Economy and business are the two main components of human activity that cannot exist without each other. Competent financial management, studying the world economy and the market - all this is a guarantee of successful business. You can get all the information you need from books on economics. This includes theory for beginner economists, and macroeconomics, microeconomics, international economics. You will find answers to any questions that will help you move forward, take your business to a higher level.

Economics is taught in any educational institution, and for a reason. You need to be able to manage your finances, invest in promising business, open and develop your own business. A person must be educated comprehensively, then he can rightfully be considered successful. Books on the economic system, about finance are also suitable for students and schoolchildren. Experts in an accessible and understandable language talk about the basics of the theory of economics and finance, about the world economy and why everyone should know this information.

On our site you can download and read online for free and without registration e-books on economic activity in epub, fb2, pdf, rtf, txt formats. Here you will find the best literature on the theory of economics, for beginners, about macroeconomics and microeconomics, as well as interesting facts from history. We offer both modern books and popular editions of past years. You will gain useful knowledge about the organization of the economy in enterprises, starting your own business, investing, and also begin to distribute your budget more competently.

Good books are the key to obtaining the knowledge necessary for a full and productive life and work. Our library contains the best literature on economics from well-known practitioners and theorists from all over the world. If you are just beginning to study the economic system and want to understand the essence of this science, then you will like books for beginners.

All literature on the site is divided into lists by areas, which will allow you to quickly find the publication you need. Here you will find such books on economics:

• market economy;
• enterprise economy. There are many companies of different sizes in our country today, and many are interested in how their activities are organized, what processes are carried out inside and outside, how finances are distributed and what the main emphasis is on;
• international economy. It will be interesting for you to learn about the model of the economic system in different countries, its pros and cons, and what would be useful for our country or even your company to adopt.

The economy is the main component of our life. We face it every day: it is the economy of our family, and the microeconomics of an enterprise or business, and the macroeconomics of the world market. To understand all the mechanisms and nuances of this science, you need to study special literature. Such information will be useful not only for those who are connected by occupation with the economic system, but also for everyone who wants to manage their budget, make money work for themselves, and not vice versa.

We are taught to read books from childhood. It is important to be interested in all aspects of life and to study literature that is not only interesting to you, but also very useful for a prosperous and successful life. For self-development, books on economics are best suited.

The lists of books on economics presented on our portal are divided into directions to facilitate the search for information you need. Here you can read online or download free literature from leading gurus in economics and finance. Books are presented in different formats, which will allow them to be read on any gadget.

Economics is a serious subject, which is not worth studying according to popular publications. To understand the basics of economics and its relationship with politics, to improve your level of financial literacy, read books by reputable authors.

To better understand the various processes that take place in the economy, to understand their relationship with political events, to increase your own literacy and broaden your horizons in the field of business and finance, you need to turn to good books.

If you have the appropriate education, then you are even a little familiar with some of them, while others were written just recently, which means that they are conducting research on our modernity, so they are also worth getting to know.

What books can be singled out among the best in the field of economics?

1. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The author of the book is rightfully considered a kind of "father" of classical political economy. His work was written more than 230 years ago, but, nevertheless, his thoughts are still quite relevant to this day. A. Smith studied, systematized and generalized the important ideas and thoughts of his contemporaries, developed a system of certain categories, principles and methods of economics as a science and had a truly decisive influence directly on its development not only in Great Britain, where he lived, but also in other large and small countries, including Russia. This book is a must read for any literate and educated person.

2. "Capital" by Karl Marx

This multi-volume book literally revolutionized nineteenth-century economics, since its famous author approached the analysis of capitalism quite critically. Based on the ideas of the pillars of economic science A. Smith and D. Ricardo, K. Marx explained in his own way some economic categories, including the process of surplus value formation, which his predecessors did not succeed in doing.

It is also noteworthy that practically all the main categories of economics as a science were confirmed by K. Marx with interesting historical examples, which makes his colossal work even more valuable not only from the point of view of theoretical and applied economics, but also in general philosophical and human terms.

3. Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman

The author of the book is a famous Nobel Prize winner in economics, the largest and most famous economist of the distant post-war era, and his “Capitalism and Freedom” is a truly colossal and significant work in the field of political economy of the twentieth century. Milton Friedman identified and described a number of postulates that later became literally the foundation on which most of any liberal reforms in various countries of the modern world are based. This book can be safely and absolutely definitely put in a number of those that it is desirable to read to everyone without exception.

4. Economic Thinking by Paul Heine, Peter Bouttke and David Prychitko

To date, this book is indeed one of the most competent and popular introductory courses in the theory of economics. The authors explain all the basic concepts using the most elementary examples. The reader will easily understand the essence of such categories as supply, demand, the nature of money, monopoly, competition, exchange and efficiency, unemployment, employment and comparative advantage.

A comprehensive analysis of the most diverse systems of the economy, which the authors were not too lazy to make, helps readers to determine exactly what is the role of an individual state in our society, what are the reasons for the poverty or wealth of different peoples. Would you like to know what is the meaning of economics as a science of peculiar choices, as well as some of the unintended results of such choices? What about understanding the role of the market as a coordinating process? Then be sure to read this book.

5. "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" by John Maynard Keynes

The author of the book is a major specialist in the history of economic thought, therefore his work is of great interest both for narrow specialists and for the most ordinary people who are engaged in economic self-education.

At one time, the content of the book was truly revolutionary, and the practical conclusions that the author made made it a leader among other books on economics. Keynes gives his own definition of market relations and interprets the methods of analysis of economic theory in his own way, which allowed him to have the most serious impact on the economy of the twentieth century.

6. The Great Lie by Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is the most famous contemporary economist who has studied the economic and political events of recent decades in their direct relationship. In his book, he writes about common American problems and suggests typical American ways of correcting the situation.

7. “Positive irrationality. How to capitalize on your illogical actions by Dan Ariely

Some people do incomprehensible, and sometimes quite strange things, not only in the economy, but also in other spheres and areas of life, and Dan Ariely explores them with pleasure. The narration is conducted in a simple and accessible language, telling readers about the mass of experiments in an unusual field - behavioral economics, and about unexpected conclusions, where your own illogical behavior can really lead you.

In addition, you will also learn in what cases incentive bonuses can significantly worsen the result in the future, how to make even the most beloved work worthless and why we will never be able to get used to some things. All in all, this is a truly wonderful book for those who seek to improve themselves and constantly learn new things about some hidden forces that influence behavior, which in later life will help make the right and more fruitful decisions.

8 Super Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner

This book is a continuation of a similar bestseller by the same authors. And it is interesting because, after reading it, you will learn a rather unexpected and even non-standard interpretation of some non-obvious facts by unusual economists. The book is really provocative and shocking, but at the same time very serious. Its authors were able to discover quite logical and even natural economic mechanisms in the basis of some phenomena.

9. Economics for Dummies by Sean Masaki Flynn

If you want to briefly and at the same time quite clearly and intelligibly get explanations of various economic patterns and phenomena, then this book is exactly what you need. The author explains in an accessible language the essence of all the basic concepts of economic theory, so you yourself will quickly and easily understand all the important economic concepts that relate not only to the general development of the economy, but also directly to the well-being of each person.

• price stability;
• the absence of certain trade barriers;
• lack of direct direct control over prices;
• fierce competition;
• absolutely clear formulation of property rights.

10. "Sonin.ru: Economic Lessons" by Konstantin Sonin

The bestseller of a well-known Russian economist, who is widely known in our country and far beyond its borders. In fact, this is not just an ordinary trivial book, but a truly unusual guide to all the boring and dry areas of economics as a science. After reading it, you will say goodbye to the old stereotype that imposed on this colossal science the interpretation of a certain set of rules and formulas that are practically of little use in real life.

