The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Frank
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 14097
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0465003575
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
EAN: 9780465003570
ASIN: 0465003575
Publication Date: April 7, 2008
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Product Description
Why do the keypads on drive-up cash machines have Braille dots? Why are round-trip fares from Orlando to Kansas City higher than those from Kansas City to Orlando? For decades, Robert Frank has been asking his economics students to pose and answer questions like these as a way of learning how economic principles operate in the real world-which they do everywhere, all the time. Once you learn to think like an economist, all kinds of puzzling observations start to make sense. Drive-up ATM keypads have Braille dots because it’s cheaper to make the same machine for both drive-up and walk-up locations. Travelers from Kansas City to Orlando pay less because they are usually price-sensitive tourists with many choices of destination, whereas travelers originating from Orlando typically choose Kansas City for specific family or business reasons. The Economic Naturalist employs basic economic principles to answer scores of intriguing questions from everyday life, and, along the way, introduces key ideas such as the cost-benefit principle, the “no cash on the table” principle, and the law of one price. This is as delightful and painless a way to learn fundamental economics as there is.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Interesting Perspective July 21, 2008
This is an enjoyable read. The author presents and answers unusual economics questions and as the book goes by you, perhaps inadvertently, learn to think a bit like an economist. That is the author's intention, i.e., the economics does not have to be all charts and equations.
 Entertaining but of questionable value (history/econ teacher's review) June 15, 2008
I have read "Freakonomics" and "Naked Economics" in the past 6 months and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was hoping to get more of the same with this book. It caught my eye because it is nearly the exact same color as "Naked Economics" (Hmmm, I wonder if the economic naturalists would care to speculate on products that intentionally look similar to better-known products...) and I was hoping to get some more economic enlightenment.
Sadly, the book reads a lot more like an extended session with Yahoo! Answers than anything else. It's interesting, but there are times when you have to wonder why anyone would be wondering these things and there are times when you have to wonder if he actually ran these answers by anyone else in another department at Cornell to see if the economic answer was right or if another answer was correct.
For example, he talks about Germany having a high unemployment rate as compared to the U.S. He mentions the fact that Germany has better unemployment benefits as the only factor for Germany's higher unemployment rate.
Historically, there are two reasons for the higher unemployment:
#1) Germany is still in the midst of absorbing East Germany which has a higher unemployment rate than the former West Germany.
#2) Macroeconomics teaches that, in the short run, you can avoid a higher rate of inflation by holding back GDP growth in a variety of ways that tend to cause more unemployment (sorry economists of the world, but that's the easiest way I can explain it without causing eyes to glaze over for non-econ-minded folks). Germany is deathly afraid of high rates of inflation since runaway inflation occurred during the Weimar Republic in the Post-World War I Germany and that is seen as having been one of the things that brought Hitler to power.
I'm sure great unemployment benefits help, but that is not the only cause for the problem.
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It's a quick read, often light and breezy. But, there are better reads out there that do it better.
To learn more about basic economics, I suggest "Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan.
To learn more about offbeat topics and how economics applies to them, I suggest: "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner.
 Disappointed about the simplicity May 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The subject is compelling.
The title and introduction made me buy this book, but the examples given are very simple and often obvious.
Maybe I was expecting a lot more.
 A good complement for any introductory economics course May 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book, in contrast to Freakonomics, the Undercover Economist, or other book of that sort, actually explains all basic economics principles and tools that you use both implicitly and explicitly in economics, such as the cost-benefit principle, supply and demand, working with marginal terms, etc. So it really can be used as a good complement to any introductory course in economics, mainly because it helps connecting all the models, graphical and mathematical explanations with the effects they produce in real life.
Fun, flawed, and informative April 13, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This weekend I finished reading The Economic Naturalist, the latest book from renowned economist and professor Robert H. Frank. Presented in a question and answer format, the book aims to explain enigmas from everyday life in easy-to-understand economic terms. It covers a diverse array of topics, from arms races and the tragedy of the commons to the meshing of psychology and economics. The non-mathematical nature of the book makes it easily accessible to the general public. In addition, Frank's relaxed, conversational style of writing is both engaging and fun to read.
My favorite aspect of Frank's book is the unique, interesting questions it poses. One of the more savvy questions, for example, asks "Why do independent musicians, especially the most talented ones, favor free music-sharing programs, while established star performers tend to oppose them?" Frank posits that established musicians work to protect their market (CD sales) while indie musicians attempt to expand theirs (fan base). In the music industry, as in many other markets, maintaining the status quo most benefits those at the top.
Another stellar question the book asks is "Why does the rookie of the year in baseball often have a less successful second season?" Frank claims that the so-called sophomore slump is a statistical illusion since, by definition, "only players who have an exceptional season win the rookie of the year award." Rather than experiencing a decline in productivity, players merely are returning to their more normal output, i.e., regressing to their mean.
For all its interesting questions, Frank's book still has its fair share of faults. Firstly, many answers contain little data to support their conclusions. For example, one question asks "Why do many schools require students to wear school uniforms?" Frank surmises that schools implement uniform policies to "reduce costs, both monetary and emotional, of clothing arms races." Although his claim sounds plausible, Frank does not provide any data, original or otherwise, to support it.
Secondly, a few answers make sense in economic terms but are simply incorrect. Frank himself addresses this shortcoming when discussing why drive-up ATMs have Braille dots. He states that ATM producers put Braille dots on all ATMs because it is cheaper to make a single set of buttons than stock two separate inventories. Yet Frank later acknowledges that "the real reason for [Braille dots on ATM machines] is that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires them." These errors are forgivable considering the grand scheme of the book, but failing to properly address these shortcomings does weaken Frank's arguments.
I rate The Economic Naturalist at 8 out of 10 stars. Frank's work is both fun and informative at the same time. My quibbles with the book are relatively minor and do not damper my enthusiasm for the subject matter. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys uncommon thinking about common topics. The Economic Naturalist makes a great companion to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's better-known (and more thoroughly researched) book, Freakonomics.
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