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Economics books everyone should know
Here is one list, taken from a poll of Carnegie-Mellon faculty. For most readers I would scrap Becker, Heilbroner, and Duffie; of course many other books could be added. "Paul Shiller" should be "Robert." The pointer is from Craig Newmark.
Addendum: CrookedTimber readers offer their suggestions.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 16, 2006 at 04:04 PM in Books | Permalink
Comments
I'm ashamed to say I've only read five of them so far (with two more waiting on my bookshelf)...
Posted by: Brian Hollar at Oct 16, 2006 4:50:54 PM
Why skip Heilbroner?
The Wordly Philosophers is probably the only book on economic intellectual
history that most economists read.
Posted by: Student at Oct 16, 2006 5:43:50 PM
Here's a list from Wikipedia, also including publications.
Posted by: guest at Oct 16, 2006 6:54:43 PM
Isn't it William Easterly rather than Richard?
Posted by: Frank at Oct 16, 2006 8:30:39 PM
Freakonomics? So 2005.
Posted by: Martin at Oct 16, 2006 8:40:59 PM
_What's Wrong With Economics_ comes from PAEcon -- Post-Autistic Economics?? I criticise mainstream economics as well, but their minds seem so open as to admit all sorts of nonsense. Mainstream economics has its problems, but the solution is not to introduce nonsense like empirical economics (which is just a dead-end road leading to an over-reliance on statistical analysis, which is exactly where economics is now), or economics history (let's generalize from the past to produce a theory for the future).
Posted by: Russell Nelson at Oct 17, 2006 12:51:10 AM
I would add several works from Bastiat, and Sowell's Basic Economics and Applied Economics. And of course Henry Hazlitt.
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl at Oct 17, 2006 2:17:14 AM
London Labour and the London Poor, Mayhew, Henry
This book is the most convincing argument I have read for the importance of a good economic system.
Posted by: joan at Oct 17, 2006 6:03:45 AM
Capital Ideas by Peter Bernstein (on the origins of Modern Portfolio Theory)
The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria (explains why all wealthy countries save Singapore are democracies, while lots of democracies are poor)
The End of History by Francis Fukuyama (for the same reasons as the above; btw, Fukuyama is routinely misinterpreted ind it is indeed worth the time to read his most famous book in its entirety)
The Empire by Niall Ferguson (explains, among others, why this blog is written in English)
Posted by: Pavel at Oct 17, 2006 8:48:55 AM
what a bizarre list. there are some excellent general theory texts, some excellent very specific kind of theory texts, some way outdated clearly incorrect tests and a handful of bogus layperson easy-reads that lose any significance after a year on the market. I suppose the point is to educate the student with what everyone out there is talking about, rather than get him thinking about the fundamentals of economic systems.
Posted by: liberty at Oct 17, 2006 9:22:21 AM
By "everyone", do you mean everyone in the world? Or just economists? Or just economics graduate students? Or what?
Posted by: EC at Oct 17, 2006 10:14:02 AM
The Road to Serfdom is better known, but Individualism and Economic Order
is more important in terms of economics.
I'd also put Rothbard's Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other
Essays for the classic essays "The Anatomy of the State," "War, Peace, and
the State," and "Justice and Property Rights."
Tyler's book In Praise of Commercial Culture belongs as well.
Posted by: Bill Stepp at Oct 17, 2006 10:16:28 AM
I have read 8 of these books. I read four of the eight as a student of GMU. "How about them apples"?
I remember GMU offered a course in economic thought and its history. I think it was taught by Levy. The course started with Aristotle and moved up to modern thought using original source material. I am sorry to say I never took the course.
I saw a course similar to the GMU course I mentioned at U of Chicago.
I am surpised we have not mentioned Rothbards's "Man, Economy, and State", Mises "Human Action", or Reismann's "Capitalism". I also like Friedman's "Free to Choose".
Posted by: C Hessenflow at Oct 17, 2006 11:44:33 AM
The list needs some books about property rights. Tom Bethell's Nobelest Triumph is a good, broad book for the lay audience. Richard Pipes's Proerty and Freedom was inspired by the author's study of the Soviet Union. I also like Hernando DeSoto's The Mystery of Capital which focuses on property rights for the poor in impoverished countries.
Posted by: Bill Conerly at Oct 17, 2006 12:48:06 PM
The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics was written by 'William' Easterly, not his evil twin, Richard, as they would have you believe. Does anybody actually fact-check these things before publishing?
Bill C - thanks for the pointers on property rights books. One of my favorite topics.
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