Tim Harford at the RSA

I headed to the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts yesterday to hear Tim Harford speak on The Logic of Life. Tim’s talks in London are invariable a sell out and last night was no exception. His recent globetrotting book tour has afforded the opportunity to flesh out some of the key themes in his book and we were treated to a very entertaining and thought provoking talk.

Tim opened up by introducing us to one of the and his heroes from the book – the septuagenarian Nobel-prize winner Gary Becker, creator of a theory of rational crime and one of the leading early figures in what has come to be known as behavioural economics. There are often great problems in disentangling causation when it comes to some of the deepest economic and social problems of our age. Delinquency is clearly one of these and it turns out that much of the new evidence on criminal behaviour still has some resonance to many of Becker’s ideas – namely that many (but not all) crimes have at their core, a rational assessment by the perpetrator of the potential profits from committing a crime set against the risks from detection and punishment.

We moved from crime to speed-dating (no one in a large and distinguished audience was prepared to admit publically that they had ever participated in one!) and then to instances where people often found it difficult to engage in rational behaviour. Tim focused in particular on the misfiring of short and longer term decision making that we can identify in decisions that we make about saving for our pensions, plans to quit smoking, go on an effective diet or make marginal changes to our everyday lives to combat climate change. I liked the idea of making credible pre-commitments as an approach to overcoming myopia in our daily lives – drawing on the acclaimed work of Thomas Schelling.

Tim’s view is that Economics does have something useful to say in the policy arena and that am emerging cohort of behavioural economists - who can now access real world data on the choices and decisions that we make in our lives and who use data from randomised trials and from neurological studies – can at least add a few more pieces of the jigsaw when policy-makers are groping however tentatively towards stronger policy combinations.

The post-talk discussion raised the issue of the difference between our hard choices (many of which might ultimately be ‘hard wired’) and our preferences – often exposed to cultural influences, peer group pressures and which might be softer and more open to change that many presume. Ultimately preferences are driven by incentives, and changing incentives can lead to behavioural change even if many of use still go about our daily lives relying on comfortable ‘rules of thumb’ and driven by habitual behaviour.

The RSA offers over 150 free lectures every year and the venue (located just behind the Strand) is superb and easily accessible – here are the details of their current lecture programme. In a few weeks time, a selection of their recent events will be able to access via a video and audio podcast.

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Cocoa Prices [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Unemployment Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Collapsing Price of Carbon [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Subsidies [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Cartels [31 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Winning the War on Deforestation [5 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Videos on Productivity [17 Jan 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Can a minimum wage create jobs? [16 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Externalities from Metal Theft [2 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Biomass Subsidies and Timber Prices [30 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Economics of Deforestation [20 Dec 2011]
Prezi on Information Failures [20 Dec 2011]
Introduction to Neuroeconomics - Fusing Psychology with Economics [16 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Long Term Unemployment - A Human Story [15 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Will a Youth Jobs Subsidy Work? [30 Nov 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Asymmetric Information - Buying a Used Car [14 Nov 2011]
LSE lecture: Darwin economy [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Impulses to Change Management Models [5 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Copper prices and a copper crime wave [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Drink Driving and Government Intervention [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Sleep, Money, Happiness and Choices! [25 Sep 2011]
Personal Learning Networks in Economics Teaching [12 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
An activity for the first Economics lesson of the year! [31 Aug 2011]
Tim Harford - Trial and Error and the God Complex [17 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Glastonbury, rain, mud, abandoned tents and negative externalities. [4 Jul 2011]
Two new RSA Videos - Matthew Taylor and Tim Harford [27 Jun 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Are carbon taxes ineffective? [20 Jun 2011]
Poor Economics - Esther Duflo at the LSE [3 Jun 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
Super-cooperators and Game Theory [19 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Macro: Revealed Advantage [12 May 2011]
Review of “Adapt” by Tim Harford [9 May 2011]
Dominos Pizza turns to Behavioural Economics [5 May 2011]
Management lessons from the War in Iraq [30 Apr 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Public and Private Goods [21 Apr 2011]
Fantastic short piece on nudges and shoves! [19 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Prices [15 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Frictional Unemployment [11 Apr 2011]
RES Essay Competition - Obesity and a Fat Tax [7 Apr 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Banana Prices [1 Apr 2011]
The Power of Incentives [31 Mar 2011]
Teacher Enrichment - Developing Your Own PLN [14 Feb 2011]
Economics Q&A: Should the CAP be scrapped? [14 Feb 2011]
EU Economics: Hopes for a low carbon future in Europe [3 Feb 2011]
Adapt - Tim Harford’s new book [27 Jan 2011]
Youth Unemployment in the UK [24 Jan 2011]
Winner of the Fun Theory Competition [23 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of a period of rising world food prices [4 Jan 2011]
Trees as private and public goods [3 Jan 2011]
Behavioural Economics - Public Policy and Behavioural Change [30 Dec 2010]
Promising news on deforestation [2 Dec 2010]
Boris’s Bikes - Gearing up for Success? [30 Oct 2010]
The Acid Burns Through - Requiem for Neo Liberalism [28 Oct 2010]
The Upside of Irrationality - Dan Ariely at the LSE [27 Oct 2010]
Paul Ormerod on the Power of Networks [26 Oct 2010]
Technology is not destiny - connectivity and the human brain [25 Oct 2010]
Changing Educational Paradigms [16 Oct 2010]
Jerome Kerviel and the Principal Agent Problem [5 Oct 2010]
Who will win the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economics? [22 Sep 2010]
Economics and History - A Clash of the Titans [12 Sep 2010]
Animating the Ultimatum Game [6 Sep 2010]
Paul Ormerod on Behavioural Nudges and Networks [5 Sep 2010]
23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism [3 Sep 2010]
Inequality and the risk of financial crisis [25 Aug 2010]
Some superb journals with free access [10 Aug 2010]
Casting an eye over pop economics [23 Jul 2010]
The Upside of Irrationality [22 Jul 2010]
Questions in Behavioural Economics - Combatting obesity [30 Jun 2010]
RSA Animate - Bringing Discourse to Life [18 Jun 2010]
Recycling waste - goodbye stick, hello carrot [7 Jun 2010]
Innovation to get the British economy growing again [7 Jun 2010]
Unit 2 Macro: How can supply-side policies help in a recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Housing and the British Economy [5 Jun 2010]
Specific Supply Side policies [5 Jun 2010]
A selection of revision notes on supply side policies [1 Jun 2010]
Unit 3 Micro: Efficiency and Price Intervention in Markets [21 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - Direct and Indirect Taxation [9 May 2010]

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