“In his new book Trillion Dollar Economists, Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution argues that the economics profession has ‘created trillions of dollars of income and wealth for the United States and the rest of the world.’ That sounds like a nice contribution for a relatively small profession, especially if we do some simple arithmetic…The fun thing about Litan’s book is that he details many clever little ideas about how to run businesses or to manage the economy better. They lie in the realm of optimal pricing and marketing mechanisms, regulation of monopolies, natural-resource management, public-goods provision, and finance.”
―Robert J. Shiller, 2013 Nobel laureate and Yale Professor of Economics
A trillion dollars, and most likely more &; that&;s how much economists contribute to the U.S. economy. But you&;d never know it by reading the jokes and criticisms (some of it fair) about economists in the media and in the blogosphere.
In Trillion Dollar Economists, one of the nation&;s leading policy analysts, Robert Litan, explains with lucidity and precision how the insights of many economists, mainly over the past fifty years, have helped to revolutionize business, resulting in huge benefits for companies and consumers.
Economists and their ideas are embedded throughout the economy, Internet-based companies (even on-line dating sites), and increasingly in sports. Whether they know it or not, Internet retailers owe their existence to economists who in earlier decades helped convince policy makers to remove limits on prices and entry into the transportation business, while providing much of the intellectual impetus for breaking up the telephone monopoly that otherwise most likely would have inhibited the growth of the Internet.
The widespread use of auctions in on-line commerce and search has its origins in economic research.
Consumers and businesses that have benefited from the oil and gas boom have economists to thank for convincing policy makers to remove energy price controls. Investors in indexed mutual funds and other financial products are in debt to entrepreneurs who got their ideas or inspiration from financial economists.
Readers will learn about these and many other contributions of economists in Trillion Dollar Economists, an important book that will be of interest to students of all ages, anyone in business or thinking of starting one, and policy makers wanting an easy and fun way to know what most economists really do and why their work is so important.
From the Back Cover
PRAISE FOR TRILLION DOLLAR ECONOMISTS
“A tour de force showcase of progress attained by the marriage of economics and human imagination. A must read for innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and students of economics hoping to chart a better future.”
―Jay Walker, founder of Priceline and Walker Digital
“Bob Litan’s combination of sprightly prose, personal touch, wide range, and enthusiasm for his subject–which might well be called ‘what economics has contributed to the economy’―makes this marvelous book a rare find. Pick it up and you’ll find yourself drawn into his infatuation with economic analysis. This book educates and entertains at the same time―quite a deal.”
―Alan S. Blinder, Professor of Economics at Princeton University and the author of After the Music Stopped
“Bob Litan is one of the most brilliant and versatile economists of the modern age. His book on the history of economist-innovators will open your eyes to some of the most important people in economics and their contributions to modern society. This is an inside story of breakthroughs from matchmaking to mathematical programming, from financial wizardry to the deregulation movement. Everyone from interested amateur to seasoned professional will learn greatly from this book.”
―William Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University
About the Author
ROBERT LITAN has spent four decades publishing over 25 books and more than 200 articles about the U.S. economy and has directed economic research at some of the nation’s leading research organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors: the Brookings Institution, the Kauffman Foundation, and Bloomberg Government. He is currently a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Of Counsel to the law firm of Korein Tillery (St. Louis and Chicago), and Chief Economist of Main Street Genome, a new company providing analytics to small companies. He is also a regular contributor to Wall Street Journal’s “Think Tank” blog.
