The Logic of Life and over 360,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
77 used & new from $0.85

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
 
 
Start reading The Logic of Life on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: abortion notification laws, purple workers, rational racism, New York, African American, Rock Island (more...)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

List Price: $25.00
Price: $16.50 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $8.50 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Wednesday, November 11? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
37 new from $4.12 39 used from $0.85 1 collectible from $14.90

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition $9.99 -- --
  Hardcover, Bargain Price $10.00 $7.71 $6.84
  Hardcover, January 15, 2008 $16.50 $4.12 $0.85
  Paperback $10.20 $8.26 $5.99
  Audio, CD, Abridged, Audiobook $29.95 $17.27 $16.25

Check Out Related Media

00:48


Best Value

Buy The Undercover Economist and get The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

The Undercover Economist + The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
Buy Together Today: $25.85

Show availability and shipping details

  • The Undercover Economist

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • This item: The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Undercover Economist

The Undercover Economist

by Tim Harford
3.8 out of 5 stars (54)  $10.17
Dear Undercover Economist: Priceless Advice on Money, Work, Sex, Kids, and Life's Other Challenges

Dear Undercover Economist: Priceless Advice on Money, Work, Sex, Kids, and Life's Other Challenges

by Tim Harford
$10.20
Microeconomics for MBAs: The Economic Way of Thinking for Managers

Microeconomics for MBAs: The Economic Way of Thinking for Managers

by Richard B. McKenzie
4.7 out of 5 stars (6)  $76.00
More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics

More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics

by Steven E. Landsburg
3.1 out of 5 stars (40)  $11.97
Economics 2.0: What the Best Minds in Economics Can Teach You About Business and Life

Economics 2.0: What the Best Minds in Economics Can Teach You About Business and Life

by Norbert Haring
4.0 out of 5 stars (6)  $20.40
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A Message to Amazon Readers from Author Tim Harford

Give yourself a pat on the back. You're not as stupid as everyone says you are, and now there's a book that proves it.

When I first conceived of The Logic of Life, my aim was to show that a world full of smart people--people like you, that is--doesn’t necessarily look logical on the surface. We eat too much and worry about being fat; drink too much and cringe when we remember; spend too much at Christmas and worry about the bills in New Year. And that’s just the small stuff: what about crime, racial segregation, divorce, big-money politics?

And yet underneath it all there is a hidden logic. It isn’t always pretty, but it’s there if you know how to see it. That is what The Logic of Life is all about.

But when I'd finished the first draft, my editor told me that he didn't think that people were as logical as I'd said. He wanted me to prove my point.

At first, I thought it was my editor thinks people are illogical because he works in the publishing business. Of course life looks illogical if you do that. (In fact, life looks crazy in most offices: see "Why Your Boss is Overpaid," chapter four.) But then I realised he was right. I'd left the most important step out.

So I went back and made sure that I laid out all the amazing evidence. I looked at single women hitting the dating scene in American cities; I looked at juvenile delinquents across the US; I looked at Mexican prostitutes; I looked at traders at a convention in Disney World; I looked at professional poker players in Las Vegas and professional soccer players in Europe. I looked at violent spouses, alcoholics, and school bullies.

In every case I discovered a story of hidden incentives and unexpected logic. And through the process of writing--and living--the book, I discovered that this crazy world of ours makes more sense than you might think.




From Publishers Weekly

Financial Times and Slate.com columnist Harford (The Undercover Economist) provides an entertaining and provocative look at the logic behind the seemingly irrational. Arguing that rational behavior is more widespread than most people expect, Harford uses economic principles to draw forth the rational elements of gambling, the teenage oral sex craze, crime and other supposedly illogical behaviors to illustrate his larger point. Utilizing John von Neumann and Thomas Schelling's conceptions of game theory, Harford applies their approach to a multitude of arenas, including marriage, the workplace and racism. Contrarily, he also shows that individual rational behavior doesn't always lead to socially desired outcomes. Harford concludes with how to apply this thinking on an even bigger scale, showing how rational behavior shapes cities, politics and the entire history of human civilization. Well-written with highly engaging stories and examples, this book will be of great interest to Freakonomics and Blink fans as well as anyone interested in the psychology of human behavior. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (January 15, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400066425
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400066421
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #177,894 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Harford
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Tim Harford Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

