“Open your mind before your mouth” - Aristophanes
Recommended Reading List
ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT BOOKS
Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed - a great book for any budding E&M applicant, giving you lots of interesting insights into both success and failure of businesses. Marginal gains, cognitive dissonance, failure, feedback - understand why they are so pivotal.
Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas is a must read for E&M applicants. Why are some companies and organisations more creative and innovative than others? The role of cognitive diversity, the outsider perspective, immigrants - this book will give you insights into team dynamics, leadership styles, and firm hierarchies.
Written by a Harvard Professor, Christensen’s book The Innovator’s Dilemma is considered to be a classic of the genre, and will definitely help illuminate a budding E&M pupil. This book will give you some actual concepts and models from the world of E&M that you can discuss intelligently, that will move your understanding from the vague to one which begins to adopt a clear framework in this discipline - understand ‘disruptive technologies’ and S-curves in innovation, for example.
Who Gets What and Why?
Nobel-prize winner Al Roth’s incredibly accessible book is a great read. Suitable for all beginners in Economics, it explains the true power of Economics. If a prospective economist does not find the matching markets analysis interesting, it is unlikely much else will grab their attention in this field! A great introductory read.
Factfulness
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Talking to my daughter about the economy
Varoufakis’ book is told almost like an allegory… it is totally accessible, if at times a little over-simplistic; but an easy read for people who want to understand some of the ideas behind economic issues. Target audience I would say is first or second year of GCSE.
Invisible Women
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Economics: The User’s Guide
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Open Borders
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Prisoners of Geography
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Economics for the Common Good
A great book for those who wish to discuss the real power of Economics. On a par with Nudge, and Why Gets What and Why, this book is a must-read for those wishing to pursue Economics to undergraduate level. It covers the force for good that Economics can be in engaging with the many challenges facing society, helping to identify our key objectives and the tools needed to meet them, including global warming, unemployment, the post-2008 global financial order, the Euro crisis, the digital revolution, innovation, and the proper balance between the free market and regulation.
A Little History of Economics
Unfortunately, Economic History is being reduced in syllabuses up and down the country, but for students of Economics to really understand the world of today, they need to understand the world of yesterday. This great book is very accessible to those wanting to learn, as the author so eloquently puts it, a little history of Economics!
Why Nations Fail
Useful for all humanities students, but in particular PPEists to read Acemoglu and Robinson’s book. It covers the key role that inclusive and extractive institutions play in a country’s development trajectory.
The Choice Factory
Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built
Poor Economics
One of the best development books I have ever read - a must-read for budding development economists. Duflo and Banerjee were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work in this field, and you can watch their inspiring lecture here.
Upstarts
Written by Brad Stone, a great introduction to Management pupils about the changing nature of technology and its impact on business models, from Uber to Airbnb. If you enjoy this, The Everything Store is worth a read too.
What Money Can’t Buy
A classic book to read by Michael Sandel, to encourage pupils to think past their A-level understanding and teachings of the role of free markets. Great for PPEists!