Just when you think Freakonomics is freaky enough, the authors of Freakonomics have a new book due out later this year which guarantess to freak you out more. It is called Superfreakonomics.
The publisher's page for the book is here.
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
A Good Book, Overconsumption and Really Big Firms
I am half way through Justin Fox's excellent book on the development of the idea of efficient financial market "The Myth of the Rational Market."
A line on page 157 caught my eye:
"Galbraith(Gary's note: he is referring to Harvard economist John Galbraith)...likened American corporate executives to Soviet apparatchiks: the bureaucratic administrators of a vast system geared toward overconsumption and waste."
Galbraith of couse is concerned about the bigness of some American enterprises. But it is totally wrong-headed to compare such large corporations in the US with those giant sized SOEs found in the former Soviet Union. To see where Galbraith went wrong, just think that the size of a firm in the US is a result of competition, not imposed from above as some divine order by the planners at the top of the Soviet government. To miss this point leads one to question Galbraith's understanding of basic economics.
More generally, the Institutionalists of which Galbraith belong worry that economic theory which has been built upon a period where firm sizes are small would not be applicable to a situation where firm sizes are large. So they are worry about the divergeent of interests between managers and shareholders. True. But if they just go a step further, based upon the economic theory the applicability of which they questioned, they should see the conflict between managers and shareholders also implies an opportunity for someone to figure out a profitable way to resolve such conflict. There is a five dollar bill on the sidewalk as they say. Indeed, the emergence of the market for corporate control and institutional investors where shares of publicly listed firms are once again concentrated in a few hands are attempts to resolve such conflict in a profitable manner.
I have always found the attack on capitalism for its encouragement of over-consumption puzzling?
Who set the dividing line beyond which consumption becomes excessive? God? Or John Galbraith or some other government official? And what's wrong with over consumption? If the person in question places a higher value on the stuff he or she consumes than the rest of the society, what's wrong if her or his consumption level exceeds the dividing line? Of course, I realize there are a lot of objectives other than attaining the best use of resources, but those ain't and should not be part of the research focus of economists in my humble opinion.
A line on page 157 caught my eye:
"Galbraith(Gary's note: he is referring to Harvard economist John Galbraith)...likened American corporate executives to Soviet apparatchiks: the bureaucratic administrators of a vast system geared toward overconsumption and waste."
Galbraith of couse is concerned about the bigness of some American enterprises. But it is totally wrong-headed to compare such large corporations in the US with those giant sized SOEs found in the former Soviet Union. To see where Galbraith went wrong, just think that the size of a firm in the US is a result of competition, not imposed from above as some divine order by the planners at the top of the Soviet government. To miss this point leads one to question Galbraith's understanding of basic economics.
More generally, the Institutionalists of which Galbraith belong worry that economic theory which has been built upon a period where firm sizes are small would not be applicable to a situation where firm sizes are large. So they are worry about the divergeent of interests between managers and shareholders. True. But if they just go a step further, based upon the economic theory the applicability of which they questioned, they should see the conflict between managers and shareholders also implies an opportunity for someone to figure out a profitable way to resolve such conflict. There is a five dollar bill on the sidewalk as they say. Indeed, the emergence of the market for corporate control and institutional investors where shares of publicly listed firms are once again concentrated in a few hands are attempts to resolve such conflict in a profitable manner.
I have always found the attack on capitalism for its encouragement of over-consumption puzzling?
Who set the dividing line beyond which consumption becomes excessive? God? Or John Galbraith or some other government official? And what's wrong with over consumption? If the person in question places a higher value on the stuff he or she consumes than the rest of the society, what's wrong if her or his consumption level exceeds the dividing line? Of course, I realize there are a lot of objectives other than attaining the best use of resources, but those ain't and should not be part of the research focus of economists in my humble opinion.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Nice Cover
A soon to be released book named In Fed We Trust has a really nicely
designed cover. You can pre-order the book here.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Books I Have Been Reading
1. Animal Spirits by Yale's Bob Shiller and Nobel Laurate George Akerlof.
2. The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner. I am more and more interested in the behavioral aspects of economics, though I do not necessarily suscribe to their policy prescriptions.
