Libraries Of Leaders: On The Reading List Of Influential Economists

On this week’s edition of Libraries of Leaders, we take a look at the bookshelves of three influential economists. American Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, British peer Lord Meghnad Desai, and Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb are household names across the globe. Here is a look at what they read and recommend.

1. Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008 for his “analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity ”. He has taught at leading universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and the London School of Economics. He recently shared some of his favourite books with the website The Browser. Here is a look at some of his picks.

1. The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov

Asimov is an adored, almost revered figure in science fiction literature. The series was published in a single volume in 1951 but first appeared as a series of short stories in Astounding Magazine between 1942 and 1950. The series chronicles the efforts of a brilliant mathematician who foresees the fall of a fictional Galactic Empire and goes about trying to save it through an approach dubbed psychohistory - a concept of mathematical sociology.

2. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

The book by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher is an empirical approach to the understanding of human knowledge and is widely regarded as a classic. Immanuel Kant once said it woke him up from his “dogmatic slumber .

3. Essays in Economics by James Tobin

The book is a collection of 28 essays written between the early 1940s and 1970, focusing mainly on macroeconomic issues such as jobs and inflation. Krugman said that he had internalised a lot of Tobin’s approach without realising it.

2. Lord Meghnad Desai

Lord Meghnad Desai is a British Peer who represents the Labour Party in the House of Lords. He has taught at the London School of Economics and studied at the University of Mumbai and the University of Pennsylvania. He shared some of his favourite books on India with the popular website Five Books.

1. India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

A work of mammoth proportions, Guha expertly takes us through the trial and tribulations, horrors and conflicts that have rocked the world’s largest and most unlikely democracy and the unique factors that have held it together. Desai said that if he had to recommend one “fat book” on India, this would be it.

2. Darlingji by Kishwar Desai

The book, authored by Desai’s wife, chronicles the romance between two Bollywood superstars of yesteryears - Nargis and Sunil Dutt - which was rooted in the partition of the Indian subcontinent.

3. Untouchables by Narendra Jadhav

The book highlights the plight of dalits in India. Drawing from his father's diaries, the author highlights the injustice and pervasive prevalence of the caste system. It is the story of his father’s struggle for equality and justice while also bringing to light the fact that most of those oppressed by the system suffer in silence.

3. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Taleb is a Lebanese-American essayist and economist, whose work focuses on theories of probability and uncertainty. He is probably best known for his book Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable. The Sunday Times has called it one of the 12 most influential books since World War II. Taleb shared some of the books that continue to inform him as a writer with Penguin U.K.

1. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It's a stirring and darkly funny story that reflects on society and its functioning in pre-revolutionary Russia. Taleb said it was a book that he often revisits, probably because the characters had become his friends.

2. The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne

Poetry, politics, sex, religion, warhorses - you name it, he wrote about it. The 16th-century writer is considered one of the most important figures of the French Renaissance. He is said to have written his essays in the seclusion of his estate, drawing inspiration from the ideas he found appealing in the books in his library.

3. The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq

The story is told through the eyes of a young aristocrat posted at a coastal city, who is to be the eyes and years of the state. It is a fictional account of two opposing states separated by the sea, that haven't warred in three hundred years but are still officially at war.