Tim Harford

Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or easier to fathom: Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune for sitting behind a mahogany altar? Thorny questions-and you might be surprised to hear the answers coming from an economist. But award-winning journalist Tim Harford likes to spring surprises. In this deftly reasoned book, he argues that life is logical after all. Under the surface of everyday insanity, hidden incentives are at work, and Harford shows these incentives emerging in the most unlikely places.

A brilliant and eye-opening explanation of the economics of everyday life - Britain's answer to FREAKONOMICS

A noted economist furnishes an entertaining introduction to the key principles and fundamental concepts of economics, as well as their influence on the history of the modern world, accompanied by real-life examples of economics at work. Reprint.

This timely volume offers - in an accessible and engaging style - digestible surveys on some of the hottest topics in the aid industry today, Klein and Harford examine the supply of aid and the demand for loans, the ""grants versus loans"" debate, debt restructuring in developing countries, aid effectiveness, and the role of the private sector. The authors also present two scenarios for the future of the aid industry: a world of booming private remittances and nongovernmental aid flows put to innovative uses? Or a world with falling numbers of people in absolute poverty, where aid agencies are forced to cooperate to survive? The authors argue that the aid industry is changing, old models of aid are under pressure, and both donors and recipients will ask more and more of aid agencies in future. The chaos of competition and the search for new ideas is frightening to some, and risks harming the people who the industry is supposed to benefit. Yet at the same time, there is a tremendous opportunity to harness competition to improve performance and find better ways of helping the poor. Klein and Harford argue for rigorous methods of evaluation and creative use of the private sector to produce a more effective aid industry in which new experiments are encouraged.

The new book from the author of The Undercover Economist shows us how we can lead messier lives - and why we should.