Introduction to Economics

[Timexwatch]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Hard Heads, Soft Hearts, by Alan Blinder, Professor of Economics at Princeton and former Chairman of Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors is the best economics book I have ever read. Its only about 200 pages, but it does an absolutely outstanding job of introducing someone who is not familiar with economics to economic thinking about current micro and macro policy issues. I commend this book in the highest possible terms.

Sounds interesting. Is it worth a read for someone who has a B.A. in Econ (like as a refresher or quick reference)?

Most introductory International Affairs books now devote a few pages to the "Prisoners Dilema" and Zero-Sum v. Non-Zero Sum Games. They usually throw in an example involving the Peloponesian Wars or the World Wars. That's about as simple as it gets.

Yep. I dealt with simple game theory in my IR classes (especially Intro to IR and Defense Policy) and in Econometrics. The IR example of Prisoner's Dilemma that my classes used the most is the Cold War (arms race), which is sometimes also used to explain a Conflict Spiral (which doesn't work perfectly, because we never went to war ).

Most intro Politics classes also teach intro game theory, but never apply it much beyond the 15 minutes it takes to teach it. It would muddy the waters too much if you had the average PoliSci student try to mathematically model something harder than the Peloponesian Wars. I ignored it immediately because as every good student of history knows, politicans are hardly rational actors and I'm not math inclined enough to do the modelling.

Maybe you can correct me, but does it have much place in Political Science outside of abstract mathematical modeling of military conflicts and politics like they do at MIT? There doesn't seem to be much that can be proven via gaming that can't be done with mountains of evidence

I also second AS's pick of Stiglitz and Blinder as good econ primers. For those who need to know about economics without having take an econ class, it's indespensible.

[Timexwatch]

Double Post

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Jules
Also, game theory and strategic behavior models are being used more and more these days. Remember "A Beautiful Mind"? Yup, John Nash is the guy who started that. Unfortunately, the only books I have on that topic are at the graduate level, and I'm sure you don't want that yet (or ever ). Anybody know any good introduction to game theory texts?

Yes. "Thinking Strategically" by Dixit and Nalebuff. It's by far the best first book on Game Theory I've seen, as it is easy to understand but goes into quite a bit of detail. It's also recommended pre-reading for Oxford Game Theory module.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
Maybe you can correct me, but does it have much place in Political Science outside of abstract mathematical modeling of military conflicts and politics like they do at MIT? There doesn't seem to be much that can be proven via gaming that can't be done with mountains of evidence

Yes. It was used in the UK for the launch of the 3G mobile phone licenses, which generated about 5 times as much money for the government as expected. It is also used in strategy for many sports (such as when to bring on/off players, when to pit in racing, whether to kick or run penalties in rugby, etc). It's used in practical politics, as Thatchers was supposed to have a Game Theorist as an advisor. It's used vastly at a lower level in business discussions and in diplomacy. Game theory is a vastly applicable disapline, and there is even a management consultancy firm that specialises in using Game Theory in the UK.

[DrSpike]

The Blinder book that AS referenced is good. Also I would add Charles Wheelan's "Naked economics" to the list of good books for non-specialists. Do not buy any pop-economics books written by journalists.

Other than that pick up any core 1st year university text for the basics, and if you tell me what areas you are interested in I can provide further references.

[Jules]

Originally posted by Adam Smith
Jules:
How is the course work coming? Are you interested in applied or theoretical issues?

Hi, Adam Smith.

I'm only a couple weeks into my second year. Passed the prelims on the first try back in May. This semester I'm TA-ing in an undergraduate Money & Banking course.

This year I'll be taking advanced macro theory, international trade & consumer theory, and econometrics (especially next semester, which will cover time series in-depth). Since I'm thinking of doing my field in macro, I figure knowing some time series would be a good idea. I'll know for sure if macro's for me next semester when we discuss empirical work. This semester will mainly be more theory--search models of money to be more precise--and so far there's not much empirical work on this topic. But hopefully it'll be interesting.