The Armchair Economist
Encyclopedia
The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life is a 1993 economics
book written by noted professor of economics Steven Landsburg
. The underlying theme of the book, as Landsburg states on the first page, is that "[m]ost of economics can be summarized in four words: People respond to incentives." With this apparently innocuous observation, Landsburg discusses some unexpected effects of various policies such as automobile safety legislation and environmental policies. The rest of the book includes expositions on a wide range of topics, including budget deficit, unemployment
, economic growth
, and cost-benefit analysis
.
Chapter 4 covers the “Indifference Principle”.
Chapter 9 covers the Coase Theorem
of professor Ronald Coase
.
The book was translated into Arabic in 2008, and published under the same title: فيلسوف الاقتصاد by Kalemat Arabia
for Translation and Publishing, an Egyptian publishing house.
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
book written by noted professor of economics Steven Landsburg
Steven Landsburg
Steven E. Landsburg is an American professor of economics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. From 1989 to 1995, he taught at Colorado State University.-Education:...
. The underlying theme of the book, as Landsburg states on the first page, is that "[m]ost of economics can be summarized in four words: People respond to incentives." With this apparently innocuous observation, Landsburg discusses some unexpected effects of various policies such as automobile safety legislation and environmental policies. The rest of the book includes expositions on a wide range of topics, including budget deficit, unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, and cost-benefit analysis
Cost-benefit analysis
Cost–benefit analysis , sometimes called benefit–cost analysis , is a systematic process for calculating and comparing benefits and costs of a project for two purposes: to determine if it is a sound investment , to see how it compares with alternate projects...
.
Chapter 4 covers the “Indifference Principle”.
Chapter 9 covers the Coase Theorem
Coase theorem
In law and economics, the Coase theorem , attributed to Ronald Coase, describes the economic efficiency of an economic allocation or outcome in the presence of externalities. The theorem states that if trade in an externality is possible and there are no transaction costs, bargaining will lead to...
of professor Ronald Coase
Ronald Coase
Ronald Harry Coase is a British-born, American-based economist and the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School. After studying with the University of London External Programme in 1927–29, Coase entered the London School of Economics, where he took...
.
The book was translated into Arabic in 2008, and published under the same title: فيلسوف الاقتصاد by Kalemat Arabia
Kalemat Arabia
Kalemat Arabia is a publishing company that was founded in 2007 in Cairo, Egypt, as an initiative to bridge the gap between the Arab and the western culture, by means of facilitating access to western knowledge for the Arab reader by providing translations of the Western cultural and intellectual...
for Translation and Publishing, an Egyptian publishing house.
See also
- FreakonomicsFreakonomicsFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
- The Undercover EconomistThe Undercover EconomistThe Undercover Economist is a book by Tim Harford published in 2005 by Little, Brown.The book provides an introduction to principles of economics, including demand-supply interactions, market failures, externalities, globalisation, international trade and comparative advantage...
- فيلسوف الاقتصاد