Tim Harford



Profile:
Full name: Tim Harford

Area of interest: Economics

Journals/Organisation: Financial Times

Email: [mailto:undercovereconomist@gmail.com undercovereconomist@gmail.com] | FT/Tim Harford

Personal website: http://timharford.com/

Website:http://www.ft.com/life-arts/undercover-economist

Blog: 'Undercover Economist' (FT.com) | PSD Blog (co-founder, with Pablo Halkyard)

Representation: Sally Holloway | Knight Ayton | Leigh Bureau | J.L.A.

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/timharford | Facebook



Biography:
About: http://timharford.com/etc/biography

Education: Brasenose College, Oxford University: MPhil Economics, 1998

Career: International Finance Corporation (World Bank); scenario expert at Shell Oil; tutor at Oxford University; speechwriter for Stanley Fischer (Governor of Israel's Central Bank)
 * see Biography (Tim Harford.com)
 * Joined FT in 2003 on a Peter Martin fellowship

Current position/role: Economics leader writer and writes the “Undercover Economist” columns


 * also writes/has written for: Forbes, Slate, New York Times

Other roles/Main role: Author

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Authors@Google: Tim Harford (VIDEO) (28 January, 2008)
 * Videos (Tim Harford.com)
 * YouTube videos

Broadcast media:

Video:
 * Presenter of BBC2 Series 'Trust me, I'm an economist' (AUDIO/VIDEO)
 * New presenter of the Radio 4 series, More or Less ("More or Less takes you on a journey through the often abused but ever ubiquitous world of numbers.")

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours:

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:

 * The market for aid OCLC 60558739, 2005 (with Michael Klein)
 * The Undercover Economist: exposing why the rich are rich, the poor are poor--and why you can never buy a decent used car! OCLC 59098699, 2006
 * The logic of life : the rational economics of an irrational world OCLC 159822206, 2008 (see info at Tim Harford.com)
 * Dear Undercover Economist ISBN 978039121543, Abacus, June 2010

Latest work: Adapt: why success always starts with failure OCLC 712927033. Read a review here

Speaking/Appearances: Events schedule

Debate: 

Financial Times:
Column name: 'Undercover Economist'

Remit/Info: Revealing the economic theories at work behind our everyday experiences

Section: FT Weekend Magazine

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:undercovereconomist@gmail.com undercovereconomist@gmail.com]

Website: FT.Com / Tim Harford

Commissioning Editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 600 words 

Articles: 2017

 * We are still waiting for the robot revolution - The problem is not machines taking our jobs — it is that they are slacking off - 1st July
 * Ignore the Grenfell scapegoating and build more homes - We should be taxing all properties, whether they are occupied or foreign-owned - 24th June
 * Why wishful thinking is foolish in politics - The Brexit vote and others highlight the strength of the ‘desirability bias’ - 16th June
 * If your country lets you down, find a new one - In a democracy you just have to take the majority view on the chin. Or do you? - 9th June
 * Trump and May give U-turns a bad name - Well-run countries should expect to see frequent changes of direction - 27th May
 * This is the age of the Microsoft and Amazon economy - Dominant corporate players thrive but such efficiency has a high cost for workers - 20th May
 * Where the truth really lies with statistics - We often scrutinise numbers with a forensic eye without asking what they represent - 11th May
 * Personal finance sets traps for dinosaurs - What most consumer finance needs is for key information to be made simple and salient - 6th May
 * More holidays are a luxury Britain can afford - We Brits scoff at the French work ethic, but they get more done in less time - 29th April
 * Why prizewinning chiefs risk swift fall from grace - Statistical quirks mean outstanding performances tend to be shortlived - 22nd April
 * Disruption sets a less frenetic pace of change - Ironically workers move jobs and home less frequently than before - 14th April
 * Gut feelings can work in favour of immigrants - If we imagine restrictive migration policies apply to our lives, we see their flaws - 7th April
 * Beware the ostriches pursuing a Brexit deal - There is certainly a deal to be done, but wishful thinking will not deliver it - 31st March
 * Sweat the small stuff but always dream big - In the hunt for productivity, the revolutionary long shot is worth the cost and risk - 25th March
 * Some things are best left to the technocrats - On any piece of policy, the typical voter does not understand what is at stake - 18th March
 * The problem with facts - How today’s politicians deal with inconvenient truths - 11th March
 * Hard truths about fake news - This feels like an important moment. Fake news is not prevalent, but it could become so - 3rd March
 * What raspberry farms can tell us about inequality - The simplest economies tend to be the most unequal; the more sophisticated ones are more equal - 25th February
 * Testing and VW: how do you catch a cheat? - In the case of VW, transparency was the enemy: regulators should have been vaguer about the emissions test to prevent cheating - 18th February
 * How being wrong can help us get it right - If I’m cruising along in a complacent bubble, I badly need someone to explain what I’m doing wrong - 11th February
 * What’s so great about free trade anyway? - Trade’s winners may take their good fortune for granted while the losers are acutely aware of what they’ve lost - 4th February
 * Brexit as a game of Chicken - What if, as you hurl your own steering wheel out of the window, you notice your rival has done exactly the same? - 28th January
 * Why economists should be more like plumbers - After the system has been installed, both plumber and economist must tinker with it as leaks and blockages become apparent - 21st January
 * An optimist’s guide to 2017 - Noticing the good news as well as the bad is not just reassuring — it’s also essential for making reasoned policies - 14th January 2017
 * Embrace the digital pile-up - When you’re trying to find an email needle in your archive haystack, search works at least as well - 5th January



Articles: 2016

 * Why family traditions make for happy holidays - Christmas, like life, is full of rituals that seem to make our lives richer and more enjoyable - 23rd December
 * Game-changers: the importance of the puzzle - Euler’s analysis has been fruitful in chemistry, sociology and computer science. And it all started with a brain-teaser - 1st December
 * Why forecasters failed to predict Trump’s victory - Confident, eye-catching forecasts are the snack food of analysis and commentary - 26th November
 * From Airbnb to eBay, the best ways to combat bias - When leading orchestras began to audition musicians behind a screen, the recruitment of women surged - 19th November
 * Economics: a discipline in need of diversity - As long as economics professors tend to be white men, women and minority students may feel the subject just isn’t for them - 12th November
 * Rich the banker? What’s not in a name . . . - Nominative determinism hits a mental sweet spot. We chuckle when we hear that a senior judge is called Igor Judge - 5th November
 * Trump, Brexit and prediction in an age of uncertainty - Uncertainty causes recessions because it makes consumers, employers and investors hesitate before spending - 29th October
 * The sweatshop dilemma - While sweatshops are probably better than nothing, that doesn’t mean nothing is better than sweatshops - 22nd October
 * There’s magic in mess: why you should embrace a disorderly desk - Feeling guilty about being untidy? Don’t. A cluttered space can help you be more organised - 8th October
 * Big decision ahead? Just roll the dice . . . - Most of us could do with a little more randomness in our lives’ - 1st October
 * Why central bankers shouldn’t have skin in the game - Yes, incentives matter. But they often matter for all the wrong reasons - 24th September
 * How insurers keep the money pump flowing - Obsessing about risks is arbitrary and illogical. But that does not mean we don’t do it - 17th September
 * What happens in a world where mediocrity rules? - It can be quite pleasant to relax and be a little bit crappy for a while - 10th September
 * Can trivia help us to be less ignorant of our own ignorance? - A broad base of knowledge helps to clue us in to the times when we are stumbling towards a humbling - 3rd September
 * Are universities worth it? - To enjoy higher wages, smart people must waste time and money going to the trouble of acquiring a degree - 17th August
 * Fossil fuels have had an aeon’s head start - Fossil fuels have a formidable head start as our entire existing energy system revolves around them - 30th July
 * Metropolitan myths that led to Brexit - The pressing issue for the UK has not been rising inequality but weak growth - 23rd July
 * Brexit and the power of wishful thinking - We are quite capable of clinging on to our beliefs by picking whatever facts support them - 16th July
 * Did economists fail us over Brexit? - Most economists think the British public shot itself in the foot, and did so against expert advice - 6th July
 * We’re all winners or losers now - When we stop admiring how much the pie has grown, we start fighting each other for a larger slice - 1st July
 * How do you make the Olympics pay? Fudge the figures - Hosting the games is not unlike building a church for one single, glorious wedding celebration - 25th June
 * How to fuel a rewarding culture - Money matters, but sometimes we find financial incentives to be insulting or grubby - 18th June
 * The dubious power of power poses - Many notable results in psychology are now being questioned because later research has reached different conclusions - 11th June
 * Worth the wait? - If you miss your plane or your train, it hardly matters that the queue was a nice place to chill - 4th June
 * How the sense of an ending shapes memory - Composers, novelists and film directors try to end on a high. Restaurants keen to manipulate their online reviews have found a similar trick - 28th May
 * The refugee crisis — match us if you can - However many refugees we decide to resettle, there’s no excuse for doing the process wastefully - 21st May
 * The odds are you won’t know when to quit - The truth is that there are no foolproof methods for knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em - 7th May
 * Could an income for all provide the ultimate safety net? - Though the idea of a basic income is far from mainstream political practice, it has had astonishingly broad support - 30th April
 * Tata Steel, Port Talbot and how to manage industrial decline - The wounds of a large industrial closure run deep. The entire economic ecosystem of an area can collapse - 23rd April
 * Why one size doesn’t fit all - The most notorious example of this “compromise effect” is our tendency to plump for the second-cheapest bottle on the wine list - 7th April
 * A strong tax system doesn’t rely on naming and shaming - Political gridlock blocks sensible reforms and don’t mention global co-ordination - 7th April
 * Delusions of objectivity - “Naive realism” is the seductive sense that we’re seeing the world as it truly is, without bias or error - 1st April
 * Trump, trade and ‘the China shock’ - Freer trade has inflicted a more grievous toll than economists, myself included, had expected - 26th March
 * Capital ideas in a time of inequality - The wealthy do not simply wallow in bank vaults like Scrooge McDuck. They spend their money - 19th March
 * Why the Budget is a pointless circus - The best cut the chancellor could make is to spare us this annual triviality - 17th March
 * The sugar tax is half-baked - It seems strange to take the view that only soft drinks pose a risk - 17th March
 * These are the sins we should be taxing - The UK already relies more than most rich countries on fuel, alcohol and tobacco duties - 12th March
 * The lost leisure time of our lives - Keynes was right to predict that we would be working less but overestimated for how long that trend would continue - 5th March
 * How to make good guesses - Would you say that someone reading the FT is more likely to have a PhD or to have no college degree at all? - 27th February
 * The consequences of cheap oil - When oil prices are high, people may get out of their cars and walk, cycle or get public transport - 20th February
 * Online dating? Swipe left - It is crazy to believe someone’s eye colour, height, hobbies and musical tastes are a basis for a lasting relationship - 13th February
 * How to keep your gym habit - Might a commitment strategy allow you to pay yourself to go to the gym? - 6th February
 * Hidden truths behind China’s smoke screen - When countries become richer, do they pollute their environment more or less? - 30th January
 * How fighting for a prize knocks down its value - If many people have patience to queue for scarce (and underpriced) tickets, the value on offer will be consumed by the race to grab it - 23rd January
 * Why predictions are a lot like Pringles - Nobody thinks that there’s any great virtue in forecasts but we find them hard to resist - 9th January
 * The cost of overconfidence - Some companies base their business models on our tendency to overestimate our willpower - 2nd January



