If you want to understand the behavior of others, including adherence to and deviation from rational axioms, you need game theory. Here is Yale’s open course in game theory and it’s a good place to start, but it might be difficult if you don’t begin with more basic econ.
For more basic things, start with price theory (aka microeconomics). Ignore macro for a while—money and banking is essential, especially if you want to see through silly discussions about monetary policy, but macro models are less important, in my opinion. Here are some texts on the micro front. Alchien and Allen are particularly readable, but somewhat dated. Note that there are basically no high school level economics texts listed there; I am not familiar with a single good high school text either.
You should ignore most popular books like Freakonomics. They are good, but in my experience don’t give readers enough of a general idea of the underlying concepts. An exception is Landsburg’s The Armchair Economist, which has popularized explanations of utility, opportunity cost, indifference, and efficiency, all of which seem very difficult for the public to grasp.
Likewise don’t read “the classics,” unless you’re specifically studying history of economic thought. Smith, Ricardo, and so on are too much of a chore for material that is thoroughly dated. We know much more now and we know how to say it better.
Some essays are often much better textbook discussions. Here is an example; I would assign that essay for an intro micro class any day.
Edit: I should say “select chapters” of Landsburg’s book are good. Some quite miss the point of the arguments he’s trying to rebut. It might be hard for a beginner to tell which chapters are which.
I’m flipping through my Alchien and Allen book again and still seems perfectly relevant and mostly accurate. They’ve got all the theory down pat and explain it fantastically, it’s just that it’s missing a few more decades of empirical evidence, so every time they say, “X is what we find in the real world,” you have to take it with a grain of salt.
Edit again: Durr. I should note I’m looking at the second edition, 1977.
If you want to understand the behavior of others, including adherence to and deviation from rational axioms, you need game theory. Here is Yale’s open course in game theory and it’s a good place to start, but it might be difficult if you don’t begin with more basic econ.
For more basic things, start with price theory (aka microeconomics). Ignore macro for a while—money and banking is essential, especially if you want to see through silly discussions about monetary policy, but macro models are less important, in my opinion. Here are some texts on the micro front. Alchien and Allen are particularly readable, but somewhat dated. Note that there are basically no high school level economics texts listed there; I am not familiar with a single good high school text either.
You should ignore most popular books like Freakonomics. They are good, but in my experience don’t give readers enough of a general idea of the underlying concepts. An exception is Landsburg’s The Armchair Economist, which has popularized explanations of utility, opportunity cost, indifference, and efficiency, all of which seem very difficult for the public to grasp.
Likewise don’t read “the classics,” unless you’re specifically studying history of economic thought. Smith, Ricardo, and so on are too much of a chore for material that is thoroughly dated. We know much more now and we know how to say it better.
Some essays are often much better textbook discussions. Here is an example; I would assign that essay for an intro micro class any day.
Edit: I should say “select chapters” of Landsburg’s book are good. Some quite miss the point of the arguments he’s trying to rebut. It might be hard for a beginner to tell which chapters are which.
I’m flipping through my Alchien and Allen book again and still seems perfectly relevant and mostly accurate. They’ve got all the theory down pat and explain it fantastically, it’s just that it’s missing a few more decades of empirical evidence, so every time they say, “X is what we find in the real world,” you have to take it with a grain of salt.
Edit again: Durr. I should note I’m looking at the second edition, 1977.
Possible exception: “What is Seen, and What Is Not Seen”.
For popular accounts, I highly recommend Tim Harford’s Undercover Economist. I warn against Landsburg, but what I’ve read does not include his book.