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How to Think Like an Economist

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What to expect

Capturing the essence of history’s most influential economists in enjoyable and illuminating biographical sketches, this book shows how the great economic thinkers are still relevant today.

We live in the economy – and we are part of it. Living through a pandemic, governments had to work out how to put economies into a deep freeze without destroying them. Avoiding climate catastrophe means changing economies so that they don’t bake the world.

In explaining how economic thinking is indispensable to tackling these huge problems, this book is a sure-footed guide, spanning Aristotle’s ideas about restraining consumption, Adam Smith’s thinking about the importance of moral character for sustained economic development, and Esther Duflo’s ongoing work to help the world’s poorest communities lift themselves out of poverty. It shows how the greatest economic thinkers – Karl Marx, Maynard Keynes, and Friedrich Hayek, among many others – have enabled us to see the world differently, and how we can make it better.

It shows that economic thinking emerged, long before there were economists – and that good economics is about much more than the economy, so everyone should understand these vital ideas.

Along the way, the book quietly subverts what you think you know about economics, especially by showing how women found a place in the development of ideas even when discrimination denied them any formal role.

Critics Review

  • Thinking like an economist involves thinking like a philosopher, a mathematician, a psychologist and a political scientist. Let Robbie Mochrie explain it all to you.

    Professor John Kay, co-author of Radical Uncertainty

  • How economists think has not only evolved over the centuries, but has also been far more wide-ranging than most people imagine. This window into the ideas and lives of eminent economic thinkers reveals the remarkable depth and power of the subject.

    Diane Coyle, Professor of Public Policy, Cambridge University

  • Robbie Mochrie has written a delightful set of vignettes — from Aristotle through to Akerlof — showing how economic thinking has evolved through the ages.

    Professor Sir Angus Deaton, author of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

  • How to Think Like an Economist demystifies the principles of economics, making them accessible and engaging. This book is not just for aspiring economists, but for anyone seeking to understand the economic forces that shape our world. It provides clear, concise explanations and real-world applications. An essential read for students and professionals alike who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the economic landscape and its impact on our daily lives.

    Professor Dame Heather McGregor DBE FRSE, Provost, Heriot-Watt University Dubai

  • By putting economics in historical context, from its roots in Ancient Greek household management to the wondrous mathematics and methodologies of the modern version, Robbie Mochrie sheds important light on what may be the most misunderstood social science. Tying the book together is a thread running through the entire history, the economic way of thinking about the world – a mode that serves “not just to understand it but, by changing it, to make it better.” This book will leave the reader not just smarter – but wiser.

    Professor Erik Angner, Stockholm University, author of How Ecomonics Can Save the World

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