The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas
by Robert Frank
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert FrankEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2007-05-21
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Basic Books
Book Reviews of The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas
Book Review: Anecdotal and full of "just so" stories
Summary: 1 Stars
The early examples set the stage for the rest of the book, and highlight some of the central flaws. For example, the author mentions the mysterious case of braille on drive up ATM machines and then gives us an economist's answer for why this is - roughly because of the cost to produce them with and without the braille.
However, the author points out later on that this explanation is in fact false (as was pointed out by someone who works in the industry) because it has to do with disability law mandating that the machines have them. This situation exists in countless cases throughout the book. We are given "just so" stories for why something is the way it is, with little to no data to back it up, and the author seems unbothered by the refuted example given near the beginning.
Some of the examples seem to merely expose the author's bias in one subject or another. For example, the author notes that academics (especially those in the humanities) have a tendency to use lofty language, violate norms of English grammar, and seem to leave the general public behind. The author attributes this to what is essentially an arms race between academics, each trying to write and sound smarter and more dense than the other. This is absurd. Academics tend to specialize in very narrow fields, and it is very common to have special, atypical use of language. It's no different in other fields as well - even the average online computer "gamer" uses specialized language that is over the head of most adults, but again it has nothing to do with an arm race to see who can use the most specialized language.
The examples get old, and especially arm chair "just so" explanations.
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