Tim Harford quotes

Tim Harford is a renowned economist, journalist, and author known for his ability to make complex economic concepts accessible to a wide audience. As the author of several best-selling books, including "The Undercover Economist" and "Messy," Harford has become a trusted source of economic insight. With a background in economics from Oxford University and a knack for storytelling, he has become a sought-after speaker on topics such as decision-making, innovation, and the impact of technology on society. Follow Tim Harford for thought-provoking analysis and engaging commentary on the world of economics.

We should aim to make ours a world where people feel free to do things they enjoy, even if others are mildly inconvenienced, but also one where we all refrain from harming other people if the effort involved to avoid harming them is small.

- Tim Harford

The dictator has to keep the economy functioning in order to keep stealing from it.

- Tim Harford

It is not polite to say so, but it is obvious that paying people to be unemployed encourages unemployment. Yet, if a government scrapped unemployment benefit, there would still be jobless people, and supporting the jobless is something that every civilized society should do. The truth is that we have a trade-off: it is bad to encourage unemployment but good to support those without incomes.

- Tim Harford

If there’s a profitable deal to be done between somebody who has something unique and someone who has something which can be replaced, then the profits will go to the owner of the unique resource.

- Tim Harford

The more grotesque your boss's pay and the less he has do to earn it, the bigger the motivation for you to work with the aim of being promoted to what he has.

- Tim Harford

The most successful industry of the last forty years has been built on failure after failure after failure.

- Tim Harford