From COMMENT 7:28pm

Mile-high bid to step up to a better class

Female Passenger Sleeping and Man Drinking a Drink in an Aircraft Cabin Interior ©Corbis

Auctions seem a fine way of assessing willingness to pay, writes Tim Harford

Illustration by Raymond Biesinger of a computer ©Raymond Biesinger From FT MAGAZINE 6:43pm

The Undercover Economist: The antisocial network?

Two economists have been collecting data to assess whether online friends are good for the soul. The quick answer: not really

Illustration by Raymond Biesinger of a Singer sewing machine ©Raymond Biesinger From FT MAGAZINE May 10, 2013

Undercover Economist: Patently a stitch-up

Are smartphone patents helping innovation - or strangling it?

From COMMENT May 10, 2013

Proof that leaders need to look the part

We expect successful people to be attractive, writes Tim Harford

Illustration by Raymond Biesinger of a man with a cane and a pushcart ©Raymond Biesinger From FT MAGAZINE May 3, 2013

The Undercover Economist: A hire truth

New research shows with horrible clarity what a wretched trap long-term unemployment is becoming

Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers are pictured at the scene after an eight-storey building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka ©AFP From COMMENT May 3, 2013

Boycotts will not help Bangladesh’s poor

Human cost of an embargo would be higher than the recent factory collapse, says Tim Harford

From COMMENT Apr 26, 2013

Strange designs on an engine of growth

The UK minister responsible for the arts hopes cake can rescue a crumbling economy, writes Tim Harford

Illustration by Raymond Biesinger of a school building ©Raymond Biesinger From FT MAGAZINE Apr 26, 2013

Undercover Economist: An evidence revolution

Teachers are better placed than anybody to generate new research questions, based on years of observation of subtleties that would escape any educational statistician

Home extension ©Dreamstime From COMMENT Apr 19, 2013

Fine for my backyard, not my neighbour’s

Perhaps we should simply scrap planning permission altogether, writes Tim Harford

Illustration by Raymond Biesinger of a typewriter ©Raymond Biesinger From FT MAGAZINE Apr 19, 2013

Undercover Economist: A lesson in letter-writing

New research by the Financial Conduct Authority shows how simple, low-cost research can yield substantial gains

From FT MAGAZINE Apr 12, 2013

Undercover Economist: Microjobs

A new company aims to pair the least-skilled and most excluded workers with jobs that need doing on a more industrial scale

From COMMENT Apr 12, 2013

The ins and outs of organ donation

If we automatically put people on the donor register we’d presumably see more transplants

From FT MAGAZINE Apr 5, 2013

Finance offers rich pickings for scientists

Should we feel queasy about the growth of abstract, deeply technical thinking in finance?

From COMMENT Apr 5, 2013

In no one we trust: the digital dollar’s rise

The Bitcoin bubble is a modern tulip mania but without the pretty flowers, writes Chris Cook

From FT MAGAZINE Mar 29, 2013

What Oxbridge can learn from YouTube

The British educational establishment should ignore online open courses at its peril

From COMMENT Mar 22, 2013

Statistical tomfoolery spins in Treasury

Osborne has hurled himself down the slippery slope, writes Tim Harford

From FT MAGAZINE Mar 22, 2013

Undercover economist: Geoengineering, a monster of our own making?

The core case against the science is a radical uncertainty about its consequences but it would likewise be irresponsible to turn our backs on it

From COMMENT Mar 20, 2013

Five ways to fix the Budget joke

Chancellor could start by scrapping national insurance

From FT MAGAZINE Mar 15, 2013

A hateful abuse of algorithms

Putting the blame on badly supervised computers for releasing offensive products is not much of an excuse

From COMMENT Mar 15, 2013

Chinese takeaway leaves Britain hungry

The economy needs more than a pot noodle factory, writes Tim Harford

ABOUT TIM

Tim HarfordTim Harford is economics leader writer for the Financial Times and writes the “Undercover Economist” columns on Saturdays. He first joined the FT as Peter Martin Fellow in 2003 and after a spell at the World Bank in Washington DC he rejoined the FT’s leader writing team in 2006.

Tim’s book, The Undercover Economist, is a Business Week bestseller and a Sunday Times bestseller, and was number one on Amazon.co.uk. It has been translated into sixteen languages. He is now working on a sequel.

Tim is also the presenter of the BBC2 series, Trust Me, I’m an Economist.

E-mail Tim Harford

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