Monday, 11 September 2006
The economics popularizing book Hidden Order by David Friedman is best read after the several other more elementary ones, such as Naked Economics, so that the basic concepts are settled. Otherwise, this is a fantastic set of ideas about daily issues all around us.
Let me emphasize again. This book is intermediate level, and rearrange many elementary concepts that may confuse the novice. The earlier chapters led me realize for the first time the importance of Ricardo's work, of using Individual indifference curves to connect so many fundamental concepts, such as value, cost, price, marginal value, etc.
For contents, see the author's own page.
He first go through the concepts needed to construct a simple economy, like a toy model for a physicist. Then he consider the complications in the real world, such as game theory, monopoly, etc. There are lots of small fun examples, such as how a movie theatre should charge for popcorns and tickets. The final section are thoughtful, on political market place, rational criminals, and the economics of marriage compared to economics of having multiple cars. Only registered users can write comments.
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