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Where to Start on Your Journey to Learn about Economics

Posted on July 25, 2021November 5, 2021 by astoltz

As a middle schooler interested in economics, there were not a lot of accessible resources to get me started. I was still three years away from taking an Econ class, which I’ll finally take next year. Thanks to some dear friends, when I was in 9th grade, I was introduced to and lucky enough to talk with Dr. Eric Leeper, a professor of economics at the University of Virginia. 

Dr. Leeper was instrumental in my path to learn more and more about economics. His first recommendation was that I start out learning about microeconomics by learning about personal economics and then move on to macroeconomics. 

Another valuable piece of information Dr. Leeper gave me a list of books to help get started with learning about economics. This list contained books for different specialized areas of  specialization and topics. I’ve only read a few on this long list, but the value of the list is clear so I thought it would be a good idea to share the list with other kids who might be interested. 

As I mentioned, next school year, I will finally be taking an economics class. I’m looking forward to learning more about the basics of economics. I plan to continue to share what I learn  here to create a resource for students who are interested in learning economics, a topic that doesn’t have many extracurriculars or opportunities for experience and learning for kids. 

I hope you enjoy Eric Leeper’s  recommended reading list for anyone interested in economics:

  1. Narrative Economics : Robert J. Shiller : About how “stories” drive people’s beliefs and, ultimately, their economic behavior. 
  2. The Green Paradox : Hans-Werner Sinn : A fresh economic perspective on climate change and global warming. 
  3. Fooled by Randomness : Nassim Nicholas Talib : A probabilistic view of markets
  4. In Fed We Trust : David Wessel : About the Fed’s response to the global financial crisis in 2007-2008.
  5. Austerity, The History of a Dangerous Idea : Mark Blyth : An iconoclastic view of fiscal policy over the years.
  6. Equality and Efficiency, The Big Trade Off : Arthur Okun : A classic treatise on thinking about the role of government in the economy. 
  7. Hard Heads and Soft Hearts, Tough-Minded Economics for a Just Society : Alan Blinder : A treatise on how to use logical reasoning as a basis for policy. 
  8. Discover Your Inner Economist : Tyler Cown : A fun application of incentives to everyday issues. 
  9. The Winner-Take-All Society : Robert H. Frank and Philip J. Cook : a critical discussion of how the economy leads to income inequality. 
  10. Essays in Positive Economics : Milton Friedman : A classic analysis of a variety of topics (available as a free pdf)
  11. The Why Axis: Uri Gneezy and John A. List : Understanding the role of incentives through experiments. 
  12. Slapped by the Invisible Hand: Gary Gorton : The role of securitized banking in financial crises. 
  13. The Dollar Trap : Eswar S. Prasad : The role of the US dollar in global finance. 
  14. Manias, Panics, and Crashes, A History of Financial Crises : Charles P. Kindleberger and Robert Aliber : another classic
  15. Thinking, Fast and Slow : Daniel Kahneman : An eye-opening study of how people actually make decisions. 

Additional Recommended Authors (read anything by these authors): Barry Eichengreen, Paul Krugman, Steven Landsber, Steven Levitt.

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Ana Stoltz
Ana Stoltz
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