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lalawoman416's review against another edition
4.0
The book is very logical. But people aren't. So it's a great thought experiment, but not sure about its practical applications.
george_odera's review against another edition
3.0
At the beginning of the book, Tim Harford speculates that the reader is wondering about whether buying the book has been a good investment; when the reader completes the book, s/he wouldn't confidently assess the book as that good an investment.
The Undercover Economist isn't so much what the title suggests it is any more than it is a compilation of cherry-picked aspects of life that have been fitted into a few economics concepts. For instance, Chapter One of the book is titled "Who pays for your coffee?"; Harford then goes into a long explanation of the concepts of scarcity power, green belts, and rent seeking, without coming around to providing the answer that I yearned to hear; who pays for my coffee. Chapter Two, titled "What Supermarkets don't want you to Know", is a minuscule assessment of advertising strategies of a few supermarkets within his proximity, and Harford purports to paint his observation of these supermarkets' price-targeting strategies as representative of each and every supermarket under the sun. In Chapter Three Harford delves into an elementary description of perfect markets, rich in humour and analogy, yet wanting in content. The remaining seven chapters are cherry-picked topics on traffic congestion, the health insurance industry, the 2008 financial crisis, the auctioning of spectrum licences, globalisation, and the rise of China. Needless to say, the book is lacking in a coherent flow and continuity of chapters.
To be fair to the author, The Undercover Economist excites thinking, and provides an abundance of research topics that one may read further into; in fact, my advice to the nonchalant reader would be to just read skim the book's bibliography in order to highlight the reference material that may be of best interest to her/him. The book also provides a basis upon which to understand a few economic concepts by providing creative analogies. But in the aggregate, the book has not brought the power of economics to life as I anticipated it would.
The Undercover Economist isn't so much what the title suggests it is any more than it is a compilation of cherry-picked aspects of life that have been fitted into a few economics concepts. For instance, Chapter One of the book is titled "Who pays for your coffee?"; Harford then goes into a long explanation of the concepts of scarcity power, green belts, and rent seeking, without coming around to providing the answer that I yearned to hear; who pays for my coffee. Chapter Two, titled "What Supermarkets don't want you to Know", is a minuscule assessment of advertising strategies of a few supermarkets within his proximity, and Harford purports to paint his observation of these supermarkets' price-targeting strategies as representative of each and every supermarket under the sun. In Chapter Three Harford delves into an elementary description of perfect markets, rich in humour and analogy, yet wanting in content. The remaining seven chapters are cherry-picked topics on traffic congestion, the health insurance industry, the 2008 financial crisis, the auctioning of spectrum licences, globalisation, and the rise of China. Needless to say, the book is lacking in a coherent flow and continuity of chapters.
To be fair to the author, The Undercover Economist excites thinking, and provides an abundance of research topics that one may read further into; in fact, my advice to the nonchalant reader would be to just read skim the book's bibliography in order to highlight the reference material that may be of best interest to her/him. The book also provides a basis upon which to understand a few economic concepts by providing creative analogies. But in the aggregate, the book has not brought the power of economics to life as I anticipated it would.
dane_rodriguez's review against another edition
4.0
“There is much more to life than what gets measured in accounts. Even economists know that.”
“Hours are long. Wages are pitiful. But sweatshops are the symptom, not the cause, of shocking global poverty. Workers go there voluntarily, which means—hard as it is to believe—that whatever their alternatives are, they are worse. They stay there, too; turnover rates of multinational-owned factories are low, because conditions and pay, while bad, are better than those in factories run by local firms. And even a local company is likely to pay better than trying to earn money without a job: running an illegal street stall, working as a prostitute, or combing reeking landfills in cities like Manila to find recyclable goods.”
“The dictator has to keep the economy functioning in order to keep stealing from it.”
“Fight scarcity power and corruption; correct externalities; try to maximise information; get the incentives right; engage with other countries; and most of all embrace markets, which do most of these jobs at the same time.”
“if there’s a profitable deal to be done between somebody who has something unique and someone who has something which can be replaced, then the profits will go to the owner of the unique resource.”
“Someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic, now commonly applied to economists Imagine”
“Hours are long. Wages are pitiful. But sweatshops are the symptom, not the cause, of shocking global poverty. Workers go there voluntarily, which means—hard as it is to believe—that whatever their alternatives are, they are worse. They stay there, too; turnover rates of multinational-owned factories are low, because conditions and pay, while bad, are better than those in factories run by local firms. And even a local company is likely to pay better than trying to earn money without a job: running an illegal street stall, working as a prostitute, or combing reeking landfills in cities like Manila to find recyclable goods.”
