Yup, yet another book review. This time took a closer look to a fairly popular writing by Tim Harford – ‘The Undercover Economist’. It’s one of those recently popular ‘eco-books for dumbies’. And have to admit that there is really something unique that make them reasonably easy to read publications.
It might be this simple language. No sophisticated terminology, no confusing diagrams, no complex anagrams. You will definitely not find FSA, CDOs or NIESR. Maybe GDP, but very seldom. You won’t feel overwhelmed by a vast amount of data. To be honest there is not much information in the book itself. Taking the juice out of it, you will have a bit about scarcity, perfect market, externalities, globalization, moral hazard and a not in-depth analysis of China’s performance in the last 50 years. Um, relatively modest as for 250 pages. What make those quasi-economics books so appealing to wider public is the fact that the explanation is extremely, extremely gradual, you might even feel insulted at times. The author usually starts with a basic example, then jumps, very smoothly, to a more advanced example, obviously applicable to real world, e.g. coffee bars, second-hand card market, afterwards he names the theory behind the examples, yet he annoyingly sticks to a simpler expression, e.g. ‘adverse selection’ – ‘lemon market’ (gotta read to understand why) and that’s basically it. The process keeps repeating and repeating. Might sound awful, however, it wasn’t so bad. Enjoyed it. A little relaxation while was revising for AEA. Read on The Student Room that it can be helpful. Wasn’t at all, but who cares. This book is rather not meant to be very scientific and rich in information. It is more targeted to an average Joe, who knows nothing about economics (not that I do, huh). And, speaking frankly, it might have done the trick. But that’s just my opinion. Yours might differ. There’s only one way to check whether it would – you have to read ‘The Undercover Economist’ by yourself.
Cheers,
John A6
