Tim Harford’s Logic of Life lecture at the LSE

Tim Harford delivered an excellent talk to a packed lecture hall at the London School of Economics as part of a series of events promoting his new book, “The Logic of Life”.

You might wonder what a report on a lecture by an economist is doing on the Politics blog, but economics often drives political decisions and so a bit of wider knowledge can help develop our understanding of the nature of politics.

Tim entertained the audience for nearly an hour on the central theme of his book, how a raft of economists are working on testing the economic theory of the 1950s and 1960s in the real world. The core of his lecture focused on the academics who are using evidence collection on a variety of subjects to determine the extent to which individuals act rationally, weighing up the costs and benefits or risks and rewards of particular courses of action.

On Logic of Life his website says:

“Life often seems to defy logic. When a prostitute agrees to unprotected sex, or a teenage criminal embarks on a burglary, or a smoker lights another cigarette, we seem to be a million miles from what we would call rational behaviour. None of this makes sense – or does it? Tim Harford thinks it does. And by weaving stories from locations as diverse as a Las Vegas casino and a Soho speed-date together with insights from an ingenious new breed of economist, he aims to persuade you that we are all, in fact, surprisingly logical. Reading this book, you’ll discover that the unlikeliest of people – racists, drug addicts, revolutionaries and rats – comply with economic logic, always taking account of future costs and benefits, even if they don’t quite realise it. It even explains why your boss is overpaid…”

Tim is touring the UK and elsewhere over the next couple of months and it is well worth the effort of going to listen to him.

The events schedule can be found here:

http://timharford.com/etc/talks/