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Undergraduate Reading List

Craig Newmark's Book Recommendations:

"It gives brief but solid introductions to a number of important contemporary policy issues." --on The Economics of Public Issues

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
Phenomenally insightful, this is the best work of synthesis I have ever read. If you want to understand politics in the U.S. over the past 40 years and for many years to come, you should read this book.

Price Theory and Applications, Sixth Ed. by Steven Landsburg
This book has made my teaching career much easier and more fun. It is the best book I know of for learning intermediate microeconomics, for MBAs trying to learn microeconomics, and for honors students trying to learn the principles of economics. (Given any excuse, I'll use it.)

Craig Newmark
North Carolina State

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some Are So Poor by David S. Landes, and The Elusive Quest For Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics by William Easterly
These two books cover probably the most important problem in economics: Why are some countries so prosperous while others so tragically poor? The Landes book is an economic history of the world, large in scope and amount of detail. The Easterly book focuses on post-World War II foreign aid programs to poorer countries. Both give the reader an idea of some of the immense difficulties in helping poorer nations. But both also offer hope that we've learned some useful lessons and that we can do much better.

Trade-offs: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning and Social Issues by Harold Winter
This fine little volume is one of a number of recent books that try to convey the excitement of economics to lay readers. Trade-Offs, like these other books, keeps math and jargon to a minimum. What sets it apart is its tone: The other authors at times present economics with a near-missionary zeal, and readers may resist what sounds like proselytizing. But Winter is modest, even-handed, and extraordinarily calm as he explains that while economics is not the only way to think about public policy issues, it certainly is a good way.

The Economics of Public Issues, 14th Ed. By Roger L. Miller, et al.
It gives brief but solid introductions to a number of important contemporary policy issues. It is well-written, assumes no prior economics, and is not technical or mathematical.

Getting Rich in America: Eight Simple Rules for Building a Fortune and a Satisfying Life by Dwight R. Lee and Richard B. McKenzie
As the title indicates, this book explains how an average person can get "rich." There are no gimmicks or tricks, just sound advice firmly grounded in empirical and theoretical economics. The authors are leading academic economists.

The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America by Philip K. Howard
This is a brilliant discussion of a serious problem in modern America: the substitution of ever more elaborate laws for other ways of motivating individuals and governing society.



Biographical info: Craig M. Newmark is an Associate Professor of Economics at North Carolina State University's College of Management. His research focuses on U.S. antitrust policy and has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Law and Economics, Review of Economic Statistics, and other journals. He teaches graduate courses in microeconomics, the economics of information goods, and writing for economists. He has a BA from George Washington University and a PhD in economics from UCLA.