The Undercover Economist Quotes

“There is much more to life than what gets measured in accounts. Even economists know that.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“The dictator has to keep the economy functioning in order to keep stealing from it.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Hours are long. Wages are pitiful. But sweatshops are the symptom, not the cause, of shocking global poverty. Workers go there voluntarily, which means—hard as it is to believe—that whatever their alternatives are, they are worse. They stay there, too; turnover rates of multinational-owned factories are low, because conditions and pay, while bad, are better than those in factories run by local firms. And even a local company is likely to pay better than trying to earn money without a job: running an illegal street stall, working as a prostitute, or combing reeking landfills in cities like Manila to find recyclable goods.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Fight scarcity power and corruption; correct externalities; try to maximise information; get the incentives right; engage with other countries; and most of all embrace markets, which do most of these jobs at the same time.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic, now commonly applied to economists Imagine”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“if there’s a profitable deal to be done between somebody who has something unique and someone who has something which can be replaced, then the profits will go to the owner of the unique resource.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“We should aim to make ours a world where people feel free to do things they enjoy, even if others are mildly inconvenienced, but also one where we all refrain from harming other people if the effort involved to avoid harming them is small.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Consider the situation: Money that was provided because of social networks rather than need; a project designed for prestige rather than to be used; a lack of monitoring and accountability; and an architect appointed for show by somebody with little interest in the quality of the work. The outcome is hardly surprising: a project that should never have been built was built, and built badly.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“By charging wildly different prices for products that have largely the same cost, Starbucks is able to smoke out customers who are less sensitive about the price. Starbucks doesn’t have a way to identify lavish customers perfectly, so it invites them to hang themselves with a choice of luxurious ropes.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“In the end economics is about people ... And economic growth is about a better life for individuals - more choice, less fear, less toil and hardship. ... Yang Li tried factory work and decided that it wasn't for her. Now she says that 'I can close the salon whenever I want.' Economics is about Yang Li's choice.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“We still don't have a good word to describe what is missing in Cameroon, indeed in poor countries across the world. But we are starting to understand what it is. Some people call it 'social capital, or maybe 'trust'. Others call it 'the rule of law', or 'institutions'. But these are just labels. The problem is that Cameroon, like other poor countries, is a topsy-turvy world in which it's in most people's interest to take action that directly or indirectly damages everyone else.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“It is not polite to say so, but it is obvious that paying people to be unemployed encourages unemployment. Yet, if a government scrapped unemployment benefit, there would still be jobless people, and supporting the jobless is something that every civilised society should do. The truth is that we have a trade-off: it is bad to encourage unemployment but good to support those without incomes.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Reading accounts is dull; economic detective work is the easy way to get to the same conclusion.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“el sistema no mercantil tiene la reconfortante ventaja de ocultar el hecho de que los pobres no reciben la misma calidad de educación que los ricos.”
― Tim Harford, El economista camuflado: La economía de las pequeñas cosas

“To the economist, there is a story to tell about the contrast between the chaos of the traffic and the smooth running of the bookshop. We can learn something from the bookstore that will help us avoid traffic jams.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“When technology allows, firms with scarcity power may use highly sophisticated methods to target customers.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“We're kidding ourselves if we think we can opt out of these decisions. Every policy the government adopts, and every individual choice you make, implies that a valuation has been made, even if no one has been honest enough to own up to it or even admit it to themselves.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“According to one story, Von Neumann was asked to assist with the design of a new supercomputer, required to solve a new and important mathematical problem which was beyond the capacities of existing supercomputers. He asked to have the problem explained to him, solved it in moments with pen and paper and then turned down the request. Von”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“La economía trata de quién consigue qué y por qué. En”
― Tim Harford, El economista camuflado: La economía de las pequeñas cosas

“Este capuchino secreto es, además, más barato. Entonces”
― Tim Harford, El economista camuflado: La economía de las pequeñas cosas

“La culpa no es de las leyes de la física, sino del sencillo hecho de que, a veces, lo que los modelos dejan fuera es más importante que lo que incluyen.”
― Tim Harford, El economista camuflado: La economía de las pequeñas cosas

“los márgenes comerciales del café rondan el 150 por ciento; cuesta 40 centavos preparar una taza de café de máquina de un dólar, y menos de un dólar preparar un café cortado que se vende a 2,55 dólares. De”
― Tim Harford, El economista camuflado: La economía de las pequeñas cosas

“Taxes are often higher when price-sensitivity is low. For example, the government charges high taxes on petrol and cigarettes, not for environmental and health reasons but because people who buy these products need to drive and are addicted to smoking; they won’t change their behaviour much even in the face of large taxes. (If you think that taxes on petrol are motivated by environmental concerns, think again: despite the environmental impacts of air travel, electricity and domestic heating, 90 per cent of all ‘environmental’ taxes in the UK in 2009 were paid by motorists.)”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“But many of us love the fact that Ricardo was able, nearly two hundred years ago, to produce insights that illuminate our understanding today. It’s easy to see the difference between nineteenth-century farming and twenty-first-century frothing, but not so easy to see the similarity before it is pointed out to us. Economics is partly about modelling, about articulating basic principles and patterns that operate behind seemingly complex subjects like the rent on farms or coffee bars.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“The world’s longest-serving political leaders have been men such as Kim Jong Il, Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro, none of whom have suffered political weakness as a result of their economic isolation. Saddam Hussein’s rule seemed stronger than ever after a decade of sanctions:”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“the worst environmental problems, at least of today, are caused by poverty not wealth. The environmentalist movement should be manning the barricades to demand global free trade immediately. One day, perhaps they will.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Competition from cheaper or better foreign products cannot put all of our domestic industries out of business, because otherwise we couldn’t afford to buy the foreign products.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Trade barriers will always cause more harm than good, not just to the country against which the barrier is erected but also the country that erects the barriers.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“Development projects are often commissioned by people with no great interest in success but a great interest in bribes and career advancement.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist

“we should diversify, keep charges low and avoid trying to be too clever. And in the past, investors who have done just this have indeed outperformed those who overrated their own stock-picking skills.”
― Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist