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BEST SELLER!
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (New York: Harper Collins, 2005) ISBN 006073132X
Applies the analytical tools of microeconomics and real data to explore a variety of curiosities. Discusses what schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common, exploring the role of incentives and the phenomenon of cheating. Explains how the Ku Klux Klan is like a group of real-estate agents highlighting the power of information and what happens when that power is abused. Considers why, if crack dealing is so profitable, do most drug dealers still live with their moms, and reveals that conventional wisdom is often a web of fabrication, self-interest, and convenience. Explains how Roe v. Wade helped trigger, a generation later, the biggest crime drop in history and sorts out the facts of crime from the fictions. Examines, from a number of angles, whether and how parents matter for a number of child outcomes. Considers what kind of signal parents are sending when they name a child and whether a child's name really matters. Levitt teaches economics at the University of Chicago and recently received the John Bates Clark Metal. Dubner writes for the New York Times and The New Yorker.
Recent Titles
Core Economic Ideas
Avinash Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff, The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life (W. W. Norton, 2008) ISBN 0393062430
Game theory means rigorous strategic thinking. It's the art of anticipating your opponent's next moves, knowing full well that your rival is trying to do the same thing to you. Using case studies—from pop culture, TV, movies, sports, politics, and history—the authors show how nearly every business and personal interaction has a game-theory component to it.
Partha Dasgupta, Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2007) ISBN 0192853457 paperback
Economics has the capacity to offer us deep insights into some of the most formidable problems of life, and offer solutions to them too. Combining a global approach with examples from everyday life, Partha Dasgupta describes the lives of two children who live very different lives in different parts of the world: in the Mid-West USA and in Ethiopia. He compares the obstacles facing them, and the processes that shape their lives, their families, and their futures. He shows how economics uncovers these processes, finds explanations for them, and how it forms policies and solutions. Along the way, Dasgupta provides an intelligent and accessible introduction to key economic factors and concepts such as individual choices, national policies, efficiency, equity, development, sustainability, dynamic equilibrium, property rights, markets, and public goods. Partha Dasgupta is Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College.
Diane Coyle, The Soulful Science, What Economists Really do and Why It Matters (Princeton University Press, 2008) ISBN 0691136238
Comment by William J. Baumol: “Easy and pleasant reading, this informed and informative book shows convincingly that economics is not the dismal science it is reputed to be. It should be required reading for all who have no training in the field but are nevertheless convinced that they are qualified to speak out on important economic issues. Students who are puzzled by their economics courses will also find the book invaluable.”
William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan, and Carl J. Schramm, Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300109415
"Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism tells us that capitalism comes in different flavors, and some of those flavors taste very much better than others. One of these forms of capitalism, entrepreneurial capitalism, is a special treat. It leads to growth and prosperity. The other forms are to be avoided; they lead to stagnation. This new view of the wealth of nations offers a guide to economic policy in all countries, from richest to poorest. This is a daring book with big, bold, important ideas." - George Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001
Robert H. Frank, The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas (New York: Basic Books, 2007) ISBN 046500217X
Frank draws from many brief student essays that identify puzzling phenomena in everyday and then pose explanations using basic ideas from economics.
Deirdre N. McCloskey, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226556638
McCloskey’s sweeping, charming, and even humorous survey of ethical thought and economic realities—from Plato to Barbara Ehrenreich—overturns every assumption we have about being bourgeois. Can you be virtuous and bourgeois? Do markets improve ethics? Has capitalism made us better as well as richer?
Peter J. Dougherty, Who’s Afraid of Adam Smith: How the Market Got Its Soul (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005) ISBN 0471720909
Dougherty shows how economists are drawing on Adam Smith's civic writings to illuminate how the market creates not only fiscal capital, but "social capital."
Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor--and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005) ISBN 0195189779
Tim Harford is a columnist for the Financial Times who provides a delightful introduction to economics for a general audience.
James Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, and Dwight R. Lee, Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity ( New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005) ISBN 031233818X
"Solid economic analysis, simply presented"—James Buchanan, 1986 Nobel Prize winner
Global Growth and International Trade
Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade (Wiley, 2006) ISBN 0470039205
A fair-minded discussion of the ins and outs of world trade through the market for T-shirts.
P.J. O'Rourke, On The Wealth of Nations (Atlantic Books, 2007) ISBN 1843543885
An insightful, inciteful, and hilarious discussion of national wealth.
Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms, A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton University Press, 2007) ISBN 0691121354
Professor Clark addresses the continuing question as to why some nations are rich and others are poor. He proposes that natural selection plays an important role.
David Warsh, Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery (New York: Norton, 2006) ISBN 0393059960
David Warsh is a columnist in the Boston Globe who explores the evolution of one of the most important ideas in economics of the last few decades. Specifically, he describes in common language how economic theory came to account for the role of knowledge in economic development.
Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (Penguin, 2005) ISBN 1594200459
Sachs calls for a large-scale initiative to end world poverty.
William Easterly, The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (New York: Penguin Press, 2006) ISBN 1594200378
Easterly provides a readable critique of the failure of foreign aid, military power, the World Bank, the International Monetary Funds, and the UN to reduce poverty in the least developed countries of the world.
Jagdish Bagwati, In Defense of Globalization (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195170253
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: Norton, 2003) ISBN 0393324397
Bagwati and Stiglitz give contrasting views of globalization.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Making Globalization Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006) ISBN 0393061221
An imaginative and, above all, practical vision for a successful and equitable world, Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz's Making Globalization Work draws equally from his academic expertise and his time spent on the ground in dozens of countries around the world.
Benjamin Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (Vintage, 2006) ISBN 1400095719
Friedman, a former chair of Harvard's economics department, argues that economic growth is vital to social and political progress. Witness Hitler's Germany. Without growth, people look for answers in intolerance and fear. And that, Friedman warns, is where the U.S. is headed if the economic stagnation of the past three decades doesn't soon reverse. It's not enough for gross domestic product to rise, he says. Growth also has to be more evenly distributed. The rich shouldn't be the only ones getting richer.
Government and Policies
Paul Krugman, Conscience of a Liberal (W. W. Norton, 2007) ISBN 0393060691
Paul Krugman studies the past eighty years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis.
Robert B. Reich, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (New York, Knopf, 2007) ISBN 0307265617
Former Secretary of Labor, Professor Reich considers how private and public interests should be balanced.
Harold Winter, Trade-Offs: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning and Social Issues (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) ISBN 0226902250
"Economists also analyze issues that, to others, do not typically fall within the realm of economic reasoning, such as organ transplants, cigarette addiction, smoking in public, and product safety. Trade-Offs is an introduction to the economic approach to analyzing these controversial public policy issues."
Markets and Groups
Tyler Cowen, Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist (Dutton, 2007) ISBN 0525950257
Cowen describes economic and psychological approaches to many situations found in daily living.
Charles Whelan, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (W W Norton, 2003) ISBN 0393324869
This is a very readable introduction to capitalism with thoughtful criticisms.
Michael Shermer, The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and other Tales from Evolutionary Economics (Times Books, 2007) ISBN 0805078320
Shermer explores human nature and its value in understanding economic behavior, an introduction to neuroeconomics.
James Surowieki, The Wisdom of Crowds (New York: Doubleday 2004) ISBN 0385721706
"under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them."
John McMillan, Reinventing the Bazaar (New York, Norton, 2003) ISBN 0393323714
McMillan uses examples from all over the world to show how markets develop in ways that reveal the underlying mechanisms.
Economic Ideas in Fiction
Michael L Walden and M E Whitman Walden, Macro Mayhem: A Dia Fenner Economic Thriller (Lincoln, NE, iUniverse, 2006) ISBN 059538000X
Macro Mayhem supplies the double punch of an entertaining story with insight into how the macroeconomy works. Economics, also known as the "dismal science," has never been as much fun—or as dangerous—as in this fast-paced thriller of financial intrigue.
Michael L Walden and M E Whitman Walden, Micro Mischief: A Dia Fenner Economic Thriller (Lincoln, NE, iUniverse, 2006) ISBN 0595388795
When Dia persists in presenting her economic arguments questioning the viability of a kudzu-based alternative fuel, she first finds her job—then her life—in jeopardy. Her house is vandalized, she's attacked, and shadowy figures stalk her. Someone is trying to silence Dia. Will they succeed?
Tinker Marks, Theoretically Dead (Norwich, VT, New Victoria Publishers, 2001) ISBN 1892281163
Claire Sinclaire, professor of economics at Hammond College, wanted nothing to do with her partner, Emma Harrington`s philosophy conference. Scholars from all over the country were coming together to discuss the life and work of brilliant philosopher, Erik Weber. Claire could not remain uninvolved however, when she tripped over his body on the sidewalk. It turns out that despite their fascination with his ideas, plenty of Weber`s colleagues had reason to hate him, but which one had opportunity to kill? An amusing and intelligent mystery by new author Tinker Marks.
Michael Watts, The Literary Book of Economics ( Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003) ISBN 1932236023
Watts presented 78 selections from English literature and discusses the economic lessons they teach. Examples are Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," John Steinbeck, "East of Eden," Joseph Heller, "Catch-22," and Mark Twain, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
Jonathan B. Wight, Saving Adam Smith: A Tale of Wealth, Transformation, and Value ( Prentice Hall, New York, 2002) ISBN 0130659045
Wight’s novel summons Adam Smith back to life, in heart-pounding adventure ripped straight from today’s headlines. As the suspense builds, Burns rediscovers Adam Smith’s most profound insight about markets: Selfishness is simply not enough.
Classic Titles
Here are some books of continuing interest to young economists.
David R. Henderson, The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (Liberty Fund, 2007) ISBN 086597666X
A fourth edition has 160 articles by 152 contributors discussing issues from discrimination to international economics.
Tom Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Senses Guide to the Economy (Perseus Books, 2007). ISBN 0465002609
This third edition provides a readable introduction to general economic principles.
The Development of Economic Ideas
Robert L. Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers, seventh edition (New York: Touchstone Books, 1999) ISBN 068486214X
Heilbroner describes economic ideas from Adam Smith to Karl Marx with a view to understanding how capitalism works.
Todd G. Buchholz, New Ideas from Dead Economists: Revised Edition (New York: Plume, 1999) ISBN 0452280524
Buchholz describes the important developments in economics with particular emphasis on the most recent 60 years.
Economics for Decision-Making
Diane Coyle, Sex, Drugs and Economics: An Unconventional Introduction to Economics (New York, Texere Publishing Ltd, 2002)
With humor and irony, the author shows how economics can help to make decisions about the most basic of issues—whether to invest tax money in new roads or schools or how to combat world hunger and illegal drugs
Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff, Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life (New York: Norton, 1991) ISBN 0393310353
The first line of the book says:
"We begin with ten tales of strategy from different aspects of life and offer preliminary thoughts on how best to play."
Steven E. Landsburg, More Sex Is Safer Sex, the conventional wisdom of economics (Free Press, 2007) ISBN 1416532218
Economist Landsburg sets out to explain extraordinary findings and logical arguments about the economics of everyday life. In the same vein as the recently popular Freakonomics, this book aims to assault common sense using the tools of evidence and logic to describe reality.
Financial Markets
Burton G. Malkiel, Random Walk Down Wall Street, eighth edition (New York: Norton, 2004) ISBN 0393325350
This is a popular discussion of the stock market.
Economic Philosophy
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 40th Anniversary Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002) ISBN 0226264211
From the book jacket:
Selected by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the "hundred most influential books since the war"
How can we benefit from the promise of government while avoiding the threat it poses to individual freedom? In this classic book, Milton Friedman provides the definitive statement of his immensely influential economic philosophy--one in which competitive capitalism serves as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. The result is an accessible text that has sold well over half a million copies in English, has been translated into eighteen languages, and shows every sign of becoming more and more influential as time goes on.
Gary S. Becker, The Economic Approach to Human Behavior (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) ISBN 0226041123
Becker discusses social interactions; crime and punishment; marriage, fertility, and the family; and "irrational" behavior.
Economics in Fiction
Marshall Jevons, Murder at the Margin (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998) ISBN 0691000980
This murder mystery is one of three by Marshall Jevons to use economics to uncover the perpetrator.
Marshall Jevons, Fatal Equilibrium (New York: Fawcett, 1986) ISBN 0345331583
Marshall Jevons, A Deadly Indifference : A Henry Spearman Mystery (Henry Spearman Mysteries) (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998) ISBN 0691059691
These books are available from libraries, book stores, and online book sellers. The titles are listed for information and are not endorsed by the American Economic Association.
Current Periodicals, Radio, and Webcasts
A weekly news magazine popular with economists because of its international coverage and depth of analysis is the Economist.
The Economists’ Voice is an online publication for a general audience (available through library subscription), a "non-partisan forum for economists to present innovative policy ideas or engaging commentary on the issues of the day."
The University Channel provides links to streaming audio and video of talks by economists and others interested in current affairs.
Students interested in economic issues might study at one of the hundreds of colleges offering an economics major.
