The Armchair Economist
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Product Description
Product Description
Most people associate economics with larg-scale wonders like the stock-market, big business, and international trade. Most people also assume that economists are dismally technical. Stephen Landsburg attempts to prove them wrong. He shows how the laws of economics can reveal themselves in surprising and humorous ways. He demonstrates that, no matter what the endeavour, people respond to incentives in understandable, if not always predictable ways. By illustrating how economists think about daily experience, he lays the basis for a richer appreciation of the full range of economic activity. In this guided tour of the familiar, through an unfamiliar lens, Landsburg explains many of the key issues of economics in chapters that read more like detective stories than textbook lessons.
About the Author
Steven E. Landsburg writes the popular 'Everyday Economics' column in Slate magazine and has also written for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He teaches in the department of economics at the University of Rochester.
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Most of economics can be summarized in four words: "People respond to incentives." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Most of economics can be summarized in four words: "People respond to incentives." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A joy to read! Insightful, yet beautifully simple, arguments for many key economic ideas, such as why prices are good and arguments in favour of free trade. Some of the arguments are counter-intuitive, such as seatbelts killing people and recycling paper being bad for trees, but are great truisms which make you think differently and more lucidly.
I also like Landsburgh's modesty. For example, he admits that, despite being a top-notch economist, he cannot satisfactorily explain why popcorn is so expensive at cinemas!
And I like his sense of humour -the book is full of jokes which add enormously to the pleasure of reading it. Great for both economists and non-economists who want an introduction to the subject.
I also like Landsburgh's modesty. For example, he admits that, despite being a top-notch economist, he cannot satisfactorily explain why popcorn is so expensive at cinemas!
And I like his sense of humour -the book is full of jokes which add enormously to the pleasure of reading it. Great for both economists and non-economists who want an introduction to the subject.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Armchair Economist is clearly written and interesting, but to me it's real value is in understanding how "supply-side" economists think. Much of the value is in trying to spot the hidden assumption or the logical fallacy.
As an example of the first: he argues that we should decide whether to do anything on global warming based on the monetary value people place on driving cars versus the monetary value other people place on not having their islands flooded. Ok, that's probably a self-consistent way of evaluating a policy, but there are at least two other frameworks for evaluation in common use that he doesn't mention: i) some idea of democracy, whereby the wishes of the (poorer) islanders have the same weight per person as the (richer) car drivers; ii) the idea of an external moral or ethical standard requiring that we avoid or minimise damage to the planet, independent of the opinions of others. Failure to acknowledge standards for decision making other than monetary seems a major flaw in the book.
The second weakness, the logical fallacy, is mainly illustrated whenever he demonstrates that two choices for economic policy have equal cost - e.g. a country paying for a something now versus borrowing money to pay for it; or making cars in the USA versus growing corn for export and buying cars from Japan. To a first approximation, he's correct in saying that the two alternatives are of equal cost. However at this point he should go on to consider the cost of second-order effects - e.g. the rising interest rate as borrowing increases, or the loss of future choice if the industrial capability to build cars is lost.
Since most or all of the book suffers from one or both of these problems, I wouldn't recommend this as a way of understanding economics, so much as a way of understanding economists. Given the importance of supply-side economists sharing his views, the book is useful to understand how and why economic policy is set.
As an example of the first: he argues that we should decide whether to do anything on global warming based on the monetary value people place on driving cars versus the monetary value other people place on not having their islands flooded. Ok, that's probably a self-consistent way of evaluating a policy, but there are at least two other frameworks for evaluation in common use that he doesn't mention: i) some idea of democracy, whereby the wishes of the (poorer) islanders have the same weight per person as the (richer) car drivers; ii) the idea of an external moral or ethical standard requiring that we avoid or minimise damage to the planet, independent of the opinions of others. Failure to acknowledge standards for decision making other than monetary seems a major flaw in the book.
The second weakness, the logical fallacy, is mainly illustrated whenever he demonstrates that two choices for economic policy have equal cost - e.g. a country paying for a something now versus borrowing money to pay for it; or making cars in the USA versus growing corn for export and buying cars from Japan. To a first approximation, he's correct in saying that the two alternatives are of equal cost. However at this point he should go on to consider the cost of second-order effects - e.g. the rising interest rate as borrowing increases, or the loss of future choice if the industrial capability to build cars is lost.
Since most or all of the book suffers from one or both of these problems, I wouldn't recommend this as a way of understanding economics, so much as a way of understanding economists. Given the importance of supply-side economists sharing his views, the book is useful to understand how and why economic policy is set.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is certainly not the best or clearest pop-economics book on the market. I expect an economist to be necessarily inclusive of all sectors of society and the personal diatribes and perpetual introspect into exclusively US economic habits is tedious, irrelvant and intolerable for anyone who doesn't happen to live in America.
The examples all seemed very old too and I suspect the majority of this book was written at least several years ago.
The examples all seemed very old too and I suspect the majority of this book was written at least several years ago.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
low grade thinking
I've recently bought a lot of pop economics texts, and this is by far the worst. The book is the most Panglossian text I ever read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Broken iPod owner
So elucidating it leaves you baffled.
This is without a doubt the best pop-econ book I've read. It's clear, lucid, and thought provoking. Although I'm an economics student I still on occasion find it hard to apply all... Read more
Published 6 months ago by andrew.s
A weak copy-cat of Freakonomics, of poor quality
Landsburg tries to jump onto the bandwagon of popular introductions to economic theory using rebuttals of generally held views. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sam Featherston
Freakonomics
If you're not an economist, then this book has plenty of examples of how economic thinking contradicts conventional wisdom. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Dave C
Insightful
I found the armchair economist a fantastic glimpse at the mindset of an economist and the effect economics has on us all. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2009 by M. Glover
spritely, entertaining but published at the wrong time
Well written and entertaining, this book may appear more superficial and fashionably opinionated than it actually is. In a sense, this edition has come out at the wrong time. Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2009 by windwheel
Elucidating
Although i agree with Gareth about the immorality of the authors approach to the environment in the end of the book i must say it is one of the very best pop economics books i have... Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2009 by Lt Haggerty
A little caustic, but quite interesting
If you're anything like me, you enjoy reading interesting subject matter written by a passionate author, and whilst this book certainly counts as such, it isn't without its flaws. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2008 by R. Hill
Too cocky by half
Parts of this book delighted me and parts infuriated me. From a conventional economic perspective, Landsburg does a standard demolition job on many popular misconceptions about how... Read more
Published on 16 Jun 2008 by Gareth Greenwood
Interesting, but...
I liked the book, and it did introduce me to how an economists thought process churns away.
Whilst it was good that he simplified his illustrative models for everone to... Read more
Whilst it was good that he simplified his illustrative models for everone to... Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2007 by Mr. T. D. Bates
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