The Economics of Life: From Baseball to Affirmative Action to Immigration, How Real-World Issues Affect Our Everyday Life - Softcover

Becker, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0070067090 ISBN 13: 9780070067097

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 1998

Synopsis

From economics Nobel Laureate Gary Becker and historian Guity Nashat Becker comes this collection of the economist's popular BusinessWeek columns. These 138 essays have fueled numerous debates, touching on hot-button issues from crime to organization of sports. The Beckers' surprising--and uncompromising--positions on drugs ("legalize them"), immigration ("auction off immigration slots"), welfare ("curtail it sharply"), and other topics provide a provocative commentary on our times.

About this title

Review:

"The great majority of people are more rational and make fewer mistakes in promoting their own interests than even well-intentioned government officials," writes this impressive couple (Gary won the 1992 Nobel Prize for Economics). The short, column-length essays that make up this volume first appeared in Business Week magazine and show for a popular audience how market incentives influence human behavior in countless ways. The Beckers criticize centralized planning, racial quotas and trade tariffs, and endorse drug legalization, privatized social security and school vouchers. They also veer into unexpected terrain, addressing religion, sports and marriage with keen insight.

From the Publisher:

Gary S. Becker won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1992 for his theory of "economic reasoning." Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago, Becker writes a monthly column for Business Week, is a frequent editorialist for The Wall Street Journal, and is a regular guest on such television programs as The McNeil-Lehrer Report and Adam SmithÕs Money World. Guity Nashat Becker is Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Fellow of the Hoover Institution, and a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism. She has written several books and appeared on many TV and radio programs. The Beckers live in Chicago.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0070067090
• ISBN 13: 9780070067097
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352