3. Bernanke's Test by the same guy who wrote a book on Chicago School of Economics.
2. The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner. I am more and more interested in the behavioral aspects of economics, though I do not necessarily suscribe to their policy prescriptions.
3. Bernanke's Test by the same guy who wrote a book on Chicago School of Economics.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
Books I Plan On Getting
1. The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity The author Russ Roberts was a former student of Milton Friedman and the author of earlier economic novels like the Invisible Heart and the Choice.
2. Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit. Author Ed Browning is an expert in public finance.
3. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It. No, this is not simply another I told you so kind of book, it is by Bob Shiller, who wrote the Irrational Exuberance a couple of years back.
4. The Best Book on the Market: How to stop worrying and love the free economy by E Butler.
5. Fixing Global Finance by Martin Wolf, the FT columnist.
6. Morals and Markets: An Evolutionary Account of the Modern World by Dan Friedman.
My friend Ming talked about his disappointment of the annual book fair in Hong Kong here. In general I am in total agreement with him. But this year it is a bit different, I got Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States for HK$ 30. And the book is in EXCELLENT CONDITION.
The apparent missing of prestigious mainland publishers is what really upsets me at the bookfairs in recent years.
And also Ming, I do not know you are interested in learning more about economic history, otherwise I would recommend David Lande's Weath and Poverty of Nations, Eric Jones' European Miracle , Ken Pomeranz's the Great Divergence, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and Greg Clark's Farewell to Alms.
2. Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit. Author Ed Browning is an expert in public finance.
3. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It. No, this is not simply another I told you so kind of book, it is by Bob Shiller, who wrote the Irrational Exuberance a couple of years back.
4. The Best Book on the Market: How to stop worrying and love the free economy by E Butler.
5. Fixing Global Finance by Martin Wolf, the FT columnist.
6. Morals and Markets: An Evolutionary Account of the Modern World by Dan Friedman.
My friend Ming talked about his disappointment of the annual book fair in Hong Kong here. In general I am in total agreement with him. But this year it is a bit different, I got Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States for HK$ 30. And the book is in EXCELLENT CONDITION.
The apparent missing of prestigious mainland publishers is what really upsets me at the bookfairs in recent years.
And also Ming, I do not know you are interested in learning more about economic history, otherwise I would recommend David Lande's Weath and Poverty of Nations, Eric Jones' European Miracle , Ken Pomeranz's the Great Divergence, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and Greg Clark's Farewell to Alms.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Behavioral Economics = Freudian Pyschology ?
"Self-help books are among the hottest sales items in your favorite book store, right after Gothic novels and cookbooks. Many people are dissatisfied with their lives and don't quite know why. Self-help interpretations claim they offer helpful psychological insight, but do they? Freud gave us the quite valuable notions of id, ego, and superego, but also the quack notions of penis envy and oedipal complex. Later generations of self-help pop psychologists turned Freud into a cash cow of dangeriously overused but highly fashionable slogans, such as psychosomatic illness, inferiority complex, repressed memory, childhood trauma, and hysterical conversion syndrome.
Freudian psychology is just about dead in the self-help arena, but now we have a new contender for leader of the pop psychology: behavioral economics. (My emphasis) Ariely's is one of several new books that take the experimental results of the past quarter century and turn them into self-help. The main message is that we are irrational, but if we understand and correct for this, we can overcome our irrationality and improve our lives. "We are pawns in a game whose forces we largely fail to comprehend," says Ariely. "Although irrationality is commonplace," he continues, "it does not necessarily mean that we are helpless. Once we understand when and where we may make erroneous decisions, we can try to be vigilant." (p. 243)
Like Freudian psychology, behavioral economics gives us a few critically important insights, including hyperbolic discounting, excessive pattern-finding, loss aversion, status quo bias, and innate altruistic cooperation and punishment. However, just as Freud was mostly wrong (and therapeutically a high-maintenance disaster), so is behavioral economics, although I doubt that people will be paying $200 per hour to sit on a couch with a behavioral economics therapist."
