The Enlightened Economist book prize shortlist, 2014

The year has flown past, and it’s time to announce the list of contenders for the Enlightened Economist Prize this year. Last year’s winner was Jeremy Adelman’s biography of Albert Hirschman, The Worldly Philosopher. A reminder of the rules: this is my personal choice among the books I happened to read in the past 12 months, no matter when they were published. The prize is that I offer to take the winner out to dinner should we find ourselves in the same city.

With that, here is this year’s shortlist.

[amazon_link id=”0262019388″ target=”_blank” ]Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing[/amazon_link] Vaclav Smil (review)

[amazon_link id=”1846682436″ target=”_blank” ]How Asia Works[/amazon_link] Joe Studwell (review) [amazon_image id=”1846682436″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World’s Most Dynamic Region[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0691148686″ target=”_blank” ]The Confidence Trap[/amazon_link] David Runciman

[amazon_link id=”1780744056″ target=”_blank” ]The Blunders of Our Governments[/amazon_link] Anthony King & Ivor Crewe [amazon_image id=”1780744056″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Blunders of Our Governments[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0393239357″ target=”_blank” ]The Second Machine Age[/amazon_link] Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (review)

[amazon_link id=”0571251293″ target=”_blank” ]The Unwinding[/amazon_link] George Packer (review) [amazon_image id=”0571251293″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Unwinding: Thirty Years of American Decline[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0691162549″ target=”_blank” ]The Son Also Rises[/amazon_link] Gregory Clark (review)

[amazon_link id=”067443000X” target=”_blank” ]Capital in the 21st Century[/amazon_link] Thomas Piketty (review)

[amazon_link id=”1594203288″ target=”_blank” ]The Idea Factory [/amazon_link]Jon Gertner (review) [amazon_image id=”1594203288″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0691152098″ target=”_blank” ]Complexity and the Art of Public Policy[/amazon_link] David Colander and Roland Kupers (review)

[amazon_link id=”1846272998″ target=”_blank” ]Deep Sea, Foreign Going[/amazon_link] Rose George (review) [amazon_image id=”1846272998″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Brings You 90% of Everything[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0691156646″ target=”_blank” ]Finding Equilibrium[/amazon_link] Till Duppe and Roy Weintraub (review) [amazon_image id=”0691156646″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Finding Equilibrium: Arrow, Debreu, McKenzie and the Problem of Scientific Credit[/amazon_image]

The winner will be announced in a couple of weeks.