Articles: 2015

 * In praise of Scrooge - Scrooge didn’t waste his money on extravagances for people whose desires he didn’t really understand - 19th December
 * Economics: still a job for the boys? - There are two or three male undergraduate economists for every female undergraduate economist in the US. That is not good - 12th December
 * The window tax — an open and shut case - People respond in profound ways to tax incentives. They adjust their behaviour to avoid tax - 5th December
 * Eyes on the innovation prize - Coming up with something new is for suckers; smart people sit back and rip off the idea later - 28th November
 * The real benefits of migration - The supposed costs or benefits of immigration always omit one crucial group: the migrants themselves - 24th October
 * Development needed? Just give cash - A stack of research papers concludes that an excellent cure for poverty is simply to give poor people money - 17th October
 * Should we trust the young Turkers? - MTurk may be something of an unknown quantity but it is more diverse than the traditional study pool - 10th October
 * Copyrights and wrongs - Why don’t we see a more sensible system of copyright? Two words: Mickey Mouse - 3rd October
 * Let’s be blunt: criticism works - If Amazon encourages its staff to be straight with each other about what should be fixed, so much the better - 12th September
 * Meet the Flop Pickers - If savvy consumers can help predict a product’s success, might there not be consumers whose clammy embrace spells its death? - 29th August
 * What’s the diet for growth? - Without a strong banking sector to lend money to businesses, it is very hard for a poor country to grow - 22nd August
 * The myth of the robot job-ocalypse - Blaming cyborgs instead of bankers and politicians is easy - 20th August
 * London’s turning . . .  - London’s excruciating price tag is not just a vulnerability but also a sign of success - 15th August
 * Worming our way to the truth - Why does such a large policy push need to be based on a handful of clinical trials? - 1st August
 * Work rewards too big for Keynes’ vision - The economist was right in that we are better off but at the cost of our free time - 30th July
 * It’s tough turning ideas into gold - If innovators make no money at all, they will end up creating for the love of creation rather than for any financial reward - 18th July
 * Why wishful thinking doesn’t work - Careless nudges are no more welcome in public policy than at a domino-toppling event’ - 11th July
 * Osborne has mastered art of misdirection - The chancellor can alter the law but cannot make costly workers worth hiring - 11th July
 * A minimum wage gamble on jobs - The rise was a shock but true to form: clever politics and dubious economics - 9th July
 * The psychology of saving - There is one dramatic success for behavioural economics — the way it has shaped pensions - 26th June
 * Teamwork gives us added personbyte - Complex products require elaborate networks of teamwork, and only a few places manage the trick - 20th June
 * Down with mathiness! - In the recent UK election campaign, a diet of numbers was stuffed into voters like feed into French ducks - 6th June
 * Mind the fair trade gap - If fair trade does deliver higher incomes for farmers, it may prove too successful for its own good - 30th May
 * Why democratic elections are always flawed - I sometimes wonder if we expect more than we should from democracy - 23rd May
 * Tax: a Scandinavian solution - With tax, our politicians seem determined to make the process as clumsy and painful as possible - 16th May
 * What a radical Conservative government could do - Scrap all mainstream benefit payments — jobseeker’s allowance, child benefit, housing benefit and even the state pension - 2nd May
 * The truth about inequality - One myth is that inequality in the UK has risen since the financial crisis. In fact it has fallen quite sharply - 25th April
 * The economists’ manifesto - If Britain’s top economists were in charge, what policies would they implement? Tim Harford sets the challenge - 18th April
 * ''How can we be content in a world full of choice?‘’ - With Antonia Macaro: We waste too many hours comparing the options on smartphones or computers, for marginal benefit, if any - 11th April
 * Cigarettes, damn cigarettes and statistics - We cannot rely on correlation alone. But insisting on absolute proof of causation is too exacting a standard - 11th April
 * Highs and lows of the minimum wage - The lesson of all this is that the economy is complicated and textbook economic logic alone will get us only so far - 28th March
 * The pricing paradox: when diamonds aren’t on tap - ‘Diamonds are costly because we desire them. But what if that isn’t true? What if they are desirable because they are costly? - 21st March
 * Man v machine (again) - The Luddite anxiety has been dormant for many years but has recently enjoyed a resurgence - 13th March
 * Boom or bust for bitcoin? - Bitcoin appeals to libertarians on the basis that governments cannot arbitrarily make more of it - 7th March
 * Overconfidence man - We don’t have a good sense of our own fallibility. Checking my answers, it was the one I felt the most certain of that I got wrong - 21st February
 * Is it possible to just click with someone? - Whether the computer reckons you’re a love match or not isn’t something that anyone should take seriously - 14th February
 * Why the high street is overdosing on caffeine - If Starbucks opens a café just round the corner from another Starbucks, is that really about selling more coffee? - 7th February
 * Making a lottery out of the law - The cure for “bad statistics” isn’t “no statistics” — it’s using statistical tools properly - 31st January
 * The great data debate - The idea that we can somehow measure “the thing that matters most” is quite absurd - 24th January
 * The power of saying no - Every time we say yes to a request, we are also saying no to anything else we might accomplish with the time - 17th January
 * How much is a (micro)life worth? - Travelling 28 miles on a motorbike is four micromorts; cycling the same distance is just over one micromort - 10th January
 * Why more and more means less - Status quo bias means that most of your stuff stays because you can’t think of a good reason to get rid of it - 3rd January



Articles: 2014

 * What if we abolished Christmas? - One possibility is that the economy would be just fine. This is the classic view of macroeconomics - 20th December
 * You really, really, shouldn’t have . . .  - There is a vast discrepancy between how we see the world when giving gifts and when receiving them - 20th December
 * Women (still) don’t win prizes - Something about the culture of UK schools is nudging young women away from economics - 13th December
 * The Christmas card network - It is not clear new technologies are expanding our number of genuine friends - 6th December
 * Learn from the losers - Kickended is important. It reminds us that the world is biased in systematic ways - 29th November
 * Why a house-price bubble means trouble - A housing boom is the economic equivalent of a tapeworm infection - 22nd November
 * Finance and the jelly bean problem - What else might influence portfolio returns? There is literally no limit to the number of variables - 15th November
 * A passport to privilege - Class matters far less than it used to in the 19th century. Citizenship matters far more - 8th November
 * Trading places – with a rat - Financial price data are converted into music, the music is played to a rat, then the rat guesses whether the price will fall or rise - 1st November
 * Why are recessions so depressing? - Happiness is around six times more sensitive to economic growth when that ‘growth’ is negative - 25th October
 * Why pilot schemes help ideas take flight - There’s huge value in experiments that help us decide whether to go big or go home - 18th October
 * The kettle conundrum - The problem of saving the environment, then, is also the fundamental social problem: how do we come together and co-operate? - 11th October
 * Pick a fund, any fund… - Most active managers do not manage to outperform passive funds – particularly not when their fees are deducted - 4th October
 * Crushing the competition – at any price - It was Selten’s chain store paradox that first attracted me to economics, with a heady mixture of logic, psychology and military strategy - 20th September
 * Ice bucket challenge: the cold facts - In a world of limited generosity, who is to say which cause should be at the head of the queue? - 13th September
 * Here today, gone tomorrow - Don’t draw up your task list in the morning – do it the evening before, when you will have a more distant perspective - 6th September
 * When crime stops paying - To an economist, tougher sentencing in the wake of the 2011 riots offers a fascinating natural experiment - 23rd August
 * Inflation is best way to avoid stagnation - The prospect is that central banks will find themselves helpless - 21st August
 * When crime stops paying - To an economist, tougher sentencing in the wake of the 2011 riots offers a fascinating natural experiment - 16th August
 * Monopoly is no friend of democracy - The challanges from smaller competitors spur the innovations that matter - 13th August
 * When crime stops paying - To an economist, tougher sentencing in the wake of the 2011 riots offers a fascinating natural experiment - 9th August
 * Pity the androids snarled in a moral maze - Robotic cars do not get tired, drunk or angry but there are bound to be hiccups - 2nd August
 * What tech jerks can teach us - Added to the familiar gallery of corporate monsters are those making money from parasitic smartphone apps - 26th July
 * Why tax is trickier than Martian algebra - Only radical restructuring has a chance of creating fair taxation - 25th July
 * Crime prevention: where’s the evidence? - It may seem mind-bendingly obvious but we need to test and evaluate ideas - 19th July
 * Underperforming on performance - State education in Britain consists not of families choosing the best schools but of good schools choosing the best families - 12th July
 * All aboard the volatility express - Should we treat low volatility as a portent of disaster, or as a sign that the world economy is finally on the right track? - 5th July
 * Let’s play economics-by-metaphor - The patient was seriously ill. Dr Balls advised antibiotics but Dr Osborne argued it was a virus - 28th June
 * A good economic bet - Pundits who make wagers may look grubby but at least they are accepting a cost for failure - 21st June 2014
 * There’s more to life than money - Too often the debate over public policy becomes a toy argument, dressed up as the grown-up version - 14th June
 * The four lessons of happynomics - Happiness is surely important, but the case for letting economists loose on the subject is less clear - 7th June
 * An astonishing record – of complete failure - In 2008, the consensus from forecasters was that not a single economy would fall into recession in 2009 - 31st May
 * The man who put a price on everything - The Nobel Prize winner believed that no matter what the subject, economics always had something insightful to add - 17th May
 * When a man is tired of London house prices - Since Londoners cannot seem to stop asking, “Is there a bubble?”, I’ve been trying to figure out the answer - 10th May
 * Healthcare – the final reckoning - Somebody, somewhere has to be able to say, ‘‘That’s great – but it just costs too much’’ - 3rd May
 * The random risks of randomised trials - There are perils to treating patients not as human beings but as means to some glorious end - 26th April
 * Have living standards really stopped rising? - People drift in and out of all income groups as a result of luck or the life-cycle of a career - 19th April
 * Economists aren’t all bad - Some research on students suggests economics either attracts or creates sociopaths - 12th April
 * Why long-term unemployment matters - Research shows that employers ignore people who have been out of work for more than six months - 5th April
 * Big data: are we making a big mistake? - Tim Harford on the statistical errors at the heart of an information revolution - 29th March
 * How investors get it wrong - We trade too often because we’re too confident in our ability to spot the latest bargain - 29th March
 * Four steps to fixing inequality - As the example of Finland makes clear, it is possible to change income distribution dramatically - 22nd March
 * Economic quackery and political humbug - George Osborne views economic logic as an inconvenient distraction - 20th March
 * The business of borders - The economic dividing line in the UK does not run along the Scottish border, it circles London - 15th March
 * Let’s have some real-time economics - It would have done the Fed no harm to have had more people with a habit of making snap decisions - 8th March
 * Golden rules of thumb - The human brain is a marvellous thing but it does not seem to have evolved to cope with high finance - 1st March
 * Sorry decline of English social housing - More English households are now renting from the private sector - 1st March
 * Low inflation can be a disease not a cure - Deflation seems unlikely – but even a low risk is worth losing sleep over - 22nd February
 * Testing times for Sochi drug cheats - The most famous game of all is the prisoner’s dilemma, and it’s a natural - 22nd Februaryexplanation for why athletes take drugs despite the risks’
 * The murkier side of transparency - Publishing clear information is often a way to make the world a better place – but not always. Sometimes it pays to be selective - 15th February
 * The seductive appeal of stereotypes - Is it obvious that Jewish or Chinese Americans have superior willpower? - 15th February
 * Don’t bet the house on price rises - Supply constraints are not the only cause of the UK’s property inflation - 8th February
 * Why opposites shouldn’t attract - While it may be natural and familiar, assortative mating also breeds inequality - 8th February
 * Royal accounts printed in red and gold - The monarchy costs the same as the milk the nation pours on its cereal - 31st January
 * How to plan for your pension - The standard tool is the online pension calculator, of which countless variants exist. There’s only one problem: they leave out almost everything that matters - 31st January
 * What makes us happy? - A growing body of research backs the folk wisdom that experiences make us happier than possessions - 25th January
 * A cap on bonuses is of little benefit - Rewards must be aligned with credible performance measures - 18th January
 * What price supply and demand? - Recessions might be shaped by our desire for prices that move in line with ethical norms - 11th January
 * Life on a flood plain – home and dry - The state has been interfering in protection against floods since 1531 - 11th January
 * How can we outwit our lazier selves? - Be careful what you resolve to do in 2014 – and how irrevocably you resolve it with commitment strategies - 4th January
 * Casinos and consumer manipulation - The spread of machine gambling offers a portent of other economic developments - 3rd January



