NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A leading economist answers one of today’s trickiest questions: Why do some great ideas make it big while others fail to take off? “Brilliant, practical, and grounded in the very latest research, this is by far the best book I’ve ever read on the how and why of scaling.”—Angela Duckworth, CEO of Character Lab and New York Times bestselling author of Grit LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD “Scale” has become a favored buzzword in the startup world. But scale isn't just about accumulating more users or capturing more market share. It's about whether an idea that takes hold in a small group can do the same in a much larger one—whether you’re growing a small business, rolling out a diversity and inclusion program, or delivering billions of doses of a vaccine. Translating an idea into widespread impact, says University of Chicago economist John A. List, depends on one thing only: whether it can achieve “high voltage”—the ability to be replicated at scale. In The Voltage Effect, List explains that scalable ideas share a common set of attributes, while any number of attributes can doom an unscalable idea. Drawing on his original research, as well as fascinating examples from the realms of business, policymaking, education, and public health, he identifies five measurable vital signs that a scalable idea must possess, and offers proven strategies for avoiding voltage drops and engineering voltage gains. You’ll learn: • How celebrity chef Jamie Oliver expanded his restaurant empire by focusing on scalable “ingredients” (until it collapsed because talent doesn’t scale) • Why the failure to detect false positives early on caused the Reagan-era drug-prevention program to backfire at scale • How governments could deliver more services to more citizens if they focused on the last dollar spent • How one education center leveraged positive spillovers to narrow the achievement gap across the entire community • Why the right set of incentives, applied at scale, can boost voter turnout, increase clean energy use, encourage patients to consistently take their prescribed medication, and more. By understanding the science of scaling, we can drive change in our schools, workplaces, communities, and society at large. Because a better world can only be built at scale.

Based on groundbreaking original research, The Why Axis is a colourful examination of why people do what they do - and how effective incentives can spur people to change their behaviour and achieve more. Uri Gneezy and John List are a little like the anthropologists who spend months in the field studying people in their native environments. But rather than acting as impartial observers, these two intrepid economists have set out to study the ways people act in order to try to solve major problems in society, such as the gap between rich and poor students and the violence plaguing inner city schools; the real reasons people discriminate; and the continuing pay disparity between men and women. Their field experiments in the factories, communities, and shops where real people live, work, and play show how incentives can change outcomes. Their results will change the way you think about and take action on both small and large problems, and force us as a society to stop making assumptions and to rely instead upon the evidence of what really works.

Acemoglu, Laibson, List: An evidence-based approach to economics Throughout Economics, 2nd Edition, authors Daron Acemoglu, David Laibson, and John List use real economic questions and data to help students learn about the world around them. Taking a fresh approach, the authors use the themes of optimisation, equilibrium, and empiricism to illustrate the power of simple economic ideas, and their ability to explain, predict, and improve what happens in the world. Each chapter begins with an empirical question that is later answered using data in the Evidence-Based Economics feature. As a result of the text's practical emphasis, students learn to apply economic principles to guide the decisions they make in their own lives.

Revised edition of the authors' Macroeconomics, [2015]

Empirical evidence suggesting that a considerable amount of horizontal strategic interaction exists amongst governments is important in light of recent devolutionary trends of many important public programs. The empirical approach in these studies typically relies on estimating reaction functions in a uni-dimensional policy framework, where a nonzero slope estimate is interpreted as evidence in support of strategic interactions. While this framework is a useful representation within certain contexts, it is potentially too restrictive; for example, in models of resource competition, localities may use multiple instruments in their recruiting pursuits, leading to potential strategic interactions across policy instruments. In this study, we first develop a simple theoretic construct that includes resource competition in a world of three-dimensional policy choice. The model suggests that while a zero-sloped reaction function may exist for any particular policy, this does not necessarily imply the absence of strategic interactions. We examine the implications of the model empirically using US state-level panel data over the period 1977-1994. The results suggest that important cross-policy strategic interactions exist, lending support in favor of the multi-dimensional framework, and indicate that uni-dimensional frameworks may present lower bound estimates of the degree of strategic interaction.

In this paper we explore to what extent secondary policy issues are influenced by electoral incentives. We develop a political agency model in which a politician decides on both a frontline policy issue, such as the level of public spending, and a secondary policy issue, such as environmental policy. The model shows under which conditions the incumbent finds it worthwhile to manipulate the secondary policy to attract additional votes to his platform. We test the predictions of the model using state-level panel data on Gubernatorial environmental policy choices over the years 1960-2000. In contrast to the popular view that choices on secondary policy instruments are largely determined by lobbying, we find strong effects of electoral incentives on environmental policy.

