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Carregando... The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas (2007)de Robert H. Frank
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. Every problem presented has a simple explanation that is only true in an imaginary world that economist live in where markets work perfectly. In fact every single problem presented is much more complicated and the forces behind it are many and interesting but you wouldn't know it from this book. It also picks only problems that work well in markets and avoid any that could show their shortcomings. To sum the author's point: I have a theory of economics, and this theory is what I teach, and here are some observations about people's choices that can lead to interpretations that might kinda support it, if they're true. But let's not bother with experiments or with fact-checking or with actually asking the people making these choices." Sorry, if economics is the 'dismal science' I expect books about it to be at least a bit scientific. No matter how often the author says "may" or "might be part of the reason" or "could be a factor," I'm not convinced he's not confident of his theories. But what a waste of time to read all these theories that haven't been tested. "Why are physically attractive people also more intelligent than others, on average?" Author suggests several odd ideas, but never mentions general *health* - which I see as predominant in my experience. Kids who are raised with care tend to have both healthier teeth & stronger, straighter bodies & clearer skin, etc. *and* are less likely to have eaten lead paint chips & more likely to have been read aloud to, etc. On average. Now I've not tested my theory either, but it's at least as plausible as his. And that's the thing - he very often leaves out mention of other plausible interpretations of the observations because they wouldn't fit his theory of economics. " A short series of musings which answers a wide variety of questions from an economic perspective. This certainly wouldn't replace a textbook, but it is a nice way to illustrate the basic principles one would hope to learn in an "Econ 101" college course. The point of this book isn't to teach a series of facts or answers, but to illustrate principles, and it succeeds very well. sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Why do the keypads on drive-up cash machines have Braille dots? Why are round-trip fares from Orlando to Kansas City higher than those from Kansas City to Orlando? For decades, Robert Frank has been asking his economics students to pose and answer questions like these as a way of learning how economic principles operate in the real world-which they do everywhere, all the time. Once you learn to think like an economist, all kinds of puzzling observations start to make sense. Drive-up ATM keypads have Braille dots because it's cheaper to make the same machine for both drive-up and walk-up locations. Travelers from Kansas City to Orlando pay less because they are usually price-sensitive tourists with many choices of destination, whereas travelers originating from Orlando typically choose Kansas City for specific family or business reasons. The Economic Naturalist employs basic economic principles to answer scores of intriguing questions from everyday life, and, along the way, introduces key ideas such as the cost-benefit principle, the "no cash on the table" principle, and the law of one price. This is as delightful and painless a way to learn fundamental economics as there is. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Good introduction to the way that economists think about some problems. Breaks down many issues in an analytical way, outlining the apparent discrepancy and attempting to explain it. I think it falls down in that it gets repetitive very quickly, and also due to the sometimes speculative nature of the explanations. For example, one question dealing with the varying popularity of text messaging from one country to another resorted to 'national character' as an unsatisfactory answer.
Useful for those new to economics, perhaps, but may overextend the applicability of economic concepts in some areas. While such uses are plausible, often they are unnecessary and overcomplicate where a simple common sense answer would suffice. ( )