Enlightened Economist 2018 Prize – longlist

It’s the time of year when I look back over the past 12 months of my reading and draw up a list of the 10 or so best from which to select the ultimate winner of the 2018 Enlightened Economist Prize. The rules are: any non-technical or accessible econ/business/tech book I read is eligible (it doesn’t have to have been published during the 12 months); my decision is final. The prize is the offer of an excellent celebratory lunch, for a living author, should the winner and I find ourselves in the same place.

This year’s longlist is long – I’ve read some wonderful books. In no particular order:

Exact Thinking in Demented Times – Karl Sigmund (my review here)

The Attention Merchants – Tim Wu (my review here)

No Ordinary Woman – Angela Penrose (my review here)

Price: £24.99

Was: £30.00

Twitter and Tear Gas – Zeynep Tufekci (my review here)

A University Education – David Willetts (my review here)

Price: £19.49

Was: £25.00

Black Edge – Sheila Kolkhatar (my review here)

one)

How Growth Really Happens – Michael Best (this is sitting on my desk waiting for me to write it up)

Price: £19.45

Was: £24.00

The Marshall Plan – Benn Steil (my review here)

Price: £20.85

Was: £26.87

Republic of Beliefs – Kaushik Basu (my review here)

Price: £18.61

Was: £27.00

Behemoth – Joshua Freeman (my review here)

Price: £16.16

Was: £22.00

Factfulness – Hans Rosling (my review here)

Unelected Power – Paul Tucker (my review here)

Price: £17.17

Was: £27.00

The National Debt – Martin Slater (my review here)

Price: £15.59

Was: £20.00

Deep Thinking – Gary Kasparov (my review here)

Scale – Geoffrey West (I didn’t write on – it’s excellent pop science with a final chapter on cities)

Cognitive Gadgets – Cecelia Heyes (my review here)

Price: £17.23

Was: £21.95

Ingenious Pursuits – Lisa Jardine (I didn’t review this either – innovation in history, Mokyr-ish)

The Book of Why – Judea Pearl (I haven’t yet written about it, am mulling it over as he’s very down on causal inference methods used in economics)

Price: £15.65

Was: £25.00

The Rise and Fall of the British Nation – David Edgerton (my review here)

Price: £18.27

Was: £30.00

The Community of Advantage – Robert Sugden (my review here)

Price: £16.17

Was: £25.00

Accounting for Slavery – Caitlin Rosenthal (my review here)

Price: £23.75

Was: £27.95