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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You're not as stupid as you look, 4 Feb 2008
Just finished "The Logic of Life", the second book by Tim Harford of "Undercover Economist" fame, and recommend it to anyone with an interest in economics and/or how the world works.
The book's essential premise is that you're not as stupid as you look: or, to put it another way, that human behaviour is the product of rational choices, however seemingly irrational, destructive or absurd the outcomes of those choices may be. The book then ranges across subjects as diverse as the causes of the industrial revolution, institutional racism and teen America's fondness for oral sex to prove the case. (Incidentally I tip my hat the poor sap who, one assumes, wagered that Tim couldn't work the phrase "teenage fellatrices" into the first few pages of a book of popular economics - and lost.)
"The Logic of Life" uses the tools (and research) available to the professional economist to make clear a number of seemingly-intractable puzzles: why in a seemingly democratic political system governments consistently favour small interest groups with huge subsidies (it's not worth the trouble for the voters to co-ordinate themselves to save a couple of cents each in taxes, but it's well worth the trouble of agribusiness to coordinate itself to demand millions of dollars in subsidies); whether colonial rule benefited the colonised territories (yes, when it left them with the institutions that are necessary to create wealth already in place); and whether it's a good idea for people who dine regularly together to take it in turns to pick up the bill (contrary to Tim's previous advice in his "Dear Economist" column for the FT, almost certainly - no one diner cares enough about a bill split ten ways to watch out for the restaurant ripping the party off, but if you take it in turns to pick up the tab the guy whose turn it is to pay will put a quick stop to unordered bottles of wine arriving at the table).
Probably my favourite part of the book, however, is the summary of William Nordhaus's work on measuring how improvements in technology from one period to another translate into economic gains. Nordhaus considered, and attempted to measure, the labour required to light a room of a house, using for the purpose first a pile of wood he had chopped, carried and ignited himself; then a Roman oil lamp; and finally a modern lightbulb. He concluded, perhaps not surprisingly, that the Roman oil lamp was not only easier and cheaper to light but produced a sensationally better quality of light, and that of course the modern lightbulb offered the same benefits over the Roman oil lamp again. Over to Tim:
"Nordhaus's experiments suggested that as far as light was concerned, economic growth has been underestimated not by a factor of two or three but ten thousand times over. A modern lightbulb, illuminating a room from 6pm until midnight every night for a year, produces the same amount of light as thirty-four thousand candles from the early nineteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, earning the money to buy thirty-four thousand candles would have taken an average worker all year. When I remind myself to turn off unnecessary lights, I am saving light that would have taken my grandfather's grandfather all his working hours to provide. For me, the saving is too small to notice."
Confirmation, if any more were remotely needed, that this is the best time in the history of the world to be alive. To - quite deliberately - mangle the words of that fool Cecil Rhodes, always remember that you are living in the C21st and have therefore come first in the lottery of life.
"The Logic of Life" is not only an excellent summary of the current state of the art in behavioural economic research and a treasure-trove of fascinating factoids, but a warm and engaging book, a rational man's attempt to share with the reader his obvious love of the world and its rational foundations. Perhaps the truth won't make you free, but understanding how the world works through the lens of "The Logic of Life" will make you appreciate it a whole lot more.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable reminder that economics is a means not an end, 5 Feb 2008
A lively and thought-provoking follow-up to Harford's debut book The Undercover Economist, which used textbook economics to throw new light on everyday life. In this second book Harford moves well beyond the textbook to take us on a tour of some cutting edge research and thinking that's emerging from what he calls a "new breed of economists". Among them is Steve Levitt, whose Freakonomics popularised the notion that economists can have interesting things to say about areas you wouldn't normally expect them to be poking their noses into - but Levitt is only one of many academic researchers who are cheerfully roaming over other people's turf from their economics labs, so Harford's book serves as a timely overview of a newly sexy subject.
The result is a startlingly diverse collection of insights and anecdotes which are all held together by one central premise - that you can explain a lot about life by starting from the simple assumption that people are fundamentally rational. This is not an uncontroversial assertion - among the "new breed of economists" are those melding economics with psychology into a fledgeling discipline of behavioural economics, which focuses on our irrational quirks. Harford's view is not to dismiss these human foibles, but to argue persuasively that they shouldn't be overstated, and that in most important situations we behave rationally - that is, subconsciously evaluating costs and benefits and responding to incentives - to a remarkable extent.
Harford's writing is a joy to read, especially when he's impishly puncturing pomposity - my favorite is the "why your boss is overpaid" chapter, which discusses several theories that could rationally explain the obscenely high wages commanded by modern CEOs (hint: none of them are "because they're worth it"). One great lesson made clear by this book is that individually rational decisions can lead to socially horrible outcomes, a conclusion never clearer than in the discomfiting chapter on "rational racism". It's a valuable reminder that economics is a means not an end - rational choice theory doesn't dictate what society should be like, rather it teaches how we can harness rationality by changing incentives to shape the society we want.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Is 'a stonking good read' an illogical description?, 17 Feb 2008
If I suggested that this was 'a stonking good read' you might think this is the wrong term to use. You would call a novel 'a page turner' and describe it as 'a stonking good read', but not a non-fiction book, let alone a book about economics. Yet, this is no ordinary economics book. Like his previous book 'The Undercover Economist' you don't need to be an economist to read it. Indeed, if there is a prerequisite, it to be interested in life rather than have a head for numbers.
Yes, there are other books that try to make economics interesting; the difference with this book is that the author doesn't try too hard. He uses economics to explore what is puzzling, sometimes irrational and bizarre - like racism, why your boss is overpaid (a personal favourite), and a subject that must have been chosen for the press releases, oral sex. Whilst still as wide ranging as his previous book, this one does not skip through so many economic theories and feels better for it. Having read it, I now have another way to think about those things that seem irrational and illogical, and that is not just limited to the examples in the book.
I would recommend it to anyone who read The Undercover Economist, but you don't need to have read that book, read the Financial Times, or have any previous knowledge in economics no matter how popular it is becoming. This book is easy to read, it doesn't patronise but it's interesting, because it has shares a joyful interest in life.
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by Tim Harford