Articles: 2013

 * Your jobs. Give them to me. Now - In future, there may be people who – despite being fit to work – have no economic value - 27th December
 * A year in a word: Bitcoin - As a peer-to-peer processing network, it has the potential to become a superb medium of exchange - 24th December
 * It’s who you hardly know that counts - Your family won’t get you a job or pay your bills ... By contrast, distant contacts are sometimes surprisingly useful - 21st December
 * The young will inherit wealth or poverty - Inheritance is a demeaning way for a 50-year-old finally to establish a pension - 21st December
 * No sacrilege in flogging EU passports - Citizenship auctions are just the ticket for those who lose in the lottery of life - 14th December
 * The gross distortions of GDP - Are we doomed to live in a commercial society distorted by a concept which leaves out so much that really matters? - 14th December
 * Fairness is shared by our environment - The idea that hard work needs to be rewarded is a farmer’s view. The claim that “we’re all in this together” is hunter-thinking - 7th December
 * Of Bitcoins, bubbles and B&Q vouchers - The object of anarcho-utopian fantasies is of little value if you want a pizza - 7th December
 * Delivery drones could change the world - Cars kill people every day, so we will get over safety concerns - 6th December
 * The perils of public speaking - Feedback is standard in certain environments ... But it is rare for criticism to be quite so practical - 30th November
 * A minute is a long time in economics - High-frequency traders need high-frequency data - 30th November
 * Why women prefer fixed-price cars - Discrimination surely remains important, as anyone can see if they pay attention to how women are often treated in business environments - 22nd November
 * A universal income is not such a silly idea - The concept of paying people to sit around on their backsides has an upside - 22nd November
 * Could Scotland handle its debt? - The essential problem is that an independent Scotland would struggle to deal with a debt burden that the UK as a whole finds manageable - 16th November
 * A bet against London is no sure thing - There is far more to the British capital than hot money and hot air - 16th November
 * How did space become junk’s final frontier? - Space hasn’t been made impassable by debris just yet. There’s quite a lot of room, after all - 9th November
 * Wonga is the symptom, not the problem - Disdain is no guide to regulating a socially useful sector - 9th November
 * Why can’t banking be more like baking? - The last time a bread maker laid waste to the City was 1666 - 2nd November
 * What’s so scary about insider trading? - The awkward truth about the practice is that it’s far from clear that it should be illegal - 2nd November
 * How to make money from a Nobel cause - It’s hard to beat the market, and you should probably be suspicious of people who claim to be able to pull off the trick - 26th October
 * Exam grade predictions are not that bad - Teachers forecast the right results nearly half the time. Few professions can boast such a record - 26th October
 * Patience pays off for long-game investors - Stockpickers who persevere with their ‘pets’ are rewarded when they perform impressive profits - 19th October
 * Unemployment stats aren’t working - The unemployment rate is the result of millions of individual stories of finding and losing jobs - 19th October
 * Efficient markets hypothesis merits Nobel - Any follower of Fama would have smelled a rat before the subprime crisis - 15th October
 * Guest list angst – a statistical approach -Assumptions look doubtful and like many economists, I appreciate the free market’s messy reliance on trial and error - 12th October
 * Dr Osborne’s bitter medicine is no cure - The chancellor’s claim that Britain’s slow recovery vindicates his policies is drivel - 12th October
 * Capital – some good news on banking - Five years after the Lehman Brothers collapse, a study shows that the regulators’ medicine is working - 5th October
 * The price of a loaf is of little importance - Cameron’s critics chose a singularly useless indicator - 5th October
 * Online book reviews get my vote - ‘Positive comments tended to attract birds of a feather’ - 28th September
 * An energy price cap that does not quite fit - Miliband has promised to pull the plug on a very bad thing - 28th September
 * A primer on free primary school meals - We know that cost-free hot food boosts attainment but we have no idea why - 21st September
 * What makes life sag in the middle? - Perhaps it is neither disappointment nor intimations of mortality but something physiological, even hormonal - 14th September
 * Enduring appeal of the plastic banknote - Durable and functional, the plastic stuff will be popular - 14th September
 * Free-riding a la carte - A study shows most people would have paid their share of the bill, given the choice. And yet in social settings, splitting remains the default option - 7th September
 * Low pay and the rise of the machines - Labour could organise a Luddite revolution against technology - 7th September
 * Do you believe in sharing? - How do people work together? - 31st August
 * The big trouble in small print - Contracts are confusing in part because they are not natural-language documents at all - 31st August
 * Markets must force banks to grow up - Even with a large equity cushion, the perverse incentives of ‘too big to fail’ will assert themselves - 29th August
 * A lesson from the other ‘sage’ of investing - John Maynard Keynes invented macroeconomics but chose not to anticipate macroeconomic trends as an investment innovator - 24th August
 * Pay-what-you-want pricing: playing tag with price tags - As a business strategy, ‘pay what you want’ translates as slim pickings. As a topic in psychology, it remains deliciously rich - 17th August
 * How the wealthy keep themselves on top - The more unequal a society, the greater the incentive for the rich to pull up the ladder behind them - 17th August
 * How the wealthy keep themselves on top - The more unequal a society, the greater the incentive for the rich to pull up the ladder behind them - 16th August
 * Why diversity pays - Groups that carve out space for different perspectives tend to make more sensible decisions - 10th August
 * Energy efficiency gives us money to burn - It is possible to enjoy the benefits of fuel-saving devices without using more energy? - 3rd August
 * Have prisoners now learned not to snitch? - The ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ is not a great model of real life - 27th July
 * The laws of Rockonomics - Three lessons on money and market forces derived from the music business - 20th July
 * Welfare and the Tinker Bell policy - The UK benefits cap is a stunt policy designed to win attention - 20th July
 * How to give money away - Helping the poor in the most obvious way of all, through direct cash transfer, is starting to look attractive - 13th July
 * Popular perceptions exposed by numbers - What the public believes can be very far from reality - 13th July
 * The need for less speed - High-frequency trading may be about to slow down. Regular investors, looking for fundamental value, would be pleased - 6th July
 * A statistical needle in a haystack - The data aren’t very useful because they’re spread across a gazillion spreadsheets - 8th June
 * Being economical with the data -Economics will have to change what it recognises as a question, and what it recognises as an answer - 1st June
 * Why weird science is all in a day’s work - Stories of the formula for the perfect penalty kick are cheaper than an ads - 1st June
 * Misinformation can be beautiful too - Data visualisation creates powerful, elegant images from complex information, but can also be potentially deceptive - 25th May
 * Loose money in all that spare change - The disappearance of small coins will be little noticed - 25th May
 * The antisocial network? - Two economists have been collecting data to assess whether online friends are good for the soul. The quick answer: not really - 18th May
 * Mile-high bid to step up to a better class - Auctions seem a fine way of assessing willingness to pay - 18th May
 * Patently a stitch-up - Are smartphone patents helping innovation - or strangling it? - 11th May
 * Proof that leaders need to look the part - We expect successful people to be conventionally attractive - 11th May
 * A hire truth - New research shows with horrible clarity what a wretched trap long-term unemployment is becoming - 4th May
 * Boycotts will not help Bangladesh’s poor - Human cost of an embargo would be higher than the recent factory collapse - 4th May
 * An evidence revolution - Teachers are better placed than anybody to generate new research questions, based on years of observation of subtleties that would escape any educational statistician - 27th April
 * Strange designs on an engine of growth - The minister hopes cake can rescue a crumbling economy - 27th April
 * A lesson in letter-writing - New research by the Financial Conduct Authority shows how simple, low-cost research can yield substantial gains - 20th April
 * Fine for my backyard, not my neighbour’s - Perhaps we should simply scrap planning permission altogether - 20th April
 * The new microjobs - A new company aims to pair the least-skilled and most excluded workers with jobs that need doing on a more industrial scale - 13th April
 * What Oxbridge can learn from YouTube - The British educational establishment should ignore online open courses at its peril - 30th March
 * Geoengineering, a monster of our own making? - The core case against the science is a radical uncertainty about its consequences but it would likewise be irresponsible to turn our backs on it - 23rd March
 * Statistical tomfoolery spins in Treasury - Osborne has hurled himself down the slippery slope - 23rd March
 * Five ways for Osborne to fix Budget joke - Chancellor could start by scrapping national insurance - 22nd March
 * A hateful abuse of algorithms - Putting the blame on badly supervised computers for releasing offensive products is not much of an excuse - 16th March
 * Chinese takeaway leaves Britain hungry - The economy needs more than a pot noodle factory - 16th March
 * A theorem fit to terrify bankers - Bankers have tended to argue that too much equity means that banks will make fewer loans at higher rates. M&M shows us that this argument is wrong in theory - 9th March
 * A ‘simple rule’ about migrants and benefits - Clues to the UK’s woes lurk in its own backyard - 9th March
 * Can an app make us behave better? - Basic scientific research paired with user-oriented design thinking makes for a powerful alliance - 2nd March
 * A way to burn a hole in Britain’s pocket - Negative rates might tackle the liquidity trap but they are unlikely to be introduced - 2nd March
 * Wave the jazz hands and hope for the best - Politicians hope that voters are clueless about tax - 25th February
 * Changing channels: why TV has had to adapt - Technological change has swept through broadcasting as surely as it has through music and newpapers - 23rd February
 * Don’t blame Ofcom if 4G price isn’t right - Bidders shrank demands in mobile spectrum auction - 21st February
 * Why short-sellers get short shrift - These ‘men without bowels’ are more likely to be the prompt discoverers of bad news than the inventors of it - 16th February
 * The lesson from Poundland: work pays - The UK government is in a muddle over employment schemes - 16th February
 * Raising the stakes on life’s big choices - Using a coin-flipping website, an experiment aims to investigate how people make the most important decisions - 9th February
 * A terrific windfall for the big spenders - Kuwait’s debt plan illustrates oil’s mixed blessings - 9th February
 * Algorithm and blues - Computers have reduced the cost of buying and selling financial assets, but the gains from further speed seem unclear - 2nd February
 * A poor excuse to rob from the rich - A financial transaction tax would at best be irrelevant to financial stability - 2nd February
 * Lies, damned lies and Greek statistics - Cooking the books can lead to a half-baked result - 26th January
 * What price a top state school? - The best things in life may be free, but buying a house in the vicinity of the best things in life is expensive - 26th January
 * The Bundesbank takes back its doughnuts - In repatriating its gold, the German central bank shows it doesn’t trust foreigners - 19th January
 * Lessons for pirates – from tax collectors - A government official and a bandit both redistribute resources, but an official does so far more efficiently - 19th January
 * What really powers innovation: high wages - Why did the industrial revolution take off in the UK rather than in China? - 12th January
 * Why platinum is fool’s gold - In the context of a small round coin, the stakes are surprisingly high - 12th January
 * 2013: The year I plan to fail - We pass up excellent opportunities to make larger gains, purely because we are desperate to avoid small losses. But doing so might be to our disadvantage - 5th January