47 Reviews
5 star:
 (18)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (11)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
209 of 249 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars pretty thin gruel, January 19, 2008
By Gertude Whitman (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
"Logic" may be 270 pages, but it feels more like seventy. If you have the vaguest experience with behavioral economics -- e.g., from reading Dubner and Leavitt's "Freakonomics" columns in the New York Times -- a lot of the background will seem very familiar and a lot of the "gosh-wow" that Harford tries to generate will seem a little forced. Indeed, quite a few of Harford's central pieces have already appeared in the popular press -- e.g., the material on pacific islands and economic growth as a function of when they were colonized.

There is a real "factoid" quality to the book. The various chapters, on sexual behavior and AIDS, game theory and poker, racial discrimination, CEO pay, and the role of cities and legal systems (I think I got them all) seems strung together with no overriding theme beyond the kind of "gee-whiz" factor of applying economics to social issues. The weakest parts come near the end, where the summaries of research begin to be overwhelmed by anecdote and story. I was left without a clear idea, for example, why Harford considered it self-evident that cities would remain centers of the information economy.

Since "Freakonomics", the bar has been set a little higher for these kinds of books. Vague popularizations of other people's research studies are fine for a New York Times article or blog post, but really can't sustain a book. If you look -- as I do -- for the author to make some kind of larger point, you'll do so in vain; what larger points he does make are a bit evident (everyone behaving rationally can lead to horrible social consequences -- tragedy of the commons or the voter's paradox, anyone? These are hardly new discoveries!)

One interesting avenue to examine -- looking at the arguments of those who consider the field to be a bit overblown in its claims, or putting the field in a larger context -- goes mostly untouched. Discussion of Malthus is pretty bare, and what Harford marshals in response is really thin and poorly argued; in general, this really is another "random walk" through the literature.

I'm sure the book will sell well; it's a good airplane read (but it won't last you longer than a four-hour flight at most.) The market for these books is new and there are still plenty of people who will be amused and surprised to see what Harford has to report from the "field." But those looking for a more sustained performance, with deeper intellectual engagement with the fascinating issues that economics raises for the social and human sciences, will have to look elsewhere.
Comment Comments (9) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars At best a badly edited book, July 1, 2008
I liked Tim Hartford's earlier work - The Undercover Economist very much. I have taken a few graduate courses in Economics and loved the way the book refreshed and even gave new concepts to me. Thus, I picked up The Logic of Life with a lot of expectations. These expectations were badly dashed.

My big problem with this book is that Hartford lacks rigor. In a popular book I wouldn't expect the rigor of an academic article, but when an author draws conclusions that are wider ranging than warranted or if the author factually incorrect then I do have a problem. There are at least a couple of instances when Hartford does that. For me it taints the whole book - making me ask questions such as what if Hartford is factually incorrect in other places that I don't know about.

Hartford relies a lot on the experiments of John List to set up his premise - People are more rational in their day to day life than psychologists give them credit for. One set of List's experiments demonstrated that experienced pin and baseball card collectors are able to make rational decisions in situations where rookies often make irrational ones. Hartford then extends this logic to claim that as people are experienced in their day to day life - in activities such as work and shopping - they are unlikely to make the rookie irrational mistakes. To me this is a big stretch. I don't know anyone who thinks a day-to-day shopping decision through as much as an experienced collector would. A little effort from the author here in establishing his premise would have been really well served.

Hartford really lets go of rigor when criticizing the work of Jeffery Sachs. Coincidentally, I was reading "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time" by Jeffery Sachs at the same time I was reading Logic of Life and I was shocked by Hartford's presentation of Sachs' theories and also his refutations. For example, Hartford says that malaria is unlikely to be a cause of under-development as it kills only young children and not adults. Sachs has argued in reasonable detail how malaria can cause poverty (absenteeism, delay of investment projects, undereducated children and parents making decisions of having more children). I for one cannot understand how one line stating malaria kills children and hence does not effect economy from Hartford is anything but a lazy piece of writing. Hartford' writing on the topic gets almost bizarre when he then states "In any case, these diseases can be fought by countries with the resources to do so." As this statement is apparently to refute the logic of Sachs, it is mind boggling as Sachs to my mind is also saying the same thing. The disease can be fought - however, the really poor countries do not have the resources to do so. At best statements like these are very poor editing of the book. The point here is not if Sachs is correct or not. The point is that if you are refuting the theory of a person, the least you should be doing is to state it correctly and in full.