And, oddly enough, it is economists who will help you understand some of the paradoxes of our life, namely:

• why during a penalty kick the goalkeeper throws himself into a completely different corner;
• how the famous war between Great Britain and France led to the invention of port;
• whether the "Solomonic decision" is really the pinnacle of wisdom;
• why build a gas pipeline if there is no gas.

Are you intrigued? After reading this book, you will be able to understand that serious economists are not necessarily boring bespectacled people, on the contrary, they are very cheerful and diversified people, and their professional interest necessarily affects everything that happens around them.

How does business success depend on belief in black swans? What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? What is the connection between the decline in crime in the US in the mid-nineties and the legalization of abortion in the mid-seventies? How can answers to these questions help us understand how the world economy works? About this - in the review of popular science bestsellers on economics.

The success of a business depends on whether you believe in black swans or always try to ignore them - the Lebanese American, mathematician, trader and star lecturer Nassim Nicholas Taleb is convinced of this. About the power of black swans, that is, unlikely events like 9/11 (the scale of which is immeasurable and which, after time, can be mistaken for predictable), was Taleb's first book, Fooled by Chance. About these alleged accidents - and the super bestseller "Black Swan", translated into 27 languages ​​of the world.

What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers continue to live with their parents? What is the connection between the decline in crime in the US in the mid-nineties and the legalization of abortion in the mid-seventies? A bestseller by young University of Chicago economics professor Steven Levitt and New Yorker journalist Steven Dubner tries to answer these, and many more unusual questions like them, in a succinct and witty way. What is the relationship with the economy? It is about what and how to do it, and freakonomics is about why to do it and why it is so. By the way, the 2005 book has already had a sequel - "Superfriconomics".

"In Defense of the Defenseless" - such an original title has a book by the American philosopher and economist Walter Block. There is a suspicion that the past 30 years from the moment it was written until the translation into Russian is unlikely to have significantly changed the reader's reaction to this book. More precisely, on its main idea, which contradicts the stereotypical view of it by both economists and sociologists, politicians, lawyers, psychologists, and the rest of the majority of people. In his 300-page text, Blok argues that the free market economy exists not only through "decent" industries like oil and air travel, but also through "economic scapegoats" that include prostitutes, strikebreakers, blackmailers, loan sharks, drug dealers. Of course, Blok emphasizes, they are not saints, but deliberately ignoring their contribution to the economy is hypocrisy.

“My goal in this book is to help you see the world through the eyes of an economist,” says Tim Harford right off the bat, addressing a potential reader directly. But this winning technique betrays in the 32-year-old (at the time of the book's publication) resident of London not only a professional journalist (Harford is a columnist in the Financial Times and programs on the BBC), but also a talented freakonomist. Harford deftly juggles answers to all sorts of questions, from why China is a rich country and Cameroon is not, to why Starbucks cappuccino is so outrageously expensive. In general, this is such a simplified version of the textbook on microeconomics for those who did not take this subject at the university.

The name of the Canadian sociologist and writer Naomi Klein sounded back at the beginning of the 2000s, when her first book No logo was published, which formally she was enlightened by global trade brands. If you know that Klein is one of the activists of alterglobalism (a political movement for alternative ways of globalization), then it immediately becomes clear that she is digging deeper. Its main idea is that the main consequences of globalization and the modern economic world order (the model of the American market economy, “shock therapy” for supposedly restoring order in a particular country) are that peoples and states do not have any free choice. Everything is decided by money: Klein picked up the most convincing and clear evidence for this banal phrase.

1. Acemoglu D., Robinson J.A. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Business, 2012.

Russian translation: Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson. Why are some countries rich and others poor? The origin of power, prosperity and poverty. M.: AST, 2015.

The most important book on economics of our century. The authors talk about how exactly economic and political institutions affect economic growth, where economic institutions come from and apply the institutional approach to the analysis of almost all known episodes of economic history.

2. Easterly W. The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. MIT Press, 2001.

Russian translation: William Easterly. Looking for growth. Adventures and misadventures of economists in the tropics. Moscow: Institute for Complex Strategic Studies, 2006.

