I am often asked by students in my introductory economics courses (and to a lesser extent, in upper-year courses) for recommendations of economics books, and I struggle to answer this question. The truth is that I don’t read many books about economics, for (at least) three reasons. First, economists don’t write a lot of books. Second, when economists do write books, they write them for a general audience, not for economists. Third, and less charitably, most economists just aren’t that interesting. For most economists, more space to write does not seem to be helpful.
Economics is a framework, not a set of questions, and definitely not a set of answers. When we teach economics, we teach that framework, and as a starting point, we teach the same framework everywhere. This means that essentially all economists have learned the same basic framework, that discusses utility and choice, competitive markets, externalities and comparative advantage. Backgrounds in macroeconomics are more diverse, since no one can seem to agree on anything, but even there, we have some agreement on what we are trying to measure.
This common framework explains why economists usually write articles, not books – we don’t have to explain the framework every time. In other disciplines, authors need to define an analytical framework in more detail, as one can’t assume that everyone knows what you are talking about. In economics, we can largely skip that detail, and get right to the math. Which brings me to the second point – within a mathematical structure, any variations to the framework can be defined quickly. If an author wants to assume something outside of the basic framework, it is usually transparent to state that assumption mathematically, and move forward. This all lends itself to economics being written in articles, not books. (I will post another time about articles being too long – which mostly seems to be an issue of a lack of trust in the profession.)
Instead, authors write books to give themselves the space to explain the framework within which they work. This leads to two problems. First, for an audience that has already learned that framework, this is often not very interesting. Second, (most) economists can’t concisely explain an economic framework in words – it isn’t something we are trained to do.
As a result, my book recommendations for students are limited. Before you learn any economics in a structured way, you are probably better off reading about history, geography, philosophy or politics. Once you have learned some economics, shift to reading economics articles, and when you read books, keep reading about other subjects. The one exception to this – if someone writes a book that you think that you will fundamentally disagree with, read that. See the differences between your mindset and theirs, and how it leads to differences in the answers. That is when you shift from learning about economics to learning economics.
For my students, feel free to keep asking. But don’t be surprised when I tell you that I am reading about history, politics or sports.