That is H Gintis reviewing the book Predictably Irrational, more here (scroll down a bit and you will see it). Strangely enough , soon after writing this review, the same Gintis has a five-star review on the book Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein, also on behavioral economics.
Freudian psychology is just about dead in the self-help arena, but now we have a new contender for leader of the pop psychology: behavioral economics. (My emphasis) Ariely's is one of several new books that take the experimental results of the past quarter century and turn them into self-help. The main message is that we are irrational, but if we understand and correct for this, we can overcome our irrationality and improve our lives. "We are pawns in a game whose forces we largely fail to comprehend," says Ariely. "Although irrationality is commonplace," he continues, "it does not necessarily mean that we are helpless. Once we understand when and where we may make erroneous decisions, we can try to be vigilant." (p. 243)
Like Freudian psychology, behavioral economics gives us a few critically important insights, including hyperbolic discounting, excessive pattern-finding, loss aversion, status quo bias, and innate altruistic cooperation and punishment. However, just as Freud was mostly wrong (and therapeutically a high-maintenance disaster), so is behavioral economics, although I doubt that people will be paying $200 per hour to sit on a couch with a behavioral economics therapist."
That is H Gintis reviewing the book Predictably Irrational, more here (scroll down a bit and you will see it). Strangely enough , soon after writing this review, the same Gintis has a five-star review on the book Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein, also on behavioral economics.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Books, More Books and I Have Started Reading Some of Them
1) I got this at a bookstore in Central, Hong Kong last weekend, although Amazon said it has not been published. I have just finished reading the first chapter and have begun the 2nd, so far so good and it actually cites Armen Alchian in the first chapter. The author is a physics professor at Caltech.
2) A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World.
3) Harry G Johnson: A Life In Economics. And yes, he was the guy where legend has it that he could finish writing a paper during a plane ride over the Atlantic (he held position both at LSE and Chicago). Rumour has it that George Stigler once responded to the question why he did not get as many published papers as Johnson, the guy down the hall, and George's answer was: Yeah but mine are different.
4) The latest edition of Peter Kennedy, an excellent, indispensable reference on the concepts behind econometrics for dummy like me.
2) A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World.
3) Harry G Johnson: A Life In Economics. And yes, he was the guy where legend has it that he could finish writing a paper during a plane ride over the Atlantic (he held position both at LSE and Chicago). Rumour has it that George Stigler once responded to the question why he did not get as many published papers as Johnson, the guy down the hall, and George's answer was: Yeah but mine are different.
4) The latest edition of Peter Kennedy, an excellent, indispensable reference on the concepts behind econometrics for dummy like me.
Books on Antitrust
A good friend of mine, Ming, asked me to recommend a couple of books on the topic of Antitrust. Here's my list:
For Antitrust Law in General
1) Dick Ponser, Antitrust Law, 2nd edition, U of Chicago Press.
2) Herbert Hovenkamp, The Antitrust Enterprise: Principle and Execution, Harvard U Press.
3) Bob Bork, The Antitrust Paradox, Free Press. A bit dated, but still the book to go to for standard reference.
4) Massimo Motto, Competition Policy: Theory and Practice, Cambridge U Press.
5) Keith Hylton, Antitrust Law: Economic Theory and Common Law Evolution, Cambridge U Press.
For Public Choice Perspective
6) Bill Shughart, Antitrust Policy and Interest Group Politics, Quorum Press.
7) Fred McChesney and Bill Shughart edited, The Causes and Consequences of Antitrust: The Public Choice Perspective, U of Chicago Press.
For Austrian Perspective
8) Dominick Armentano, Antitrust and Monopoly, Independent Institute.
For Textbook Treatment
9) Roger Sherman, Market Regulation, Addison Wesley.
10) Roger Blair etal. Antitrust Economics, Oxford U Press.
For Antitrust Law in General
1) Dick Ponser, Antitrust Law, 2nd edition, U of Chicago Press.
2) Herbert Hovenkamp, The Antitrust Enterprise: Principle and Execution, Harvard U Press.
3) Bob Bork, The Antitrust Paradox, Free Press. A bit dated, but still the book to go to for standard reference.
4) Massimo Motto, Competition Policy: Theory and Practice, Cambridge U Press.
