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Without an understanding of economics, it’s difficult to describe the world around us. Economic data can create public policies and lead movements, and a lack of basic understanding can be a real impediment to progress. No one can evaluate data if they don’t know basic best practices, like the fact that one statistic or number (averages included) can’t tell you much. Luckily, gaining a working understanding of economics and data interpretation is possible without having a degree in advanced mathematics.
This list is compiled entirely of works that are digestible for the curious lay reader, and they cover a lot of highly varied ground. Whether you want to learn the history of economics to gain an understanding of how we ended up with the system we have now, or to find out exactly what a free market economist thinks about, we have you covered.
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In his sweeping work The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations, historian and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Jacob Soll charts the development of modern global economics beginning with the dawn of accountancy during the Medici reign. Throughout The Reckoning, Soll guides the reader through well-known historical events and enlightens them on the bookkeeping machinations and clever accounting behind such affairs as the Italian Renaissance, the French Revolution, and the 2008 recession.
Soll writes about not only about the role that accounting plays in global affairs but also how financial transparency and ideas about what financial systems owe the people whom they serve have evolved over time. Less of a technical history and more of a social and political one, The Reckoning is accessible and entertaining enough for casual readers but interesting enough for industry professionals who want to learn about the roots of their profession. Soll opts to focus on Western accountancy and finance, so readers should be aware that this historical account is not internationally comprehensive. That said, the insights provided and the backdrop of nearly 2,000 years of European and American history provide more than enough interest to make The Reckoning a worthwhile read.
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Adam Smith’s 1776 classic is still widely read for good reason. If you want to understand the early theories related to the basic mechanics of economics, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations is the most direct route. The editor’s note included in one version of this historic work explains well why this book is still recommended by so many economists, entrepreneurs, and historians. Editor J.S. Nicholson wrote, “the student should not forget that there is often more to be learned from the mode of attacking a subject of a great writer than from the mere acquirement of the more correct result due to the critical labours of a succession of minds of ordinary capacity.”
Likening it to Newton’s Principia for mathematicians, Nicholson correctly points out the intrinsic value in reading a work such as this, which is at once unequivocally seminal and no longer representative of the full extent of human knowledge on the subject. Still, Smith’s breakdowns of the interactions among labor, commodities, stocks, trade, and taxes provide insights into 18th century economics that remain invaluable to the curious student of economics today.
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When Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, and Ola Rosling set out to write Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things are Better than You Think, they had a specific aim in mind. The trio (a doctor, a software designer, and a statistician) wanted to dispel ignorance about the state of the world, which they found present without exception throughout every class, country, and culture that they studied. Regardless of where their subjects lived or how much education they had, most people tested believed the world to be in a worse situation than it is, based on nearly every conceivable metric.
People believed child mortality rates were higher than they are, that the education of girls was less widespread than it is, and that poverty was getting worse instead of falling by nearly half worldwide, as the data shows. Factfulness became a New York Times Best Seller in part because of the incredible social and economic information that it contains, but it’s also valuable because of the insight that it provides as to why human beings are so negative about the world, why it’s so hard to change minds with data, and what we can all do about it.
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Written by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, MIT professors and winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, Good Economics for Hard Times earned instant attention for its holistic yet data-driven take on economics and policies. The argument put forth by Banerjee and Duflo is that to meet the challenges faced by our world, people must unite across the aisles, end polarization, and make informed decisions based on data. Through explanations and examples, the duo upends many conventionally held thoughts across the political spectrum, such as that illegal immigration hurts the native-born working class (their data shows it doesn’t) or that buying cheap goods from countries without a minimum wage is a moral ill (their data shows workers benefit from such jobs).
In addition to tackling economic efficiency, Banerjee and Duflo offer up their takes on trends in extreme political rhetoric, global warming, job automation, bigotry, the fluidity and logic of diverse preferences, and the need for an economic system that considers the needs of the individual and the good of the whole in appropriate proportions.
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Famed economist and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell has authored more than 30 books on topics related to economics, public policy, history, class, culture, education, and race. A professor with a doctorate from the University of Chicago, Sowell is largely considered to be one of the most influential American economists of the 21st century. In Wealth, Poverty and Politics, Sowell conveys the nuts and bolts of free market economic theory against the backdrop of modern debates on income inequality and public policy, which he argues often underplay the production of wealth as a factor.
