It shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: when we understand it, we can adapt and improve it-and better understand our world. Myth-busting, witty, and thought-provoking, Edible Economics serves up a feast of bold ideas about globalization, climate change, immigration, austerity, automation, and why carrots need not be orange. For Chang, chocolate is a lifelong addiction, but more exciting are the insights it offers into postindustrial knowledge economies and while okra makes Southern gumbo heart-meltingly smooth, it also speaks of capitalism’s entangled relationship with freedom. But this intellectual monoculture is bland and unhealthy.īestselling author and economist Ha-Joon Chang makes challenging economic ideas delicious by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world, using the diverse histories behind familiar food items to explore economic theory. Explaining everything from the hidden cost of care work to the misleading language of the free market as he cooks dishes like anchovy and egg toast, Gambas al Ajillo and Korean dotori mook, Ha-Joon Chang serves up an easy-to-digest feast of bold ideas.Edible Economics brings the sort of creative fusion that spices up a great kitchen to the often too-disciplined subject of economicsįor decades, a single, free-market philosophy has dominated global economics. For Chang, strawberries are delicious with cream, but they also prophesise a jobless future chocolate is a wonderful pudding, but more exciting are the insights it offers into post-industrial knowledge economies. Beginning each chapter with a menu, Chang uses the stories behind key ingredients - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theory.

In Edible Economics, Chang makes challenging economic ideas more palatable by plating them alongside anecdotes about food from around the world. Just as eating a wide range of cuisines contributes to a balanced diet, so too is it essential we listen to a variety of economic perspectives. But this is bland and unhealthy - like British food in the 1980s, when bestselling author and Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang first arrived in the UK from South Korea. Economic thinking - about climate change, immigration, austerity, automation and much more - in its most digestible formįor decades, a single free market philosophy has dominated global economics.

Edible Economics by Ha-Joon Chang