''The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life'' is an economics book written by Rochester professor of economics Steven Landsburg. The first edition appeared in 1993. A revised and updated edition appeared in May 2012. The underlying theme of the book, as Landsburg states on the first page, is that " st of economics can be summarized in four words: People respond to incentives." With this apparently innocuous observation, Landsburg discusses some unexpected effects of various policies such as automobile safety legislation and environmental policies. The rest of the book includes expositions on a wide range of topics, including

budget deficit Within the budgetary process, deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit; the opposite of budget surplus. The term may be applied to the budget ...

, unemployment, economic growth, and

cost–benefit analysis Cost–benefit analysis (CBA), sometimes also called benefit–cost analysis, is a systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives. It is used to determine options which provide the best approach to achieving benefits ...

. Chapter 4 covers the "Indifference Principle". Chapter 9 covers the

Coase Theorem In law and economics, the Coase theorem () describes the economic efficiency of an economic allocation or outcome in the presence of externalities. The theorem states that if trade in an externality is possible and there are sufficiently low tra ...

of professor

Ronald Coase Ronald Harry Coase (; 29 December 1910 – 2 September 2013) was a British economist and author. Coase received a bachelor of commerce degree (1932) and a PhD from the London School of Economics, where he was a member of the faculty until 1951. ...

. The book is also recommended reading by the departments of economics at several universities.

Background

Landsburg received a Master of Arts degree from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

in 1974, along with a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. The now Rochester Professor of Economics released his first book, Price Theory and Applications in 1989 and followed it up in 1993 with the first edition of The Armchair Economist. Since then he has written for many different publications such as Slate, The Wall Street Journal as well as releasing numerous other books surrounding the topic of Economics. In 2012 Landsburg released a "revised and updated" version of the original work, aiming to present the same ideas within a 21 century context. He achieved this by rewriting some chapters while also adding over 80 pages bringing the book into the contemporary age.

References

1993 non-fiction books Economics books Free Press (publisher) books {{econ-book-stub

Background

See also

References