Harford Book Forum at Marginal Revolution

January 23, 2008

Harford Book Forum at Marginal Revolution

Today I kick off Marginal Revolution's Book Forum on Tim Harford's new The Logic of Life. It's a great book, well-written and full of interesting arguments. In later posts (either here or at MR) I'll challenge several of his arguments on divorce, housing, statistical discrimination, and more. But I don't want to over-shadow the big picture. Namely:

You've got to learn to walk before you can learn to run. And you've got to understand rational explanations for human behavior before you can understand irrational explanations. The Logic of Life may well be the best introduction to the rational choice approach on the market. Even better, it's well-written enough to inspire even jaded academics to get back to basics.