“The dictator has to keep the economy functioning in order to keep stealing from it.”
“Fight scarcity power and corruption; correct externalities; try to maximise information; get the incentives right; engage with other countries; and most of all embrace markets, which do most of these jobs at the same time.”
“if there’s a profitable deal to be done between somebody who has something unique and someone who has something which can be replaced, then the profits will go to the owner of the unique resource.”
“Someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic, now commonly applied to economists Imagine”
kingabee's review
3.0
Whoever calls Tim Harford a die-hard free market fanatic should really do some research. For an economist this guy is almost a communist!
Really decent book. Quite informative even it had me thinking "doh, I knew that" on a couple of occasions.
And now I don't feel cheap when buying Tesco value products. I feel smart!
Really decent book. Quite informative even it had me thinking "doh, I knew that" on a couple of occasions.
And now I don't feel cheap when buying Tesco value products. I feel smart!
elenser's review against another edition
4.0
Off and on in terms of quality but the interesting bits are most common and always thought-provoking. So much information explained that you almost need to take notes throughout (I did).
pascalibrary's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this book up on a whim. I knew I would have to get myself into an economics frame of mind for the future, and this seemed like the perfect one to do it. The book is basically trying to get you to look at the world through the lens of economics. Does it succeed? Somewhat.
Tim Harford did do a good job of reiterating the fundamentals of some economic thought. Scarcity power, incentivization, margins, etc. - these were all locked away in my brain somewhere and this book brought them back into the light. The new concepts he tried to introduce were not as good. The chapter of Game Theory, while interesting, was not cohesive and lacked any kind of explanation as to what game theory actually says. I know its a hard topic but I would have appreciated a halfway decent attempt to translate the idea to the reader.
Tim Harford loves markets. He wants to marry them so badly. I have always been very sketchy of markets, and Tim did sell me on some of their positive aspects. Congratulations, I can't be a die-hard communist. On the other hand, he never really addresses criticisms of markets in a meaningful way, or when he did, his arguments were far less than convincing. Like his arguments on why globalization is green and externalities and the environment, these did little to reassure me, and I think that time has proved him misguided, if not completely wrong.
I don't really love books like this, where each chapter is an island. Sure, there are some light connections throughout, but there was no unifying theme, which made each chapter very hit or miss. I took notes during my reading of the book, and some of the chapters were brimming with my thoughts, while others had less than a paragraph.
Overall, if you are completely new to economics, this isn't a bad one to read. It introduces a lot of concepts in an understandable way, and will probably dispel many false notions that you had. If you are familiar with economics, this is most likely a waste of time.
Tim Harford did do a good job of reiterating the fundamentals of some economic thought. Scarcity power, incentivization, margins, etc. - these were all locked away in my brain somewhere and this book brought them back into the light. The new concepts he tried to introduce were not as good. The chapter of Game Theory, while interesting, was not cohesive and lacked any kind of explanation as to what game theory actually says. I know its a hard topic but I would have appreciated a halfway decent attempt to translate the idea to the reader.
Tim Harford loves markets. He wants to marry them so badly. I have always been very sketchy of markets, and Tim did sell me on some of their positive aspects. Congratulations, I can't be a die-hard communist. On the other hand, he never really addresses criticisms of markets in a meaningful way, or when he did, his arguments were far less than convincing. Like his arguments on why globalization is green and externalities and the environment, these did little to reassure me, and I think that time has proved him misguided, if not completely wrong.
I don't really love books like this, where each chapter is an island. Sure, there are some light connections throughout, but there was no unifying theme, which made each chapter very hit or miss. I took notes during my reading of the book, and some of the chapters were brimming with my thoughts, while others had less than a paragraph.
Overall, if you are completely new to economics, this isn't a bad one to read. It introduces a lot of concepts in an understandable way, and will probably dispel many false notions that you had. If you are familiar with economics, this is most likely a waste of time.
mrbrownsays's review against another edition
4.0
More of this type of book need to exist. There is much misunderstanding about the field of economics and its implications. This is a great myth dispeller and simple guide to basic economic concepts.
mcc's review against another edition
funny
informative
4.0
I'm a little late to this book and having consumed a lot of his content via podcasts a lot of this was now 'old news' and not as mind blowing as it would've been 20 years ago, but a solid book nonetheless and I really appreciate his humor!