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What are the best novels for teaching economics?
Ezra Klein asks me:
What do you think the best fiction books are for understanding economics? Left and right? From my perspective on the spectrum, I'd go with Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, but I'd be interested to hear your favorites...
Some will cite Harrison Bergeron, the Vonnegut anti-egalitarian short story. Others would nominate Ayn Rand, anarcho-capitalist science fiction, and of course there are the fictional-economic creations of Russ Roberts. But what are the Western classics that -- policy polemics aside -- teach one how to think like an economist?
My attention is usually drawn to 1660-1775 in British fiction, starting with Defoe and continuing through Swift, Boswell, and just about everyone else. To my eye they all thought like rational choice economists, albeit strange ones with a focus on approbation, self-deception, and the perverse social consequences of individual action (see my In Praise of Commercial Culture, the chapter on literature, for more detail). They are the true roots of Smith's TMS. Dickens and Balzac are contenders, but I find them a bit too one-note, as is Harriet Martineau. Nonetheless the eighteenth century works remain ahead of their time and they certainly don't teach basic economics or help one think much about policy.
What are your picks?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 9, 2007 at 11:15 AM in Books | Permalink
Comments
Dune!!!!
(of course as many times as I have read it might be a good indicator as to why it is NOT a good source to learn one 'bout 'nomics)
But I stand by my vote.
Posted by: steveintheknow at May 9, 2007 11:17:57 AM
Can't "teach" economics with fiction. It's like teaching med school students with episodes of "Scrubs"
Posted by: MK at May 9, 2007 11:23:29 AM
What does The Grapes of Wrath teach about economics?
That's true, I mean.
No,
"It is impossible to hedge against random catastrophes."
"No one ever sees underpriced labor as an opportunity to hire."
"All landowners and banks are guaranteed enormous profits."
do not count as true.
Posted by: Person at May 9, 2007 11:24:05 AM
*Parts* of novels come to mind more than entire works.
1. The part of James Gould Cozzens's "Morning Noon and Night" where he describes Mr. Garesci's mail-order pamphlet business and the contents of the pamphlets.
2. The part of Atlas Shrugged where the tramp describes the communitarian factory.
3. This is a movie rather than a novel, but the scene in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" where Walter Houston explains to Bogart and Tim Holt why he's the most trustworthy of the three even though he's far from the most honest. (Don't know if that's in the book. I tried reading the book a few years ago and couldn't get past the first chapter or so.)
Posted by: jp at May 9, 2007 11:40:14 AM
Funny thing about the Grapes of Wrath - In one part of the book, Steinbeck writes about the horror of millions or oranges being destroyed while the Okies starve. Strangely, Steinbeck ascribes this to capitalism, when the causes was really FDR's agricultural price support program.
So, I guess this means Ezra Klein should be inspired to hate FDR?
Posted by: Keith at May 9, 2007 11:41:13 AM
TAANSTAFL!
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Posted by: andy at May 9, 2007 11:44:01 AM
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
Posted by: Ted Craig at May 9, 2007 11:48:49 AM
I'll second The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
You might also consider the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. Although they're primarily space opera, there's actually a fair bit in there about economies and shipping. He compares and contrasts the Star Kingdom's fairly free-market economy (giving them a technologically superior military) with the People's Republic command economy (largely funded by military conquest, along with the social problems it causes).
Posted by: Xellos at May 9, 2007 11:52:16 AM
I loved Neal Stephenson's "The Confusion", Volume 2 in his Baroque cycle and clearly the best of the the 3, in my opinion. Stephenson conciously addresses the rise of currency in Europe, the rise of trade in England and Holland, and how trade-generated wealth befuddled the French, who believed that
that land was the beginning and end of wealth. Its a neat focus on the birth of concious thought about the overall worthiness of trade, of wealth creation and effects of currency. I also thought the plot was entertaining.
Those who have read Stephenson know that he meanders and digresses a lot, and you can expect him to cover much non-economic territory in this book, so maybe its not the best example for this post. But its a lot of fun. (I read the cycle in this order 2,3,1 and didn't suffer for it.)
You can read more at stephenson's webpage.
Posted by: guy in the veal calf office at May 9, 2007 11:56:48 AM
I kinda enjoyed "The Literary Book of Economics" (See www.amazon.com/Literary-Book-Economics-Including-Literature/dp/1932236023) but I found it difficult to incorporate into classes. Likewise with the music compendium "From ABBA to Zeppelin, Led: Using Music to Teach Economics" over at DOL (see divisionoflabour.com/music/).
Posted by: MW at May 9, 2007 12:03:03 PM
I don't think there really are any. If you eliminate:
"Some will cite Harrison Bergeron, the Vonnegut anti-egalitarian short story. Others would nominate Ayn Rand, anarcho-capitalist science fiction, and of course there are the fictional-economic creations of Russ Roberts."
... then there really isn't anything left. Certainly there are works that contain economic insights, but they are always secondary. I can't think of any that are advancing a viewpoint in the way that Grapes of Wrath does. I think it's because books about systems/plans/theories working aren't as popular as books about them failing. I personally find Grapes of Wrath (even having acted in the play myself!) to be painfully preachy.
Posted by: Brian Moore at May 9, 2007 12:04:32 PM
"The Jungle" by Sinclair
Posted by: save_the_rustbelt at May 9, 2007 12:12:08 PM
A House for Mr Biswas. Naipual
The old man and the sea.Or dignity against welfare state
Posted by: Mja at May 9, 2007 12:23:01 PM
Surely the Foundation Series by Asimov would be a good stand in.
Its about an entire civilization predicted and managed through statistics and mathematics!
Posted by: Richard Gray at May 9, 2007 12:28:10 PM
Animal Farm.
I also liked The Fatal Equilibrium and understand the other novels by "Marshall Jevons" are pretty good too.
Posted by: Ben at May 9, 2007 12:32:10 PM
Actually, Scrubs wouldn't be the worst addition to a med school curriculum.
Now, Gray's and House, for that matter... *shudders*
Posted by: Garrett at May 9, 2007 12:46:50 PM
The musical "Urinetown"
Posted by: Jonathan at May 9, 2007 12:51:19 PM
Earlier posters already mentioned Stephenson, but I'd say Cryptonomicon for its discussion of how money works; a major conclusion in the book involves creating a digital currency. It also has quite a bit about the gold standard and various other topics of interest.
I'd also suggest Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full for the minutia of bond markets, an example of the hedonic treadmill, and the way status affects comsumption.
Posted by: Jake at May 9, 2007 12:55:04 PM
Perhaps I should elaborate a bit... It is a play about monopoly provision of a public good, marginal cost condition, regulatory capture, and the tragedy of the commons and ends with the line "Long Live Malthus!"
Posted by: Jonathan at May 9, 2007 12:55:22 PM
A fictional work where a money-hungry capitalist is portrayed in a good light? Good luck.
Posted by: Christopher Monnier at May 9, 2007 12:58:17 PM
As mentioned above The The Literary Book of Economics has plenty of examples.
Not a novel (though she also wrote two), but the actress Lilli Palmer's autobiography Change Lobsters and Dance is a fascinating story that contains a lot of economics lessons.
The daughter of a Jewish physician in Berlin who'd received the Iron Cross from the Kaiser for his work in a field hospital near Verdun (a fact which was later to save her from the Brownshirts), she fled Germany to Paris in the thirties.
She couldn't get a work permit there, so she and her sister sang in the bars of seedy nightclubs/brothels where the police wouldn't check permits (or were bribeable).
A chance meeting with a producer for Walt Disney led her to the English film industry, but when she was offered a role, found herself in a Catch 22 situation with the immigration department.
She married Rex Harrison, survived the Blitz (her infant son was saved by being behind a large rhododendron when a bomb exploded near their home), went to Hollywood where the couple discovered the joys of 90% marginal tax rates.
When I was 14 years old I fell in love with her when I saw her in this movie.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan at May 9, 2007 1:17:19 PM
'I'd also suggest Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full for the minutia of bond markets...'
The Bonfire of the Vanities. Which is also good on rent control, race-hustling and public schools.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan at May 9, 2007 1:20:51 PM
"Obelix and Co." by Goscinny and Uderzo is a good introduction. :)
Posted by: Jacques at May 9, 2007 1:24:19 PM
Andy nails it:
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", by Heinlein.
Hayekian economics form the core of the book .
The interactions with the Lunary Authority illustrates the gross mis-allocation of resources that results in command economies, while the final chapter with it's "We're not going to be farmers for long" line shows a deep grasp of comparative advantage.
Ever better, despite four decades of innovation the science of the science fiction is still solid. The physics hold up almost perfectly and the computer science is still better than most contemporary fiction.
This fun, easily readable novel is a great primer.
Posted by: tylerh at May 9, 2007 1:27:28 PM
Pride and Prejudice. All the mating rituals, balls, social mores limiting relations between the sexes, prejudices, prices, etc. are largely organized around and motivated by the preservation, transmission, and seeking of wealth. Mr. Bennet is, in priniciple, much more intelligent and sensible than his ninny of a wife, but is a moral failure because he has retired from this game and thus doe not fulfill his responsibilities to his children.