Articles: 2012
All articles
 * An insatiable desire to peer into the future - The wonderful thing about forecasts is that they all sound very profound - 29th December
 * A gift for the season that keeps on giving - Even for an economist, it is not the gift but the act of giving that matters - 22nd December
 * Working out the job market - All of us are born unemployed and single, and if we want that to change, we will have to start looking for a suitable match - 15th December
 * Going, going, wrong: JPMorgan’s auction - One of those clever manoeuvres so beloved of banks has started to unravel - 15th December
 * A question of identity - Anti-poverty programmes in India have benefited from an iris-scanning ID system that dramatically reduced fraudulent duplicate payouts - 8th December
 * Stop banging the vending machine - Tax has a moral dimension that tends to affect people more than companies - 8th December 2012
 * Dreaming of a tight Christmas - The holiday is good for the economy during a recession. But in more normal conditions, it is a troublesome waste of money - 1st December
 * The high risk of living on a low flood plain - The government must decide whether to pay people to live in vulnerable areas - 1st December
 * Still think you can beat the market? - The search for anomalies covers an almost unlimited number of potential patterns. Some of them may be real, but many emerge by chance alone - 23rd November
 * Bright idea that may end up costing more - You can’t have too much of a good thing - 23rd November
 * Education vouchers – some redeeming features - The scheme can help poor families in a commercialised school system - 17th November
 * How Adam Smith could help the Church - In Justin Welby, we’ve fallen for the myth of the brilliant businessman - 17th November
 * Growth or bust - If there were more corporate collapses, the economy would be a healthier place -10th November
 * Easy to pay lip service to living wages - The proposal backed by the Labour leader raises awkward questions -10th November
 * Unloading the dice on research - A compulsory register of trials could give a more accurate view of studies and test results - 3rd November
 * A battle for our green and pleasant land - Political point-scoring overshadows the need for credible policies - 3rd November
 * Why aren’t we doing the maths? - The practical implications of misplaced confidence when dealing with statistical evidence are obvious and worrying - 27th October
 * The benefits of being in this together - George Osborne is ignoring the rules on what makes a sensible tax system - 27th October
 * Believe the hype in hyperinflation - Extremely high price increases are not produced by central bankers but are the result of a total failure of the political system - 20th October
 * How to find a perfect match for a Nobel - Any economist who operates in the real world deserves an award - 20th October
 * There are many ways to price by gender - The measure is likely to have unintended consequences - 13th October
 * So many numbers, so little time - The world’s complexity is a symptom of economic success, but it can pose serious risks - 13th October
 * Where maths ends, computers begin - Machines have finally made their mark on economic theory with their use in agent-based modelling and simulations - 6th October
 * Off the rails when the figures don’t add up - Life is full of mathematical, spreadsheet and programming errors - 6th October
 * The unpalatable business of spam - A new article provides a fascinating overview on the dynamics of unsolicited email and the fight to keep it at bay - 29th September
 * Time for Dad to move to the garden shed - A good way to address the housing shortage is to build houses - 29th September
 * Don’t take growth for granted - One economist believes modern inventions are puny compared to earlier innovations. Does this mean that human progress has hit a dead end? - 22nd September
 * Some public wages are more equal than others - Local variations might actually be good for the regions - 22nd September
 * The big problem with small risks - It seems some of the best economics lessons can be learnt by hiring a car - 15th September
 * Cash on delivery for the world’s poorest - ‘The good news is that the Tuungane project was well executed and the money arrived where it was supposed to’ - 8th September
 * Left at the gate when it comes to Heathrow - The third runway has attained unexpected importance - 8th September
 * Home workers aren’t (always) shirkers- Telecommuting is likely to be effective when self-selection is allowed, but evaluations based on this are likely to deceive
 * Hey! You! Get off of my cloud - The sudden appearance of personal files – tax returns, photographs, letters to my wife – on a colleague’s computer is hardly reassuring... - 25th August
 * The complex world of the policy maker - To effectively address today’s challenges, economists must have a rare combination of skills - 18th August
 * Don’t judge a book by its cover price - A book tagged at $23m is a long way from the dream that the internet would usher in an era of price transparency - 11th August
 * The random side of riots - We talk as if we understand why civil disorder happens, rather than recognising the unpredictable processes at play - 4th August
 * When simplicity is a real asset - Perhaps the whole ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ school of portfolio allocation is financial wisdom enough - 28th July
 * Cash in hand is worth £35bn in the tax bush - There are legitimate reasons for paying in hard currency - 28th July
 * Just for clicks: the Google ad model - Traditionally, advertising is sold by salespeople who quote prices for ads. The tech company decided to auction advertising space instead - 21st July
 * Census is proof the Jedi force is with us - Does a once-a-decade census provide value for money - 21st July
 * The lessons that flow from Bali’s water temples - A network of ancient water temples in Bali is a particularly beautiful example of communal management - 14th July
 * On poverty, WiFi and The Wealth of Nations - Whether absolute or relative, defining poverty is highly problematic - 14th July
 * Why the government should play house - Building new homes could play a role in creating useful jobs, but the planning system remains a hindrance - 7th July
 * Iceland recovers from its financial delusions - People are angry but the only volcanic eruptions have been literal - 7th July
 * U-turns are the least of Osborne’s woes - The UK chancellor should look at publicly funded infrastructure - 30th June
 * What babysitting can teach the world - The parallels between the crisis and Krugman’s parable are not exact but they are close enough to be instructive - 23rd June
 * Who (still) wants to be a millionaire? - You can’t really compare general price levels of two different eras - 23rd June
 * To save or not to save, that is the pension - Should people have a choice between compulsory pensions and auto enrolment - 16th June
 * Stock market molecules - Testosterone may be the hormone for market manias, and cortisol for panics and busts - 9th June
 * Pound for pound 99p is worth every penny - Most retailers will charge as much as they can - 9th June
 * ‘Buy British’ drive takes a dead-end turn - PM’s Mercedes sparks bout of patriotic fervour - 2nd June
 * Beware email’s cunning little ways - It has many key attributes but email is still inferior to pen and paper - 2nd June
 * An education on social mobility by degrees - Is Nick Clegg trying to rig the education market - 26th May
 * A questionable move by Starbucks - Big organisations should test out their new policies whenever they can - 19th May
 * The weighty problem of road and fat taxes - A levy on unhealthy food has happiness implications - 19th May
 * Leaders do not need to milk price of pint - Financial returns of lacto-economics seem to be limited - 12th May
 * That’s a lot of Wonga for a business loan! - An annual rate may not be the best way to gauge the cost of short-term credit - 12th May
 * Rules of trading in a POW camp - An economist who was taken prisoner during the second world war observed that market institutions were universal and spontaneous - 12th May
 * Time to bring in the crash investigators - The NTSB is capable of providing a clear and authoritative narrative, explanations and conclusions about the crisis - 5th May
 * Queues at Heathrow: a numbers game - Airport waiting time data doesn’t add up - 5th May
 * Valuable advice on investment advisers - Be careful whose interests the expert is serving... - 28th April
 * Our growth fixation is positively baffling - Economic data is not a black/white, pass/fail affair - 28th April
 * The one-night stand gets a digital makeover - Collaborative consumption websites and microlabour services may lower transaction costs but they raise the issue of internet-based trust - 21st April
 * A first-class reason to stockpile stamps - The secondary market is going to be limited - 21st April
 * The difficult question of happiness - A new paper suggests that respondents to surveys on well-being are affected by the way they are asked - 14th April
 * Enough whingeing about price gouging - The ‘just price’ idea has a long history but little economic basis - 14th April
 * The ban on hosepipes does not hold water - Rationing reduces supply and misallocates resources - 7th April
 * Capital ways to survive the worst - The results of an experiment in Sri Lanka show the impact of financing on small businesses in communities shattered by natural disasters - 31st March
 * VAT reform would keep our pasties hot - The tax rise has been blown out of all proportion - 31st March
 * Forensic finance under the microscope - The trend of economists functioning as detectives may ultimately be good for the profession - 24th March
 * At last: a nice surprise from the taxman - Tax statement may struggle to meet its aims - 24th March
 * Mr Speaker, let an economist speak sense! - My Budget: short-term stimulus; long-term fiscal consolidation; and tax reform - 21st March
 * Charity begins… in the back office - One handy way to size up a charity is to pay attention to how much it spends on overheads, rather than frontline do-gooding - 17th March
 * Who’s impressed with Osborne’s big bond? - Good politics, bad economics or a clever PR? - 17th March
 * The not-so-sweet smell of odious debt - A proposal that declares obligations of a particular regime non-transferable frees innocent people from indenture not of their making - 10th March
 * Sex, shopping and the statistics of happiness - A new ONS survey seems unlikely to yield any insightful results - 10th March
 * Boomtime for trying to fathom the bust - Economists from MIT and Yale attempt to untangle a crisis that has already lasted longer than the first world war - 3rd March
 * Certainty over tax rules is overrated - Retroactively taxing Barclays compares to eating oysters - 3rd March
 * In the long run, there’s logic to Liam Fox - The former defence secretary’s economic cure is examined by Tim Harford - 25th February
 * Love is blind, unless you’re an economist - Schumpeter is not the only economist who is a romance expert - 18th February
 * Could we live without cash? - Like euthanasia, proposals to do away with physical currency could remain controversial for a long time to come - 18th February
 * How do you strip down the state? - Government cuts are shrinking the state, but gauging its size in the first place is hardly straightforward - 11th February
 * Five steps to an organised inbox - Tim Harford hands out tips on the important practical task of getting your email under control - 4th February
 * Everyone’s a critic now – or are they? - A substandard romantic novel is trivial, whereas a ruined weekend tryst in Paris is a minor tragedy - 4th February
 * The tricky business of measuring growth - Two experts offer a new approach to weighing economic strength, posing many good questions about the practice - 28th January
 * Are you saying John Lewis isn’t perfect? - The logic of employee share ownership isn’t clear - 21st January
 * Can the minimum wage create jobs? - If one cannot produce enough of value to justify being paid a living wage, nothing we do to the minimum wage will help - 14th January
 * The unlikely boons of longer train journeys - A saving of 40 minutes on a journey from London to Birmingham . . .  is HS2 really worth it - 14th January
 * To tweet or not to tweet? - Justin Wolfers’ controlled experiment, which tests how Twitter affects productivity, inspires an unexpected insight - 6th January
 * Pocket money will endure even in 2012 - But families with children to suffer most of all - 7th January 2012



