Friday, April 6, 2007

Reading lists - economics

Earlier this week Greg Mankiw responded to the following request.

I wonder if you might consider having an item that asks your readers what books they think would be excellent for economics students to read. Perhaps each reader with a good recommendation could offer a paragraph or so about the book and why they think it's an excellent read for students.
Over at Greg Mankiw's Blog you can review an excellent list of book recommendations.

Click here to see Greg Mankiw's 2006 Summer Reading List.

In addition to the recommendations you find there, I might suggest:


North, Douglass. Understanding the Process of Economic Change. His 1993 Nobel lecture is also worth reading.


O’ Rourke, PJ. On the Wealth of Nations.

A must read. O'Rourke summarizes the 900 page Wealth of Nations in fewer than 200 pages of readable a provocative analysis. He recognizes that the importance of Smith’s work today is for economic growth, development and poverty reduction. “Even intellectuals should have no trouble understanding Smith’s ideas. Economic progress depends upon a trinity of individual perogatives: pursuit of self interest, division of labor and freedom of trade” (1-2). In order to fully understand the first element of the Smithian thesis one can read The Theory of Moral Sentiments of chapter 3 in O”Rourke.

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