Posted by: Martin at May 9, 2007 1:32:51 PM
Perhaps there remains a good market for such a novel. I would love to write one, perhaps after I complete my master's.
If I do, does anyone here have suggestions about either lessons to incorporate or storylines with which to incorporate them? One possibility is to do an anti-Edukators. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edukators)
Posted by: Tim V at May 9, 2007 1:42:36 PM
It's not a novel, but I've always been drawn to Mandeville's "Fable of the Bees".
Posted by: Chris at May 9, 2007 2:10:12 PM
Patrick R Sullivan inadvertantly mentioned "Catch-22." I don't think any other book can match it in terms of showing how the rational choices of self-interested individuals can mount into one royal mess.
Posted by: Steve R at May 9, 2007 2:32:55 PM
Zola's _The Ladies' Paradise_ is the best and most balanced vision of commerce in action that I've read in a long time.
Posted by: Sarah S. at May 9, 2007 2:35:07 PM
A Deepness in the Sky by Vinge
Posted by: Jorge S at May 9, 2007 2:35:41 PM
Marooned in Realtime by Vinge
also has a great depiction of central planning vs. spontaneous order
Posted by: antonio at May 9, 2007 2:41:10 PM
Paradise Lost, Adams decision, the ultimate trade off - love or happiness?
Posted by: adrian at May 9, 2007 2:58:05 PM
Tyler, kindly delete that ridiculous comment, spasibo.
Posted by: adrian at May 9, 2007 2:59:43 PM
d'Artagnan series by Dumas.
My favorite part w.r.t. econ is when d'Artagnan contemplates abducting General George Monck. d'Artagnan calculates his current assets and expected future revenues from the expedition, and compares them to the expected expenses.
Also, any parts of the series referencing Cardinal Mazarin and Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Tax-farming, principal-agent problem, and rent seeking all get treated in the Nicolas Fouquet controversy.
Posted by: Greg N at May 9, 2007 3:02:11 PM
I haven't read it, but Henry Hazlitt wrote a novel called Time Will Run Back.
From Hazlitt's introduction: "If capitalism did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it--and its discovery would be rightly regarded as one of the great triumphs of the human mind. This is the theme of Time Will Run Back."
Posted by: Russell Hanneken at May 9, 2007 3:05:09 PM
James Clavell's *King Rat*
Posted by: Gary Leff at May 9, 2007 3:06:05 PM
Many female novelists deal directly with economics in their books, especially prior to the turn of the century. A typical conflict being, how can I get by without marrying so-and-so? Jean Rhys especially comes to mind as writer that explored the poverty single women faced due to limited employment for women (besides, naturally, the oldest profession.) Her characters are constantly looking for job opportunities rather than facing the humiliation of asking former lovers for handouts
Posted by: joanne mcneil at May 9, 2007 3:13:49 PM
There's a lot of economics in The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell's magnificent novel about the fall of British Singapore to the Japanese. He's especially good on colonialism, development economics, the ethics of development, the rubber business etc. Farrell is a kind of comic Tolstoy and deserves to be much better known, this book is a marvel from beginning to end. (He won the Booker for his earlier Siege of Krishnapur, which also has some economics in it, especially in the food market that crops up in the compound during the siege.)
Posted by: Dan at May 9, 2007 3:18:39 PM
Complete Yes Prime Minister by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay (Paperback - Jun 1, 1989)
Posted by: evm at May 9, 2007 3:26:26 PM
FATAL EQUILIBRIUM!!!!!!!
It actually teaches economic intuition. I still think about it when thinking about what determines the price of a collectible good that has no supply.
Posted by: Alec at May 9, 2007 3:49:31 PM
A short story you can find in a few anthologies: "Witch's Money" by John Collier. A wonderful read, and a lesson in an endogenous money supply shift.
Posted by: John Schulte at May 9, 2007 4:00:06 PM
Someone above mentioned Pride and Prejudice... along similar lines, in most of Trollope's novels money/relative income/happiness/wealth questions play a huge role. He won't teach you economic theory, but he's very much involved in the nitty gritty of everyday economic life.
Posted by: maltodextrin at May 9, 2007 4:16:34 PM
"The visit of the old lady" from Friedriech Durenmatt
Posted by: V at May 9, 2007 4:38:41 PM
Oliver Twist: More, he cried. He was insatiable. (Or did he really say that?)
Posted by: mae at May 9, 2007 4:38:42 PM
I think 'Robinson Crusoe' definitely highlights the concept of competing wants and needs.
