I’m interested in gaining a better understanding of things like inflation, stock markets, roles governments play in preventing recessions, etc.
This would be at a level appropriate for someone who has never taken a formal course on economics.
Suggestions for textbooks are welcome if you know of ones that are particularly good. Thanks in advance…
There are two branches of economics, microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics studies the way that individuals choose to use the resources they have to get what they want. Macroeconomics studies the way that markets, governments, and the like work on a large scale. Pretty much every university economics department requires you to take microeconomics before macroeconomics, so that’s probably not a bad way to start.
I recommend Steven Landsburg’s “Price Theory” as a micro text. It’s a pretty solid introduction that’s not too math-heavy (i.e., no calculus is used) and actually not painful to read. For macro, you’ll have to shop around a bit. Robert Barro’s “Macroeconomics” is a thorough introduction, but it is painful to read and may be a little more detailed than you want.
That may be way more advanced than the OP is looking for. IIRC, that text was used in my third-year macroeconomics course.
On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure that I’ve ever cracked it open, so maybe I’m not the best person to judge what level the material is at.
The Economic Way of Thinking by Paul Heyne
An oldie but a goodie: Economics by Paul Samuelson. Be forewarned, it’s a big honkin’ textbook. Dunno about Landsburg’s “Price Theory”, but I read about 1/3 of this which was all I could stand…Landsburg’s a complete asshole.
Hot off the press: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Economics.
Thank you for the replies so far. Some of those look like what I am after. To clarify further, I am more interested in understanding general concepts and theories and how they apply to current issues than to be able to perform specific mathematical calculations. If the latter is necessary for the former, then thats ok though.
10 Books to Read on Economics from the authors of Freakonomics gives you a selection, although I’m not sure if any of these is what you’re looking for. I also ran across a couple of blogs recently from economics professors: Brad DeLong and Greg Menkiw (I understand his textbooks are the most widely used in college these days). No idea how good these guys are (Menkiw links too much to his own work, IMO), but I’ve found interesting stuff when I’ve casually browsed in either place. My favorite link from Menkiw’s site is the translation of his 10 economic principles which I first saw somewhere on the Dope last year. It’s by Yoram Bauman, who bills himself as the stand-up economist. He has an open-source microeconomics textbook and lists other references on the page where he makes his textbook available.
Yes, I’ve been collecting economics links lately.
Buy 2 books.
One should be an introductory textbook that covers both micro and macro economics. Samuelson and Nordhaus is one. Baumol and Blinder are another team. There are many others. The book should be thick and cheap, since there’s no reason why you can’t purchase an old edition from the 1990s - and I saw an early 2000s work for $7, including shipping on Amazon. A list of macro and combination micro/macro texts is available on the last page of this working paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=446760 .
Realistically though, the textbook will be a reference or something to dip into. Leonard Silk wrote a book called “Economics in Plain English”, though that is rather old now. Try poking around http://www.economistshop.com to find a popular introduction to economics. One example (that I haven’t heard of) is “Naked Economics - Undressing the Dismal Science”. Another one to consider might be Economics - Making Sense of the Modern Economy.
I’ve read it. It introduces you to all the standard concepts that any textbook would, but focuses on using anecdotes and specific scenarios to explain examples of each concept. Not a bad read, and it definitely doesn’t feel like a textbook, but it has none of the charts, graphs, and technical language that you’ll understand if you read a formal textbook.
Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations could be quite an interesting read for you - it’s considered one of the founding works of modern economic theory - written more than 2 centuries ago, it can be a bit of a struggle to read because of the language it uses, but it’s still quite fascinating to see how some things don’t change (and how some do - a lot of what we take for granted as obvious was a big innovative wow when this book came out).
Wealth of Nations (1776) , by the way, doesn’t mention the word “Economics”: it had not been coined yet.
Indeed, most core economic concepts are missing from the text. Comparative advantage was introduced later by Ricardo. It has nothing on marginal analysis: that came in the 1870-80s , approx (Jevons?). Countercyclical policy was invented in 1936 by Keynes. Supply and Demand curves were introduced by Marshall (1890).
This is probably more appropriate for IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Not true at all. Francis Hutcheson, one of Smith’s teachers and a leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, wrote about “oeconomics” 24 years earlier than Smith did.
Wealth of Nations (1776) , by the way, doesn’t mention the word “Economics”:[del] it had not been coined yet. [/del]
Thanks WoodenTaco!