Further Readings in Economics

The Economics of Life by Gary S. Becker and Guity Nashat Becker is a collection of Becker and Becker’s Business Week columns. The articles don’t use much game theory, but rather apply economics to well-known public policy issues. The articles are written for a general audience. (Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, was one of my Ph.D. dissertation advisers.) Sex and Reason by Richard A. Posner applies economic reasoning to sex and is accessible to a general audience. (Judge Posner, probably the most influential living legal scholar, was also one of my Ph.D. dissertation advisers.)

Information Rules by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian applies economic theory to high technology and information, providing many in-depth examples of network externalities. This book is accessible to a general audience. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking to understand the economics underlying the Internet and the computer industry. Principles of Microeconomics by N. Gregory Mankiw is an undergraduate textbook on microeconomics. Although a textbook, it is accessible to a general audience. Anyone who is serious about learning economics should read a microeconomics textbook, because microeconomics is the most successful nonreligious philosophy the world has ever known. It’s not possible to understand politics, history, or business without knowing microeconomics.

A Random Walk down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel is a readable guide to how economists think the stock market works. Most of what is written about the stock market for general audiences has the validity and intellectual rigor of astrology, so many investors would benefit from this book.

References

Akerlof, G., “The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 89: 488–500, 1970.

Axelrod, Robert, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, New York, 1984.

Baird, Douglas G., Gertner, Robert H., and Randal, Picker C., Game Theory and the Law, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994.

Becker, Gary S., and Becker, Guity Nashat, The Economics of Life, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1997.

Boone, Louis E., Quotable Business, second edition, Random House, New York, 1999.

Brandenburger, Adam M., and Nalebuf, Barry J., Co-operation, Doubleday, New York, 1996.

Browning, D. C., Dictionary of Quotations and Proverbs, Cathay Books, London, 1989.

Carter, Stephen L., The Emperor of Ocean Park, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002.

Clotfelter, Charles T., and Cook, Philip J., Selling Hope, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1989.

Davis, Morton D., Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction, Dover Publications, Mineola, NY, 1970.

Dixit, Avinash K., and Nalebuff, Barry J., Thinking Strategically, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1991.

Dixit, Avinash, & Skeath, Susan, Games of Strategy, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1999.

Felton, Debbie, and Miller, James D., “Truth Inducement in Greek Myth,” Syllecta Classica, 13: 104–125, 2002.

Gibbons, Robert, Game Theory for Applied Economists, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1992.

Gintis, Herbert, Game Theory Evolving, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000.

Harvard Business School, “Microsoft, 1995” (Abridged), Case No. 799–003, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996.

Hills, J. D., The Fifth Leicestershire: 1914–1918, Echo Press, Loughborough, U.K., 1919.

Klein, Benjamin, Crawford, Robert, and Alchian, Armen, “Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process,” Journal of Law and Economics, 21 (October): 297–326, 1978.

Lee, Kuan Yew, From Third World to First, HarperCollins, New York, 2000.

Lessig, Lawrence, The Future of Ideas, Random House, New York, 2001.

Machiavelli, Niccolo, The Prince, 1514.

Malkiel, Burton G., Random Walk down Wall Street, W. W. Norton, New York, 1973.

Mankiw, N. Gregory, Principles of Microeconomics, second edition, Harcourt College Publishers, Fort Worth, TX, 2001.

McArdle, Megan, “The Agency Problem,” posted on www.JaneGalt.net, April 12, 2002.

McMillan, John, Games, Strategies, and Managers, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.

Milgrom, Paul, and Roberts, John, The Economics, Organization, and Management, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1992.

Miller, James D., & Felton, Debbie, “Using Greek Mythology to Teach Game Theory,” The American Economist, forthcoming.

Nasar, Sylvia, A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998.

Posner, Richard A., Economic Analysis of Law, 5th edition, Aspen Law & Business, New York, 1998.

Posner, Richard A., Sex and Reason, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.

Poundstone, William, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Anchor Books, Doubleday, New York, 1992.

Rose, H. I., Hygini Fabulae, A.W. Sythoff, Lyden, 1933.

Schelling, Thomas C., The Strategy of Conflict, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999.

Shapiro, Carl, and Varian, Hal R., Information Rules, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1999.

Smith, John Maynard, Evolution and the Theory of Games, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982.

Spence, M., “Job Market Signaling,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87:355–374, 1973.

The Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, press release, October 11, 1994.

Watson, Joel, Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2002.

Magazine Article References

Campaign for America, Warren E. Buffett, “The Billionaire’s Buyout Plan,” September 10, 2000.

CNBC.com, James Miller, “Bundling Doesn’t Always Boost Profits,” February 15, 2000.

CNBC.com, James Miller, “Long View Affects Day Traders, too” April 25, 2000.

CNET News.com, Larry Dignan, “Blunders Aplenty in AT&T, @Home talks,” December 4, 2001.

Dismal.com, James Miller, “Genetic Testing and Health Insurance,” August 17, 2000.

Forbes.com, Dick Teresi, “The Wild One,” May 3, 1999.

MSNBC.com, Margaret Kane, “AT&T to Offer Flat-Rate Long Distance,” February 6, 2002.

New York Times, Roger Lowenstein, “Into Thin Air,” February 17, 2002.

Red Herring, J. P. Vicente, “Toxic Treatment,” May 31, 2001.

Salon.com, Charles Taylor, book review of Koba the Dread, July 16, 2002.

Slate.com, Jennifer Howard, “The Relentless March Upward of the American Shoe Size,” May 10, 2002.

Slate.com, Steven E. Landsburg, “Sell Me a Story,” September 6, 2001.

Slate.com, Chris Mohney, “Changing Lines,” July 3, 2002.

The Wall Street Journal, Aaron Lucchetti, “Fidelity Uses Voting Threats to Fight Excessive CEO Pay,” July 12, 2002.

The Wall Street Journal, Sholnn Freeman, “GM, Ford to Offer Discounts Amid Signs of Softening Sales,” July 2, 2002.

The Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Ordonez, “Pop Singer Fails to Strike a Chord Despite the Millions Spent by MCA,” February 26, 2002.

The Wall Street Journal, Scott McCartney, “We’ll Be Landing in Kansas So the Crew Can Grab a Steak,” September 9, 1998.