For me, if I start doubting one part of the book I start thinking - this author is not very incorrect about a part I know about, so can I trust him on other parts where I don't know too much? This does sharply reduce the enjoyment of what is a very readable book.
Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable reminder that economics is a means not an end, January 17, 2008
A lively and thought-provoking follow-up to Harford's debut book The Undercover Economist, which used textbook economics to throw new light on everyday life. In this second book Harford moves well beyond the textbook to take us on a tour of some cutting edge research and thinking that's emerging from what he calls a "new breed of economists". Among them is Steve Levitt, whose Freakonomics popularized the notion that economists can have interesting things to say about areas you wouldn't normally expect them to be poking their noses into - but Levitt is only one of many academic researchers who are cheerfully roaming over other people's turf from their economics labs, so Harford's book serves as a timely overview of a newly sexy subject.

The result is a startlingly diverse collection of insights and anecdotes which are all held together by one central premise - that you can explain a lot about life by starting from the simple assumption that people are fundamentally rational. This is not an uncontroversial assertion - among the "new breed of economists" are those melding economics with psychology into a fledgeling discipline of behavioral economics, which focuses on our irrational quirks. Harford's view is not to dismiss these human foibles, but to argue persuasively that they shouldn't be overstated, and that in most important situations we behave rationally - that is, subconsciously evaluating costs and benefits and responding to incentives - to a remarkable extent.

Harford's writing is a joy to read, especially when he's impishly puncturing pomposity - my favorite is the "why your boss is overpaid" chapter, which discusses several theories that could rationally explain the obscenely high wages commanded by modern CEOs (hint: none of them are "because they're worth it"). One great lesson made clear by this book is that individually rational decisions can lead to socially horrible outcomes, a conclusion never clearer than in the discomfiting chapter on "rational racism". It's a valuable reminder that economics is a means not an end - rational choice theory doesn't dictate what society should be like, rather it teaches how we can harness rationality by changing incentives to shape the society we want.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes sense, mostly
Tim Hartford examines how decisions made by individuals may appear irrational on the surface but are revealed to be quite rational once incentives are take into account. Read more
Published 20 days ago by bronx book nerd

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Freakonomics - A Few Good Ideas, Overstreched
This is not a well written book. Contrary to Freakonomics which approaches the same subject with an engaging, clear and iluminating text, the ideas here are proposed in... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Roberto Motta

5.0 out of 5 stars Some real progress on some vexing issues
Sprawling popular economics-applications book, which opposite to Freakonomics presents preliminary (instead of final) material on large (instead of small) areas. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Huntington

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow
I have just finished reading this book and all I can say is "Wow." Some of the topics in this book were just outrageous (but not implausible). Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lemas Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative and fun read. Great book and highly recommended
I picked up this book as this was rated one of the best books of 2008 by the Economist magazine. Glad I did so!! This book is a page turner. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ram Visvanathan

2.0 out of 5 stars Good only in parts, puerile reasoning at times, very disappointing followup to Undercover Economist
Interesting only in bits, tenuously argued, outright outrageously silly in some places, and with a huge 'Freakonomics' hangover. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Abhinav Agarwal

4.0 out of 5 stars And You Thought Economics Wasn't Fun...
A funny thing has been happening in recent years: writers have successfully been crafting books which make economics seem fun! Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sacramento Book Review

5.0 out of 5 stars The process of making logical choices rationally
Tim Harford's The Logic of Life, is a fascinating look into life's circumstances through the eyes of a British economist. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Patty Craven

5.0 out of 5 stars An economist proves that people are more rational than we think
Economists no longer just propose fiscal policies, forecast business growth, investigate interest rates and assign value to financial assets. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Rolf Dobelli

1.0 out of 5 stars Too many logical fallacies
I was eager to get this book... but upon reading it, I think it has too many logical fallacies and loaded language; particularly the section on the logic of racism which seemed... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Stephen A. Lajoie

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Time Hartford's The Logic of Life 0 January 2009
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.