From buying a used car to purchasing health insurance, Harford takes a look at a variety of situations that can have a real pratical impact on how we look at some of our everday activities. His take on health care, and how it is dealt with differently in Britain and the United States, was perhaps the most meaningful topic for me.

Growing up, I constantly heard how poor the health care was in socialized medicine and how we should protect our market system. The problem is that our health care syst More...

With humour, and style, Tim Harford introduces the reader to the not-so-esoteric word of economics. The awesome power of the market to not just create wealth and redistribute it, but to also dramatically improve people's lives in ways no other system can manage, whilst simultaneously improving efficiency and delivering information becomes shockingly clear, and surprisingly simple! There's a wealth of optimism and hope riding through these pages, not because Tim is an optimistic chap, but because More...

There was a point at the start of this book when I thought I wasn’t going to make it to the end – or even past the start. It was when the market economy was described as The World of Truth. ‘Oh god’, I thought, ‘this can only mean one thing…’

But I was wrong. This was a much better book than I thought it was going to end up. It was quite slow at the start when he was talking about Starbucks and pricing policies – but my interest picked up when he discussed two computer printers made by IBM in wh More...

Rereading it several years later, and with a bit more background in econ, I still find it informational and entertaining, but it highlights some of the frustrations I have with econ: great for revealing insights, a struggle when it comes to applying it to public policy. Sweatshops are better than the alternative, and given time (decades) lead to prosperity, but people are still suffering today, right now, so how do you address that without throwing off the progress over time? (Note: I don't know More...

This book was a fantastic overview of (what I think is) basic economic theory, but told in a way that made it incredibly readable. Harford is a great writer and manages to frame his topics in a way that is both highly relevant to real life while being simple enough that anyone can understand. It ranges from the small (the economics of Starbucks and how to prevent traffic jams) to the huge (why poor countries stay poor and how china became rich). I imagine that someone with a serious background i More...

I'm a sucker for pop books about economics, and this is the best of the breed -- better, even, than that NYT bestseller Freakonomics. Why? Because Harford, unlike Levitt, actually explains the reasoning and the data he used to follow a problem from its formulation through to its conclusions. He also addresses classic economic problems--why is it hard to buy a used car? why do all the restaurants in Times Square suck? etc., as compared to why you should name your child "Tova". His chapter on heal More...

More entertaining, thoughtful, and relevant than Freakonomics. Freak tended to ramble and explain how economics helped explain random things like drug-dealing cartels and cheating on standardized tests, Undercover has a planned narrative from start to finish and helps explain important things like why things cost what they do and how third world countries grow. It's admittedly a pro-free markets tome, which shows through in the international development chapter, but soundly addresses a number of More...

Like a bad cup of coffee, I'm already struggling to force this down. As a former World Bank employee and Financial Times editor it will come as no surprise that Hardford thinks trade unions and free healthcare are bad, sweatshops are good and the free market will fix everything. There's something to be said for knowing your enemy, but The Undercover Economist's smug, patronising tone and Harford's self-avowed preference for armchair reasoning will have you grinding your teeth in frustration. More...

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เดิมทีผมซื้อหนังสือเล่มนี้มาเพราะคิดว่ามันคงเป็นแนวๆ Edutainment อ่านง่ายๆ เบาหัวแต่ไม่เลย ผมใช้เวลาอ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้มากกว่าเล่มอื่นหลายเท่านัก อ่านไม่จบซักทีเพราะอ่านทีไรเป็นหลับตลอด

ทิม อธิบายหลักการทางเศรษฐศาสตร์ บอกถึงเหตุและผลของสิ่งต่างๆ ที่เราเจอกันอยู่ในชีวิตว่าทำไมมันถึงเป็นเช่นนั้น เช่น

- ทำไมร้านป๊อปคอร์นที่โรงหนังถึงแพงกว่าของป้ามุ้ยหน้าศาล
- ทำไมเราถึงหารถยนต์มือสองดีๆ ไม่ค่อยได้
- ทำไมราคาเข้าชมเมืองโบราณ ถึงมักจะเก็บค่าเข้าชมชาวต่างชาติ แพงกว่าคนท้องถิ่น
- คุณคิดว่าการที่เรา boycott ไ More...