5) Keith Hylton, Antitrust Law: Economic Theory and Common Law Evolution, Cambridge U Press.
For Public Choice Perspective
6) Bill Shughart, Antitrust Policy and Interest Group Politics, Quorum Press.
7) Fred McChesney and Bill Shughart edited, The Causes and Consequences of Antitrust: The Public Choice Perspective, U of Chicago Press.
For Austrian Perspective
8) Dominick Armentano, Antitrust and Monopoly, Independent Institute.
For Textbook Treatment
9) Roger Sherman, Market Regulation, Addison Wesley.
10) Roger Blair etal. Antitrust Economics, Oxford U Press.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Recent Books on Spontaneous Order
A reader asked me to recommend a couple of recent books on spontaneous order. To me, the term spontaneous order is a way to conceptualize the interaction of people in the market place according to some ground rules. If you accept that definition, all books explaining how market works are also books on the topic of spontaneous order.
Some of my recommendations are (they are all written for non-specialists):
1) Origin of Wealth
2) The Mind of the Market
3) Basic Economics
4) Economics Facts and Fallacies
5) Freedomomics
6) The Wisdom of Crowds
Some of my recommendations are (they are all written for non-specialists):
1) Origin of Wealth
2) The Mind of the Market
3) Basic Economics
4) Economics Facts and Fallacies
5) Freedomomics
6) The Wisdom of Crowds
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Game Theory You Can Use
So you like Thinking Strategically for its user-friendly, almost jargon free writing style? Then probably you would also like its sequel The Art of Strategy due out this summer. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Want to Know More About India?
I know, there simply are too many books about India these days, and you are sick and tired of reading any more of them. Don't worry, I will only recommend books written by legi folks.
Three titles on India you want to have are:
1) Billions of Entrepreneurs:How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours by Harvard Business School professor T. Khanna. Here is a review of the book in Businessweek.
2) India: An Emerging Giant by Columbia U professor Arvind Panagariya. Here is what Free Trade guru Jagdish Bhagwati said about the book:
'Arvind Panagariya has produced a truly monumental, wide-ranging and penetrating work on the Indian economy. A tour de horizon and a tour de force--it will establish him as the most insightful economist writing on India today."
Here is a short commentary by the author on why India lags behind China in development.
3) In Spite of Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by former US Secretary of Treaury Larry Summers' speech writer and journalist Edward Luce.
Three titles on India you want to have are:
1) Billions of Entrepreneurs:How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours by Harvard Business School professor T. Khanna. Here is a review of the book in Businessweek.
2) India: An Emerging Giant by Columbia U professor Arvind Panagariya. Here is what Free Trade guru Jagdish Bhagwati said about the book:
'Arvind Panagariya has produced a truly monumental, wide-ranging and penetrating work on the Indian economy. A tour de horizon and a tour de force--it will establish him as the most insightful economist writing on India today."
Here is a short commentary by the author on why India lags behind China in development.
3) In Spite of Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by former US Secretary of Treaury Larry Summers' speech writer and journalist Edward Luce.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Oxford's Short Introduction Series
Oxford has published a series of short introductory books on various topics, I have read one of them called Political Philosophy, and it's pretty good.
Other books in the series I have purchased but have not read include Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction (by Ken Binmore, yes the guy who actually designed the scheme of auction for UK's 3 G license) and Economics: A Very Short Introduction. And David Warsh up at Economic Principals has a very positive review on the latter book.
Other books in the series I have purchased but have not read include Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction (by Ken Binmore, yes the guy who actually designed the scheme of auction for UK's 3 G license) and Economics: A Very Short Introduction. And David Warsh up at Economic Principals has a very positive review on the latter book.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Finally, a Popular Book on Behavioral Economics
It's called Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely at MIT.
Advance praise from George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics:
“Predictably Irrational is wildly original. It shows why–much more often than we usually care to admit–humans make foolish, and sometimes disastrous, mistakes. Ariely not only gives us a great read; he also makes us much wiser.”
Here is a page dedicated to the book, stay tuned!
