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    Unavailable
    The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
    Unavailable
    The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
    Unavailable
    The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World

    Written by Tim Harford

    Narrated by John Lee

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or easier to fathom: Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune for sitting behind a mahogany altar? Thorny questions-and you might be surprised to learn the answers from an economist.

    But Tim Harford, award-winning journalist and author, likes to spring surprises. In this deftly reasoned audiobook, Harford argues that life is logical after all. Under the surface of everyday insanity, hidden incentives are at work, and Harford shows these incentives emerging in the most unlikely places. THE LOGIC OF LIFE is the first book to map out the astonishing insights and frustrating blind spots of a new economics in a way that anyone can enjoy.

    THE LOGIC OF LIFE presents an X-ray image of human life, stripping away the surface to show us a picture that is revealing, enthralling, and sometimes disturbing. The stories that emerge are not about data or equations but about people. Once you've listened to this addictive audiobook, life will never look the same again.


    From the Compact Disc edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 15, 2008
    ISBN9781415947890
    Unavailable
    The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
    Author

    Tim Harford

    Tim Harford is the Undercover Economist and Dear Economist columnist for the Financial Times. His writing has also appeared in Esquire, Forbes, New York magazine, Wired, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. His books include Adapt, The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life. Harford presents the popular BBC radio show More or Less and is a visiting fellow at London's Cass Business School. He is the winner of the 2006 Bastiat Prize for economic journalism and the 2010 Royal Statistical Society Award for excellence in journalism.

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    Reviews for The Logic of Life

    3.5/5

    167 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is a book that attempts to introduce a wide reading public to the way in which economists think using the theory of rational choice. Its central argument is that even the most bizarre behaviour and seemingly mundane choices is driven by ordinary people thinking through rational reasoning and arriving at logical decisions. Of course, decisions about using condoms or frequenting a park at a risky time of day , whether to divorse or even deciding to take or abstain from drugs are often made almost intuitively or for the individual based upon experience and assumptions but Harford explains that intuitive logic.is rational and the product of careful reasoning. Logical reasoning is itself based on information and often information is asymmetrical. He applies the reasoning and thinking of an economist to everyday life. It is written in a very racy way with a strong appeal to an American readership - some of the cultural references may not be understood or appeal to readers in other parts of the world. The style is journalistic in an effort to make it accessible. It is not an economics textbook but I would recommend it to a class of first year economics students simply to get them interested in the questions that economists probe. If you enjoyed Steven Levitt 's and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics and Superfreakeconomics you will enjoy this book but don't be fooled its not an economics textbook nor is it a serious economics monograph. But its very readable and easy on the brain. Its makes the case for economics as a social science and pushes the links say between psychology and economics and perhaps makes the discipline less of a dismal science. I liked it too for avoiding jargon and avoiding mathematical modelling.
    • 5/5
      An intelligent and interesting book about the hidden economic forces which affect everyone from prostitutes through voters to racists... Great!
    • 4/5
      This book's central premise is that people generally make rational choices about everything from which car to buy to whether or not to practice safe sex. Author Tim Harford defines the word "rational" in this context very carefully: it means that people respond to perceived incentives and disincentives in ways that ought to work to their personal benefit. For example, if Toyotas become more expensive (or, I suppose, less safe!), people become more likely to buy Hondas instead. And people who personally know someone with AIDS are more likely to avoid risky sexual practices. Harford's claim is that this kind of decision-making -- lots and lots of people making sensible choices in their own personal interests based on what they see in the world around them -- can lead to large-scale consequences that don't seem good or rational at all -- things like racially segregated neighborhoods or ridiculously high bonuses for corporate CEOs.I find some of Harford's specific arguments fairly persuasive and others much less so. In at least one case, I have to question whether it's even appropriate to frame the issue in economic terms. All of the book's discussions are interesting, though, and they're provocative in what I think is mostly a good way. And I did appreciate the fact that he is careful not to overestimate human rationality -- he stresses the fact that the assumption that people are rational is only a useful approximation. He also, thank goodness, never mistakes explaining the negative aspects of society with excusing them.
    • 4/5
      Very good, in a similar vein to his first. I thought there were quite a few interesting ideas and I must say that the length of this book was just right - having just finished it, I'm not so tired of the subject that I don't want to go and have a good think about it!
    • 5/5
      In his tongue in cheek style, Tim Harford explains why Economics is logic of life. A recommended reading for everyone along with his previous book (Undercover Economist), in order, for everyone.
    • 4/5
      This was a very fascinating book that looks at many facets of human history from an economist's point of view. I always appreciate the social scientific side of economics than the financial one. The author did a great job keeping the reader engaged and interested.
    • 4/5
      Well-written, but the writer's style was a little annoying (clearly, he "knows everything").
    • 5/5
      Revealing surprising, optimistic, well-argued, and funny. Cities are the centres of creativity & wealth (no surprise) but also of efficiency, ecological efficiency and tax revenue. How minorities (eg farmers in rich countries, ) bag all the cream: it's not worth any individual's while to try to change things. How Malthus proved wrong just as he published: population take-off produces invention and productivity take-off. Lovely mix of data from classroom experiments to socioeconomic large scale surveys and where it's shaky or speculative he comes clean about it. I'm a long term fan of his Radio 4 stuff ("More or less"). His underlying thesis - we are "rational", even unconsciously so, is totally convincing and rather cheering. It is quite distinct from "homo economicus", an academic abstraction rightly derided. Why can't more economists write like this!