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| Author: Tim Harford
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $7.95
You Save: $17.05 (68%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 3389
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1400066425
Dewey Decimal Number: 339
EAN: 9781400066421
ASIN: 1400066425
Publication Date: January 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: May have small remainder mark on bottom. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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| Customer Reviews:
Very Readable, and Interesting June 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
ON the whole a fairly interesting book. I have read a lot of economics books and this is one of the better treatments of behavioral economics. The author is not an economist per se, so there isn't much new here, but rather an overview of other people's work, but he presents it in a very understandable and interesting way. The chapter on racism probably being the best example. My biggest criticism would be that he never really defines his terms. He never says was rationalism is, nor does he address the ways that people may not act rationally, so the book never really has a coherent thesis, but rather becomes a series of independent thoughts.
 Too simplistic June 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book so badly wants to be Freakonomics or a Blink-type book, but it doesn't come close. Some of the data presented are indeed interesting. Unfortunately Harford almost always provides an overly simplistic analysis of the data. He usually makes broad sweeping generalizations and makes sure they are consistent with his thesis that people are actually rational. There is actually an interesting book to be written on the presented topics, but Harford's premise that everyone is now saying people are irrational is a strawman argument. "Are people rational or irrational?" is a false dichotomy that ignores significant differences across contexts and across individuals. Doing justice to the issues addressed in the book would involve much more complex thinking involving multiple disciplines. For example, some of the new brain imaging research indicates that for some people some types of decisions (e.g., moral) seem to involve emotional processes first followed by higher-order rational processes kicking in to rationalize the emotional decision already made. What types of decisions are most likely to follow such a pattern? Why are some people much more prone to such a pattern? Such questions considering types of decisions, environmental contexts and individual differences are well beyond what Harford presents here. It's a shame.
 Good collection of recent work May 17, 2008
This is a good collection of recent behavioral economics work by other economists. The chief benefit of Harford's book seems to be his order and thematic premise: people make logical decisions. However, this is not a new idea. Rather, it is a soft-handed defense of the central premise of economic thought: people make logical decisions.
The book reads very quickly and the various studies and papers are presented in an easily digestible format. Worthwhile reading for anyone with a passing interest in economics. Serious readers should go for the articles in the bibliography instead.
 Logical Economics April 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you enjoyed Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt you will love this book. The author will take you below the surface of reality and show why things are the way they are. This book does have some shocking things. (Like why oral sex increased dramatically among teenagers in the last few years:because of the fear of Aids). He explains why it costs so much to live in Manhattan versus rural areas, supply and demand, people chose to live in big cities for the opportunities that they provide. He also discusses that most of the time people make logical decisions based on reward and punishment. Yes even criminals the majority of the time think about the risk of getting caught and the severity of the punishment. The author backs up his conclusions with many notes and cites studies and facts to back up his conclusion. Why do CEOs and vice presidents make so much? Is anyone really worth the millions they make? The author argues no, a vice president's compensation is more of an incentive to motivate all the assistant vice presidents to work very hard to achieve the next level than it is a reflection of the current VPs worth. The author believes that most corporations run more on a tournament system where the employees that are winners on promotions win big with pay and that is the underlying motivation for all instead of current pay.
I found the book very enjoyable and hard to put down. If you love free market capitalism, economics, or psychology you will enjoy this book. Also check out Tim Harfords other book The undercover economist for more interesting and thought provoking reading.
Math Applied to Common Decisions April 23, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Many of the popular books about economics seek to convince you that human beings are wildly illogical. Why? Because the dollars and sense of what people say and do don't always match up well. Tim Harford gets past that problem by mostly ignoring the academic studies that seem far removed from reality by emphasizing what people do when they are new to something.
The book is at its best when he's explaining how systemic biases can create large shifts in human behavior. For instance, a slight preference for having neighbors who are like oneself can lead to quite substantial segregation along race, religion, education, and economic lines.
For me, the book lacked any big "gotcha" like the finding that abortions may have contributed to lowering crime.
In almost every section, I thought that Mr. Harford was arguing (or at least haranguing) beyond the limits of his evidence.
When he moves beyond being an observer into someone trying to convince you what people are like, I found he was often offensive. There's a section about how those who aren't native to Africa "solved" the problem of dying from malaria by transferring slaves from Africa to milder climates that's insensitive at best.
To Mr. Harford's eye, we are so much creatures of economics, comfort, and the pursuit of gain that there's no role for any other human motives. That's a too limited view of people . . . and hardly an uplifting one.
Unless you are addicted to Mr. Harford's writing, skip this book. It won't tell you much that you need to know.
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