Good economics books to read?

Economics discussion, revision, exam and homework help.

Announcements Posted on
TSR launches Learn Together! - Our new subscription to help improve your learning 16-05-2013
IMPORTANT: You must wait until midnight (morning exams)/4.30AM (afternoon exams) to discuss Edexcel exams and until 1pm/6pm the following day for STEP and IB exams. Please read before posting, including for rules for practical and oral exams. 28-04-2013
Sign in to Reply
  1. dude55's Avatar
    • Benevolent Member
    • Location: England
    • Posts: 832
    Good economics books to read?
    I am currently studying economics at A-level and want to do it at Uni. Does anyone know any good books to read? I don't want the Sloman textbooks etc. I'm talking about real books
  2. Firaila's Avatar
    • Peer Of The TSR Realm
    • Location: Leicester
    • Posts: 1,497
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    I know UCL has a reading list in it's prospectus...

    I quite liked "Reinventing the Bazaar", it's about the history of markets
  3. dude55's Avatar
    • Benevolent Member
    • Location: England
    • Posts: 832
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    (Original post by Firaila)
    I know UCL has a reading list in it's prospectus...

    I quite liked "Reinventing the Bazaar", it's about the history of markets
    I might give that a go. Is it easy enough to read for an AS student?
  4. Bax-man's Avatar
    • Peer Of The TSR Realm
    • Posts: 1,612
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, or What is Seen and What is Not Seen, an essay by French economist Frederic Bastiat.
  5. blatchcorn's Avatar
    • Exalted and Worshipped Member
    • Location: Birmingham
    • Posts: 916
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Freakonomics is ok for a summer read.
  6. easyindeed's Avatar
    • Respected Member
    • Posts: 235
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - gripping read and will give you a lot to talk about on your PS when you write it!
  7. paul_blakeman's Avatar
    • Exalted Member
    • Location: Llandybie, Dyfed
    • Posts: 399
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Can't believe nobody has reccommended The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford! Fantastic book and easily accessible, will not really help you with your studies but it should grip you and make you want to learn more! I would also suggest Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, something that should help you with your studies. Also Economics for Dummies will help to consolidate ideas that you should have already learnt, and is quite interesting Also Freakonomics is worth reading Hope this helps,

    Paul
  8. .ACS.'s Avatar
    • Community Assistant
    • TSR Idol
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    The Armchair Economist by Landsburg is also an ever popular pop economics book, and probably one of the better ones out there. Otherwise, Capitalism and Freedom by Friedman is always a good read.
  9. Laura-alice26's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Posts: 48
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    hey
    ive just finished the undercover economist - it was great, such a good read!
    i was wondering if anyone has read globalization and its discontents by joseph stiglitz?? is i any good and is it worth putting it on a PS??
    taa
  10. turn and fall's Avatar
    • Exalted and Worshipped Member
    • Posts: 1,306
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Trouble with Markets - Roger Bootle


    Better than the dreaded freakonomics
  11. kevinbarry's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Location: london
    • Posts: 107
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Hop over to www.keweipress.com and download the short (9 pages) free article "An introduction to economics in 5000 words and a bit".

    If you like that brief intro, you could then get the free book "An introduction to economics" also by Kevin Bucknall from the same site.
  12. bijesh12's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Location: London
    • Posts: 538
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    Undercover Economist and Too Big To Fail !
  13. giveandtake's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Posts: 52
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    (Original post by easyindeed)
    Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - gripping read and will give you a lot to talk about on your PS when you write it!
    Bit of a time lag, but what is the connection between the subject and this book? I looked on amazon and it's about lesbians apparently... Have I got the wrong one there?

    Cheers
  14. MagicNMedicine's Avatar
    • TSR Idol
    • Location: This sceptred isle
    • Posts: 9,642
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    (Original post by giveandtake)
    Bit of a time lag, but what is the connection between the subject and this book? I looked on amazon and it's about lesbians apparently... Have I got the wrong one there?

    Cheers
    Yes it was a joke on this forum.

    There were people on here close to the UCAS deadline asking stuff like "what economics books should I say I've read on my personal statement" when they had blatantly not read them so people were saying Tipping The Velvet to make some unsuspecting student write it on their PS
  15. .ACS.'s Avatar
    • Community Assistant
    • TSR Idol
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Applied-Inte...6494029&sr=8-1

    A text I stumbled upon the other day. It takes a very applied approach to macroeconomics, which I think is perfect in bridging the gap between A-Level and university level.

    At A-Level, everything was so applied. At university everything is so theoretical (or at least from my three years so far) and you don't see how it applies in the real world; you simply learn models for the exam and don't truly appreciate them unless you apply them in your dissertation.

    This book, however, doesn't seem to require anything beyond A-Level Economics, and provides a very gentle introduction to applied macroeconomics with specific real-life examples used.

    Another classic text is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Applied-Econ...6494188&sr=1-1 which I feel is underused. Again you won't need anything beyond A-Level Economics.
  16. giveandtake's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Posts: 52
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    (Original post by MagicNMedicine)
    Yes it was a joke on this forum.

    There were people on here close to the UCAS deadline asking stuff like "what economics books should I say I've read on my personal statement" when they had blatantly not read them so people were saying Tipping The Velvet to make some unsuspecting student write it on their PS
    I won't lie to you, the thought of that made me laugh
  17. Chriswuk's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Posts: 472
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    You can also get a trial subscription for the economist which costs like a pound for 12 issues.
  18. MormonMonster's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Location: In the depths of your mind
    • Posts: 101
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    (Original post by paul_blakeman)
    Can't believe nobody has reccommended The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford! Fantastic book and easily accessible, will not really help you with your studies but it should grip you and make you want to learn more! I would also suggest Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, something that should help you with your studies. Also Economics for Dummies will help to consolidate ideas that you should have already learnt, and is quite interesting Also Freakonomics is worth reading Hope this helps,

    Paul
    I couldn't agree more. It gives you all the info you want but presents it in a readable way!
  19. Curzon's Avatar
    • Benevolent Member
    • Location: Wales
    • Posts: 717
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    While not exactly an academic book perhaps, "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" is good and quite eye opening if you are new to economics. The title makes it sound like it's anti-capitalist which isn't the case. It just addresses some myths that are thrown around about capitalism which you should really know about.
  20. dan94adibi's Avatar
    • Peer Of The TSR Realm
    • Location: London
    • Posts: 1,749
    Re: Good economics books to read?
    (Original post by dude55)
    I am currently studying economics at A-level and want to do it at Uni. Does anyone know any good books to read? I don't want the Sloman textbooks etc. I'm talking about real books
    If you want something for an AS student, I would defiantly recommend you 'Poor Economics'. It would give you an insight into how the economy works. E.g Even though wages might increase for poor but they prefer to spend most of their wages on luxury instead of necessities. For example poor people in Africa (if their wages increases) they would prefer to buy a TV rather than having an extra meal and have the energy to work harder and increase productivity and thereby increasing their income and ect...

    A really good book. Not only you will learn how the system works but you can definitely use it in the exam for your evaluation both for unit 1 and unit 2. You can tell the examiner how what you have learned is just theory and in the real world the government policies may not result into what they expect.
Sign in to Reply
Share this discussion:  
Article updates
Moderators

We have a brilliant team of more than 60 volunteers looking after discussions on The Student Room, helping to make it a fun, safe and useful place to hang out.

Reputation gems:
The Reputation gems seen here indicate how well reputed the user is, red gem indicate negative reputation and green indicates a good rep.
Post rating score:
These scores show if a post has been positively or negatively rated by our members.