Media spotlight: The Economic Naturalist

19 July 2010 | By Samuel Dale

Ostensibly, The Economic Naturalist - Why Economics Explains Almost Everything is about economics. But close inspection shows this is not the case - unless the word economics now includes women’s high heels and kamikaze pilots’ helmets. The author seems to think it does.

The Economic Naturalist is written in the form of questions and answers that reveal oddities about human behaviour. Although there are some economic questions such as why is unemployment higher in Germany than in the US, most are about random behaviour.

Yes, author Robert H Frank, is yet another economist who feels he can bring his subject alive through the medium of human behaviour. Every time an author says economics is not about facts and figures but about human interactions they seem to consider themselves some sort of pioneer.

Also, every writer on economics seems to have a joke about how their subject is perceived as boring when it really isn’t. Frank is no different.

But when he criticises the charts and figures method of teaching economics he is reiterating similar critiques by other frustrated economists.

Nevertheless, he makes a valid point and his method of introducing his subject is more intriguing than checking the latest growth statistics.

By demonstrating the oddity and unpredictability of human behaviour and looking at the logic behind this, one can see how such methods can be applied to economic theory.

And he poses a few fascinating questions. For example, why do shops put up signs saying guide dogs are permitted? There is some read-across from such strange scenarios to economics because the latter is subject to irrational human actions too.

But is this book about economics or interesting facts about human nature? Any subject can be all-encompassing when discussed in terms of comparisons.

There are some economics-based chapters on why equally talented workers earn different salaries, the myth of home ownership and why some buyers pay more than others. And by explaining why mini-bar drinks are so expensive and why a London Underground ticket costs more than an Oyster card Frank holds the attention.

There are a couple of questions on every page so he never dwells too long on one subject, quickly ticking off life’s top conundrums.

Here’s one - why is it impossible to find a hotel room in the host city on Superbowl weekend? Well, this seems self-explanatory and a convoluted essay about supply and demand is not particularly enlightening - it’s because a lot of people are in town.

But it’s hard to find many questions in this book that are not intriguing and variety means the reader never has a chance to get bored, with answers ranging from the potential extinction of chickens to labour laws.

One frustration is that sometimes Frank explores possibilities but does not provide answers. Presumably, he doesn’t know them.

On the whole, the question and answer method works well in expanding on the theme that economics is a reflection of natural behaviour and the situations explored could help us understand how the economy works. But on this evidence, humans are so odd that we’ll never understand economics.

Book review by Samuel Dale

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