Steven E. Landsburg – författare

It’s one of the big questions of our time: Are there too many people in the world? Or too few?Whichever way, how would we decide? Here, economist Steven E. Landsburg, acclaimed author of The Armchair Economist and Can You Outsmart an Economist?, assesses the benefits – and the drawbacks – of having a bigger global population. The People Paradox is based on the transcript of his fascinating 2017 IEA Hayek Memorial Lecture, in which Landsburg details how the growth in the world population has brought immense improvements to our quality of life. He contends the planet still has plenty of room – and addresses continued calls for population control.Landsburg, professor of economics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, draws on everything from modern history to everyday life (including the contents of his sock drawer!) to mount a thought-provoking, powerful – and often humorous – argument for continued population growth.With a commentary by Dr Stephen Davies, Head of Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.

Steve Landsburg has been leading the pack of economists who are transforming their science from a drab meditation on graphs and charts into a fascinating window on human nature. Now he's back and more provocative than ever with surprises on virtually every page. In More Sex is Safer Sex, Professor Landsburg offers readers a series of stimulating discussions that all flow from one unsettling fact. Combining the rational decisions of each of us often produces an irrational result for all of us. Avoiding casual sex can actually encourage the spread of diseases. To solve population pressures, we need more people. In his tantalizing, entertaining narrative, Landsburg guides us through these shocking notions by the light of compelling logic and evidence and makes suggestions along the way: Why not charge juries if a convicted felon is exonerated? Why not let firemen keep the property they rescue? As entertaining as it is inflammatory, More Sex is Safer Sex, will make readers think about their decisions in unforgettable ways-and spark debate over much that we all take for granted.

Air bags cause accidents, because well-protected drivers take more risks. This well-documented truth comes as a surprise to most people, but not to economists, who have learned to take seriously the proposition that people respond to incentives. In The Armchair Economist, Steven E. Landsburg shows how the laws of economics reveal themselves in everyday experience and illuminate the entire range of human behavior. Why does popcorn cost so much at the cinema? The 'obvious' answer is that the owner has a monopoly, but if that were the whole story, there would also be a monopoly price to use the toilet. When a sudden frost destroys much of the Florida orange crop and prices skyrocket, journalists point to the 'obvious' exercise of monopoly power. Economists see just the opposite: If growers had monopoly power, they'd have raised prices before the frost. Why don't concert promoters raise ticket prices even when they are sure they will sell out months in advance? Why are some goods sold at auction and others at pre-announced prices? Why do boxes at the football sell out before the standard seats do? Why are bank buildings fancier than supermarkets? Why do corporations confer huge pensions on failed executives? Why don't firms require workers to buy their jobs? Landsburg explains why the obvious answers are wrong, reveals better answers, and illuminates the fundamental laws of human behavior along the way. This is a book of surprises: a guided tour of the familiar, filtered through a decidedly unfamiliar lens. This is economics for the sheer intellectual joy of it.

With his long-running 'Everyday Economics' column in Slate and his popular book, The Armchair Economist, Steven Landsburg has been leading the pack of economists who are transforming their science from a drab meditation on graphs and charts into a fascinating window on human nature. Now he's back and more provocative than ever with surprises on virtually every page. In More Sex is Safer Sex, Professor Landsburg offers readers a series of stimulating discussions that all flow from one unsettling fact. Combining the rational decisions of each of us often produces an irrational result for all of us. Avoiding casual sex can actually encourage the spread of diseases. To solve population pressures, we need more people. In his tantalizing, entertaining narrative, Landsburg guides us through these shocking notions by the light of compelling logic and evidence and makes suggestions along the way: Why not charge juries if a convicted felon is exonerated? Why not let firemen keep the property they rescue? As entertaining as it is inflammatory, More Sex is Safer Sexwill make readers think about their decisions in unforgettable ways -- and spark debate over much that we all take for granted.

Price Theory and Applications challenges students to master the economic way of understanding the world, with equal emphasis on intuition and precise logic, and special emphasis on the interplay between them. The writing is inviting, humorous, and sometimes folksy, without sacrificing the insistence that arguments need to be airtight. Important concepts are introduced via entertaining examples and fleshed out with rigor.The learning experience is supported by a vast number of intriguing and entertaining exhibits, examples, numerical exercises, and problem sets, some integrated within the text and others included at the end of chapters. The problems vary widely in their demands on students — some are straightforward applications of the theory, while others require a great deal of creativity and a willingness to think considerably outside the box.

Price Theory and Applications challenges students to master the economic way of understanding the world, with equal emphasis on intuition and precise logic, and special emphasis on the interplay between them. The writing is inviting, humorous, and sometimes folksy, without sacrificing the insistence that arguments need to be airtight. Important concepts are introduced via entertaining examples and fleshed out with rigor.The learning experience is supported by a vast number of intriguing and entertaining exhibits, examples, numerical exercises, and problem sets, some integrated within the text and others included at the end of chapters. The problems vary widely in their demands on students — some are straightforward applications of the theory, while others require a great deal of creativity and a willingness to think considerably outside the box.

Understanding Time and Space is an invitation to the theory of relativity for anyone who is now or has ever been an inquisitive high school student.Relativity can seem violently counterintuitive. It says that different observers can describe the world in very different ways and they can all be correct. It helps to be reminded that you've known this since childhood, when you learned that the direction you call left might be the same as the direction I call right, and we can both be correct. This book illuminates and demystifies the theory of relativity through repeated analogies to that kind of everyday experience. Dozens of drawings, analogous to the maps we all use to navigate through ordinary space, emphasize that relativity is a branch of geometry — the geometry of navigating through that more mysterious venue called spacetime.The reader is assisted by exercises sprinkled throughout, and by "dangerous curve" sections that identify and combat the most common misunderstandings.Steven Landsburg is a professor at the University of Rochester. He has published widely in mathematics, economics, physics and philosophy. His hobby is answering questions about relativity on the internet, which has taught him a lot about how to be helpful.