Posted by: sonik at May 9, 2007 5:14:23 PM
Les Miserables, just the section describing Jean Valjean's rise to wealth. One man's brilliant innovation and entrepreneurial ability enriches a whole town.
Posted by: Ben at May 9, 2007 5:32:12 PM
Why hasn't anyone mentioned Paul Samuelson's Foundations of Economic Analysis?
Posted by: mikeKP at May 9, 2007 6:32:13 PM
Actually, I second the suggestion of A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul.
But now that we have plenty of examples nominated, shouldn't we try to answer the question of what is it in economics that is useful to learn, and better learned through reading fiction rather than the more traditional reading of non-fiction economics (essays, articles, discourses and textbooks).
Posted by: mikeKP at May 9, 2007 6:34:08 PM
"A fictional work where a money-hungry...
Wilhelm Meister .Goethe.
"What advantage does he derive from the system of bookkeeping by double-entry! It is among the finest inventions of the human mind"...
Posted by: Mja at May 9, 2007 7:46:50 PM
Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" contains a splendid section on the economics of shoe-making in India. Not so surprising when you realise that he started (but never finished) a Stanford economics PhD.
Posted by: Andrew Leigh at May 9, 2007 7:51:55 PM
'...shouldn't we try to answer the question of what is it in economics that is useful to learn, and better learned through reading fiction...'
I don't know about 'better' but it is interesting to have Shakespeare teach us about supply and demand almost two centuries before Adam Smith's Diamonds and Water example. (Jessica is Shylok's daughter):
* Jessica: I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian.
* Launcelot Gobbo: Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians enow before; e'en as many as could well live, one by another. This making Christians will raise the price of hogs: if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan at May 9, 2007 8:02:03 PM
Trainspotting.
Posted by: tom s. at May 9, 2007 8:18:23 PM
I'm surprised that none of you got it --
To understand economics, all you have to do is read "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo.
Posted by: SheetWise at May 9, 2007 9:22:57 PM
Gain by Richard Powers. A novel in which one protagonist is a corporation.
Posted by: arthur at May 9, 2007 10:38:26 PM
I'm not sure why you would read fiction if you wanted to learn about economics, it seems like a very roundabout way to learn about anything besides culture. My vote would be Ayn Rand for the right, Vonnegut for the left. I do agree with "streetwise" above, if you want know how economics, politics and geopolitics really work, read "The Godfather" and then "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". For theory, some readable authors are John Kenneth Galbraith, John Ralston Saul, Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, or even Milton Friedman. Ayn Rand also has some readable non-fiction which is fairly similar to the Ricardo, Mises, Hayek, Friedman free market crap spouted by Ronald Reagen and Margret Thatcher. The King of Crap though, disguised as an economics book but is really just a shopping catalog written by billionaire shopping center owner, Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat. This is an excellent paper from Yale, it's only six pages long and I think sums things up quite nicely. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/pdfs/outsourcing.pdf
Posted by: Aaron at May 10, 2007 12:49:25 AM
I'm surprised not to have seen the following yet:
The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt- a novel about how a plant manager turns around his plant. An easy read, but very illustrative of how capitalism works. It was assigned reading in business school.
What Do People Do All Day, by Richard Scarry - every kid should read this book. Teaches division of labor and trade.
Posted by: Jenny at May 10, 2007 12:53:57 AM
I was just about to add The Goal but Jenny beat me to it. It's pretty hokey but features some nice illustrations of how accounting practices can mask economic reality.
Posted by: Timothy at May 10, 2007 2:59:13 AM
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The growth of town and business, the wool trade, the monastery's economic reorganisation, the importance of incentives even for monks...
Posted by: andy at May 10, 2007 4:08:15 AM
Ben: I seem to recall Valjean becomes rich from his factory producing glass pearls. Perhaps for trade with "primitive peoples"? That was what I thought when I read it 8long ago) at least, and I thought it odd that our hero was involved in such a deplorable business after his conversion.
It could be that glass pearls were in high demand by the wealthy, for all I know.
Posted by: Harald Korneliussen at May 10, 2007 5:21:38 AM
Atlas Shrugged and Animal Farm immediately come to mind.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry where he describes the economy of Bombay during times of Emergency and Rent Control.
Dickens, described particular economic situations rather well, irrespective of his leanings.As did Mark Twain.
Posted by: Shruti Rajagopalan at May 10, 2007 5:53:02 AM
Balzac by far. I once created an index that highlights this:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/3472/balzacsworld2.html
The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau(1819-23) being the best for economics.
