by Steven E. Landsburg

isbn: 0029177766
subject: Nonfiction, Economics
finished: 7/31/1999

This is a particularly engaging piece of pop economics. It contains a number of more or less independent essays that use an economic analysis to solve puzzles about everyday life: Why can safer vehicles increase the number of accidents? Why does popcorn cost so much at the movies? When does it make sense to not recycle?

There were two things that I didn't like about this book. First, Landsburg appears to believe that costs and benefits can be determined accurately and in a neutral way -- this assumes away a difficult or impossible problem. Second, he is sometimes too glib, debunking a conventional explanation for some phenomenon, and then failing to adequately defend his alternative explanation. Otherwise, I enjoyed The Armchair Economist a lot. It's well written, contains no graphs or equations, and provides a good introduction to a particular way of thinking that emphasizes a careful analysis of costs, the power of incentives, and using market solutions rather than legislation.