Marta Salij opines in the Detroit Free Press:
Best of all, Harford can clarify how economics is a science that deals with human behavior, especially when it goes wrong. “The Undercover Economist” has the human touch to make econ fun.
Martha Lagace writes for the Harvard Business School:
As a well-rounded practitioner of the dismal science, Tim Harford has emerged as one of those rare creatures: an economist for Everyman, a person who can set “oligopoly market” and “probability theory” in harmony with everyday conundrums without making you wrinkle your brow even once.
While at Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling writes:
The substance of UE is so strong, that I am tempted to review it as if it were a textbook. Not because it resembles the freshman textbooks that are commonly used today, but because it resembles what I believe such books ought to be. In fact, it is not far from the book that I argued for five years ago. If the Ivy League economics courses were designed for the benefit of students rather than the convenience of professors, then Harford, not Greg Mankiw, would be the $1.4 million man.
Given Dr Kling’s expertise, that review is particularly heart-warming.