Tesco
The Inner Lives of Markets
Book

The Inner Lives of Markets

How People Shape Them – And They Shape Us

Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan
Public Affairs, 2016

Read or listen offline

  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Engaging

Recommendation

In the 21st century, markets in which competing sellers and multiple buyers meet face-to-face and haggle over prices are increasingly rare; that’s the classic free market model guided by an invisible hand. Instead, platforms like eBay are emerging in ever-increasing numbers, transforming marketplaces and replacing the invisible hand with customized interactions among participants. In this enlightening travelogue of markets and economic theories, authors Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan use a breezy, anecdotal style to illuminate how people make decisions in their day-to-day economic lives in this newly emerging world. getAbstract recommends this intriguing overview to general readers as well as to executives and investors.

Take-Aways

  • Markets allow people to assign value to goods and to obtain what they want.
  • Actual markets deviate substantially, and sometimes predictably, from theoretical models of competition that claim to produce efficiency. 
  • In theory, the free market system creates desirable outcomes, but – in reality – it often yields unwanted results.

About the Authors

Ray Fisman teaches behavioral economics at Boston University and wrote The Org and Economic Gangsters. Tim Sullivan is the editorial director of Harvard Business Review Press and also wrote The Org.

Comment on this summary or Начать обсуждение