Synopses & Reviews
A fantastic collection of witty, insightful, and often outrageous
Financial Times columns that answer readers personal dilemmas using the latest economic theory.
Tim Harford employs his idiosyncratic style to explain economic principles so that anyone can understand them — and reveals how they apply to (and can solve) issues in everyday life. Does money buy happiness? Is “the one” really out there? Can cities be greener than farms? Whens the best time to settle down? Can you really “dress for success”? How can I stop my girlfriend from eating my dessert? Harford provides brilliant, hilarious, and weirdly wise answers to these and other questions. Arranged by topic, easy to read, and hard to put down, Dear Undercover Economist is a provocative, compassionate, and indispensable perspective on anything that may irk or ail you — a book well worth the investment.
About the Author
Tim Harford is the bestselling author of The Undercover Economist, and a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times, where he also writes the “Dear Economist” column. Harford has been an economist at the World Bank and an economics tutor at Oxford University. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.
Table of Contents
Introduction CAN ECONOMICS MAKE YOU HAPPIER?
Speed Dating with a Money-Back Guarantee
How to Spend Your Lottery Winnings
Efficient Protocols for the Lavatory Seat
How to Fool a Wine Snob
Selling Michigan to the Chinese
Acknowledgments
Index