After reading Jason Manning's post on essential sociology, I was inspired to try the same with economics.
Suppose that you would like to read more about economics but without having to work through equations. Here are some recommendations.
For a textbook, I recommend Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life, by David Friedman. Also good is Basic Economics, by Thomas Sowell. For free, you can download Specialization and Trade, by me.
Another book I have recommended before and will recommend here is Information Rules, by Hal Varian and Carl Shapiro.1
For classic articles written in English (as opposed to math), I recommend:
The Use of Knowledge in Society, in which Friedrich Hayek explains why markets solve a problem that cannot be solved by a central planner. Tyler Cowen calls this the GOAT of economics articles.
Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization, by Harold Demsetz and Armen Alchian. I would be surprised if you can absorb this paper without reading it several times.
I can recommend several lectures given by recipients of the Nobel award.
Economic Performance Through Time, the Nobel lecture by Douglass North, argues for the importance of economic institutions.
The Pretence of Knowledge, Hayek’s Nobel lecture, argues that economics cannot be like the physical sciences.
The Institutional Structure of Production, Ronald Coase’s Nobel lecture, explains how he arrived at two important ideas.
The Constitution of Economic Policy, James Buchanan’s Nobel lecture, gives background on public choice theory.
Most of the valuable work in financial economics is mathematical, but Noise, by Fischer Black is prose. It is probably hard to understand without more background.
“Bank Funds Management in an Efficient Market,” also by Black, is behind a paywall. I asked ChatGPT for a summary, and it hallucinated. Claude 3.5 nailed it. Black does not see betting on the direction of interest rates as a source of bank profits. A related paper is Banking in the Theory of Finance, by Eugene Fama. Again, without more background the meaning and significance of these papers may be elusive.
substacks referenced above:
@
Varian liked an essay called The Economy of Ideas, by John Perry Barlow. Although it was written in the days when Net-heads were adamant that “information wants to be free,” it now sits behind a paywall.
*The Worldly Philosophers* by Robert Heilbroner
Many on the right have tried to write something similar, but more in line with their ideological sensibilities. However, no one has been able to write an equally engaging, accessible or insightful introduction to economic thought quite like what Heilbroner accomplished.
My initial reaction to reading your list of essential works was a bit of smugness: I had actually read six of them! And I will endeavor to read the rest. However, smugness is of course the best warning sign that my head is up my ascending ego. So, a bit of reflection seemed in order.
The first thing I noticed on reflection that of those pieces I had read, I could recall none of them as having stirred major objections from my perspective, and indeed, all of them seem more or less harmonious with each other. No doubt the general view point of such a collection of work would be labeled “far right” by those who might disagree with the views of work from that general general quarter of the intellectual world. To put the far right into perspective, one needs to contrast its views with the far wrong perspective. One wonders, shouldn’t a list of essentials include at least one far wrong perspective to capture the tensions within the field and its evolution? Or are there great tensions between some of the works listed that I am simply not clued into?
The second thing I noticed was the modernity of the list. My idiosyncratic view is that ancient original works are essential to an understanding of a field.
So, thinking about this, I tried to think of one of the most important yet disruptive works that, from at
least the perspective of where I am most comfortable, succeeds in piquing my curiosity and questioning any certitudes of which I may be guilty, as well as one that might be ancient or at least incorporate the ancients. I’ve humbly settled on offering up Karl Polanyi’s essay Aristotle Discover the Economy. (https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.36501/page/64/mode/1up ) for consideration in this regard. However, my reading in this area is at best superficial and there are undoubtedly more essential readings, Henry Sidgewick? Xenophon? For that matter, what works, one wonders, might be considered as a worthy foil in opposition to the work of Dr. Kling?