The Return of The Economic Naturalist: How Economics Helps Make Sense of Your World

Description

The follow-up to bestseller The Economic Naturalist, revealing how economic forces explain some of the most important issues of our lives The Economic Naturalist is back with a whole batch of intriguing new questions and answers, drawn from his New York Times columns, that reveal how we really behave when confronted with economic choices. Do tax cuts for business owners really stimulate employment? Why shouldn't we just leave everything to the market? And why do we all save so little? Discover the answers to these and many more questions.With his trademark plain-speaking wit and insight, Robert Frank shows through dozens of examples how our personal choices about everything from paying for food and housing to large-scale policy decisions about taxation and the regulation of markets all boil down to the same simple economic principles, often resulting in the same wasteful mistakes. He shows that while our desires may be boundless, the resources necessary to satisfy them remain limited and argues that choices are always best made pragmatically - by carefully weighing the costs and benefits of competing options.This is a fascinating, entertaining and revealing collection full of insights that have more bearing than ever on our bank balances and our personal happiness.

Robert H. Frank is the author of The Sunday Times bestseller The Economic Naturalist. He is the Henrietta Louis Johnson Professor of Management and Professor of Economics at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management and is a regular economics columnist in The New York Times. His previous books include The Winner-Takes-All Society (with Philip Cook), Luxury Fever and Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke). Frank's many awards include the Apple Distinguished Teaching Award and the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.www.robert-h-frank.com

In The Return of the Economic Naturalist Robert Frank guides us skilfully and elegantly through our complex, and sometimes strange, economic environment -- helping us to see more clearly the essence of our world. * Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational *