Economics Reading
The Social Instinct
Author: Dr Nichola Raihani
Economics is full of the idea of pursuit of self-interest. But is that actually the way to pursue the greater good?
Why cooperate ? This may be the most important scientific question we have ever, and will ever, face.
The science of cooperation tells us not only how we got here, but also where we might end up. Cooperation explains how strands of DNA gave rise to modern-day nation states. It defines our extraordinary ecological success as well as many of the most surprising features of what make us human
Suitability:Age 15+
Who Gets What And Why.
Author: Al Roth
Suitability: 15-16 years old. Perfect for those in their first term of Economics or indeed earlier!
A superb accessible introduction by Economics Nobel-prize winner Al Roth to the real power of Economics as a discipline. One for all budding economists.
Covers fascinating areas of economics such as the dynamics of Matching Markets and allows strong economists to see a world beyond ‘conventional’ markets such as kidney donations, where price is not the best way of allocating resources.
A must-read for those who want to hit the ground running in the subject!
The Entrepreneurial State
Author: Mariana Mazzucato
Suitability: 16+
Voted as one of the best business books of the year in 2013 by the FT, this book is excellent to challenge the assumption that is taught often to young people that free markets work best and innovation comes from private enterprise. This book gives lots of examples (iPhone, GPS, Siri!) where economic success is a result of public and state-funded investments in innovation and technology, rather than a result of the small state, free market doctrine that often receives credit. Strongly recommended!
The Mission Economy
Author: Mariana Mazzucato
Suitability: 16+
Yet to read this one, but really looking forward to it already! Off the back of the Entrepreneurial State above, we already recommend this as a follow-up!
Economics For The Common Good
Author: Jean Tirole
A good build-up from Al Roth’s book. Jean Tirole another Nobel-prize winning economist this time writing on the power of where Economics can be used for good. More advanced in tone than Who Gets What And Why, so more suitable for those who have a couple of terms of Economics under their belt.
Suitability: 17+
The Methodology of Positive Economics
Suitability: Oxbridge-applicants only
A classic issue with economic models are all the assumptions that exist. This famous essay by Milton Friedman explores the criteria to judge an economic model. The essay posits Friedman's famous, but controversial, principle that assumptions need not be "realistic" to serve as scientific hypotheses; they merely need to make significant predictions. Read it here.
Inside the Economist’s Mind
Authors: Paul Samuelson and William Barnet
Suitability: Oxbridge-applicants
By focusing on the human side as well as the intellectual dimensions of how economists work and think, this collection of interviews with top economists of the 20th century (from Robert Shiller to Franco Modigliani) gives a great introduction to the modern world of macroeconomics.
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
The same tools that help us understand the random paths of molecules can be applied to the randomness that governs so many aspects of our everyday lives, from winning the lottery to road safety, and reveals the truth about the success of sporting heroes and film stars, and even how to make sense of a blood test.
The Drunkard's Walk reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting - read it, or risk becoming another victim of chance.
Author: Ed Conway
What exactly is a credit crunch? Why do footballers earn so much more than the rest of us? Which country is likely to be the world's leading economy in 10 years' time?
Edmund Conway introduces and explains the central ideas of economics in a series of fifty essays.
Author: Anthony Atkinson
An Economist Best Economics and Business Book of the Year
A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year
Inequality is one of our most urgent social problems. Curbed in the decades after World War II, it has recently returned with a vengeance. We all know the scale of the problem-talk about the 99% and the 1% is entrenched in public debate-but there has been little discussion of what we can do but despair. According to the distinguished economist Anthony Atkinson, however, we can do much more than skeptics imagine.
Suitability: 16+
Invisible Women
Author: Caroline Criado-Perez
A thoroughly enjoyable book to explore all the gender biases, conscious and otherwise, that exist in the world! From designing bus routes, to toilets, this book is full of great examples to illustrate the ideas of poorly designed incentives, markets, and products. This should be compulsory reading for all young exponential minds.
