The Armchair Economist: Steven E. Landsburg's Insightful Guide to Economics and Everyday Life

iurii Glushenkov: +

United States on Sep 11, 2023

Jacob: I'm not quite sure what to make of the book. It purports to apply economic theory to current and common scenarios/issues. Accordingly, one can both (1) understand some essential theories of economics, and (2) confront a new way of thinking about various issues.
This is a lofty goal but I am not sure it is accomplished -- at least not clearly. I found it quite difficult to understand what was being said and how it helped illuminate a certain idea. It is entirely possible that I am just doing a poor job reading the book, but multiple readings of the same chapter suggest things could have been clearer. More often than not the author's point was as clear as mud.

United States on Jun 26, 2023

William Morris: Great book about the wider economic

United Kingdom on Mar 14, 2021

Maxime Renaud: Worth a read if you are into economics. Not sure this is an interesting book to the layman, although I may be wrong.

Canada on Jan 20, 2019

EJen: I love the way Steven Landsburg writes. It is precise and to the point. In this book I saw the subjects I learned in my Economics undergraduate degree but explained only with words.
It takes a brilliant person to achieve writing economic models without using any mathematics.

Mexico on Jan 13, 2019

Nawazish Ali: Excellent book on behavioral economics. Ingenious method to prove the points i liked it. It will change the way you see the world.

India on Aug 12, 2014

K. Johnson: The "Armchair Economist" by Steven E. Landsburg is written well, and written to be read quickly. It seems many economists have a lot of time to contemplate the answers to "why" questions.

One of the many realistic quotes and comments I liked is: "People respond to incentives. The rest is commentary."

This is a fun and informative read. Landsburg makes everyday economics that we deal with logical yet realistic and funny. As we know, economics (and many other fields) are not exact "sciences" and opinions often differ. Economists are good at saying why something happened in the past, and why something is happening now. But predicting what will happen in the future is extremely difficult.

Some titles of the many chapters are:

*Why The Rolling Stones Sell-Out.

*The Mythology of Deficits.

*Choosing Sides in the Drug War: How the "Atlantic Monthly" Got it

Wrong.

*Why Popcorn Costs More at the Movies and Why the Obvious Answer is

Wrong.

*Telling Right From Wrong: The Pitfalls of Democracy.

*Truth Or Consequences: How to Split a Check or Choose A Movie.

This book also notes the many concepts we hold to be...

United States on Feb 28, 2007

B. Traber: Das klingt jetzt vielleicht übertrieben, aber Steven Landsburg schreibt einfach brilliant.

Während meines fünfjährigen VWL-Studiums war dieses Buch allzeit hilfreich um das Gelernte Revue passieren zu lassen. Es ist kein Buch um den Lernstoff nachzuschlagen, allerdings gibt es Anstösse zum Nachzudenken, vermittelt "die Argumentation der Ökonomen" und gibt die vermittelte Theorie in einfachen Sätzen wieder. Das beste sind die von Landsburg verwendeten Beispiele, die durch Klarheit und Einfachkeit bestechen. Selbst jetzt erkenne ich in einzelnen Absätzen, auf welche Ideen und Papers anderer Ökonomen er sich bezieht. Unbedingt lesen!

Germany on Sep 09, 2006

K: Reading the reviews of The Armchair Economist show people's amazing lack of understanding of value. What I value is not necessarily what you value AND vice versa. People value things differently from others, and nothing has innate value. Something only has value if you are willing to pay for it (people will assume here that I only mean money, but I also mean paying for something with time, emotion, thought, or any other type of effort, not just money).

Many of the reviews bash Landsburg for being an anti-environmentalist and accuse him of arrogance. The reviewers are clearly environmentalists, and value the environment (however they define it) more than Landsburg, so declare themselves superior by saying how inferior he is. Landsburg's point is that there ARE competing views. There are real costs imposed on people due to environmental regulation that exceed the benefits that these regulations are supposed to bring about (the fact that costs outweigh benefits for environmental regulation is typical). One of his parables goes something like this: Imagine two towns, Cleanville and Smogville. Cleanville has clean air, but has $10,000 homes, while Smogville has dirty air, but...

United States on Jul 23, 2006