19 books to read before doing your PhD in Economics

Suppose a young person is going to start a PhD in economics. What essential readings would you recommend prior to this?

In my opinion, the PhD in economics involves a heavy emphasis on tools. But the story isn’t told, about why we are building these tools. The intuition isn’t built, about the world out there that we seek to model. I always joke that economics students who are clueless about reality are like a child studying projectile motion without having ever thrown something into the air.

[caption id=“attachment_12392” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A doctoral degree in Economics needs a strong base of knowledge. Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters”]  [/caption]

So I thought it’s useful to pick a set of books that touch on the great themes of the world, often going into troublesome terrain that the models aren’t very good at, so as to lay a foundation of background knowledge and historical knowledge which can pave the way to usefully assimilating what’s taught in the economics PhD. Of course, they should be books that are fun to read and un-putdownable.

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Here’s my suggested compact checklist of books worth reading. Please do suggest books, and disagree with this list, in the comments to this post.

The evolution of cooperation, by Robert M. Axelrod

Good capitalism, bad capitalism, and the economics of growth and prosperity by William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan and Carl J. Schramm

A splendid exchange: How trade shaped the world by William J. Bernstein

88The elusive quest for growth by William Russell Easterly

Invisible engines: How software platforms drive innovation and transform industries by David S. Evans, Andrei Hagiu and Richard Schmalensee

The ascent of money by Niall Ferguson

Economic gangsters: Corruption, violence and the poverty of nations by Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel

Capitalism and freedom by Milton Friedman

The great crash of 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith

The age of uncertainty by John Kenneth Galbraith

Exit, voice, loyalty by Albert O. Hirschman

Development, geography and economic theory by Paul Krugman

More money than God: Hedge funds and the making of a new elite by Sebastian Mallaby

Reinventing the bazaar: A natural history of markets by John McMillan

Readings in applied microeconomics: The power of the market edited by Craig Newmark

From the corn laws to free trade: Interests, ideas and institutions in historical perspective by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

Seeing like a State by James C. Scott

The company of strangers by Paul Seabright

Information rules: A strategic guide to the network economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian