The Undercover Economist

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Product Details

Author : Tim Harford
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780349119854
Number of Pages : 288
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2007-05-03
Publisher : Abacus

ASIN : 0349119856

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Customer Reviews

Perfect introduction to economics (2008-10-24)

This wasn't the first book on pop-economics I've read, and it wasn't the last, but it was certainly the best I've encountered to date, and as an introduction to economic concepts it's second to none.This is the book I recommend to people when they show signs of moving beyond "economics is all just money, innit?", and every person who I've introduced it to has come away from it saying it's improved the way they look at the world.If I were to assemble a list of reference books for someone wanting to know how the world works, this would be amongst them.

Good fun! Main street now looks very different (2008-08-06)

Buy it, read it and enjoy, you never know you may get interested in economics

Surprisingly tough-going and subtly tendentious (2008-07-24)

I bought this as a follow up to Robert Frank's excellent introductory beginners' guide "The Economic Naturalist". Based on Harford's columns for the Financial Times, "Undercover" is indeed a more academic approach, bringing in celebrated economists such as David Ricardo to explain why your tall skinny latte is such a rip-off (er, scarcity, apparently). The interesting overall concept is sadly undermined by some surprisingly ropey writing. Ideas often stagger across the page, tripped up by confusing analogies, and I found myself reading some more tortuous paragraphs many times to gain any sort of meaning. Nevertheless if you persevere into the second half of the book, which lurches into more politicised areas, there are a few absorbing insights and observations. Harford's prescription for the NHS, encouraging people to 'cost' unhealthy lifestyles, was genuinely thought-provoking as was the analysis of why poor Cameroon remains poor. However the standard free-market justification of sweatshop economics (better for people than scavenging on rubbish heaps) reminded me that a FT column is hardly a neutral platform, and more alarm bells rang for this exhausted reader with the author's scarily simplistic verdict on globalisation vs global warming. It was with some considerable relief I reached the final chapter on China. This was actually quite good, though China's success seems to have as much to do with constraining the free market approach Harford advocates than embracing it unreservedly.

Interesting easy read. (2008-06-17)

I'm only writing this because there seem to be a lot of negative reviews. I enjoyed it as holiday reading and recommended it to people I met. I more or less already new the economics so maybe I just liked hearing my own opinions being confirmed. It was a good purchase for me.

Very accessible introduction to economics (2008-06-07)

I found this book a good read, the best of a few similar books I picked up at the time. It has clear and interesting examples and discusses them each in enough depth to grasp the concepts described. I thought the whole book was very enjoyable and had useful references to others' ideas.

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