En este libro, pensado para un primer curso de economía, Daron Acemoglu, David Laibson y John List utilizan problemas económicos y datos reales para ayudar a los estudiantes a aprender sobre el mundo que los rodea. Adoptando una perspectiva fresca y novedosa, los autores nos muestran la enorme capacidad de las ideas económicas básicas para explicar, predecir y mejorar lo que ocurre en el mundo. Cada capítulo se abre planteando una pregunta a los estudiantes, que es contestada mediante datos reales en el apartado “Economía basada en la evidencia”, que cierra cada unidad. Como resultado del énfasis que hace el texto en los aspectos prácticos de la disciplina, los estudiantes aprenden a ver los principios económicos más allá del contexto del aula, e incluso a aplicarlos a las decisiones que deben tomar en su día a día. Economía es un libro profusamente ilustrado, con un planteamiento didáctico, ameno y riguroso, conectado con el mundo actual. “Nos encanta la economía. Nos maravilla cómo funcionan los sistemas económicos. Cuando compramos un smartphone, pensamos en los cientos de miles de personas que intervinieron en la producción de esa increíble pieza de tecnología, ensamblada a partir de componentes de todo el mundo. Escribimos este libro para mostrar la simplicidad de las ideas económicas y su extraordinaria capacidad para explicar, predecir y mejorar lo que pasa en el mundo. Queremos que los estudiantes dominen los principios esenciales del análisis económico. Con ese propósito, identificamos las tres ideas clave para comprender el comportamiento humano desde una perspectiva económica: la optimización, el equilibrio y el empirismo. Estos conceptos abstractos son, en realidad, muy intuitivos.” (Acemoglu, Laibson y List, Prefacio de Economía)

Le livre est organisé autour de deux perspectives complémentaires ;: une relation étroite entre faits et théorie (chaque chapitre commence par une question appliquée pouvant intéresser l'étudiant) et l'analyse menée au cours du chapitre revient régulièrement sur l'intérêt des outils économique pour résoudre les questions posées par les faits. un traitement homogène des aspects analytiques en reprenant systématiquement trois angles d'analyse complémentaires : l'optimisation des choix des agents, la notion d'équilibre, l'importance de la validation empirique de la démarche théorique. La version française propose une version condensée de l'ouvrage original centré sur le programme des deux premières années de licence. Le choix s'est fait au niveau des thèmes traités tout en préservant, pour les chapitres retenus, la démarche originale des auteurs. A la suite d'une partie introductive consacrée à la présentation des principaux outils (théoriques et empiriques) à la disposition de l'économiste, l'ouvrage aborde les thèmes importants du programme de principe économiques et de micro et macro économie des deux premières années de licence. Les différents thèmes qui composent l'ouvrage sont systémiquement introduits à l'aide d'exemple parlant aux étudiants. Les aspects microéconomiques sont traités dans le cadre de deux parties consacrées au programme de L1 au programme de L2. L'ouvrage propose un cadre homogène pour traiter les questions macroéconomiques en évitant un morcellement des analyses en écoles de pensées opposées. La partie macroéconomique propose une série de chapitres avec une introduction à la comptabilisation de la richesse des nations et à la comptabilité nationale, une présentation des mécanismes de croissance et de développement. Une seconde partie est consacrée au fonctionnement de la macroéconomie de court terme. Après une introduction au fonctionnement des marchés du travail, du crédit et au système monétaire, l'ouvrage propose deux chapitres consacrés à l'analyse des fluctuations économiques et aux politiques contre cycliques.

Ideias escaláveis que prosperam são todas iguais; toda ideia que não consegue escalar falha de um jeito único. "Se você já se perguntou por que tantas soluções promissoras falham em obter o impacto desejado, suas perguntas estão respondidas. Esse tour de force é repleto de exemplos fascinantes que lançam uma luz científica em questões como a razão para o fracasso da guerra às drogas, o porquê de tantas pessoas fazerem mau uso das tecnologias, e como programas federais podem alocar melhor os recursos da arrecadação de impostos... Uma verdadeira aula sobre como as peculiaridades da irracionalidade humana podem criar ou destruir ideias no mundo real." — STEVEN D. LEVITT, coautor de Freakonomics: o lado oculto e inesperado de tudo que nos afeta "Brilhante, prático e baseado nas pesquisas mais recentes... Se você se importa em mudar o mundo ou simplesmente deseja tomar decisões melhores na sua vida, O Efeito Voltagem é para você." — ANGELA DUCKWORTH, CEO do Character Lab "Este livro envolvente propõe uma abordagem original para refletir sobre como propostas políticas podem ser implementadas em uma escala grande o suficiente para gerar o bem-estar social." — DARON ACEMOGLU, coautor de Por Que As Nações Fracassam

Perché alcune grandi idee si realizzano mentre altre non riescono a decollare? Se non esiste un modo per prevedere con assoluta certezza che un’idea avrà successo, la storia recente ha dimostrato che alla base di ogni progresso sociale e tecnologico c’è sempre il concetto di «scalabilità»: che si tratti di una scoperta in ambito medico, di un programma politico o di un’innovazione tecnologica, un progetto deve poter crescere ed essere replicabile in maniera sostenibile su larga scala. Tradurre un’idea in un successo dipende quindi sostanzialmente dal fatto che tale idea sia in grado di garantire un «alto voltaggio», la possibilità cioè di essere replicabile con la giusta energia e in diversi luoghi. Dalla contaminazione tra le teorie della behavioral economics e la sua lunga esperienza sul campo come consulente di società internazionali, List mette a punto una vera e propria scienza dello scaling e, analizzando vari casi del mondo del business, della politica, della scuola o della salute pubblica, ne identifica i fattori chiave.