Since the 1970s, the Western consensus in economic policy has been governed by the assumption that any poor area--a city, a state or even an entire country--will find a way to progress through market forces. If local economies fail to revive, and market shifts have made a location unsuited to business needs, the workforce can and should relocate to more prosperous locales. Either way, no outside intervention is necessary: one way or another, the problem will work itself out.

Except it doesn't. Using examples of the "left behind" regions, renowned development economist Paul Collier shows that centralized western economies have been the most ineffective to alleviate poverty--even if nationally the country seems to be growing. South Yorkshire, once a hub of the steel industry, is now the poorest region in England. From the United States to Japan, Zambia to Colombia, regions and nations experiencing economic decline find themselves with little recourse, ignored by the powers that could come to their aid.

In Left Behind, Collier examines how this one-size-fits-all, hands-off approach to economic policy has devastated areas and nations all over the world and made society vastly more unequal. With keen insight, he draws lessons from such disparate fields as behavioral psychology, evolutionary biology, and moral philosophy to explain how we can adapt to the needs of individual economies in order to build a brighter and fairer global future.