The Logic of Life : The Rational Economics of an Irrational World

Harford, Tim

ISBN 10: 0385663870 / ISBN 13: 9780385663878

Published by Bond Street Books, 2008

About this Item

Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.

Seller Inventory # 486610-6

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Logic of Life : The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
• Publisher: Bond Street Books
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385663870
• ISBN 13: 9780385663878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First.
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 1.076 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

In The Logic of Life, bestselling author Tim Harford quite simply makes sense of this world.

Life often seems to defy logic. The receptionist is clearly smarter than the boss who earns fifty times her salary. Arbitrary lines starkly divide the desirable districts of the city from the dangerous ones. Voters flock to the polling booths to elect candidates who’ll rip them off to favour special interests. None of it makes logical sense — or does it?

Economist and acclaimed author Tim Harford thinks it does. By weaving stories from locations as diverse as a Vegas casino to a barroom speed date, Harford aims to persuade you that people are, in fact, surprisingly logical.

When a street prostitute agrees to unprotected sex, or a teenage criminal embarks on a burglary — perhaps especially when a racist employer disregards a black job applicant — we would seem to be a million miles from rational behaviour. Harford shows that, discomfitingly, we are not. It turns out that the unlikeliest of people are complying with the logic of economics and responding to future costs and benefits, often without realizing it; and socially tragic outcomes can have their roots in individually rational decisions.

Brilliantly reasoned, always entertaining and often provocative, The Logic of Life is a book to help you understand yourself and the world around you.

About the Author

Tim Harford is the bestselling author of The Undercover Economist, and a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times, where he also writes the “Dear Economist” column. He is a regular contributor to Slate, Forbes, and NPR’s Marketplace. Hartford has been an economist at the World Bank and an economics tutor at Oxford University. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.