Journal of Economic Literature 2010, 48:1, 108–122 http:www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.48.1.108 108 1. Introduction H ow can one tackle reviewing a book for which entering “scott e page the difference” in google.com produces 24,000 entries? A New York Times Science Section piece titled “In Professor’s Model, Diversity = Productivity” (Claudia Dreifus 2008), a link to a video presentation at the College de France (Scott E. Page 2008), and numerous reviews in blogs along with commentary are only a few of the hits. Max Bazerman’s endorsement reads: “The book is brilliant. Page has a dazzling eclecticism.” Kenneth J. Arrow’s endorsement reads: “Scott Page has brought to our attention a practically important proposition: diversity A Review of Scott E. Page’s The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies Yannis M. Ioannides * This assessment of Scott Page’s The Difference (Princeton University Press, 2007) emphasizes the depth and breadth of the book’s coverage and arguments and checks them against existing empirical evidence, when available. It argues that the book navigates artfully between being a “manifesto” for diversity and rigorous science writing while at the same time marketing economic science in new ways. The review welcomes the book’s popularization of richer aspects of everyday decision making, individual and collective, and its making an excellent case for the social signiicance of abstract economic theorizing, especially about problem solving. It praises the book’s lively interpretations of statistical tools of decision making by means of entic- ing narratives. The book’s rhetoric urges us to move beyond accepting diversity as a matter of taste, or even because of its beneicial effects on the “production function,” and ultimately adopts its powerful logic. It speculates that the book’s true impact will likely come after thorough empirical research. In empirical endeavors, issues of deinition, especially of identity and of measurement, and evaluation of policies that would enhance diversity would be decisive. In democratic societies, policies may pose new dilemmas as they beneit from public interest in overcoming the accumula- tion of past disadvantages. (JEL D23, Z13) * Ioannides: Tufts University.