Articles: 2011
All articles
 * Of foxes, hedgehogs and the art of financial forecasting - Professional pundits are not usually paid to make correct forecasts. They are paid to sound convincing - 24th December
 * Christmas on credit - Presents for one’s children do not seem like an optional extra though many families may struggle during this holiday - 17th December 2011
 * Can Spam ever be better than gold? - You can’t eat gold so there appears to be some logic to promoting canned goods in the worst of economic times - 17th December
 * Screening: It’s all in the numbers - Bayesian analysis questions how we understand the notion of ‘probability’ and how we update our beliefs amid new information - 10th December
 * Is payday lending really wrong? - Payday loans may be controversial but, as Tim Harford points out, they can be less expensive than an unauthorised overdraft - 10th December
 * Screening: It’s all in the numbers - Bayesian analysis questions how we understand the notion of ‘probability’ and how we update our beliefs amid new information - 10th December
 * ‘Tis not the season to be shopping - Would it be better for retailers if extra revenue received during the Christmas spending rush was spread across the year - 3rd December
 * When the Christmas stocking shrank - Autumn statement and growth review 2011: Even Santa Claus has failed to rescue the UK from economic gloom - 29th November
 * How to stop the bogus bonus - Successful oversight will require more transparency about what trades are being made. But transparency is a scarce commodity - 26th November
 * Back to the glory days of Northern Rock - Tim Harford is sceptical of David Cameron’s latest housing policy - 26th November
 * Music for love not money - There seems no objective justification for the idea that good music has simply dried up since file-sharing took off - 19th November
 * The real cost of keeping warm - If we are to deal with climate change, the price of carbon-intensive energy is going to have to rise - 12th November
 * Taxing my music can’t be good, can it? - how taxes can affect human behaviour - 12th November
 * Eeyore and the euro crisis - For those who, like Tim Harford, believe the quest for better regulations is not a hopeless one, the search is on for better ways to measure risk - 5th November
 * Capitalism can’t just be about money - The most successful companies have a sense of pride in a job well done - 5th November
 * Can you be a little less specific? - Game theorists are beginning to produce rational models of deliberate vagueness - 29th October
 * Malthus’s ghost and baby number 7bn - UN projects world population will hit 8bn then fall - 29th October
 * Wolfson’s prize is impossible to win - Lord Wolfson, a prominent eurosceptic, is offering £250,000 to the person who comes up with the best plan for winding up the euro in an orderly way - 22nd October
 * Innovation works in mysterious ways - ‘I’m surrounded by technology that looks good and works well because others followed where Apple led,’ - 15th October
 * Debt crisis? Let’s just call it quits - Tim Harford expands on the eurozone debt crisis - 15th October
 * Confusion at a price - The UK energy secretary wants to change the way suppliers charge customers. But his plans seem unlikely to give a better deal - 8th October
 * Mr Prime Minister, we like our credit cards - If Jonathan Ross or Simon Cowell had told us to stop shopping, that would have been a disaster - 6th October
 * The honest truth about kickbacks - It may be better to get 10 per cent of a booming economy than 100 per cent of a stagnating one - 1st October
 * ‘Robin Hood’ tax is no way to redistribute'' - It’s not a tax on profits, it’s a tax on transactions – and we have no idea who will end up paying it - 1st October
 * New ways with old numbers - Two recent commentators have shown examples of the unexpected bounties of pure mathematics - 24th September
 * Patenting the Ponzi: the extraordinary growth of Ponzi schemes - A proper, classic, elegant Ponzi scheme pays investors high returns - 24th September
 * Don’t fear the migrant - Should we seek to keep citizens of poor nations trapped in their countries of birth for the good of their fellow citizens - 17th September
 * Rogue accidents, and banging more shins - Preventing disaster often means changing the system - 17th September
 * Laffer curves and the logic of the 50p rate - The government needs money – if not from the richest, then from somebody less able to pay - 10th September
 * Green lights for red-light districts - When men are in transit, and so less likely to be interested in marriage, sex takes off in the spot market - 3rd September
 * online confessions'' - Why do we reveal so much about ourselves on the web, especially since we also claim to be worried about privacy - 27th August
 * the patent troll'' - Could a market for intellectual property ever work smoothly - 20th August
 * data cut down to size'' - A doctoral student has found that national income is correlated with the average length of the erect penis in a country - 6th August
 * Peru? It’s a beacon for business'' - For most countries included in the Doing Business project, case studies bear little resemblance to what companies actually report - 30th July
 * now for newspapers?'' - It is foolish to expect that competition alone can guarantee that readers get access to information they need - 30th July
 * handbag away from our debt ceiling'' - Tim Harford discusses the negotiations behind the desire to raise the family debt ceiling during lean times - 23rd July
 * now for newspapers?'' - It is foolish to expect that competition alone can guarantee that readers get access to information they need - 23rd July
 * social marketing doesn’t work'' - We notice viral hits simply because they are successful, and overestimate the likelihood of their success - 16th July
 * there will never be another Da Vinci'' - The artist was able to achieve so much, so broadly, because so little was known. Those times are long gone - 9th July
 * equity, less risk'' - Tim Harford on the simplest way to reduce the risk of a future banking crisis and make lenders safe for shareholders - 2nd July
 * statistics are not silly, but their users . . .'' - Tim Harford finds that although statistics may produce some rather strange data, it is the way they are used and how people interpret them that makes them appear odd - 2nd July
 * plates can’t rescue this taverna'' - Tim Hartford on the ECB association deciding to have a whip round - 25th June
 * experts argue'' - The world is simply too complicated for anyone to analyse with much success - 19th June
 * A.C. Grayling, odium and the Stasi'' - Comment: There is the chance that NCH might experiment with all kinds of new ideas, though, and discover something useful about providing a good education - 11th June
 * bills and bail-outs'' - The banking crisis did appalling damage to the economy, but how much of the deficit is the result of bailing out the banks? - 11th June
 * safety in small numbers'' - The world often admires those who bet against a Taleb distribution: you may enjoy lots of small gains but you also risk disaster - 4th June
 * I can only afford a doll’s house'' - For many people today, home ownership is more a dream than a reality - 4th June
 * great iPhone trade-off'' - Globalisation produces a curious paradox, says Tim Harford. The more pervasive it becomes, the less we understand it by looking at trade statistics - 28th May
 * Mervyn King and the tooth fairy...'' - Mum buys groceries from Ocado. You buy Belgian beers. Do we have a different rate of inflation? - 21st May
 * China boomed by trial and error'' - What is China’s recipe for growth? While it is far from being a free-market economy, it has long encouraged pragmatic and diverse economic experiments - 14th May
 * Osborne grits his teeth'' - A reform programme is being pushed through like a Soviet five-year plan - 13th May
 * devil is in the detail ...'' - While revising the book that inspired this column, Tim Harford took the opportunity to reflect on how the economics of half a decade ago looks from the vantage point of today - 7th May
 * spoonful of medicine...'' - The symbiotic relationship between academic evidence and everyday practice is less than perfect in the real world - 30th April
 * we’re all far too sure of ourselves'' - Politicians, analysts and media love certitude and prefer conclusions that are very precise rather than littered with doubts - 23rd April
 * Edge: Don’t get cold feet at lavish weddings'' - Even if most of us are untroubled by bills for carriage rides from the palace and the hiring of Westminster Abbey, the rising cost of getting hitched appears to be a global issue - 23rd April
 * blame the (mostly) efficient markets hypothesis'' - Tim Harford defends a theory often blamed for the credit crunch, clarifies its true nature, and asserts its importance as a lodestar for ordinary investors - 16th April
 * banks are going to auction'' - A new innovation allows lenders to bid different interest rates to borrow money from the Bank of England, and offer either higher- or lower-quality collateral - 9th April
 * it time to outsource cities?'' - Building ‘charter cities’ might be a radical solution to the problem of poverty but it could also become a business in its own right - 2nd April
 * reform: just the job?'' - Should we attract the best people into public service, or prefer they favoured the private sector? The question, says Tim Harford, is about where smart people generate more value - 26th March
 * of Osborne as an unlikely Robin Hood'' - The chancellor tries to tap deeper into the national psyche - 24th March
 * notes on a cash crisis'' - Tim Harford recalls one alarming scenario that was discussed at the height of the financial meltdown: what would happen if a bank had to shut down its cash machines? - 19th March
 * Edge: Date tips for the lovelorn stats nerd'' - Internet dating is YouTube to conventional dating’s three-channel TV - 19th March
 * that still count'' - Is a degree in economics necessary to become a good financial journalist? Tim Harford says perhaps good journalism has nothing to do with formal academic achievement - 12th March
 * Edge: A bonus in his fingertips'' - Tim Harford on the star performance and antics of another Charlie Sheen, the ‘total freakin’ rock star’ who is also a hotshot investment banker - 12th March
 * roads'' - A fresh constitution, civil rights, and credible elections are all ways of safeguarding gains made through revolt. And protesters are right to insist on them - 5th March
 * rules'' - The sophistication of financial products has increased dramatically; the sophistication of consumers has not. Are financial education programmes the answer? - 26th February
 * now, squeeze later'' - Keynesians would argue that now is not the time for fiscal tightening, and perhaps they would be right - 19th February
 * bye easy money'' - Our economic problems have been far longer in the making and would have caught up with us sooner or later - 12th February
 * much should we have to disclose?'' - An economist can wear many hats while also collecting income from gigs in the financial services industry. Do we have a right to know about such links - 5th February
 * we do what we do'' - Behavioural economics has never been hotter, but two experts argue that it is not nearly as realistic as its boosters claim - 29th January
 * to boss-onomics'' - A recent study concludes that management quality can be measured and does make a difference to the performance of a country’s economy - 22nd January
 * Edge: Priced out of an alcoholic stupor'' - Tim Harford‘s alter ego is worried about UK government plans to put a floor under the price of supermarket alcoho - 21st January
 * we can learn from a nuclear reactor'' - On a strange mission, Tim Harford visits Hinkley Point B, an ageing power plant overlooking the Bristol Channel, and discovers lessons about the safety of the financial system - 15th January
 * aid doesn’t help'' - Effective disaster relief may indeed win hearts and minds, but if its recipients begin to suspect they are pawns in a public relations game, it will be all the harder to provide - 15th January
 * Edge: Of turtle doves and inflation hawks'' - For those of us not living hand to mouth, there is something rather bracing about sharp price rises - 8th January
 * on for the virtual sweatshop'' - Cataclysm, a new version of ‘World of Warcraft’, will make it more difficult for Chinese and Indian players to earn a living from the online computer game - 8th January



