Recommended reading (2): Undercover Economists

   In this post, I would like to recommend Tim Hartford’s Undercover Economists to students.
   Mr Hartford is not an academic economist. He is a financial journalist, writing columns in newspapers. Normally I don’t want to read economics books which are not written by scholars in universities. This is because I often doubt if these “laymen” economists are professional enough. They may misinterpret the economic theories and concepts. Their writing skill is often good but their economics understanding is not guaranteed.
   Nonetheless, I heard something about this book from my students in a general-education class (see my past post on this). I think the book tells something interesting. Hence, I gave it a try. Then, I find this book is by and large reliable as an economics book. It does not misinterpret these economics concepts. It basically explains systematically the microeconomics concepts chapter by chapter with many real-world examples. This structure is ideal for students who really want to learn formal economics but find the theories hard to apply. In this book, you can find a lot of applications.
   Besides, this book possesses the advantage of this type of books not written by professional economists − the writing skill is excellent and the stories told are interesting. Being interesting is an important point indeed for students and beginners. Therefore, I am willing to recommend this book although it is not a product of professional economists.