Wealth production, Sowell claims with plenty of data in tow, relies on a confluence of complex factors including culture, demographics, and geography. He also points out that many of the policies that set out to help people in poverty fail to do so, in part because of the incorrect (and overly simplistic) assumptions upon which they are built. Using historical events and measurable social trends as examples, Sowell shows the reader how different factors have influenced the economic trajectories of countries and people throughout history, and how they will continue to do so.
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If you want to dip your toes in the water of data, human behavior, and economics, but you also want to enjoy a page-turning ride without tons of business-speak, then Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is the book for you. This controversial New York Times Best Seller was written by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner and originally published in 2005. It has now sold more than 4 million copies and been turned into a movie, making it a much broader-reaching economics book than most, which makes sense since its subject matter goes far beyond traditional economics.
In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics at its most pure form is a study in incentives, in why people (and groups of people) do the things that they do and what the impact of those actions is. Using data to explore commonly held beliefs and trends, Levitt and Dubner show the reader that what seems to be true isn’t always true and that many decisions have unintended consequences. Tackling hot-button topics like whether abortion lowers crime (they say yes) and whether good parenting impacts children’s scholastic achievement (they say no), Levitt and Dubner succeed in encouraging readers to look beyond the superficial state of things and explore the data below the surface.
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In Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely uses behavioral economics to explain why people do what they do. Some areas that Ariely tackles, often with great humor, are lack of self-control, why so many of us procrastinate, and why we insist on splurging on certain items while saving on others. Ariely shows the reader, using hard data, that while people behave in a way that’s irrational on the surface, there is some predictability to our irrationality and ways to compensate when making decisions.
A professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, Ariely says his passion began in the hospital—where, after surviving major third-degree burns, he received a very painful treatment that was made more agonizing because of irrationality. Each day, Ariely would beg for short breaks and a slower pace as his painful dressings were changed. Each day, he was denied for a simple reason: The doctors and nurses, who had never endured the process themselves, said their way was less painful.
That unforgettable experience set Ariely on a lifelong pursuit for answers. His subsequent decades of research about human behavior come together beautifully in Predictably Irrational, which upon publication in 2009 became an immediate New York Times Best Seller and received praise from reviewers, economists, and everyday readers in equal measure.
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It’s hardly a beach read, but if you’re looking to gain an understanding of the history of Western economic theory, then The History of Economic Thought: A Reader is as good a place to start as any. Widely read in university-level economics courses, this edition was compiled and edited by Steven G. Medema, a research professor in economics at Duke University, and Warren J. Samuels, a well-known economist and former professor in economics at Michigan State University.
Beginning with preclassical thought, the duo introduces readers to excerpts from the likes of Aristotle, Locke, and—in a surprising inclusion—Turgot (a female economist writing in the 1770s), among many others. Next are classical thought and a bevy of excerpts from Smith, Ricardo, and Mill. After that, Marx is covered thoroughly, followed by writers of the marginalist revolution (circa 1835–1914). The reader continues in that fashion through the development of macroeconomics and institutional economics and ends with post-World War II economics. For an overview of the trajectory of Western economic theories and an introduction to important thinkers in the field, The History of Economic Thought delivers.
The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations (view at Amazon) is an excellent read for economists and casual readers alike, and we highly recommend it. We also strongly recommend Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things are Better than You Think (view at Amazon) because it’s an entertaining and enlightening read that offers readers insight into how to interpret social and economic trends.
These books were selected from a larger list compiled by the author. The original list comprised Amazon best sellers in related categories, highly reviewed best sellers, and titles known to the writer from previous research. An avid and broadly curious reader, Mona Bushnell is a longtime finance enthusiast and professional writer. She has written extensively on a variety of topics related to business, technology, and finance, and she holds a degree in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. When considering titles for this list, she merged her top choices with recommendations from the Investopedia Financial Review Board, and the resulting list was formed.
MacArthur Foundation. “Jacob Soll.”
The Nobel Prize. “The Prize in Economic Sciences 2019.”
Princeton University Press. “Warren J. Samuels.”
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