Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-logic-of-life-tim-harford/1103588767

All those behavioural economics and psychology books are starting to blur together to me. I bought this book about a year ago. I recently stumbled up it again and thought that I'd forget to finish reading it. I opened it up about half way through. I remembered reading that chapter and knew how it ended. I didn't remember the next chapter., so I skipped forward. Same result. I had read that chapter before, but I didn't know what the next chapter was.

This happened all the way to the end.

I have a growing problem with these type of books-- they promise deep thoughts on important subjects, but really they are just a bunch of interesting stories all strung together. I wonder how these books are authored. Does the author really start with a theme and then work forward to write a book. Or does he turn interesting studies into stories until he has enough content for a book.

Having said that, there are a couple of concepts in the Logic of Life that want to remember. Like the "Split the Cheque Problem" where people behave differently if they know their bill is going to be paid by other people. This problem can explains high CEO pay (The pay costs each individual share holder a few dollars, not enough for any one shareholder to do something about it) or protectionism in trade.

Also "Incentives Matter." Sure, self discipline and acting etically are important. But, time and time again, people do what they think will make them happy, even if it's undiciplined and unethical.