Articles: 2010

 * 2010 in figures: what it all adds up to'' - Numbers have a curious power over us: orators, from high-school debaters to candidates for high office, know persuasive appeals gain credibility if seasoned with data - 30th December
 * A measure of cheer'' - It may be tricky to calibrate national wellbeing but that is a task being undertaken by a growing number of governments in search of indicators beyond economic progress - 29th December
 * Edge: Sleepless in Seoul in an age of jet lag'' - Jet-lag can have a serious effect on decision-makers - 13th November
 * sense of fair play does pay'' - After recently having to deal with a stubborn, selfish bully, Tim Harford speculates on an old question: do nice guys finish first, or last? - 6th November
 * comes before austerity'' - Quite why prosperous pensioners deserve their special treatment is unclear to this economist, but no doubt perfectly obvious to the opinion pollsters - 23rd October
 * development'' - Tim Harford examines the evaluation of the Millennium Village project, which some economists argue has passed up a chance to advance our knowledge of what works when it comes to foreign aid - 16th October
 * is a sterling asset'' - Tim Harford discusses the risks of committee thinking and the importance of having someone play the role of devil’s advocate at the Bank of England - 9th October
 * for growth'' - One professor has been trying to puzzle out the relationship between the sophistication of a country’s economy and the kinds of products it makes - 2nd October
 * a nice cup of coffee worked wonders for a corner of Hackney'' - Successful businesses often operate in clusters. It may be a matter of tapping into local expertise or creating a destination for customers - 25th September
 * Edge: Robo-rage at the trading frontier'' - Just how hard can the robo-trading business be - 25th September
 * does anyone bother contributing to Wikipedia?'' - Perhaps people are pure altruists or just enjoy the process of giving, whether or not it actually produces something of value - 18th September
 * the prime number in the seven ages of man'' - As his birthday approaches, Tim Harford observes that judgments are constantly made about whose creative or scientific endeavours are supported, and at what age - 11th September
 * sense of entitlement is all very well – but what about a pay rise?'' - A field experiment shows that trivial awards are effective in increasing productivity – perhaps even more so than symbolic senior titles - 4th September
 * Edge: The art of pricing no-balls'' - Corruption in cricket? The solution must lie in economics - 4th September
 * can’t afford to get signals crossed in the underworld'' - An Italian sociologist applies modern economics to study the mafia and understand how criminals distinguish undercover cops among their ranks - 28th August
 * advice on the dark art of ‘drip pricing’'' - The OFT finds that there is no pricing scheme more pernicious than having buyers agree to pay a price, only to charge them extra later - 21st August
 * wins in the postcode lottery'' - The discomfiting truth is that variation is an inescapable part of progress - 18th August
 * we have got our work cut out creating jobs that matter'' - Economic growth leads to job destruction. But in a weak business climate, there are circumstances in which make-work schemes might make sense - 14th August
 * away … life’s big choices call for gut instinct'' - Economists may tell you how to get what you choose, but not how to choose. When it comes to making serious decisions, one cannot rely on science - 7th August
 * of an armchair economist'' - Tim Harford on what he got wrong about the crisis - 4th August
 * and demand, yes. But polygamy?'' - I know, both intuitively and through observation, that people with two wives seldom lead ‘peaceful’ lives. As an economist, how would you explain that? - 31st July
 * the future? We can’t even say what’s happening now'' - Economists continue to wrestle with the problem of having to wait for data from businesses just to see the current state of the economy - 24th July
 * sunlit Keynesian paradise awaits our grandchildren'' - When the crisis is over I hope we remember Keynes’s long-run forecast - 21st July
 * are we all racists? Let’s play a little game and find out'' - Experiments suggest that people from the same ethnic group work together more effectively, but not because they harbour any distaste for others - 17th July
 * it comes to research, we live in interesting times'' - Many findings are never published because they just aren’t very intriguing. But it is dangerous to discard boring or disappointing evidence - 10th July
 * healthy dose of competition will help the NHS pull through'' - What the NHS is missing is not some elusive quality of the private sector, but the competitive pressure that businesses have to cope with every day - 3rd July
 * lessons, difficult choices: dilemmas of parent-run schools'' - The standards of state-funded charter schools depend on the demands of parents, but research shows that regulation is necessary to improve quality - 26th June
 * rise will change the nuts and bolts of British business'' - While doing business in China is not easy, the opportunities are there and they will grow - 19th June
 * I lost my head in the volcanic ash cloud'' - Stranded in Helsinki, Tim Harford muses on dismal scenarios involving years of eruptions and a shattering blow to the world economy - 12th June
 * the NHS doesn’t know what it isn’t doing'' - Government data on patient waiting times remain a cautionary tale for Tim Harford, who has been trying for a year to get a cancer scan on the NHS - 5th June
 * wants fair play – shame we can’t agree what it is'' - When it comes to income and taxes, it is not merely about equitable distribution and fair processes. Some are just born lucky - 29th May
 * search of hard facts about media bias'' - Political neutrality is admirable but in a world full of left- and right-leaning customers, impartiality is a luxury a commercial newspaper can ill-afford - 22nd May
 * it worth trying to get a good degree?'' - I’m worried that in the middle of a recession, I’m going to graduate with a lousy degree in economics. Will reading ‘The Undercover Economist’ get me through? - 15th May
 * small parties can punch above their weight'' - Two methods of calculating voting power show that there is no simple mapping between the size of a bloc and the power it commands in practice - 15th May
 * anti-sweatshop campaigns might just do it after all'' - The obvious risk of protests is that workers are tossed out on to the street; economic growth is the only alternative. Yet Tim Harford finds research that shows otherwise - 8th May
 * yet unrepresentative. That’s democracy for you'' - It may be that the outcome of the UK general election is now a foregone conclusion, but if not, the oddities of the British electoral system are to blame - 1st May
 * for certainty in uncertain world'' - One person stranded by the no-fly edict imposed as a result of the volcanic ash cloud considers the costs and benefits of various strategies for getting home - 24th April
 * recessions aren’t all about job losses'' - When people get sacked during an economic downturn, the received wisdom is that it is because wages don’t adjust. But is ‘wage rigidity’ really to blame - 16th April
 * only thing worse than high taxes is noticing they’re high'' - A new strand of economic analysis reveals that visible reminders of taxes directly affect shoppers’ behaviour and purchasing decisions - 10th April
 * less exploitative ways to do more with less'' - The innovative reuse of waste materials is a good thing. But, asks Tim Harford, what do you do if in turn it squanders human potential? - 3rd April
 * last the con has been taken out of econometrics'' - The ‘identification problem’, which muddies data analysis, particularly plagues the statistical wing of the economics profession - 27th March
 * and tested ways to woo a half-hearted terrorist'' - A single defector can jeopardise a terrorist network, and defections are dependent on the ability of groups to cut off outside options - 20th March
 * ideas need proper testing'' - Policymakers should produce evidence - 18th March
 * auction site that’s pure temptation'' - Commentators claim that Swoopo’s bidding rules are ‘evil’, but economic theory suggests that its model is not completely to blame - 13th March
 * hidden histories that shape the way we live now'' - Economists trace the causal link between climate, tropical diseases and colonisers to economic development - 6th March
 * we should worry about spiralling public debt'' - As many wealthy governments continue to borrow with much enthusiasm, Tim Harford looks at the likely consequences of issuing too many IOUs - 27th February
 * to the bearers of bad news'' - Leaders need frank advice, however unwelcome it might seem - 25th February
 * that’s the Robin Hood tax, I’m the sheriff of Nottingham'' - The proposed tiny tax on bankers that would give billions to tackle poverty and climate change could be an opportunity for the world, but the idea leaves Tim Harford cold - 20th February
 * dishonest, mean … who are you calling an economist?'' - Does studying economics make you a bad person? Tim Harford offers a defence as studies suggest that students of the field are less likely to contribute to charities - 13th February
 * marginal victory for the well-meaning environmentalist'' - Tim Harford returns to the vexed question of carbon dioxide emissions and asks whether one can justify the double-standard of taking the bus but not the plane - 6th February
 * the altruism theory help anyone at all?'' - Many policy wonks believe cash incentives are counterproductive but some studies show that the way to get results is to pay for them - 30th January
 * US banks and taxpayers owe big thanks to Hank'' - Research carried out by the University of Chicago concludes that shareholders were about $130bn better off as a result of Paulson’s gift - 23rd January
 * in complexity, from a field in Afghanistan'' - There is a tendency to treat the ‘hearts and minds’ aspect of counter-insurgency as a popularity contest. But the ‘voters’ are not casual spectators - 16th January
 * spending might not be as stimulating as we think'' - Government projects do enjoy a multiplier-related discount in straitened times, but it must be made sure that the jobs are worth the expenditure - 9th January
 * on – or off? Low-carbon living is anything but easy...'' - Environmentalists have been slow to realise that an eco-lifestyle is riddled with contradictions. Tim Harford thinks credible carbon pricing can help clear the muddle - 2nd January



