Product Description

An economist's version of The Way Things Work, this engaging volume is part field guide to economics and part expose of the economic principles lurking behind daily events, explaining everything from traffic jams to high coffee prices. The Undercover Economist is for anyone who's wondered why the gap between rich and poor nations is so great, or why they can't seem to find a decent second-hand car, or how to outwit Starbucks. This book offers the hidden story behind these and other questions, as economist Tim Harford ranges from Africa, Asia, Europe, and of course the United States to reveal how supermarkets, airlines, and coffee chains--to name just a few--are vacuuming money from our wallets. Harford punctures the myths surrounding some of today's biggest controversies, including the high cost of health-care; he reveals why certain environmental laws can put a smile on a landlord's face; and he explains why some industries can have high profits for innocent reasons, while in other industries something sinister is going on. Covering an array of economic concepts including scarce resources, market power, efficiency, price gouging, market failure, inside information, and game theory, Harford sheds light on how these forces shape our day-to-day lives, often without our knowing it. Showing us the world through the eyes of an economist, Tim Harford reveals that everyday events are intricate games of negotiations, contests of strength, and battles of wits. Written with a light touch and sly wit, The Undercover Economist turns "the dismal science" into a true delight.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95423 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Nattily packaged-the cover sports a Roy Lichtensteinesque image of an economist in Dick Tracy garb-and cleverly written, this book applies basic economic theory to such modern phenomena as Starbucks' pricing system and Microsoft's stock values. While the concepts explored are those encountered in Microeconomics 101, Harford gracefully explains abstruse ideas like pricing along the demand curve and game theory using real world examples without relying on graphs or jargon. The book addresses free market economic theory, but Harford is not a complete apologist for capitalism; he shows how companies from Amazon.com to Whole Foods to Starbucks have gouged consumers through guerrilla pricing techniques and explains the high rents in London (it has more to do with agriculture than one might think). Harford comes down soft on Chinese sweatshops, acknowledging "conditions in factories are terrible," but "sweatshops are better than the horrors that came before them, and a step on the road to something better." Perhaps, but Harford doesn't question whether communism or a capitalist-style industrial revolution are the only two choices available in modern economies. That aside, the book is unequaled in its accessibility and ability to show how free market economic forces affect readers' day-to-day.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Harford exposes the dark underbelly of capitalism in Undercover Economist. Compared with Steven Levitt’s and Stephen J. Dubner’s popular Freakonomics (*** July/Aug 2005), the book uses simple, playful examples (written in plain English) to elucidate complex economic theories. Critics agree that the book will grip readers interested in understanding free-market forces but disagree about Harford’s approach. Some thought the author mastered the small ideas while keeping in sight the larger context of globalization; others faulted Harford for failing to criticize certain economic theories and to ground his arguments in political, organizational structures. Either way, his case studies—some entertaining, others indicative of times to come—will make you think twice about that cup of coffee.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Review

"This is a book to savor."--Richard Lowenstein, New York Times
"A worthy and often entertaining attempt to render 'the dismal science' considerably less dismal."--Warren Bass, Washington Post Book World
"A playful guide to the economics of everyday life, and as such is something of an elder sibling to Steven Levitt's wild child, the hugely successful Freakonomics.... Harford does not take himself too seriously. He is at his best illuminating the economics of small things.... In general, as befits a covert operative, his tone is quizzical and low-key, rather than bombastic and judgmental. For anyone schooled in blackboard economics, The Undercover Economist succeeds in taking the chalkdust out of the subject."--The Economist
"The Undercover Economist is a rare specimen: a book on economics that will enthrall its readers. Beautifully written and argued, it brings the power of economics to life. This book should be required reading for every elected official, business leader, and university student."--Steven D. Levitt, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, and author of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
"Beautifully written.... An Economics 101 class, taught by the most popular professor on campus. Harford shows readers how to think like an economist, demonstrating how theories like David Ricardo's 1817 treatise on farm rents can be applied to coffee shop locations and the cost of oil.... If the ideas are allowed to penetrate, to sink into the arid topsoil of a mind too long out of school, they can change the way a reader sees the world. Once you understand that a 'green belt' of undeveloped land around a city drives up rents, you start seeing green belts everywhere."--Mary Wisniewski, Chicago Sun-Times
"Harford writes like a dream--and is also one of the leading economic thinkers of his generation. From his book I found out why there's a Starbucks on every corner, what Bob Geldof needs to learn to make development aid work properly, and how not to get duped in an auction. Reading The Undercover Economist is like spending an ordinary day wearing X-ray goggles."--David Bodanis, author of E=mc2 and Electric Universe
"Informative and engaging.... Readers will find out why organic tomatoes are almost never found next to regular tomatoes at the supermarket, who really benefits from tariffs, and how China became an overnight economic success. A great choice for all public libraries."--Library Journal
"Harford's fetching book is part a field guide to economics in action and part an expose of Economics 101 principles lurking beneath the action.... He is out to convert his reader into a more savvy consumer, no matter how hard advertising puffs, and into a more savvy voter able to dig out the truth behind the tall stories that politicians may tell."--William H. Peterson, Washington Times
"If you need to be convinced of the ever-relevant and fascinating nature of economics, read this insightful and witty book by Tim Harford. Using one interesting example after another, The Undercover Economist demonstrates how economic reasoning--often esoteric and dull, but totally accessible in Harford's hands--helps illuminate the world around us. Indeed, Harford's book is a tour de force." --Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, and author of In Defense of Globalization
"As Tim Harford demonstrates brilliantly in this enjoyable book, the powerful underlying ideas of economics can, in the hands of the right person, illuminate every aspect of the world we inhabit."--Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, and author of Why Globalization Works
"Most people think economists are boring, opinionated and wrong. Tim Harford is often right, always opinionated, but never boring. He shows how economics can be used to illuminate our everyday lives. Whether you want an explanation of the price of a cup of coffee or of poverty in the third world, Harford has it all."--John Kay, author of The Truth About Markets

Customer Reviews

The Power of Orthodox Economic Thought
If you read only one pop economics book this year, The Undercover Economist should be it. Harford, a columnist for the Financial Times among other distinctions, has written a book that could almost serve as a textbook for an Economics 101 course. But it's emphatically not dry or dull. Instead, what Harford has done is convey the excitement, the power, and the often counter-intuitive results of economic thought. In so doing, he has written more or less the economic equivalent to The Selfish Gene.

