📚 What are the best economics books? (#16)

We’re in peak summer, and the year is halfway over, which means it’s time to crack open a good book and enjoy the nice weather if you have it in your area. What better way to spend a nice weekend at the beach or lake than with a good book on economics? A few years back, Jadrian surveyed a handful of economic educators about what books they would recommend to curious students. In this episode, Matt and Jadrian chat about that list and share some of their favorite economics (and non-econ) books that they think listeners may enjoy.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The top 10 books recommended by economics educators back in 2019.

• Our favorite economics book to recommend to curious readers.

• Our favorite books are technically not economics books.

• And much more!

Catch up on some old episodes:

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Watch this episode on YouTube:

Some show notes:

This week, Jadrian cracked one open from a brewery close to Matt’s House, a blackberry cobbler sour from Rusty Rail Brewing Company. Matt decided to flashback to his Dry January experience and went with a Moscow Mule, but not a virgin one this time:

#2: Behavioral Economics & Commitment Device

While walking through Kroger the other day, Jadrian came across a great example of horizontal integration by Simply, the makers of popular juices. It looks like they have recently expanded into the mixology space and now offer their juices to aspiring bartenders:

This week was all about reading, particularly economics books, but it was worth noting how many people don’t read any books at all during the year. According to a Pew Report, 25% of U.S. adults said they hadn’t read a single book in any format (print, digital, or audio) in the past 12 months.

The rest of the episode focused on some of our favorite books. To see the Top 10 list from 2017, check out the post on Medium. While Freakonomics came in as the top choice back then, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention that it has a heavy share of critics. The podcast If Books Could Kill had an entire episode on their issues with the book:

That list is already 5-6 years old, so now it’s time for Matt and Jadrian to give you their updated list of which books they would recommend to teachers/students today who are interested in and curious about economics. Some are older and others are newer, but there’s a nice mix of just about everything. We’ve even included some of our favorite non-economics books in case you need to switch it up.

Matt’s Recommendations:

1. Knowledge and Decisions (1996) by Thomas Sowell

2. The Invisible Hook (2011) by Peter Leeson

3. The Voltage Effect (2022) by John List

4. The Century Trilogy (2015) by Ken Follett

5. Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich: How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World (2020) by Deirdre McCloskey and Art Carden

Jadrian’s Recommendations:

1. Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy (2018) by Tim Harford

2. Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing (2020) by Jacob Goldstein

3. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (2008) by Leonard Mlodinow

4. American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment (2019) by Shane Bauer

5. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (2020) by Daniel Immerwahr

Have any for us to read that we didn’t mention? Now’s your chance to assign us readings for the summer:

This week’s pop culture references:

Jadrian’s choice came from the Freakonomics movie, but a very particular scene in which a month asks her son if he’s actually reading the books assigned in class. Instead of giving you that very narrow scene, check out the official trailer to see if you want to watch the movie.

Matt’s choice for this week’s pop culture is estimating how much Norm spent on beer in the Cheers series. It’s not related to our talk this week, but it will be coming out on Matt’s YouTube channel soon. If you’re not already following, head over to his channel and hit that subscribe button.

If you’re an economics educator looking for even more content, check out Econiful. Every so often they put together presentations on books you should read, and they also run a book club! This past Spring, they read How to Teach Economics to Your Dog: A Quirky Introduction by Rebecca Campbell and Anthony McGowan. If you’re on Twitter, follow them @Econiful.