The Undercover Economist
Metadata
- Author: Tim Harford
- ASIN: B003MQM79G
- ISBN: 0349119856
- Reference: https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B003MQM79G
- Kindle link
Highlights
Perhaps the Undercover Economist seems like a know-it-all, — location: 145
The first lesson here is that the person in possession of the desired resource – the landlord in this case – does not always have as much power as one would assume. And the story doesn’t specify whether Axel is — location: 226
Bargaining strength comes through scarcity: — location: 228
The truth is that it’s simply not possible to understand anything complicated without focusing on certain elements to reduce that complexity. — location: 304
Kemper Arena collapsed, with no loss of life, just twenty-four hours — location: 320
The most surprising examples of all come from the world of computers. For instance, IBM’s ‘LaserWriter E’, a low-end laser printer, turned out to be exactly the same piece of equipment as their high-end ‘LaserWriter’ – except that there was an additional chip in the cheaper version to slow it down. — location: 872
You might not expect Jim Carrey films and economics to have much in common, but in fact there is much we can learn from the rubber-faced comedian. — location: 996
prevent. But prices also give the signal to build more schools, hire more teachers or raise their wages if they’re in short supply, and buy better materials. In the longer term, a price system will transform a high willingness to pay for good schools into a lot of good schools, just as surely as it will transform a high demand for coffee into a lot of cappuccino. — location: 1134
lol fuckin houses
This is unfair too, but if you accept the workings of the price system for typical goods like food, why not road space or clean air? — location: 1419
This would capture the efficiency benefits of a congestion charge without having major effects on distribution. — location: 1429
let’s say people live outside the centre and there’s no public transport.
moral high ground — location: 1433
lol moral high ground
Some interest groups will always complain that externality charges are not tough enough, while others squeal that they are draconian. — location: 1454
seeking to re-create the ‘world of truth’, — location: 1459
again, the belief that this can be done DRS
economists can have what they think is a decent try. — location: 1509
quantification is important to enable us to make good decisionsfuf statistics in everyday life. but - technocracy, the managerial view of politics, and economists belief in their models or the implicit presence of a median world of “truth” (but does this exist if it is unattainable? perhaps more importantly, can it be approached? ie do things get better the more we approach it? yes?
comes to facing up to the first kind of shaky information. We now know that any policy – of regulation, pricing, command and control, tax or ‘laissez-faire’ – contains implicit or explicit assumptions about the scientific evidence on externalities like pollution and congestion, and the subjective preferences of people about their time, convenience and health. — location: 1519
totalling these up = ideology?
No policy can be more successful than the accuracy of its assumptions. — location: 1521
that invites moral posturing, — location: 1628