The Why Axis
Ratings4
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.3
Two of Forbes magazine’s “world’s most powerful economists” provide the breakthrough ideas to challenge the assumptions of human decision-making. Can economics be passionate? Can it centre on people and what really matters to them? And can it help us understand why they do what they do in everyday life? Two revolutionary economists believe it can. In The Why Axis, Uri Gneezy and John List lead us on a journey to discover the economics underlying human motivation and how to structure the incentives that can get people to move mountains. Finding the right incentive can be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but Gneezy and List have pioneered an innovative approach to zeroing in on those needles. Like other economists, they gather data and build models, but then they go much, much further, embedding themselves in our messy world—the factories, schools, communities and offices where people live, work and play. Their goal: to discover solutions to the big, difficult problems, such as the gap between rich and poor, the violence plaguing inner city schools, why people really discriminate, and whether women are really less competitive than men. Their revelatory and startling discoveries about how incentives really work are both groundbreaking and immensely practical. This research will change the way we both think about and take action on big and little problems. Anyone working in business, politics, education or philanthropy can use the approach Gneezy and List describe in The Why Axis to reach a deeper, more nuanced understanding of human behaviour and a better grasp of what motivates people and why.
Reviews with the most likes.
Very interesting discussion of experimental economics.
This book is decent. Some chapters were more interesting than others, and it really feels more like a collection of essays than a cohesive book.
I appreciate the fact that the authors are not directly prescriptive other than to say one should experiment before big decisions. Too often in “pop” econ books the author lets his/her political views dictate the economics (looking at you, George Mason economists) rather than letting the economic theory speak for itself.
I'm interested in seeing how some of the longer term work described in the book turns out, and would honestly enjoy seeing the chapters on discrimination rewritten to better reflect the current political environment.
A childishly written book, with frequent personal anecdotes by the authors to make larger economic points. They constantly prate on about “field experiments”; what other kinds are there? They also toe the liberal line from A to Z when they are supposed to be running scientific experiments. Not recommended.
