Why Nations Fail
Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinsonby Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Ranked 2 of 19 economics books by recommenders
People recommend it for a simple thesis that institutions decide whether nations prosper, backed by many historical examples and ideas on how countries got where they are.
People recommend it for a simple thesis that institutions decide whether nations prosper, backed by many historical examples and ideas on how countries got where they are.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Institutions decide whether countries prosper
“pointed out this exact issue that institutions that doesn't serve the people's interests is the main culprit”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “California high-speed rail price tag jumps to $231B, nearly 7x 2008 estimate” “build and strengthen institutions and your country prospers”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “How Delhi cut electricity loss from 50 to 5 percent” “Read "why nations fail". It essentially covers this.”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Meta's Embrace of A.I. Is Making Its Employees Miserable” Many historical examples of economic outcomes
“makes a compelling case that the encomienda system put in place by the conquistadors impoverished South America”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “it's fascinating to learn how deliberately Apartheid South Africa was engineered to impoverish black farmers”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “90% of US working hours are spent on tasks not covered well by AI benchmarks” “both books are a simple thesis and lots of historical examples IMHO”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “What happens when US economic data becomes unreliable” Introduces interesting ideas about how nations got here
“I loved his book "Why Nations Fail" for introducing lots of interesting ideas to me”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “"An AI Job Apocalypse?" – Goldman Sachs Report [pdf]” “many good ideas about how we got here and what we might do to get out”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What happened to our collective ethos?”
Other economics books people recommend
The four most recommended other economics books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital in the Twenty-First Centuryby Thomas Piketty | 12 | 6 | 67% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Why Nations Failby Daron Acemoglu and James A. RobinsonThis page | 9 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
| Progress and Povertyby Henry George | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Free to Chooseby Milton Friedman | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalismby Vladimir Il’ich Lenin | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“many good ideas about how we got here and what we might do to get out”
“it's fascinating to learn how deliberately Apartheid South Africa was engineered to impoverish black farmers”
“build and strengthen institutions and your country prospers”
“I loved his book "Why Nations Fail" for introducing lots of interesting ideas to me”
“Read "why nations fail". It essentially covers this.”
“pointed out this exact issue that institutions that doesn't serve the people's interests is the main culprit”
“both books are a simple thesis and lots of historical examples IMHO”
“Look up "How nations fail" by Daron Acemoglu.”
“makes a compelling case that the encomienda system put in place by the conquistadors impoverished South America”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.