Montclair Book: Scarcity

The common required reading for first-year students at Montclair State this year is Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan and Princeton psychologist Eldar Shafir. The lack of sufficient resources, the authors argue, has similar and significant effects wherever that scarcity occurs, and the examples they explore are not limited to the obvious ones associated with financial poverty.

Scarcity is the fourth selection of the Montclair Book program, which provides a common intellectual experience and ways for students to reflect as readers, celebrates the written word and encourages campus-wide engagement, debate and discussion. As part of the program, Shafir will visit the campus in September to discuss the story behind the book.

“The committee thinks this choice will engage our freshmen in many ways,” says Kirk McDermid, professor of philosophy and chair of the General Education Committee at Montclair State. “Not the least in terms that loom large in their lives right now: the scarcity of social connections, certainties about the future and the academic economy of grades and GPAs.”