Dani Rodrik Quotes

#1. When globalization collides with domestic politics, the smart money bets on politics.

Dani Rodrik

#2. If economics were only about profit maximization, it would be just another name for business administration. It is a social discipline, and society has other means of cost accounting besides market prices.

Dani Rodrik

#3. Why should we allow international markets to erode domestic labor regulations through the back door when we do not allow domestic markets to do the same? The

Dani Rodrik

#4. An economists' consensus is perhaps more a rarity than a regularity. But when it happens, we need to pause and take stock.

Dani Rodrik

#5. Field experiments to date have shown that microfinance - the provision of small loans, typically to women or groups of women - is not particularly effective in reducing poverty.14

Dani Rodrik

#6. These results stand in sharp contrast to the hype that microfinance has attracted in development policy circles. They throw cold water on models that suggest lack of access to finance is among the most important constraints that poor households face.

Dani Rodrik

#7. when a consensus forms around the universal applicability of a conclusion from a specific model, the critical assumptions of which are likely to be violated in many settings - as with perfect competition, say, or full consumer information - we have a problem.

Dani Rodrik

#8. The economics we need is of the "seminar room" variety, not the "rule-of-thumb" kind. It is an economics that recognizes its limitations and caveats and knows that the right message depends on the context. The fine print is what economists have to contribute.

Dani Rodrik

#9. The world is better served by syncretic economists and policymakers who can hold multiple ideas in their heads than by 'one-handed' economists who promote one big idea regardless of context.

Dani Rodrik

#10. When economists get it right, the world gets better.

Dani Rodrik

#11. What determines success in industrial policy is not the ability to pick winners but the capacity to let the losers go.

Dani Rodrik

#12. The correct answer to almost any question in economics is: It depends.

Dani Rodrik

#13. policy discussion usually means pitting one model against another. Viewpoints and policy prescriptions that aren't backed by a model typically don't have standing.

Dani Rodrik