Zola's novel about the birth of department stores in Paris is pretty good too.
Posted by: jonfernquest at May 10, 2007 6:39:01 AM
I assigned Murder at the Margin by "Marshall Jevons" for micro, A Tenured Professor by Galbraith for macro, and Player Piano by Vonnegut for comparative economic systems
Posted by: Bill at May 10, 2007 8:15:46 AM
I assigned Murder at the Margin by "Marshall Jevons" for micro, A Tenured Professor by Galbraith for macro, and Player Piano by Vonnegut for comparative economic systems
Posted by: Bill at May 10, 2007 8:16:22 AM
Fight Club, for beavioural economics/economics of happiness.
Posted by: JM at May 10, 2007 10:07:21 AM
Gaddis's J R, if you really, really, really hate your students.
Posted by: Anderson at May 10, 2007 11:40:17 AM
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. It gives an excellent discription of a "banana republic" and why its economy is disfunctional.
Posted by: Michael H. at May 10, 2007 1:20:18 PM
David Liss has written a couple of fun novels:"The Coffee Trader", and "A Conspiracy of Paper". Set in the 18th and 17th centuries, they are both what might be called economic historical novels.
Posted by: Paul at May 10, 2007 1:47:01 PM
It's semi-fiction--reads like fiction, based on fact--but P J O'Rourke, "Eat the Rich", would be my first pick on the right. Bastiat, "Economic Sophisms" would be the second.
On the left, my pick would be the rather obscure "Henry and the Great Society" (for left-localism), and the better-known "The Jungle" for anti-corporatism. I can't think of any good pro-giant-government fiction.
Posted by: SamChevre at May 10, 2007 2:07:19 PM
Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. She was writing about the Industrial Revolution (from its epicentre).
Posted by: anon at May 10, 2007 3:00:06 PM
Trollope takes money seriously, and even does an okay if lay-friendly job of explaining the interactions between business, status, and love.
Posted by: Jay Welch at May 10, 2007 3:58:07 PM
The Wire. All episodes. Economics is central to the story. It's TV of course, not a novel, but the script is probably pretty good because the end product is exceptional so I'm going to insist that it counts anyway. Becker praised the Wire on his blog a couple of years ago.
Posted by: Johan Almenberg at May 10, 2007 6:35:15 PM
The Dispossessed by Urula Le Guin in a set with The Probabilty Broach by L Neal Smith. One is left-anarchist, the other right-anarchist. The Dispossessed is great literature. Broach is over the top Libertarian, but short and fun.
Posted by: arbitraryaardvark at May 10, 2007 8:35:42 PM
A Man in Full
Bonfire of the Vanities
More pure capitalism than economics. The poor cousin, I guess.
Posted by: glenn at May 11, 2007 8:59:45 AM
A small group of people can change the world. I think Neal Stephenson's System of the World series is the best way to understand how our economic system, as it is coming about now, was envisions several hundred years ago, so I definately second that.
Posted by: ZLR Stavis at May 11, 2007 2:00:47 PM
The Great Gatsby
Posted by: Chairman Mao at May 13, 2007 7:25:59 AM
Alot of people have mentioned Rand (and I know that it's not really fiction), but We the Living (her quasi-autobiography) is an excellent read on the nature of the socialist single-party state.
On a completely different vein, the Japanese anime Full Metal Panic is an amusing, if sometimes absurd, look at a private military and mercenary activity.
Posted by: Jon at May 14, 2007 11:46:28 AM
Voltaire's Candide illustrates relative value and relative wealth, introduces some aspects of behavioral economics, and contrasts various political systems startng with absolute monarchy and ending with a self-governing commune.
Posted by: frank dewith at May 14, 2007 5:04:47 PM
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/bankfiction/
Posted by: Hakan at May 16, 2007 9:37:32 AM
Posted by: 鑽石 at Apr 2, 2008 8:26:24 PM
Winning at the Races
Author William L. Quirin, mathmatics and computer science professor
Handicapping is a tough way to make a living and possibly 2% of serious bettors manage it through inside information or computerized betting systems.
Stories abound such as the Australian who made millions on computerized betting then bought a horse, bet with his heart and lost a spare million or so.
The betting whales documented by the N.Y. Times using offshore accounts and earning a small percentage of the hundreds of millions bet on races throughout the world.
The perception that the parimutual is an indicator of horse abilities rather than trainer intent.
Quirin contributes his statistical expertise to this world of deception where some get rich but most are losers who, hopefully, had a good time.
Sounds like Life.
Posted by: Rex Erickson at Jul 8, 2008 12:27:14 PM
