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Tim Harford

Undercover Economist

Tim Harford writes the Undercover Economist column, and was previously an economics leader writer for the FT. He first joined the newspaper as Peter Martin Fellow in 2003.

Tim is the author of nine books, including the million-selling The Undercover Economist and most recently How To Make The World Add Up. He is also a regular presenter for BBC radio.

He was made an OBE in the 2019 new year honours list “for services to improving economic understanding”.

Email Tim Harford @TimHarford  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Tim Harford @TimHarford  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Friday, 1 July, 2022
    Undercover EconomistData protection
    How to save more lives and avoid a privacy apocalypse

    At the moment, we have the worst of both worlds: researchers struggle to access data yet leaks are almost inevitable

  • Friday, 24 June, 2022
    Undercover EconomistMobile devices
    Your phone’s notification settings and the meaning of life

    App developers know we’re hardwired to stick with the default option

  • Friday, 17 June, 2022
    Undercover EconomistMental health
    The high price society pays for social media

    Does social media cause depression and anxiety?

  • Friday, 10 June, 2022
    Undercover EconomistPhilosophy
    Learning how to think well involves hearts as well as minds

    Imagine a person who is hugely knowledgeable and brilliantly rational, yet falls short on virtue

  • Friday, 3 June, 2022
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Even when you do succeed, sometimes it pays to try again

    Rethinking a satisfactory formula can unlock new ideas

  • Friday, 27 May, 2022
    Undercover EconomistCharity
    Why does it feel good to do good?

    After his father died, Tim Harford asked people to consider donating. He was surprised by the response

  • Friday, 20 May, 2022
    Undercover EconomistVisual Arts
    A Warhol, a wild back-story and today’s art market

    What a little-known anecdote tells us about authorship, authenticity and even NFTs

  • Friday, 13 May, 2022
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The oil slick effect, or why we systematically overgeneralise

    We struggle to acknowledge that something can be good in some ways and bad in others

  • Friday, 6 May, 2022
    FT MagazineBehavioural economics
    What nudge theory got wrong

    Is behavioural public policy a distraction from finding systemic solutions?

  • Friday, 29 April, 2022
    Undercover EconomistUndercover Economist
    The billable hour is a trap more and more of us are falling into

    When time is money, you have to spend it wisely

  • Friday, 22 April, 2022
    Undercover EconomistUndercover Economist
    The fun way to predict the unpredictable

    How games can help us predict crises we never knew were possible

  • Friday, 15 April, 2022
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Why we have to focus on fixing the intangible economy

    The conventional wisdom that the tangible trumps the intangible these days is wrong

  • Friday, 8 April, 2022
    Undercover EconomistEconomy
    The lesson humble sea urchins offer about economic resilience

    The internet ensured pandemic resilience. But the next crisis could be different

  • Friday, 1 April, 2022
    Undercover EconomistFake news
    Five ways to fight the information war

    ‘The good news is that every one of us has been in training for it all our lives’

  • Friday, 25 March, 2022
    Undercover EconomistKickstarter Inc
    Why I won’t be launching my fantasy novels on Kickstarter

    Brandon Sanderson broke crowdfunding records, but his success has limited relevance for the rest of us

  • Saturday, 19 March, 2022
    Special ReportClimate Change for Schools
    We must pay the cost of carbon if we are to cut it

    It is hard for companies or consumers to care about carbon emissions when they are not priced into products

  • Friday, 18 March, 2022
    Undercover EconomistArtificial intelligence
    What an abusive chatbot can teach us about the art of conversation

    Complexity, context and ambiguity do not play well on social media

  • Friday, 11 March, 2022
    Undercover EconomistOffice life
    What Le Corbusier got right about office space

    When workers are empowered to shape their own space, they do better work

  • Friday, 4 March, 2022
    Undercover EconomistVladimir Putin
    Putin’s actions make no sense. That is his strength

    Russia’s president holds a weak hand, except for the one card no rational person would play

  • Friday, 25 February, 2022
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Why do some great ideas just fail to scale?

    Inside the fascinating phenomenon known as ‘voltage drop’

  • Friday, 18 February, 2022
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Why did we stop building beautiful neighbourhoods?

    Governments lack the incentive, businesses usually lack the power and ​​almost everyone seems to lack the skill

  • Friday, 11 February, 2022
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    I learnt the hard way that maintenance matters

    Fixing and looking after stuff is not high-status or sexy, but the world should take it more seriously

  • Friday, 4 February, 2022
    Undercover EconomistGlobal inflation
    Why real inflation is so hard to measure

    Scientists and bean-counters everywhere need to fill gaps in our knowledge rather than stumble into them

  • Friday, 28 January, 2022
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    How to make resolutions stick

    ‘Look for a fresh start that will last, a change of routine or context to which a new habit can be pinned’

  • Friday, 21 January, 2022
    Undercover EconomistGender pay gap
    Hard truths about the gender pay gap

    We tend to think of the disparity between men and women as a problem of fairness, but it’s also a problem of efficiency

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