Marginal Revolution: Tim Harford excerpt of the day

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Tim Harford excerpt of the day

Economics usually assumes rational behaviour, and so the very idea of a self-help book or a problem page such as “Dear Economist” is subversive to economic orthodoxy. Rational economic agents don’t need self-help books, and they don’t write to problem pages either. If we admit that people need advice, we chip away at the foundations of most economic thought. That is strangely reassuring.

Here is Tim's FT review of Discover Your Inner Economist.

Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 11, 2007 at 09:25 AM in Books | Permalink

Comments

Since when does economics assume that people--including so-called rational
economic agents--don't have problems or that reading self-help books or
writing to problem pages is inconsistent with rational behavior?
No wonder economics is called the dismal science.

The fact that people demand advice doesn't chip away at the foundations of
economic thought. It's just another way they express a demand for
something.

I think one problem with some economists--who represent the cute school--is that
they forget about the basics of supply and demand, and think that rational
action is something more than what it really is, which is just attempting to
use means to attain ends, somethings successfully, sometimes not.

Posted by: Bill Stepp at Aug 11, 2007 10:10:19 AM

Hanford seems to be confusing rational behavior with perfect information.

Posted by: George at Aug 11, 2007 10:38:58 AM

Or, at least, he's confusing rational in the sense of "serving desired ends" with rational in the sense of "choosing good ends".

Posted by: Joshua Holmes at Aug 11, 2007 11:47:49 AM

Seems rational to seek out new ways of increasing utility.

Posted by: JR at Aug 11, 2007 1:42:57 PM

"Taking this lesson to heart, I have dug up a vital piece of empirical dating information: the areas of the UK with the most favourable ratios of young men to young women. But perhaps I’ll save that in case I write my own self-help book"

How do I find out the US areas with the most favorable ratios of young men to women?

Posted by: Biomed Tim at Aug 11, 2007 2:03:51 PM

I think what he is getting at is the assumption of economic man. If that assumption is made why do people not already do the things suggested in the book?

Posted by: Phil at Aug 11, 2007 3:20:49 PM

Biomed Tim, take a look at this wonderful little piece of visual demographics. http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/144-single-guys-live-in-la-single-girls-in-nyc/

Near Washington DC you should be in good shape.

And more to the post, I think Phil is right to point to Mr. Harford's sense of irony. The old orthodoxy of purely rational folks made it unlikely that anyone would ever read, let alone buy, a self-help book. In today's world of non-linear, semi-rational folks the models are fuzzier.

Ceteris paribus Bill, I'm not sure about the difference between the cute school and the readable, cogent school in economics.

Posted by: Eric at Aug 11, 2007 3:53:01 PM

I'm still reading your book. So far, so good. Better than freakonomics, maybe undercover economist.

I got the impression that you didn't actually read Strauss's "The Game" though.

Perhaps I was projecting my own biases on the authors writing, but I came away with a quite different perspective than you did.

Strauss seemed to highlight the importance of practice and being comfortable in chatting up women and that, more important than manipulating women with signals, was not sending the wrong signal (making the women feel uncomfortable). The first thing the pickup artists do is repeatedly humiliate themselves publicly for a day to become more tolerant of failure.

And, it wasn't a how to guide. He wasn't selling any "technology". It was about the pickup artist community, not the art of pickup. It was about how separating the signals and meaning left the people hollow and how politics in the community took over, the pickup artists lost sight of the goal of understanding women better and spent their time manipulating each other and fighting for status to better sell conferences. It was basically about how the community devolved into a shallow reality TV show like dynamic.

Ultimately Neil realizes that to pursue a real relationship, he has to abandon all the mechanics and "technology".

Posted by: aaron at Aug 11, 2007 8:57:26 PM

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Posted by: 鑽石 at Apr 2, 2008 9:42:09 PM

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