The Economic Naturalist (Robert H Frank)

I was drawn to read this book following Risk, as there appeared several natural connections from skimming the book. But this initial connection soon disappeared. Robert Frank writes for the New york Times and teaches economics. But he asks his students to look beyond the complex mathematics of modern economic theories for the underlying story. He asks (some) thought-provoking questions, and demands answers in simple narrative form that can be easily understood - comprehensible to the man on the Clapham omnibus.

This book is a collection of such essays, re-written to form a loosely connected story. As such, the book has a magazine style - a collection of short stories. Some of these appear trite, some create only a momentary "ah", but some lead to further reflection. This forms a useful introduction to some economic thinking, and is timely in given the current economic situation. This raises questions and challenges to societies that allow pure economic forces to drive decision-making. Differential pricing strategies, the tragedy of the commons and aspects of behavioural economics are well described through illustrative stories.