Articles: 2009

 * not what you know, but who you know and where they are'' - Tim Harford examines research that attempts to track knowledge spillovers and says that for all the wonders of the internet age, location is as important as ever - 19th December
 * the wealth of nations is really built upon'' - An accomplished economist attempts to answer the old question: why are some countries rich and others poor? His conclusions do not fully convince - 12th December
 * microfinance isn’t such a big deal after all'' - A year ago Tim Harford warned of a backlash against microfinance. Now there is mounting evidence that the practice is not living up to its promises - 5th December
 * ill wind blows a hole in the climate change debate'' - The trouble with cap-and-trade – which has long been regarded as the easier sell – is that countries must agree how to divide the allocation of permits - 28th November
 * not just Scrooge who wants Christmas abolished'' - Resources that go into Yuletide gifts often result in products that nobody wants, but these findings omit the warm glow we get from giving and receiving - 21st November
 * the choice, how much choice would you like?'' - Having more options seems to be counterproductive under certain circumstances, but we don’t yet know much about what they are - 14th November
 * a celebrity chef turned into a social scientist'' - Jamie Oliver’s ‘school dinners’ campaign has been successful, but Tim Harford wonders why it had to take a TV company to carry out a proper policy experiment - 7th November
 * feedback can be just so much noise'' - A comment-free environment is not conducive to learning new skills, but then again, honest appraisal can be confusing or demoralising - 31st October
 * to help? Then make life harder for the aid agencies'' - Only a wild optimist would expect agencies to adopt a market-style focus on value for money, so economists suggest a different approach - 24th October
 * brilliant (and doomed) template for healthcare reform'' - Not only is it colossally wasteful to outsource medical decisions to bureaucrats, it is also infantilising for us as independent human beings - 17th October
 * we stop football teams ‘buying’ wins?'' - Should the football authorities put a cap on the total value of players, based on their transfer cost, that can play for a Premier League team in any given match? - 10th October
 * an inconvenient economist upset the cool crowd'' - John List’s attention to the nuts and bolts of experimental method has demolished some of the most cherished results in behavioural economics - 10th October
 * Brown and the mystery of the lost profit margin'' - The unprecedented price war over the novelist’s latest book, ‘The Lost Symbol’, makes real an old joke: losing money on every sale, but making it up on volume - 3rd October
 * me – we have a serious carbon credibility problem'' - When it comes to climate change, few people are talking about time inconsistency. Why should we believe that words today will mean action tomorrow - 26th September
 * nudge is one thing, to nanny quite another'' - The human brain has evolved in the way it processes information by taking short cuts that lead us astray. Tim Harford says we could use help towards the correct decision - 19th September
 * to measure economies (and not get lost in the woods)'' - It is not surprising that calculating economic statistics, such as inflation and unemployment rates, continues to generate heat as well as light - 12th September
 * price America paid for the September 11 attacks'' - Beyond the narrow economic impact of a mass murder, the additional costs to the country as a whole were largely psychological - 5th September
 * credit crunch: bad for your pocket, worse for your psyche'' - Studies show that recessions alter perceptions. This generation may spend future decades firmly convinced that success is a matter of luck - 29th August
 * millions of the world’s poor still choose to go private'' - Government healthcare and education may be free, fee-paying customers are in an excellent position to hold schools and clinics to account - 22nd August
 * is the mother of invention'' - Is Facebook symbolic of a new trend towards innovation by individuals or is it an exception to the tendency towards larger research efforts - 15th August
 * recession-proof career path? Only for the lucky ones'' - Research shows that those who have to look for a job during a downturn are forced into compromises whose effects can last years or even decades - 8th August
 * Edge: Learn to love that statistical feeling'' - Bean-counters of the world, unite! - 8th August
 * the humble train helps countries get on track'' - Research proves that railways profoundly improved the rural economies through which they passed - 1st August
 * on this toaster, ye mighty, and despair!'' - The household staple is a symbol of the world’s sophistication and of the obstacles for those who want to change it, which is best done - 25th July
 * giant technological leaps aren’t always the answer'' - As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, why can't governments put some serious effort behind more modern goals - 18th July
 * footprinting: time to pick up the pace'' - A modest and credible price on carbon would give an incentive to everyone involved in the supply chain - 11th July
 * getting complicated increases the wealth of nations'' - There are about 10 billion products and services in a modern economic environment, but Tim Harford cites a pattern that links this complexity to what makes countries rich - 4th July
 * weather forecasts can affect your prosperity'' - A wide range of businesses, including supermarkets, electricity generators, and farming, could save money if given an accurate prediction - 27th June
 * can we tell incompetent from unlucky government?'' - Voters cannot distinguish how much of economic growth is due to luck and how much is due to a leader’s skill – and there is little incentive to do so - 20th June
 * social science ends up as urban myth'' - When put to the test, the results of some experiments accepted as conventional truth turn out to be just ‘glorified anecdotes’ and difficult to replicate - 13th June
 * a bubble’s effects that are hard to predict'' - Behavioural economists have identified bubbles even before they burst. But there is a difference between spotting them and foretelling the damage - 6th June
 * time to stop being shy about retiring – we can’t afford it'' - The statistics about an ageing population are starting to become familiar: people are living longer. But our institutions are adapting too slowly - 30th May
 * print’s death throes deal democracy a body blow'' - Research shows that local politics suffered after the closure of The Cincinnati Post, with fewer candidates running for office and voter turnout falling - 23rd May
 * to renewable energy? If only it were that simple'' - Technological progress will be essential to power a modern country – but it will not lead to an energy system purged of fossil fuels - 16th May
 * promises and why it pays not to break them'' - Alistair Darling broke his word by raising top rate income taxes to 50%. Tim Harford examines the value of government pledges and the cost of losing credibility - 9th May
 * smart truckers tell us about the road to success'' - A study of IQ, patience, risk-taking and interpersonal judgment in US truck drivers - 2nd May indicates that economic prosperity might be genetically transmitted,
 * profit, plump for an also-ran at the helm'' - New economic research suggests that shareholders should not celebrate awards given to CEOs. The correct response would be to feel sick - 25th April
 * in a recession, charitable giving can go up as well as down'' - Genuine altruists are more likely to give to charity if forewarned. But people who give because they feel pressured might simply hide behind the sofa - 18th April
 * those who sweat the big stuff in meltdown?'' - The crisis has macroeconomists soul-searching not because they failed to forecast the problem, but that they seem unable to provide answers - 11th April
 * gets which room in a rented house?'' - What is the fairest way to split the total monthly rent for an eight-bedroom flat among seven friends? - 4th April
 * Workplace inequality: it’s all down to the career breaks - The most convincing explanations of the gender pay gap focus on potential earnings lost by new mothers who are derailed from the fast track - 28th March
 * brilliant plan to rid sport of useless tossers'' - The idea of replacing a coin toss – a surrender to the gods of chance – with an auction may not be cricket. For Tim Harford, however, it is excellent economics - 21st March
 * easy answer to grade inflation'' - Outside Edge: True grade inflation would mean A grades superseded by AA, AAA and AAAA as new labels for superlative performance became necessary. As long as everyone understands the game, what harm if the typical student of tomorrow is awarded an AAAAA grade? - 21st March
 * malaria, we just can’t afford to use cheap drugs'' - As a combination therapy, the world’s most effective anti-malarial drug artemisinin is costly but efficient in discouraging resistance to the parasite - 14th March
 * degrees of separation? We can only manage five'' - A theory suggests that our brain cannot gauge too many different levels of value. Instead, it can only rely on the comparison of one against another - 7th March
 * it comes to bonuses, the buck stops with Gordon'' - Politicians are beginning to take note of research showing that sensible incentive schemes for bankers may be feasible - 28th February
 * recession experiences are more equal than others'' - Research on the downturn shows that the overall change in consumption is a blip for most people in the US, but a slump for those near the top - 21st February
 * nobody want to take money from the poor?'' - In developing countries where income and expenses are unpredictable, a basic, easy-access savings account would be invaluable - 14th February
 * research, fuelled by the dark stuff'' - The head brewer of Guinness beer also produced an important economic tool: the t-test, which determines an experiment’s statistical significance - 7th February
 * fingers burned today will forge tomorrow’s savers'' - Studies show that earlier experiences with economic booms and busts seem to shape a person’s subsequent investment behaviour - 31st January
 * charity begins – and stays – at home'' - The true reason we do not give freely is because of an almost unlimited capacity to put out of our minds the suffering of people we will never meet - 24th January
 * high-frequency traders are like rutting stags'' - Spikes in testosterone levels are both the cause and the consequence of a risky but profitable day on the trading floor - 17th January
 * My advice to the US Treasury? Go back to Plan A - The original concept of having an auction to buy toxic assets from banks should be resurrected, suggests Tim Harford, to solve a problem that has not gone away - 10th January
 * What lessons can schools learn from streaming by ability? - Given the choice between the best class in town and the best teacher in town, parents should choose the best teacher any day - 3rd January