Suitability: Age 15+
What Money Can’t Buy
Author: Michael J Sandel
A-level syllabuses spend a lot of time discussing how markets work and fail, but they stop short of analysing really interesting areas. Michael Sandel’s book expertly takes you through the moral limits of markets. Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? And how do we protect the things that really matter?
Highly recommended both for economists and philosophy students. A great follow-up to Who Gets Why and Why by Al roth.
Suitability: 15+
Authors: Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
Suitability: 16+
Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions that allow virtuous circles of innovation, expansion and peace.
They blend economics, politics, history and current affairs to provide a new, powerful way of understanding wealth and poverty.
A must-read!
Talking To My Daughter About The Economy
Author: Yanis Varoufakis
Suitability: 13+
Why is there so much inequality? In this very accessible book, Yanis Varoufakis sets out to answer his daughter Xenia’s deceptively simple question. Using lots of anecdotal examples, he illuminates the subject of Economics to the econ-curious. A good introduction to the subject.
The Cost Disease
Author: William Baumol et al.
Why computers get cheaper and health care doesn't: Baumol identifies the "cost disease" as a major source of rapidly rising costs in service sectors of the economy. Once we understand that disease, he explains, effective responses become apparent. A good read for those who want to delve deeper into economic forces that can breed inequality.
Suitability: 16+
Author: Jonathan Portes
What really is capitalism? Does it mean greed is good? Are inequality and poverty its inevitable consequences? Can economic growth continue forever or are constant cycles of boom and bust a foregone conclusion? Indeed is capitalism in a fatal crisis - and what, if any, are the alternatives?
Author: Nassim Taleb
What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper?
This book is all about Black Swans: the random events that underlie our lives, from bestsellers to world disasters. Their impact is huge; they're impossible to predict; yet after they happen we always try to rationalise them.
Suitability: 15+
Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy
Author: Tim Harford
A great pithy analysis of…. well, 50 things that made the modern economy! From TV Dinners to the Pill, this excellent book will get you thinking about the power of the simplest ideas to transform outcomes. It’s a great book for a non-technical way of ruminating over how society works and what drives it forward. Easy to dip in and out of!
Suitability: 14+
Author: Linda Yueh
A Times Best Business Book of 2018
What can the ideas of history's greatest economists tell us about the most important issues of our time?
' The best place to start to learn about the very greatest economists of all time
Suitability: 16+
The Undercover Economist
Author: Tim Harford
Suitability: 13+
A great introductory book into how the economist’s mind works - how economists look at the world through a particular lens. This book will open your eyes as to the power of economic thinking to every day life and will undoubtedly get you hooked. Be wary though - it is not a book you will put on an Oxbridge Personal Statement, but rather a book to introduce you to the magic of the economist’s way of thinking. The subject matter is very different to what you will actually study as an undergraduate! But is a great stepping stone in your early days.
Doughnut Economics
Author: Kate Raworth
Suitability: 15+
For those of you interested in environmental economics, geography, climate change (which should arguable be all of us!): Kate Raworth offers seven ways of rethinking how economists think about the world.
From extreme wealth inequality to pollution, something needs to change in the way we approach the world.
She offers a radical re-envisioning of the system that has brought us to the point of ruin, to a new approach to live within ‘The Doughnut’.
This book captures the zeitgeist of today, especially since COVID-19 hit and is highly recommended reading as cities around the world begin to adopt her Doughnut policies.
Authors: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Suitability: 16+
Winners of the Economics Nobel prize in 2019, this book is a superb book for any young economist interested in development economics, poverty reduction, economic development. The books offers a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty that offers a ringside view of the lives of the world's poorest, and shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.
We strongly recommend this book!
A Brief But Affectionate History of GDP
Author: Diane Coyle
Suitability: 16+
Admittedly, the title does not sound hugely gripping, but this is an excellent (brief) book which covers how GDP (Gross Domestic Product) came about as a key economic metric, and all the flaws and issues with using it as a reflection of a country’s standard of living.
Why did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 per cent on one day in mid-2013–or Ghana’s balloon by 60 per cent overnight in 2010? Is more always better?
If you enjoy this, a good follow-up would be Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth.