How to Think Like an Economist: Great Economists Who Shaped the World and What They Can Teach Us

Mochrie, an economics professor at Heriot-Watt University, debuts with an erudite history of economics, told through profiles of thinkers who have advanced the discipline. According to Mochrie, Aristotle believed that charging interest was immoral, and Saint Thomas Aquinas only grudgingly allowed that merchants could ethically profit from trade. Elsewhere, Mochrie impartially contrasts Adam Smith’s conception of the market as a mechanism for channeling self-interest into socially benign cooperation with Karl Marx’s ideas about how market dynamics empower capitalists to exploit workers. In addition to discussing the ideas of John Stuart Mill, John Maynard Keynes, and Friedrich Hayek, Mochrie highlights the contributions of contemporary economists, describing how Gary Becker applied economic analysis to ostensibly non-financial relationships (he argued that families exist only because membership confers monetary benefits) and how Esther Duflo’s research showed the benefits of conducting randomized controlled trials over analyzing data collected for other purposes. Mochrie has a talent for making economic ideas accessible, and the analysis covers major disputes within the discipline without picking sides. This is an ideal resource for readers whose eyes otherwise glaze over at the mere mention of supply-and-demand curves. (Aug.)