Articles: 2008

 * the free market give you moral backbone?'' - An economic system where competition is key tends to reward hard work, risk-taking, applied creativity, amiability and honesty - 27th December 2008
 * Shock news? The media didn’t get us into this mess - The news is powerful enough to tip us into recession only if consumer and business spending is tied less to income and more to the front pages of the tabloids - 13th December 2008
 * unemployment benefit a good thing after all?'' - At its worst, jobseekers’ allowance pays people to watch daytime TV; it is pernicious if unemployment becomes unemployability. Yet, at its best, it is a life-saver - 6th December 2008
 * will we buy to help us through hard times?'' - When spending falls, some products do well and others do badly. The jobless save on ‘small durables’, but once employed, replace their old socks - 29th November 2008
 * Africa’s route to prosperity is not just a rocky road - Extortion, trucking cartels, and the time and expense involved in securing permits and licences explain why the continent remains in economic isolation - 22nd November 2008
 * How to win the Nobel prize by a whisker - for example Avinash Dixit, without whom Paul Krugman might have abandoned economics 30 years ago and so never formulated his new trade theory - 15th November 2008
 * stock-market generation game and how to win it'' - Here are the chief investment lessons of the financial crisis for today’s young people: they should be buying more shares and running up debts to do so - 8th November 2008
 * future? Your guess is as good as mine'' - Claiming that the stock market is efficient is by far the most sensible way for an investor to look at the world - 1st November 2008
 * might be a brainwave, but what on earth does it mean?'' - Trials aimed at understanding ‘neuroeconomics’ are hardly unlocking the deepest secrets of thought - 25th October 2008
 * extortion is a hard game to master'' - 18th October 2008
 * are some prizes more Nobel than others?'' - A long history and sharp public relations help in adding prestige. The winner must also beat an impressive field - 11th October 2008
 * to drop the baggage that comes with moral hazard'' - Bail-outs can save the innocent as well as the culpable. It is fantasy to expect governments to refrain from them - 4th October 2008
 * it comes to foreign workers, some ideas aren’t so crazy'' - It is laughable for the British government to rely on a centrally planned list of what sort of work migrants should be allowed in to do - 27th September 2008
 * the price of oil put a brake on globalisation?'' - There is some anecdotal evidence that transportation costs are having an impact on trade: for example, some container ships are reported to be slowing down to save fuel - 20th September 2008
 * it’s dangerous to be a witch in a recession'' - Tough times may result in women – typically elderly widows – being blamed for bad weather or sacrificed to free resources - 13th September 2008
 * cost more in the summer. Here’s why'' - Buyers prefer to shop in ‘thick’ markets, when lots of houses are for sale and a good fit is more likely to come up quickly - 6th September 2008
 * tells us we’re Simpsons not Spocks'' - Economists are exploring different brands of irrational behaviour as products intended for the impulsive and self-destructive Homer Simpsons of the world are becoming more common - 30th August 2008
 * are for markets not nations'' - Rather than understand behavioural economics, the UK Conservative party has adopted nudging as a label for a jumble of gimmicks - 22nd August 2008
 * Harvesting the fruits of your labourers - For many business owners, getting the most out of staff is a perennial problem. In the case of fruit farmers, perhaps perennial is the wrong word - 16th August 2008
 * Never trust an economic forecast - When people discover that I am an economist, they rarely ask me for my views on subjects that economists know a bit about - 9th August 2008
 * Bankers are laughing all the way to the bank - Going overdrawn can be an expensive business. In the UK, unauthorised overdrafts averaged £680m on any given day in 2006 – just over £10 per bank account - 2nd August 2008
 * The cost of curbs on immigration - Humans don’t take kindly to outsiders: history is heaped with the corpses of those who were lynched, bayoneted or gassed because of their race, religion or nationality - 26th July 2008
 * At last, a sensible way to measure poverty - Seebohm Rowntree was the son of the wealthy Quaker businessman Joseph Rowntree, but acutely aware of the poverty that surrounded him in late-Victorian York - 19th July 2008
 * Why the world needs more speculators - When the economy is in turmoil, no one is demonised more than the speculator - 12th July 2008
 * Why small prizes make it easier to win - We’ve known for a century that laboratory rats choke under pressure - 5th July 2008
 * Why the rural idyll doesn’t come cheap - My mother-in-law’s favourite complaint is that the government ignores the interests of rural communities in favour of cities - 28th June 2008
 * The Profits Of Political Connections - In the early hours of november 8 2000, the vice-president of the united states, al gore, was travelling to Nashville to make his concession speech. But then the messages began to arrive on Gore's pager, suggesting that perhaps he wasn't behind. Having already conceded, informally and in private, Gore called Bush again to tell him that he'd changed his mind - 21st June 2008
 * How Can I Tell If I'll Have A Decent Pension? - last week i mused about whether people in general were saving enough for retirement. (The answer: as far as we can tell, most people are.) This week I have decided to take on a far more important question: am I saving enough for retirement? - 14th June 2008
 * Maybe our pension worries are overdone - Here’s the conventional wisdom on pensions: you’re a weak-willed and short-sighted fool who isn’t saving enough, and as a result you will spend your retirement in poverty - 7th June 2008
 * Why a tax cut just isn't fair on teenagers - Alistair darling did something rather strange recently, to baffling applause from his own backbenchers, and cries of "bribery" from the opposition: he announced a tax on teenagers - 31st May 2008
 * The tax that might just save the world - The Financial Times has been calling for a credible price to be put on carbon emissions, either through a carbon tax or a serious cap-and-trade scheme. Most economists – including this one – would agree - 24th May 2008
 * Why economic forecasts are so hard to get right - Economic forecasting is a long-standing joke, but the laughter has turned harsh and bitter in the wake of the credit crisis. The conventional wisdom seems to be that economic forecasting is impossible, and that economic forecasters are charlatans - 17th May 2008
 * Happiness is a more expensive nicotine hit - Would smokers prefer that cigarettes be expensive? The Office of Fair Trading seems to think so, to judge by its recent announcement alleging that some supermarkets and tobacco companies had been fixing the price of tobacco - 10th May 2008
 * How markets keep abreast of the news - If markets are efficient, you will never make profitable trades as a result of reading the Financial Times - 26th April 2008
 * Of Income And Incomers - How do you compare the wealth of different nationalities? It isn't as easy as ABC - 19th April 2008
 * Cost of living - My family’s experience of the local hospital has been mixed. Sometimes it is impressive; at others it falls below the standard one would expect in the capital of a developed country. Our rule of thumb is that it’s much safer to get sick in Cumbria, where my wife’s parents live - 12th April 2008
 * Piracy’s hidden treasures - What should top record labels, software giants and other media companies do about digital piracy? There are two obvious options - 5th April 2008
 * Green lite - I recently discovered that I am entitled to an occasional tax-free breakfast, because I cycle to work - 28th March 2008
 * Eternal enigma - Friends of mine, husband and wife, once argued over the price of a branded packet of lemon slices bought at some convenient corner shop or petrol station - 22nd March 2008
 * Moments of truth - The three most familiar economic statistics are all measures of change: inflation, the growth of gross domestic product, and the daily rise or fall in the price of shares. Even so, they do not begin to capture the mad churn of the economy - 14th March 2008
 * Meltdown economics - So much hot air has been spouted over climate change it is a wonder the ice caps haven’t melted already - 8th March 2008
 * Tim Harford: Wealth generations - My father and my mother met at a venerable English university. I went to the same place, as did two of my sisters. Now that my stepbrother has followed in our footsteps, I am starting to think that there may be more than coincidence behind the whole business - 1st March 2008
 * It’s the way they sell ’em - Here’s what I like about insurance: you pay the insurers money when you do not desperately need it, and then the insurers pay you money just when you need it most - 23rd February 2008
 * Virtual virtues - Nurses leave Nigeria and come to the UK, hoping for a better career. Farmers leave Mexico to work in construction or catering in the US. Such migrants can have a profound impact on the economy, as well as the society and politics both of the country they leave and the country to which they move. Social scientists, naturally, take an interest - 16th February 2008
 * Start making sense - Family Harford has just put in an offer for the house next door, to hoots of scorn from my colleagues, who know me as a bear among bears. It is true that the London housing market seems (who knows?) to be in the final stages of its biggest-ever bubble. But there are special circumstances involved here, one of which is that no rational economic actor disobeys an order from his wife - 9th February 2008
 * A corporate own goal - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama notwithstanding, the world still seems to be ruled by white men. Is this the result of racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace? Or are other factors more important - for instance, that few black kids go to good schools, or that women usually interrupt their careers to have children? - 2nd February 2008
 * First things first - Running for president is a little like releasing a new DVD format - taking an early lead can really pay off - 26th January 2008
 * Cash for answers - In 1737, John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker from Yorkshire, stunned London’s scientific establishment by presenting an idiosyncratic solution to the most important and notorious technological problem of the 18th century - 25th January 2008
 * Table talk - Feng shui is all very well, but the next time you decide to redesign the layout of your office space you might consider calling an economist - 19th January 2008
 * Tape measure of success - Roughly five years after internet users caught on, the bookshops are suddenly full of books about the user-generated content that “Web 2.0” makes possible: the blogs, Wikipedia, Facebook and the rest. Well, you can forget them, because easily the world’s most profitable enabler of user-generated content opened the doors of its first superstore 50 years ago, in Almhult, Sweden - 12th January 2008
 * A measured approach - The aid industry faces a dilemma. On the one hand, countries are more likely to grow rich if their citizens are provided with some important basics, such as a legal system that works, or protection from corrupt officials. Such basics might seem the priority for aid money. On the other hand, it is much easier to measure success in simpler projects, such as building roads and laying pipes - 5th January 2008



Financial Times: 'Dear Economist'
Column name:

Remit/Info: Solving readers' problems using economics

Section: Web / FT.Com

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:economist@ft.com economist@ft.com]

Website: FT.Com / Tim Harford

Commissioning Editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format: Letter / response

Average length: 300 words



Articles:

 * Dear Economist (archive)

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News & updates:
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References:
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Links:

 * Other Writing (Tim Harford.com)
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Harford