Full disclosure--Tim Hartford runs my absolute favourite radio programme ever: BBC Radio 4's More or Less, a topical statistics programme. Yes, you heard me right. Basically, they do fact-checking on audience-recommended bizarre-sounding statistics. It's funny, fun, and relevant, and has the added benefit of actually catching all the zombie statistics that politicians use. Catch NPR ever having anything like that.

Anyway, all that simply goes to note that I was heavily, heavily predisposed to lik More...

La idea de este libro promete mucho. El primer capítulo analiza por qué los cafés en Starbucks y otras cadenas comerciales cafeteras son tan caros comparados con un café en un bar. Tim Harford [TH] nos tiende una trampa, para luego darle la vuelta al argumento. En un principio podríamos pensar que los cafés de Starbucks son tan caros porque esta cadena suele tener sus tiendas en lugares de mucho nivel (en plena Gran Vía madrileña, justo a la salida de las principales estaciones de metro…), y que

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Tim Harford's book is a convincing argument for giving a f#ck about economists. Within "Undercover," Harford presents very solid arguments for globalization; which certainly spun much of my view of free trade on its head, an excellent example of why poor countries are poor via Cameroon, and very good explanations of market scarcity and the not-so-right-wing belief in 'externality charges' (taxes) and regulation to bring the market to heel.

**Spoilers, albeit non-fiction**


Some highlights:

- the i More...

Reviewed @ Girls Without a Bookshelf.

The truth is, in my eyes, economics is and will always be the best field of study ever. Complex, world-changing and integral to our daily lives, it has never been and will never be obsolete or far removed from our everyday actions and decisions. It may not have occurred to everyone how important economics is and how deeply it affects each individual until the onslaught of the recent recession, but regardless of how long your interest has been, The Undercover More...

Introducing the book to the Monthly Book Group, the proposer said he had chosen it because his wife was buying a book for a rail journey, and, as there was a two for one offer at the station, he chose this. No, despite the analysis of railway station coffee outlets in Harford’s opening chapter, he had not also succumbed to the temptation to buy an expensive coffee. (He had been brought up to believe that food and drink was something to be consumed at home, not purchased at inflated prices outsid More...

Harford says he's going to tell you how the world really works, how economics provides insight into our activity. What he really tells you is how awesome the world would be if it was run by economists and everybody always acted rationally, if by 'rationally' you mean the economics jargon of 'assigning a monetary value to every single action/object in life' and not the common usage of 'according to the rules of logic'.

You can also find out how poverty is easy to fix (you just move the starting b More...

I have a soft spot for economics books, especially somewhat poppy ones. Mr Hartford strikes a perfect balance between poppy and teaching core principals. In fact I had a very hard time putting this book down.

What sets this book apart from other economics books is the examples. Mr Hartford's choices range from Starbucks (why coffee beans will always be cheap but coffee won't be) to the true cost of tariffs to health care reform. In fact his was the only argument for health saving accounts (combi More...

This almost got one less star, because I'm very, very disappointing with Harford's take on health insurance. That discussion is smack in the middle of the book, and up to that point I was thinking that his presentation of economics was good. It is more than a beginner's introduction, because even though that is what he's attempting to present, in order to really grasp the concepts it takes a bit more understanding.

His take on health insurance is colored by a bias for socialism or socialized med More...

i'll never look at my latte cup the same way again! He's a freakonomist with a more tempered attitude - but actually loftier targets - combined with the tipping point - we might know more about how to get things our way... other than persuasion - its basic assumption is that human being are calculating pragmatists (totally against my industry here!) and a simple policy tweaking will get everyone lined up to do what we want them to do the way we want them to do it...

This was my second read on the topic after Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, and I must say they're quite different books as here we're treated to a broader view of Economy, not just specific case studies.
In general I enjoyed it, and I did learn quite a lot about possible solutions to major problems in today's societies. But I was occasionally annoyed by what was proposed because, in practice, I don't think it would work. I won't detail too much but I get t More...

This well-written, easy-to-read popular nonfiction book would be a good choice for anyone looking for a broad introductory overview of (or refresher on) contemporary economics. Harford tends towards a rosier-than-reasonable perspective on modern capitalism and is positively dismissive of some legitimate environmental concerns associated with globalization. Nevertheless, I found his book to be humorous and engaging. Great plane reading for wonky types.