A book by one of the leading researchers in economic development, which discusses the history of attempts to help developing countries, and the history of development economics, and the current (2001!) understanding of exactly what problems need to be solved in order to help poor countries become rich.

3. Piketty T. Le Capital au XXIe siècle. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2013.

Russian translation: Thomas Piketty. Capital in the XXI century. Moscow: Ad marginem, 2014.

This is a very important, albeit controversial, book. She talks about rising inequality in developed countries and offers a number of solutions (many of which remain unknown to the general public, since not everyone reads up to page 600).

4. Alesina A., Giavazzi F. Il Liberismo e di Sinistra. Milano: Il Saggiatore, 2007. [∗]

Russian translation: Alberto Alesina, Francesco Javazzi. Liberalism is a leftist idea. Moscow: United Press, 2011.

Liberalism is a Left Idea is a unique book written by the leading Italian economists Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi in Italian and for Italians. But this book is extremely relevant for Russia as well. The fact is that the myths and stereotypes about socio-economic policy that the authors expose (sometimes deliberately spread by lobbyists interested in maintaining the status quo) are characteristic not only of Berlusconi's Italy, but also of modern Russia. The main pathos of the book is that the exposure of these myths is in the interests of those who, not in words, but in deeds, care about the needs of the poor strata of society. This book is about the fact that economists are not fighters for "the rich get richer." A real economist tries to explain to the public that the left must defend meritocracy, competition, flexible labor and capital markets, a balanced budget, and the exit of the state from the economy. Unless, of course, these are real leftists, interested not in “there are no rich”, but in “there are no poor”.

5. Rodrik D. Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2015.

Russian translation: Dani Rodrik. Economics Decides: The Strength and Weakness of "Gloomy Science" Moscow: Gaidar Institute, 2016.

Rodrik, one of the most honest modern economists, discusses the achievements and problems of economic science. This is a frank talk about how to use economic models. Although Rodrik criticizes the "economic mainstream", he also says that modern economics is the most powerful tool for analyzing social, economic and political problems - it is only necessary to understand the possibilities and limitations of economic models well.

6. Zingales L. A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity. New York: Basic Books, 2012.

Russian translation: Luigi Zingales. Capitalism for the people. Liberal revolution against a corrupt economy. Moscow: Gaidar Institute, 2016.

The book is devoted to the analysis of the problems of the modern American model of capitalism. Zingales says that the market economy not only creates wealth, but also equalizes opportunities. However, this mechanism only works as long as corrupt politicians and journalists, together with influential super-rich oligarchs, seize power and change the rules of the game in their favor. Zingales also writes about what exactly does not work in today's American model, and how to change it.

7. Cowen T. Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. New York: Dutton Adult, 2013.

Russian translation: Tyler Cowan. The average is no longer given: How to get out of the era of the Great Stagnation. Moscow: Gaidar Institute, 2015.

One of the most famous academic bloggers has written a wonderful book about the objective causes of rising inequality - technological progress and globalization. This is one of the first popular discussions of the phenomenon of job polarization, the consequence of which is the growth of political populism in developed countries.

8. Schiller R. Finance and the Good Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.

Russian translation: Robert Schiller. Finance and good society. Moscow: Gaidar Institute, 2014.

Nobel laureate Robert Shiller won wide acclaim for investigating the emergence of bubbles in US equity and real estate markets - and predicting the 2008 financial crisis. In this regard, he is often considered a critic of the modern financial system. In fact, Schiller is one of the biggest enthusiasts of financial development. In this book, he writes about how financial development can help solve a number of problems in modern society - and about how exactly the financial system should be arranged in order to solve, not create problems.

9. Angrist J.D., Pischke J.-S. Mastering Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.

This book talks about the statistical tools of modern economics in an understandable language. Contrary to popular belief, economists are no longer limited to multivariate regressions - which only reveal correlations, not causation. The modern econometric methods described in this book and used by all economic scientists in the last ten to fifteen years are much more convincing solutions to the problem of determining cause and effect.

