Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

The term “chronic scarcity” was coined by behavioral economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir in their book, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much (published by Henry Holt & Company, 2013). This book articulates the ways that scarcity creates and perpetuates poverty and how scarcity leads people to shuffle resources and prioritize for urgent roles. From a policy perspective, the authors present an example of how training programs need to offer alternative meeting times to prevent participant attrition. As well, they suggest that time limits can effectively motivate TANF participants to prioritize identifying and securing employment.