Tim Harford
Tim Harford is a British economist. He is a columnist for the Financial Times, a presenter of the BBC radio series More or Less, an occasional TV presenter and prolific author. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to improving economic understanding.
Books by Tim Harford
The Truth Detective: How to Make Sense of a World That Doesn't Add Up
Tim Harford, Ollie Mann (illustrator)
This is an excellent book to help children learn to analyse information and think about how we interpret data. To appeal to kids, the book features ‘truth detectives’ and ‘truth villains’, but the topics are of interest to older readers as well. Concepts include confirmation bias, correlation versus causation, and the need to keep asking questions (for example, are the two things being compared equivalent; is there anything which is not being shown?). The Truth Detective engages young readers by asking them questions, and there are plenty of illustrations.
Ages 9-12
The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics
by Tim Harford
***One of the best books on critical thinking, recommended by Nigel Warburton***
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics," said Benjamin Disraeli (according to Mark Twain, anyway), in what has become one of the most well-known quotations in the English language, and certainly the only one most of us know about statistics. And yet...in practice many of us continue to be misled by them on a daily basis. In The Data Detective (called How to Make the World Add Up in the UK), British economist Tim Harford tries to equip us with tools to take on the latest misinformation.
We've also interviewed Tim, a Financial Times columnist and BBC Radio and TV presenter, about books on two topics: Unexpected Economics (including a comic book) and the best Introductions to Economics.
The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run or Ruin an Economy
by Tim Harford
"By the end of writing that book, I was a little bit in love with macro. I thought, ‘Okay. I understand even though macroeconomists have made all these mistakes and even though the subject often seems highly mathematical and seems to have all these flaws, there is a reason why they do the things they do. It’s not just because they’re a bunch of crazy people. There is a logic and they do have some achievements, and there is a certain sort of beauty to the almost impossible task of trying to understand the macroeconomy.’"—Tim Harford
The Undercover Economist
by Tim Harford
Tim Harford simply explains the fundamental principles of the modern economy, illuminating the economic concepts with real life examples.
Interviews with Tim Harford
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1
Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life
by Avinash Dixit & Barry Nalebuff -
2
Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible
by William Goetzmann -
3
Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life
by David Friedman -
4
The Truth About Markets: Why Some Nations are Rich But Most Remain Poor
by John Kay -
5
Grand Pursuit: The Story of the People Who Made Modern Economics
by Sylvia Nasar
The Best Introductions to Economics, recommended by Tim Harford
The Best Introductions to Economics, recommended by Tim Harford
Nearly every aspect of our life is determined by economics, and yet it’s easy to go through life understanding very little about it. Author and columnist Tim Harford (aka the ‘Undercover Economist’) introduces the best books to get you thinking like an economist.
Unexpected Economics Books, recommended by Tim Harford
You can find economics lessons in the most unlikely places, including the virtual world of computer games, says Tim Harford, author of a number of economics books aimed at the general public. He recommends five books that you wouldn’t necessarily expect on a list of popular economics books, but nonetheless contain important lessons.
