Hayek Book Prize Finalist
An Economist Best Book of the Year
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year
A Financial Times Summer Reading Favorite

“Sweeping, authoritative and—for the times—strikingly upbeat…The overall argument is compelling and…it carries a trace of Schumpeterian subversion.”
—The Economist

“[An] important book…Lucid, empirically grounded, wide-ranging, and well-argued.”
—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“Offers…much needed insight into the sources of economic growth and the kinds of policies that will promote it…All in Washington would do well to read this volume carefully.”
—Milton Ezrati, Forbes

Inequality is on the rise, growth stagnant, the environment in crisis. Covid seems to have exposed every crack in the system. We hear calls for radical change, but the answer is not to junk our economic system but to create a better form of capitalism.

An ambitious reappraisal of the foundations of economic success that shows a fair and prosperous future is ours to make, The Power of Creative Destruction draws on cutting-edge theory and hard evidence to examine today’s most fundamental economic questions: what powers growth, competition, globalization, and middle-income traps; the roots of inequality and climate change; the impact of technology; and how to recover from economic shocks. We owe our modern standard of living to innovations enabled by free-market capitalism, it argues, but we also need state intervention—with checks and balances—to foster economic creativity, manage social disruption, and ensure that yesterday’s superstar innovators don’t pull the ladder up after them.

"Sweeping, authoritative and—for the times—strikingly upbeat…The overall argument is compelling and, with creative destruction falling out of political favor, it carries a trace of Schumpeterian subversion." - The Economist

"[An] important book…[It] is lucid, empirically grounded, wide-ranging, and well-argued…Schumpeter himself feared capitalism would perish. So far, he seems to have been wrong. Another possibility is that democracy will die, as plutocracy allies with demagoguery. Either way, the civilizations of the contemporary high-income democracies would perish. By promoting a better understanding, this book could, with wisdom and luck, help us avoid that fate." - Financial Times

"Successfully navigating the supply chain disruptions created by COVID-19 requires strong political leaders to implement smart policies, but not leaders so strong that they can suppress organizational innovations that will disfavor them or their allies. The authors explain these dynamics and more in an eminently accessible fashion." - Foreign Affairs

"Marvelous…Consistently thoughtful and, in its way, fearless. In The Power of Creative Destruction, readers will find much that transcends the facile arguments and moral posturing that too often characterizes today’s economic debates." - City Journal

"Gather a group of economists together and ask what most concerns them, and a wide variety of topics would soon emerge…Decade after decade, numerous books have been written about each of these issues. But here we have in one compact package a blockbuster book that deals with all of them…A magisterial book with something new and imaginative to say on such a wide and important range of topics." - Business History Review

"[A] rigorous education in the economics of innovation…Extend[s] economic analysis to illuminate a wide range of contemporary political and cultural issues." - Project Syndicate

"An impressive study…It convinces, to my mind, on what the path to a better world, with less inequality, injustice, environmental catastrophe might look like." - Society of Professional Economists

"An important book for the times…The authors succinctly connect politics to economics and argue that ‘Innovation Needs Democracy.’…To paraphrase a quote referring to Keynes, another famous economist, this book may convince readers that we should all be Schumpeterians now." - New York Journal of Books

"Offers Americans much needed insight into the sources of economic growth and the kinds of policies that will promote it…All in Washington would do well to read this volume carefully." - Forbes

"The authors…argue that the socioeconomic problems revealed during the global pandemic—welfare, health, inequality, and many others—will not be fixed by abolishing capitalism but rather by inventing a better capitalism through the power of creative destruction, which they define as innovations that disrupt and lift societies." - Fast Company

"A refreshing take on large, important societal questions. By making the case for a rightful role for government, institutions, civil society organizations, and issues of equity and fairness in the production of capitalist society, the authors produce a justification for a new political economy—one in which capitalism’s innovative power to produce novel, entertaining, and imaginative products is harnessed to increasing collective welfare and a more interesting and secure future for citizenry." - Administrative Science Quarterly

"An ambitious story of how Western countries escaped the Malthusian population-growth trap, hitting upon an innovation-lead growth trajectory that has so far resulted in immense improvements in longevity and quality of life for the vast majority of humankind. It was a pleasure to read this well-written book, which is full of easy examples and background data." - Economic Record