What We Owe Each Other

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

One of the world's most influential economists sets out the basis for a new social contract fit for the 21st century

The social contract shapes everything: our political institutions, legal systems and material conditions, but also the organisation of family and community, our well-being, relationships and life prospects. And yet everywhere, the social contract is failing.

Accelerating changes in technology, demography and climate will reshape our world in ways many of us have yet to grasp. In this landmark study, Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics, draws on evidence from across the globe to identify the key principles every society must adopt if it is to meet the challenges of the coming century, with profound implications for gender equality, education, healthcare provision, the role of business and the future of work.

How should society pool risks, share resources and balance individual with collective responsibility? Brilliantly lucid and accessible, What We Owe Each Other offers new answers to these age-old questions and equips every reader to understand and play their part in the urgent and necessary transformation ahead.

© Minouche Shafik 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • A persuasive diagnosis of the present social malaise [with] plenty of suggestions about what policymakers could do … ranges widely … impressive

    Financial Times

  • A big argument, eloquently written … eye-catching individual ideas … entertaining tales … courageously breaks from the orthodoxies of the pre-crash years

    Prospect

  • Shafik is an insider, turned radical … In this intelligent and lucid book, she calls for a new social contract based on three principles: security for all; investment in capability; and efficient and fair sharing of risks

    Financial Times

  • A very thoughtful book

    Daily Telegraph

  • Wonderfully illuminating of our interdependence

    Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics

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