Marginalia

“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.”

I’ll try not to post too often about The Logic of Life, but since it’s published in mid-January in the US and early February in the UK, there may be a post or two. You can find out more here.

Here’s a (less than) one-minute video of me talking about the new book.

In today’s programme (4.30pm GMT on BBC Radio 4, and podcast thereafter) we’ll be looking at silly “scientific” results commissioned by public relations companies, at the row over immigration statistics, and an international dispute over how heavy a kilogram should be. Check it out.

You can’t have missed the fact that this is a new website design! Many thanks to the brilliant Wolfango Chiappella and please bear with us while we iron out technical hitches. This site’s RSS feed is different from the old one, but don’t delete your old subscriptions just yet. We’re trying to plug the new feed into the old one. Please do email with any comments or concerns.

Update: I think subscribers to the old feed are now getting updates. Posting this update is my way of finding out!

My colleague Gideon Rachman wants to know what you think of Bono. He’s not a fan. I think Gideon’s being harsh. Of course, Bono is no Tom Waits. But then, neither is Gideon.

I recently made a radio program about Al Roth’s concept of “Repugnant Markets”, with the excellent Richard Vadon as producer. The transcript stays up permanently.
The show includes Al Roth, Virginia Postrel, Bishop Lee Rayfield, Tom Shakespeare, Robin Hanson, Naomi Pfeffer and Andrew Oswald. I’m very pleased with it.

The dismal science keeps crashing through those boundaries, and I am now offering dating advice to the readers of Esquire (UK). Unfortunately they don’t have a proper website, so you’ll need to buy it if you want to read the article.

Here’s a taster:

If there’s one thing that economists understand, then it’s supply and demand. No matter how attractive a dating proposition you are, you can always put yourself in a stronger position by making sure that you’re in a place where there aren’t enough men to go around. In other words, you need to live in a seller’s market.
Carrie Bradshaw, the lead character in Sex in the City, grumbled “that there 1.3 million single men in Manhattan and 1.8 million women” but she didn’t stop to wonder why.
New York-based economist Lena Edlund (whose research includes “A Theory of Prostitution” and “Hermaphroditism: What’s not to Like?”) argues that the reason cities have an excess supply of young women is that they offer them two bites at the cherry: good jobs, and rich husbands.
In case you doubt this explanation, Edlund looked carefully at the situation in Sweden. She found that the richer the men, the larger the supply of available women in the local area. I think it’s pretty clear what is going on here. So if you want to be surrounded by unattached young women, live in an area full of wealthy guys.
Most big cities provide well-stocked hunting grounds for men but in the UK, the top locations include leafy stockbroker-belt towns in Hertfordshire (between the ages of 20-35, there are 113 women chasing every 100 men), Berwick-on-Tweed (112 young women per 100 young men) and Kensington and Chelsea (108 – and you thought all those girls on the King’s Road were shopping for shoes). Mews houses in SW6 don’t come cheap, of course, but if there’s one thing economics tells us it’s that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Note: if you are reading this magazine in Rutland, Oxford or Cambridge, the deck is stacked against you. And with three young guys for each girl, the Isles of Scilly have all the demographic desirability of a North Sea oil rig.

Bryan Caplan, GMU economist, superb blogger and author of “The Myth of the Rational Voter“, is appearing at the Cato Institute at Washington DC on 17 July. If you’re in the area, check it out - the book has been attracting attention from The Economist to The New Yorker.

I was in Barcelona on Thursday to promote the Spanish edition of The Undercover Economist, which has to my surprise been making frequent visits to the bestseller lists since its launch in February. Here are my minders, Ruth and Felipe of Spanish publishers Temas de Hoy.

Undercover Economist has now sold 500,000 copies worldwide. I thought that was pretty good, although of course someone is doing even better - congratulations, chaps!

The UK paperback of The Undercover Economist is now shipping; the official publication date is 3 May. I love the cover.