

Overturns many received ideas about what it's like to be poor

Hari Kunzru, Observer

A remarkable work: incisive, scientific, compelling and very accessible, a must-read

Financial World

Fact-based, actionable and totally unforgettable insights on the fight to help the poor help themselves

Seth Godin

Banerjee and Duflo assemble a fascinating assortment of interventions from across the globe in their book … It is engaging and informative

Business World (India)

I was fascinated and convinced

Robert Solow