San Antonio College Library

A curated collection from the most readable economics blog in the universe. Over the past decade, Levitt and Dubner freely admit that most of their posts were rubbish. But now they've gone through and picked the best of the best. You'll discover what people lie about, and why; the best way to cut gun deaths; why it might be time for a sex tax; and, yes, when to rob a bank. (Short answer: never; the ROI is terrible.).

From the Publisher: Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling more than four million copies. Now Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics ... SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, with such questions as: How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa? What's the best way to catch a terrorist? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Are people hardwired...

What do sex, contraceptives, marriage, divorce, alcohol, religion, politics, crime, and punishment have in common with inflation, monopoly, and exchange rates? The answer given in this book is that the formers are all aspects of human behavior, which, like the latter, can be analyzed and modeled using conventional economic methods. The application of economic reasoning to human behavior, which was until recently considered to be beyond the scope of...

"What explains the growing class divide between the well educated and everybody else? Noted author Brink Lindsey, a senior scholar at the Kauffman Foundation, argues that it's because economic expansion is creating an increasingly complex world in which only a minority with the right knowledge and skills--the right "human capital"--reap the majority of the economic rewards. The complexity of today's economy is not only making these lucky elites richer--it...

While most people are familiar with The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, few know that during the last decade of his life Max Weber (1864-1920) also tried to develop a new way of analyzing economic phenomena, which he termed "economic sociology." Indeed, this effort occupies the central place in Weber's thought during the years just before his death. Richard Swedberg here offers a critical presentation and the first major study of this...

Providing a basic income to everyone, rich or poor, active or inactive, was advocated by Paine, Mill, and Galbraith but the idea was never taken seriously. Today, with the welfare state creaking, it is one of the world's most widely debated proposals. Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present a comprehensive defense of this radical idea--Provided by publisher.

Across the world - Egypt, Greece, Spain, Brazil - citizens are turning angrily to their governments to demand economic fair play and equality. But here in America, with few exceptions, the streets and airwaves remain relatively silent. In a country as rich and powerful as America, why is there so little outcry about the ever-increasing, deliberate divide between the very wealthy and everyone else? In this edition of Moyers & Company, Bill is joined...

"To many, Thomas Carlyle's put-down of economics as "the dismal science" is as fitting now as it was 150 years ago, but Diane Coyle argues that economics today is more soulful than dismal, a more practical and human science than ever before. In contrast to Freakonomics, which applied economics to unlikely or even eccentric subjects such as baby names and drug gangs, The Soulful Science describes the remarkable creative renaissance in how economics...

Work is, and always will be, a central institution of society. What makes a capitalist society unique is that it treats the human capacity to engage in labor as a basic commodity. This can be a source of dynamism, as when innovative firms raise wages to attract the best and brightest. But it can also be a source of misery, as when one's skills are suddenly rendered obsolete by forces beyond one's control. Jeffrey J. Sallaz asks us to rethink our basic...

"This book applies principles of microeconomics to unusual settings to inspire students, teachers and scholars alike in the 'dismal science'. Leading experts show how economics reaches into the strangest of places and throws light onto the occasionally dark side of human nature." "'Sins and Needles' examines the economics of drug addiction, prohibition and liberalization; 'Guns and Roses' looks at the contribution economists can make to understanding...