Many recent books (notably Freakonomics) have dealt with the more exciting realms of economic research, such as the application of certain economic models to what most people would consider non-economic behavior. And far more books have talked about "economics" in the context of even trendier ideas like globalization (think The World is Flat or even No Logo). Such books, however, are reflections of marginal (in the case of the former) or unsophisticated (in the case of the latter) economic schools of thought.

Harford presents the orthodoxy in all its glory, and reminds readers that economists really do see the world in a different--and fascinating--way. He explains simple, but often misunderstood, concepts like adverse selection (that is, why health insurance costs too much), as well as even simpler, but far more consequential, economic models, such as David Ricardo's explanation of why landowners, and not farmers, make money from rising crop prices. Along the way, he explains why the prices at Safeway and Whole Foods are about the same--and why the prices for items on the top shelf are higher than prices for the same goods on the bottom shelf.

Granted, the book has its flaws, principally its (market-driven) lack of any equations or graphs and, more important, its refusal to take up any serious questions of macroeconomics. If you want to understand how recessions occur or how federal spending affects the world and national economy, then you're out of luck. But in focusing tightly on basic microeconomic principles--the foundation of the most insightful parts of economics--Harford succeeds in keeping the book accessible and useful.

Finally, an economist speaks my own language!
I just finished this book, which is a bit like a real life cheat-sheet. Give this guy the Nobel prize: he made economics INTERESTING AND FUN for me!!! A dreading challenge, believe me!

Economics is everywhere. We're surrounded by it, but most people do not think about it in they're daily lives. That's unfortunate: one would certainly learn to drive before standing behind the wheel of an automobile. So why not learn about the economic incentives that actually drive most of our own behavior before getting out and getting hit by that $2.90 latte?

Learning about those incentives is not only worth it, as the examples in this book prove again and again; it also helps you make sense of what is happening around you, and therefore make better, informed choices. If one understands how most things are driven by the invisible laws of trade, competition, inflation and cost/spending or tax incentives, then one has less chance to get abused by such a system. Even better: this book shows how to ride that system and take advantage of the inherent value one holds as a consumer.

I am finishing writing this review and am going out get a latte and do some grocery shopping. Now that I've read Tim Harford's book, I know where to go and how to make the best use of the scarce money I have (but I won't reveal the tricks here, as it would be like revealing a surprise end to a good book).

My bet is that I'll be able to save what I paid for the book by the time I log back in to Amazon to see if my review has been picked up or not!

It's much better than Freakonomics
Steve Levitt's "Freakonomics" has made the economics of everyday life a trendy subject for readers and very lucrative for economists. Tim Harford has caught the wave with his own "The Undercover Economist." However, "The Undercover Economist" is far better.

"The Undercover Economist" does an excellent job at explaining much of economics theory through the simple experiences of everyday consumers. We all buy coffee, go to the supermarket, buy airline tickets, buy used cars, and buy or rent housing. He explains the underlying economic forces that apply to our everyday purchasing choices by relying on his extensive background in macro and microeconomics, but also Game Theory, and Behavioral Economics. As a result, he educates the reader in a broad based knowledge of economics ranging from the basic (macro economics) to the cutting edge (Game Theory).

"Freakonomics" deals with obtuse subjects that have nothing to do with consumers' everyday lives. When is the last time you were concerned with Sumo wrestlers or Chicago High School teachers cheating, or whether abortion in the 70s influenced the crime rate in NY City in the 90s. These events have nothing to do with economics but rather regression analysis. Levitt, unlike Harford, never covers basic economic topics like demand, supply, and price elasticity just to name a few.

Harford does an excellent job of tying microeconomic events to the World economy. Your buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks boosts Brazilian coffee exports to the U.S., which affects the U.S. current account deficit that impacts the U.S. demand for foreign capital that may affect interest rate levels and future economic growth. Meanwhile, by focusing on Sumo wrestlers cheating Levitt can't readily explain the Japanese trade surplus. Thus, Levitt boxes himself in a corner with nowhere to go.

Harford is a better writer. He is a well-established British FT columnist. Levitt can't write for the general public. So, he hired himself a co-author, Stephen Dubner, to put prose to paper. This strategy worked only up to a point, as Dubner wasted much ink on adulating Levitt. As a result, "Freakonomics" comes across as a PR campaign for Levitt. There is none of that self-adulating distraction in Harford's book.

Harford gives credit where credit is due. Levitt truly believes he invented a new science "Freakonomics" or the economics of everyday life. But the subject is as old as economics itself as Adam Smith in his 18th century writings always referred to everyday common transactions between local merchants and consumers. Levitt just invented a meaningless word that turned out to be lucrative. Harford often acknowledges his predecessors (from Adam Smith to Steven Landsburg) and does not claim to have invented a new science. He just intends to educate while he entertains. Harford has been successful on both counts. Levitt has not.

I recommend several other good books on this subject. These include: David Friedman's "Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life", Gary Becker's "The Economics of Life", and Steve Landsburg's "The Armchair Economist."