Thurow has been hailed as "one of he sharpest intelligences currently dissecting economic policy" by the Financial Times. He is known for his dead-on forecasts and his ability to make economics not only clear but also compelling for lay audiences.

A prolific writer, Thurow is the author of several groundbreaking and successful works. His 1992 book Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America, looked at the nature of the global economic competition underway, and stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for more than six months. An earlier bestseller, The Zero Sum Society, looked at the need to make painful structural adjustments in the present to preserve growth and rising standards of living in the future. With The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World, Thurow looked at the changing structure of the world economy and what it will take for individuals, firms and nations to be successful in the new economic game that is being developed at the end of the second millennium.