Quite a good little intro. I read enough economics texts and blogs (note to self: add Tim Harford's blog to my already bulging list of RSS feeds) that I didn't find anything too surprising. Nevertheless, the overall presentation is well done for a popular overview, and served as a good review. As an aside, the constant coffee-talk reminded me of Peter Navarro's stock trading treatise If It's Raining in Brazil Buy Starbucks.

The only point of cognitive dissonance I had was that, having been publis More...

Not as readable and visceral as Freakonomics, rather more of an Econ 101 primer. Harford makes global (and local) economics fairly easy to understand, although he acknowledges it's oversimplified. This means, of course, that you feel like you're not really getting the whole story on many topics.
For example: sweat shops are good for their employees, who have few other options... support them! And: regulations and government interference with markets are bad! I would have liked to hear a bit more More...

Harford exposes the dark underbelly of capitalism in Undercover Economist. Compared with Steven Levitt's and Stephen J. Dubner's popular Freakonomics (*** July/Aug 2005), the book uses simple, playful examples (written in plain English) to elucidate complex economic theories. Critics agree that the book will grip readers interested in understanding free-market forces but disagree about Harford's approach. Some thought the author mastered the small ideas while keeping in sight the larger context

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Okay, so it's no Freakonomics. It's not nearly as readable or as wowing. However, I learned a lot and I've found myself reporting on things from this book in conversation a lot lately. Ask me about my "comparative advantage" and see for yourself. There's a lot of food for thought here.
I'm not an economist and I don't get a LOT of what this guy is talking about a lot of the time - but I got it some of the time, so his efforts at creating an accessible piece of economic writing are not in vain. I More...

I'll be brief: the first half of this book is good, the second half is disappointing.

In the first half, Tim Harford takes a fun look at various phenomena, such as the locations of coffee shops or why it is difficult to buy a used car, through an economic lens. Pretty interesting microeconomics. (And let's be honest: microeconomics is more interesting.)

The second half is a good bit more annoying -- it's macroeconomics, poorly explained. There are a lot of unfortunate statements about why poor cou More...

Bueno y malo a partes iguales.

Tim Harford se dedica a lo largo de varios capítulos a desentrañar la economía detrás de las cosas de cada día. Si uno no tiene unos conocimientos aceptables de economía, como es mi caso, encontrará este libro agradable. Si los tiene, puede que lo encuentre aburrido.

Hay capítulos que sobresalen, especialmente los cotidianos como el del supermercado o el café; y otros que se hacen muy pesados, como el de China o los seguros de salud. Merece mucho la pena por las anéc More...

I liked Freakonomics and bought this based in part on the endorsement of one of the co-authors of that book. Harford is a journalist with the Financial Times and what I got instead was a very plodding and pedantic treatment of basic economic orthodoxy. I really didn't learn anything. Many of the examples are dated or cliché. I found particularly disturbing his characterization of the market in China and Korea. China is still very much a planned economy and the transformation into a force of capi More...

قبل كتابة الريفيو فى ملاحظة بسيطة
اولا الكتاب ده حقق مبيعات عالية فى كذا دولة و مترجم لأكثر من لغة و لما دخلت على صفحة الكتاب لقيت أكثر من 370 صفحة من بين ريفيوهات و تقييمات و لما دخلت على نسخة الكتاب العربية لقيت صفحة واحدة و فيها 3 ريفيوهات .. و إن دل على شىء يدل أننا مجتمع معندوش أى وعى اقتصادى و مش بيحلم أنه يكون عنده وعى اقتصادى
ده مش دليل قوى .. ممكن يكون الناس بتقرا كتب اقتصادية تانية . مع انى أشك الصراحة فى كده
غالبية المثقفين العرب مبيهتموش الا بالروايات اللى بيتكلم عن العالم المثالى ال More...

This was a really straightforward and entertaining book which described basic economics in an understandable and interesting way. Competitive Advantage, externalities, cost benefit analysis are just some of those "buzz" phrases that are addressed.

I tried to read it a few years ago and didnt get much out of it, but now, having studied economics a little I think it makes much more sense. I'm not sure if this means that it really has a niche market (i.e. knows a bit about economics but still somewh More...