Advance praise from George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics:
“Predictably Irrational is wildly original. It shows why–much more often than we usually care to admit–humans make foolish, and sometimes disastrous, mistakes. Ariely not only gives us a great read; he also makes us much wiser.”
Here is a page dedicated to the book, stay tuned!
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Notable Books For January 2008
1. A book on prediction market for the layman.
2. How Judges Think by Judge Richard Ponser.
3. Tom Sowell's new book Economic Facts and Fallacies. Thanks to my old friend Dennis Chan for informing me about the existence of this title over dinner tonight.
4. Game Theory, part of the A Very Short Introduction series from the Oxford University Press by game theory master Ken Binmore.
2. How Judges Think by Judge Richard Ponser.
3. Tom Sowell's new book Economic Facts and Fallacies. Thanks to my old friend Dennis Chan for informing me about the existence of this title over dinner tonight.
4. Game Theory, part of the A Very Short Introduction series from the Oxford University Press by game theory master Ken Binmore.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
A Revisionist History of Yuan Shikai's Attempt to Resurrect Monarchy
This is the book I am reading right now, highly recommended. The author is not as harsh on Yuan Shikai's attempt to revive monarchy as older historians.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Bottom Billion
The Bottom Billion has been picked by the Economist as one of the books of the year 2007.
The Economist's review of the book wrote:
Its author, Paul Collier, an Oxford economics professor, has spent 30-odd years puzzling mainly over sub-Saharan Africa and trying to work out why so many of its 48 countries have become basket cases. Crammed with statistical nuggets and common sense, his book should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the hitherto thankless business of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty where the “bottom billion” of the world's population of 6.6 billion seem irredeemably stuck.
Here is another positive review from Martin Wolf at FT.
Just when you plan to rush out and buy the book, first read what another economic guru on Africa Bill Easterly has to say about the book:
More here.
The Economist's review of the book wrote:
Its author, Paul Collier, an Oxford economics professor, has spent 30-odd years puzzling mainly over sub-Saharan Africa and trying to work out why so many of its 48 countries have become basket cases. Crammed with statistical nuggets and common sense, his book should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the hitherto thankless business of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty where the “bottom billion” of the world's population of 6.6 billion seem irredeemably stuck.
Here is another positive review from Martin Wolf at FT.
Just when you plan to rush out and buy the book, first read what another economic guru on Africa Bill Easterly has to say about the book:
With such a statistical muddle, to remake other societies on the basis of what numbers flicker across Oxford computer screens is at best hubris, and at worst irresponsibility. If Collier’s statistical analysis does not hold up under scrutiny, unfortunately,then his recommendations are not a reliable guide for deploying foreignaid, technical assistance, or armies.
Economists should not be allowed toplay games with statistics, much less with guns.
More here.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
In Defence of Monoply?!
Is monopoly worth defending, these two economists say yes in this forthcoming book. And here is what Gordon Tullock has to say about the book.
"Denouncing monopolies is a standard part of most elementary economics courses. These two authors are attempting to start a revolution by arguing that permitting people introduced new products to have a monopoly even if the creation is not patentable. At first this seemed simply bizarre, but reading the book convinced me they were right. This is one of the many cases where governments have gone astray. This is, however, unusual in that most economists have made the same error. They changed my mind. In view of the strength of their arguments and their clear reasoning I anticipate a revolution in teaching economics. It should also make a revolution in the thinking of many economists."--- Gordon Tullock, University Professor of Law and Economics, George Mason University
"Denouncing monopolies is a standard part of most elementary economics courses. These two authors are attempting to start a revolution by arguing that permitting people introduced new products to have a monopoly even if the creation is not patentable. At first this seemed simply bizarre, but reading the book convinced me they were right. This is one of the many cases where governments have gone astray. This is, however, unusual in that most economists have made the same error. They changed my mind. In view of the strength of their arguments and their clear reasoning I anticipate a revolution in teaching economics. It should also make a revolution in the thinking of many economists."--- Gordon Tullock, University Professor of Law and Economics, George Mason University
Monday, November 19, 2007
Logic of Life
Logic of Life is the title of a forthcoming book by Tim Harford, the author of the Undercover Economist. More info here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)