Books

We get really excited about books recommended to us by our friends.

If you have any suggestions for new books to put on our shelves or our Kindles, whether in English or another language, let us know by emailing crl2 (at) williams (dot) edu, and we'll put up a post here on the website to share with the rest of the gang!

Our Latest Recommendations

Poverty

Prof. Caprio recommends this book: Randomized Control Trials in the Field of Development

For those interested in RCTs, this Oxford University Press book looks like a must read. It explores the types of questions that can and cannot be answered by RCTs and the ways in which one can employ it in the field to answer numerous kinds of questions.

Prof. Bakija recommends this book: Economics in the Age of Covid-19

This book on the economic impacts of Covid-19, by Joshua Gans, is a work in progress. The book will evolve as our knowledge about the virus and our reactions to it change. Despite the ongoing nature of the project, the MIT Press has opened up access to an early version to facilitate the flow of knowledge and sharing of information during these unusual times.

Prof. Godlonton Recommends: Free Books on Data and Machine Learning!

Who doesn’t like free books? The publisher Springer has released a list of 408 books that it’s making free, gratis, gratuitos, available in pdf or epub format. Of those, there are 65 on data and machine learning. Check ’em out if you’re looking to beef up your data skills.

Required Reading: Getting Energy Prices Right: From Principle to Practice

An excerpt from this book has been assigned in “Public Economics,” a core course taught in the fall.

Course Text: Principles of Microeconomics

This book by Gregory Mankiw is one of the core texts used in recent years for CDE orientation, and is also a reference text for “Public Economics,” a core course taught in the fall.

Our favorite book sources