In the blockbuster tradition of Freakonomics, a Harvard economist and a Princeton psychology professor synergy to provide a surprising and empowering new way to check out everyday life, presenting a paradigm-challenging study of how scarcity-and our flawed responses to it-shapes our lives, our society, and our culture.

Why do successful people get factors done at the last minute? Why does poverty persist? Why do organizations get stuck firefighting? Why perform the lonely think it is hard to create about Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much friends? These questions seem unconnected, yet Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir display they are all are examples of a mentality made by scarcity.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from behavioral science and economics, Mullainathan and Shafir show that scarcity creates a similar psychology for everyone struggling to manage with less than they want. Busy people neglect to manage their period efficiently for the same reasons the poor and those maxed from credit cards fail to manage their cash. The dynamics of scarcity reveal why dieters think it is hard to resist temptation, why learners and busy professionals mismanage their period, and why sugarcane farmers are smarter after harvest than before. After we start thinking in terms of scarcity and the strategies it imposes, the issues of modern life enter into sharper focus.