Reading and media recommendations
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Majoring in economics will give you a versatile framework for thinking rigorously about individual choices, societal outcomes, and the pros and cons of public policies. But your classroom training will stretch further if you pair it with non-academic articles, books, and podcasts about economic institutions, social policy, and the practical workings of real-world markets. Here are some to check out.
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Open-access online courses
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Podcasts and videos on economics and social policy
- Planet Money (lighter explainers, often on quirky topics)
- Today Explained (daily explanations of policy and political news)
- Throughline (historical roots of contemporary issues)
- Future Perfect (greenfield thinking about policy possibilities)
- Econimate (animated summaries of frontier research papers)
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Inactive podcasts with great back catalogues
- The Weeds (mix of recent news cycles and chronic policy issues)
- The Uncertain Hour (season-long dives into specific policy issues)
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Policy journalism, research reports, and policy briefs
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Open-access economics journals
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Major outlets for newly released working papers
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A few books by or about economists
- The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner
- Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
- Recessions and Depressions: Understanding Business Cycles by Todd Knoop
- Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
- The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
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History/urban books with deep economic insights
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
- Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon
- The Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth Jackson
- The Origins of the Urban Crisis by Thomas Sugrue