The Logic of Life

Critics

• The Logic of Life: Uncovering the New Economics of Everything

  In The Logic of Life Tim Harford offers an entertaining survey of applications of "rational economics" to aspects of everyday life and politics. He presents work on sex and drug-dealing, poker tournaments, divorce and marriage, pay scales, neighbourh ... (read full critics)

  dannyreviews published on Wed, 25 Aug 2010

3 Reviews

• http://broncobilli.blogspot.com/search/label/tim%20harf…

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  Riccardo Mariani said on Nov 16, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

  

  The chapter on externalities is quite so-so: spending much energy in eventually expounding how knowledge spillover/urbanization/clustering of industry work -- proposing Marshall's: one giant firm corners at a geographic area (e.g. Microsoft), Porter's: many firms in the same industries cluster in a ... (continue)

  The chapter on externalities is quite so-so: spending much energy in eventually expounding how knowledge spillover/urbanization/clustering of industry work -- proposing Marshall's: one giant firm corners at a geographic area (e.g. Microsoft), Porter's: many firms in the same industries cluster in a single area (e.g. pharmaceutical companies in Boston)/ a person's that I forget the name (many firms across different industries stay in one area). The conclusion is that the last hypothesis has more predictive power than the first two in cases that were studied. The penultimate conclusion is that urban dwellers choose to pay higher cost to settle in city (despite their relative wage increases gained from moving away the country side/suburban areas would not be justified those higher cost) -- the reason is the externalities (benefits or costs that are not directly arise from the incidents themselves) of living in cities are high -- for career development (human capital inquisition).

  The last chapter on economic development is nicely written though. I particularly like the analogy/description of world's history from the existence to now being represented through the 24 hours of a day.

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  Search Serg said on May 7, 2008 | Add your feedback

• Harford is an great explainer of the latest economic ideas--- just witness his clear and funny columns for the Financial Times. His discussion of racism is particularly good. Highly recommended light reading.

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  Leebeck said on Feb 29, 2008 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Hardcover 288 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1400066425
• ISBN-13: 9781400066421
• Publisher: Random House
• Pub date: Jan 15, 2008
• Also available as: Paperback, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español

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