Customer Reviews

What Do Economists Contribute? (Cato Institute Book)

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Daniel Klein, Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University, brings together some of the best minds in economics on a very important and unsettled issue: what do economists contribute to society? In today's world, most economists do not care about educating the general public as to how government policies work or how economics can address and solve many social problems; rather, they are concerned with demonstrating their mathematical "wizardry." Unfortunately, economists who can explain principles to the layman are not taken seriously; their work is viewed as not being rigorous enough. The "Everyman," to use Klein's term, needs to understand the beauty and power of economics. If economists stopped preaching to the choir and stopped their quest to be known as great mathematicians, then maybe people would actually come to know the power of economic reasoning. This book is enlightening and should be read by economists and noneconomists alike.

Economists deal in an esoteric subject that is often beyond the grasp of the general public, who are often confused with the chronic presentation of conflicting opinions by credentialed and experienced economists on almost every economic issue of our day. In What Do Economists Contribute?, editor Daniel Klein has compiled outstanding essays from nine great economists of this century (Friedreich Hayek, Ronald Coase, Thomas Schelling, Gordon Tullock, Israel Kirzner, Frank Graham, William Hutt, Clarence Philbrook, and D. McCloskey) to address the existential issue of "how do we contribute to human betterment?" from an economists perspective. the result is a lively, informative, engaging discourse that provides insight and a significant clarification of the role the evolving science of economics plays in our understanding of why things happen in the ways that they do. What Do Economists Contribute? is highly recommended reading for lay readers as well as students of economics, and has a great deal of substantive value for even experienced, practicing economists as well.

Hayek's bit alone is worth buying the book.
Heck, I'll quote a line that is worth buying the book:
'As economists we should at least always suspect ourseves if we find that we are on the popular side.'


Those who, like the reviewer, are for a free society (i.e. liberals -- called libertarians in the US, where liberal means just the opposite) will enjoy the book the most.