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RELEASED TODAY: My first book, Economics In One Virus, is officially released! It is an introduction to economics through the case study of the pandemic—my attempt to use the dreadful events of the past year to introduce readers to economic ideas.
You can purchase it at the Cato Store: https://www.cato.org/books/economics-one-virus?queryID=41f0db9c088afce022636fc76d02f245 But, of course, it’s also available at Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Virus-Introduction-Reasoning/dp/1952223067/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1607445189&refinements=p_27%3ARyan+A.+Bourne&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Ryan+A.+Bourne and Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Economics-One-Virus-Introduction-Reasoning/dp/1952223067 albeit with a delay due to a printing stoppage. Kindle should be available now.
Why should you buy it? It should be useful for 1) those uninitiated in economics but intrigued by the past year’s events; 2) students of the subject looking to see economics applied during the pandemic; and 3) those seeking answers to the question “what went wrong?”
Don’t take my word for it on why you should be interested. The great @tylercowen read and concluded it was: "A truly excellent book that explains where our pandemic response went wrong, and how we can understand those failings using the tools of economics."
The Grumpy Economist @JohnHCochrane called it "A clear, compelling, and well-written book.” The Undercover Economist @TimHarford said it was a "smart, wide-ranging and admirably clear introduction to the power of economics in the context of the defining crisis of our age.”
My heroine @DeirdreMcClosk called it a “graceful, humane, and page-turning book” that “should be read by every alert citizen.” It has also received nice endorsements from other must-read commentators on the pandemic, such as @SteveDavies365, @joshgans, and @asymmetricinfo.
The book is neither “here’s what perfect policy would have looked like,” nor a full retrospective. Instead it tries to conceptualize certain pandemic decisions in an economic framework, providing readers with the building blocks for their own analysis of this mad year.
To the extent it evaluates policy, then, it does so by highlighting where policymakers erred in their underlying thinking, according to principles economists take for granted. It tries to be fun, talking through lockdowns, sanitizer shortages, mask mandates, FDA regs, and more.
In today’s (UK) Times @dsmitheconomics writes about one section of the book: my analysis of how to think about the costs and benefits of lockdowns and some of the effects of trying to turn an economy off and on: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-do-we-count-cost-of-switching-the-economy-off-and-on-again-n9v28c3nd
Across 16 chapters it uses other examples to introduce readers to economic welfare, externalities, the VSL, moral hazard, endogeneity problems, public choice issues, regulatory trade-offs, the price mechanism, trade and specialization, and much else.
Intrigued? To coincide with its launch we have a great event TOMORROW: Economics in One Virus: What Have We Learned? with me chairing the pandemic all-stars: @asymmetricinfo, @JohnHCochrane and @ATabarrok. Register here: https://www.cato.org/events/economics-one-virus-what-have-we-learned
You can also get a sense of some of themes from my appearance on @CatoPodcast with the man with the silky voice, @cobrown. https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-daily-podcast/economics-one-virus-introduction-economic-reasoning-through-covid-19?queryID=dffc05d6b8a6b81230792b5a30fb5266 And my pre-recorded appearance with @SteveDavies365 @iealondon: Though there is so much more in the book!
We are going to be running a few giveaway competitions, including on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20877033.Ryan_A_Bourne, here on Twitter, and over on Facebook. Buy it, of course, but also watch out and enter to win a copy too and help spread the word!
Given the sheer pervasiveness of the pandemic, this book is far from the last word on the economic phenomena associated with this crisis. But I am convinced the pandemic is an excellent opportunity to teach economics, and economics is crucial to evaluating the events.
I’m happy to engage with teachers, educators, and academics about the book, auxiliary materials, how we can build other products from it etc. Also will sound off about aspects of it at any time, and if you want to review for a media outlet, reach out to me for copy.
If you do read it, I would love your feedback. Whether you endorse its content, or even if you disagree profoundly, please blog about it, review it, rate it on Amazon or Goodreads, talk about it, tweet about it ( #EconInOneVirus) or Facebook about it!
And if you are on @Clubhouse, come to an unofficial, very informal mini-book launch today at 4.30pm Eastern/9.30pm UK time with my chums @s8mb and @ollywiseman!
Opportunity to win a signed copy of the book on Facebook! All you have to do is share the post. https://www.facebook.com/CatoInstitute/photos/a.483297729076/10158169623029077
Things you love to see: “#1 New Release in Political Economy.”
Great to make @tylercowen’s reading list today: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/04/what-ive-been-reading-189.html “it is a much better and more integrated and science-based account than what you might find from other groups, whether libertarian or non-libertarian.” #EconInOneVirus
Very happy with this endorsement from the great @aedmans https://twitter.com/aedmans/status/1382319295372398605
Another great endorsement from @caseybmulligan, whose work we can all learn a great deal from. On COVID-19, he deeply informed my thinking on how one might set up a cost-benefit analysis for lockdowns. https://twitter.com/caseybmulligan/status/1382741165401866248?s=20
I appeared on @FreeThoughtsPod to talk about the book recently with @ARossP and @TCBurrus https://twitter.com/libertarianism/status/1387148397237481479
And we had a great launch event with @ATabarrok, @asymmetricinfo and @JohnHCochrane to discuss a whole bunch of economic issues pertaining to the pandemic. https://www.cato.org/events/economics-one-virus-what-have-we-learned
And the great @DouglasCarswell interviewed me about the book for @mspolicy! https://www.cato.org/multimedia/media-highlights-tv/ryan-bourne-discusses-book-economics-one-virus-introduction-0
A nice plug from the great @NateSilver538 too, whose own observations about the role of the FDA, CDC, public health officials, and the interdisciplinary nature/implications of this crisis have been on point. https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1381787939139690498
But, for me, there’s really nothing more gratifying than receiving this sort of review from someone you didn’t know before. https://twitter.com/Wyman856/status/1381672976488144896
The opportunities to use economics to explain phenomena in the pandemic are legion. @jmhorp is one of the best at doing so! https://twitter.com/jmhorp/status/1379842209147682818
Off the back of the book, I’ve also done some fun media hits, including CNBC’s Power Lunch to talk about labor market stresses and strains. https://www.cato.org/multimedia/media-highlights-tv/ryan-bourne-discusses-march-jobs-report-cnbcs-power-lunch
Oh, and I appeared on @ASI’s The Pin Factory with @matthewlesh, @DanielPryorr to talk about the book and football... https://thepinfactory.podbean.com/e/economics-in-one-virus-european-super-league-100-days-of-biden/
And a lot of the things I write about in the book keep cropping up in contemporary debates. For example, I write in a bit of detail about the UI benefit levels discussion, which is red hot today. See this thread. https://twitter.com/MrRBourne/status/1390673211289972743?s=20
