"Will delight and inform anyone who enjoys rigorous thinking and the unexpected conclusions it delivers." -- Jamie Whyte, author of Crimes Against Logic
"This ingenious gallop through the mind of Steven Landsburg enables you to think like an economist without incurring a Keynesian headache or a huge student loan. You may even end up 'smarter than Google.' But you will not readily put down this exhilarating adventure in ideas." -- George Gilder, author of Knowledge and Power and Life After Google
Can you outsmart an economist? Steven Landsburg, acclaimed author and professor of economics, dares you to try. In this whip-smart, entertaining, and entirely unconventional economics primer, he brings together over one hundred puzzles and brain teasers that illustrate the subject's key concepts and pitfalls. From warm-up exercises to get your brain working, to logic and probability problems, to puzzles covering more complex topics like inferences, strategy, and irrationality, Can You Outsmart an Economist? will show you how to do just that by expanding the way you think about decision making and problem solving. Let the games begin!
"Entertaining as well as edifying. Read it, expand your mind, and have fun!"-- N. Gregory Mankiw, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Brian Albrecht is an economist.
Landsburg's "Can You Outsmart An Economist?" came out after I was already an economist, but I'd also recommend it. Fun. Quick. Plus the best, short intro to how prices work and Hayek's Use of Knowledge argument that I've ever seen
"No one has taught me more surprising truths about the world we live in than Steven Landsburg, if only because he asks surprising questions. Can You Outsmart an Economist? will delight and inform anyone who enjoys rigorous thinking and the unexpected conclusions it delivers." --Jamie Whyte, author of Crimes Against Logic "From zero knowledge proofs to prisoner's dilemmas, from call options to comparative advantage, from price theory to game theory, this ingenious gallop through the mind of Steven Landsburg enables you to think like an economist without incurring a Keynesian headache or a huge student loan. You may even end up 'smarter than Google.' But you will not readily put down this exhilarating adventure in ideas." --George Gilder, author of Knowledge and Power and Life After Google "Steven E. Landsburg's Can You Outsmart an Economist? is entertaining as well as edifying. Read it, expand your mind, and have fun!" --N. Gregory Mankiw, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University and author of Principles of Economics --