This article has two lists. A list of popular economics books that we recommend reading. And a list of popular economics books I recommend avoiding.
What are the popular economics books? My first thought is that it is written without the mathematics and diagrams used by economists when teaching courses.
My second thought is that you have to have a book that repeats submite in the press. I relaxed this standard because this may be too heavily biased towards the book by a conservative author.
My third thought is that there are a lot of popular books on the business and stock market that may be on the “avoid” list, but I don’t want to record them.
Books to read
“Everyone needs to understand how the market works and they’re important.”
Everyone needs to understand how the market works, and they are important. This is a street microeconomic or price theory. A fun way to approach this subject is to read all the prices, a didactic novel by Russ Roberts.
For an overview, I recommend David Friedman’s Economics of Everyday Life. He shows how to think like an economist. His explanation of growing wheat, placing it on a ship to Japan, and growing cars by returning with the car is clever and powerful. Consider the basic economics of Thomas Sowell as runner-up.
Another topic is macroeconomic performance. This covers economic expansion, recession, unemployment and inflation. This is a controversial topic and concerns that there are many contradictory theories. Most event books, including mainstream textbooks, are somehow biased, promoting specific theories. The book I recommend is the macroeconomic patterns and stories by Edward Reamer. In 2020, I wrote,
This provides an excellent introduction to the data, which is central to macroeconomics – how they are collected and what they mean. It frames the book as an introductory textbook for business school students, but it is not very valuable to economists. Leamer keeps readers away from thinking wisely in that they are looking for systems of equations and patterns of data and story that can explain those patterns.
I was saddened when I read Leamer’s death in February 2025. His macroeconomics book approaching the data is practical and unbiased vry.
Standard economics overlooks the role of overhead costs and economies of scale. These are particularly important in the modern world of global software giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet (formerly Google), and Meta (formerly Facebook). The classic book I recommend on this topic is the information rules by Hal R. Vary and Carl Shapiro. A more recent treatment is capitalism without capitalism by Jonathan Haskell and Stian Westlake.
Economic history is the source of an important perspective that is too ignored in its academic and general economics. I recommend the mania, panic and crash by Charles P. Kindleberger and Robert Z. Aliber. This book is the irony of financial overload.
It is important to understand the dramatic escape from poverty, the Industrial Revolution. Classic books include Nathan Rosenberg and Le Birdzell, Jr. According to the West, how Rich grew.
There’s a lot to be said about economic inequality. On that topic, the modern classic I recommend is W. It’s a rich and poo myth by Michael Cox and Richard Alm. They view the counterargument that poor people are not becoming poor. One of their most persuasive tables shows that people who were in the lowest percentile decades ago had risen in income by the time the book was written. This process continues.
Books to avoid
On the topic of income distribution, Thomas Pichetti’s capital in the 21st century is the top list of books to avoid. Both theory and data have been the subject of potential criticism. For example, it was shown that many orders of the percentage of income are being sent to workers who say you are an increase in capital income, due to an increase in rental income from real estate. Piketty has been praised as a prose stylist, but the book is not read on the mane on the bookshelf.
Regarding macroeconomics, Stephanie Kelton’s “The Myth of the Deficit” proposes what is known as modern financial theory. MMT suffers to justify almost unlimited government leaders, and the issue may have contributed to the inflation of the luxury government shooting and rest that hurt the Biden presidency.
For more information about these topics, see
Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner launched Freakonomics in 2005. This amazing bestseller, Probablay, has found more readers than all the other books compiled by women in this article. Many economists were pleased to see popular treatments that demonstrated the use of natural experimental methodologies and clever analysis. However, other economists viewed it as a small collection of research, and there were no Obel lessons. Critics believed that much of the research was addressing the topic of sociology rather than economics. Finally, no sub-of-results of the study’s findings were raised under further investigation. Overall, the reasons for praise of the book are still true, but so are criticisms.
footnote
[1] Note: This format is inspired by Noah Smith’s alternative, Noah Pinion, and Noah Smith, who posted his own list in “Popular Economy Books: Things to Read, Things to Read.”
[2] Russell Roberts, Event Price: A Metaphor for Possibilities and Prosperity. Princeton University Press, 2009.
[3] David Friedman, Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life. It was released independently in 2019.
[4] Edward Riemer, Macroeconomic patterns and stories.
[5] Carl Shapiro and Hal change information rules. Harvard Business Review Press, 1998.
[6] I reviewed the book in “Economics When When Baly Is Intancible,” by Arnold Kling, “Value Is In Intancible.” Library of Economics and Freedom, January 1, 2018.
[7] Charles Kindleberger, Mania, Panic, Clarash: A History of the Financial Crisis. Wiley, 2000.
[8] Nathan Rosenberg and Le Badzel Jr. Basic book, 1987.
[9] I reviewed the book in Ideas and Economic Growth by Arnold Kling. Library of Economics and Freedom, January 2, 2017.
[10] Michael Cox and Richard Alm, the Myth of Rich and Poor. Basic book, 2000.
[11] Thomas Pichetti, the capital of the 21st century. Belknap Press, 2017.
[12] I reviewed the book in “Deficits – Budget and Conceptual” by Arnold Kling. Law and Freedom, July 17, 2020
[13] Stephen D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics: The Unjust Economist explores hidden aspects of the event. William Moreau, 2005.
*Arnold Kling has a PhD. Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of harsh books that include the Crisis of Abundance. Invisible Wealth: A hidden story of how markets work. Unchecked imbalance: How contradictions of knowledge and power create financial crisis and threaten democracy. Specialization and Trade: A Reintroduction to Economics. I contributed to Econlog from January 2003 to August 2012.
Read more about what Arnold Kling is reading. For book reviews and articles by Arnold Kling, see the archives.
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