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The Undercover Economist

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The Undercover Economist

Written by: Tim Harford
Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
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About this listen

 Author of the extremely popular "Dear Economist" column in Financial Times, Tim Harford reveals the economics behind everyday phenomena in this highly entertaining and informative book. Can a book about economics be fun to read? It can when Harford takes the reins, using his trademark wit to explain why it costs an arm and a leg to buy a cappuccino and why it's nearly impossible to purchase a decent used car. Supermarkets, coffee houses, airlines, insurance companies, and more are sucking money from our wallets. To protect ourselves and our bank accounts, we must better understand why companies do what they do.©2006 Tim Harford (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC. Economics

What the critics say

"The book is unequaled in its accessibility and ability to show how free market economic forces affect readers' day-to-day." (Publishers Weekly)
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Well written, very engaging intro the basics of economics; but the narration is way too "breathy". Suprised this was not sorted inthe studio.

I wish Tim Harford had narrated this

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Performance = I can forgive the cringe-inducing very fake British accent, but hearing every breath is frustrating. They need to re-edit this.
Content = An extremely outdated overview on microeconomics that carries many plainly wrong assumptions about consumer behaviour. It's like Microeconomics 101 from 2001 - all about free markets, free trade, and perfectly rational actors.
There is an entire chapter where he seems shocked to learn about extremely basic price strategies from marketers (wow, putting expensive food in high-end supermarkets, who would've thought!)
TLDR; Mostly extremely basic econ theory (supply & demand pricing) or outdated, often incorrect takes on consumer pricing and microeconomics.

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