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The Undercover Economist | 
 enlarge | Author: Tim Harford
Publisher: Abacus
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £2.99
You Save: £6.00 (67%)
New (32) Used (13) from £2.80
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 489
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0349119856
EAN: 9780349119854
ASIN: 0349119856
Publication Date: May 3, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 3 - 5 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Good fun! Main street now looks very different August 6, 2008
Stephen C. Wilkinson (York England)
Buy it, read it and enjoy, you never know you may get interested in economics
 Surprisingly tough-going and subtly tendentious July 24, 2008
C. Young (Glasgow, Scotland)
I bought this as a follow up to Robert Frank's excellent introductory beginners' guide "The Economic Naturalist". Based on Harford's columns for the Financial Times, "Undercover" is indeed a more academic approach, bringing in celebrated economists such as David Ricardo to explain why your tall skinny latte is such a rip-off (er, scarcity, apparently). The interesting overall concept is sadly undermined by some surprisingly ropey writing. Ideas often stagger across the page, tripped up by confusing analogies, and I found myself reading some more tortuous paragraphs many times to gain any sort of meaning. Nevertheless if you persevere into the second half of the book, which lurches into more politicised areas, there are a few absorbing insights and observations. Harford's prescription for the NHS, encouraging people to 'cost' unhealthy lifestyles, was genuinely thought-provoking as was the analysis of why poor Cameroon remains poor. However the standard free-market justification of sweatshop economics (better for people than scavenging on rubbish heaps) reminded me that a FT column is hardly a neutral platform, and more alarm bells rang for this exhausted reader with the author's scarily simplistic verdict on globalisation vs global warming. It was with some considerable relief I reached the final chapter on China. This was actually quite good, though China's success seems to have as much to do with constraining the free market approach Harford advocates than embracing it unreservedly.
Interesting easy read. June 17, 2008
Mr. Colin Kerr (Scotland)
I'm only writing this because there seem to be a lot of negative reviews. I enjoyed it as holiday reading and recommended it to people I met. I more or less already new the economics so maybe I just liked hearing my own opinions being confirmed. It was a good purchase for me.
Very accessible introduction to economics June 7, 2008
Richard Cocks
I found this book a good read, the best of a few similar books I picked up at the time. It has clear and interesting examples and discusses them each in enough depth to grasp the concepts described. I thought the whole book was very enjoyable and had useful references to others' ideas.
 Could not even finish it... April 11, 2008
R. Evans (Edinburgh, UK)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have read several pop-economics/basic economics books, and this one is the worst by far. Perhaps, it is because I had really high expectations and it severely underwhelmed, but I could not even finish it.
One quick aside, anyone who thinks (and a lot of the reviewers here seem to) the US health system represents a "free-market" system is sorely mistaken. There are some quasi-market components (e.g., insurance) but so many components that are not (e.g., FDA, Medicare/Medicaid, AMA) that it is erroneous (and for Mr. Harford, intellectually lazy) to say/imply the "system" is free-market. Just felt the need to opine on that...
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