10. Akerlof G.A., Schiller R.J. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy. Princeton: Princeton Unversity Press, 2009. [∗]

Russian translation: George Akerlof, Robert Schiller. Spiritus Animalis, or How Human Psychology Governs the Economy and Why It Matters for World Capitalism. Moscow: Alpina Business Books, 2010.

This book debunks the myth that "mainstream" economists do not take into account the psychology of human behavior in macroeconomic models. Akerlof and Schiller are the very establishment of economic science. Akerlof is a Nobel Prize winner, whose work is known to every undergraduate and graduate student, and Schiller is a professor at Yale University and also a Nobel laureate. They directed the Behavioral Macroeconomics research program at the National Bureau of Economic Research for many years. This book is devoted to behavioral macroeconomics. The authors consider several well-studied patterns in the psychology of investor behavior - and the implications of these patterns for understanding macroeconomic processes. For example, without any formulas and tables, they show how ordinary self-confidence and herd behavior lead to bubbles and crises. This book is useful for anyone who wants to understand the psychological factors that determine the rise and fall of financial markets and the economy as a whole.

Our list is divided into three parts. The first contains books that will help you understand what economists do and what is interesting in their work. The second contains important educational literature in economics that will help you pass the entrance exam to the master's program at the European University. All the books mentioned below (as well as, in principle, any books on economics) should be read in the original. Finally, the third part of the list includes textbooks and problem books on higher mathematics, the basic knowledge of which we require from applicants: in order to engage in economics at the international level - for example, as an analyst in a consulting agency, an econometrician in a bank or a scientist at a university, - in addition to a basic understanding of how the world around us works, you also need to feel confident in higher mathematics.

Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson. Why are some countries rich and others poor?
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. "Why Nations Fail"

When asked about the reasons for the wealth of some peoples (which was asked in his opus magnum by Adam Smith Adam Smith(1723-1790) - Scottish economist, considered the founder of economics as a science, the author of the fundamental work for classical political economy "Studies on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776).) has not yet received a definitive answer. Moreover, the diverse examples of "economic miracles" (Singapore, Taiwan, Japan) and "economic disasters" (Argentina, Zimbabwe, Greece) of the 20th century call into question the existence of a single answer that would be true for all countries.

Two well-known American economists in their book carefully analyze almost all factors that can influence the economic development of countries (in particular, geographical location, availability of natural resources, cultural characteristics), and offer their answer. According to Acemoglu and Robinson, the prosperity or poverty of countries is determined by economic and political institutions - the "rules of the game" in the interaction between government and society.

This serious work, based on many studies and scientific articles by the authors themselves, is very popular and easily written and designed for the general reader.

Sylvia Nazar. “The path to a great goal. History of one economic idea»
Sylvia Nasar. "Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius"

Columbia University business journalism professor Sylvia Nazar is best known for her book A Beautiful Mind. The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash” (“A Beautiful Mind. The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash”), in which the biography of mathematician and economist John Forbes Nash was told in parallel with a fairly accurate presentation of his scientific research - and according to which was filmed the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind. In his next book, Nazar tackles an even more difficult task - to show the development of economics during the 19th and 20th centuries through the prism of the biographies and views of prominent economists (from Alfred Marshall Alfred Marshall(1842-1924) - English economist, one of the most influential economists of the late XIX - early XX century, in fact, the founder of the neoclassical trend in economics. One of the most famous and beautiful economic images is named after him: the graph of the intersection of supply and demand curves, the Marshall Cross. and Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Schumpeter(1883-1950) Austrian-born American economist and political scientist, Austrian finance minister after World War I. Schumpeter made a significant contribution to the study of economic history and the mechanisms of economic development, significantly influencing the entire modern theory of economic growth. to Milton Friedman Milton Friedman(1912-2006) was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics "for his achievements in the analysis of consumption, the history of money circulation, and the development of monetary theory, and for his practical demonstration of the complexity of economic stabilization policies." The creator of the theory of monetarism, which suggests that the most important influence on real macroeconomic variables, such as GDP or inflation, is exerted by changes in the money supply. and Paul Samuelson Paul Samuelson(1915-2009) was an American economist who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970 "for his scientific work which has developed static and dynamic economic theory and contributed to raising the general level of analysis in the field of economic science." Samuelson, author of the best-selling economics textbook of all time, Economics: An Introductory Analysis, has been called the "Father of Modern Economics," and rightly so.). From this highly entertaining, though not controversial, account of how economic theories promote economic development, one can learn how thorny the road to the great goal of transforming the lives of all people on the planet for the better.

Terry Pratchett. "Making Money"
Terry Pratchett. "Make money"

This is not an economic work, but a fantasy novel from the Discworld series, but in between it raises the question of what money is, to which economists still do not know a definite answer.

Pratchett's novel, firstly, plays on a real-life hydraulic model of the economy: his hero is the creator of Bulker, a computer that is a model of the national economy:

“... The flow of cash flows, their impact on society are modeled by water flows inside a glass matrix, which is Bulker. The geometric shape of the tubes, the operation of the valves, the ingenious, as I call them, pipettes and carefully calibrated pumps allow Bulker to imitate the most complex transactions. In addition, we can vary the initial conditions widely in order to explore the inherent properties of the system. For example, with the help of "Bulker" you can find out what will happen if the city's labor force is halved. To do this, it is enough to readjust a few valves, instead of running out into the street and killing people.”

Irving Fisher built mechanisms that reproduced real economies and in which the role of cash flow was played by the flow of water at the end of the 19th century. Irving Fisher(1867-1947) American economist, statistician and inventor. Fischer left a mark in almost all areas of economic science - he successfully dealt with mathematical economics, international economics, theories of money, and was one of the first econometricians in the modern sense of the word., and the hydraulic computer MONIAC ​​by Alban William Phillips was most famous Alban William Phillips(1914-1975) New Zealand-born English economist. In addition to building the hydraulic economic computer MONIAC, he became famous as the author of the "Phillips Curve", which displays a negative relationship between unemployment and inflation (a decrease in unemployment correlates with high inflation)., modeling the British economy. In addition, the novel perfectly illustrates some of the provisions of different theories of money, as well as diametrically opposed ideas about what money is. All in all, this book is worth reading, even if you haven't heard of Discworld. It has not yet been officially published in Russian, but amateur translations can be found on the Internet.

Tim Harford. "Undercover Economist"
Tim Harford. "The Undercover Economist"

As rightly noted in one of the reviews, this book is a bright representative of the works from the series “not boring about serious” and “just about complex”. Harford explains many important economic ideas in an entertaining and accessible way, using phenomena that everyone encounters in everyday life as a starting point for his observations. Thus, using the example of the price of a cup of coffee, it is discussed how and what in a real economy is affected by limited resources (and very different types of resources - the price of a cup of coffee is last determined by the price of coffee beans and the work of a barista), and a simple trip to the supermarket shows how in practice, price discrimination of buyers is carried out - and this is not always bad, as one might think, if we proceed only from the term.

In this book, you will learn what information the price of a product contains and how to properly dispose of it, what can happen if the seller and buyer have different information, how auction theory works, and why the US government bailed out 100 times at an auction for the sale of mobile licenses less than planned, and the British government managed to bail out 10 times more than it expected, and much more. By the way, in 2014 this book had an equally exciting sequel: “The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. How to Build — or Ruin — an Economy” (“The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run — or Ruin — an Economy”).

Ha-joon Chang. "How the economy works"
Ha-joon Chang. Economics: The User's Guide

In his previous book, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, Ha-Jun Chang, professor of economics at Cambridge, explains that 95% of economics is common sense. . This book is written from the same positions: it briefly and very clearly outlines the stages of development of capitalism (from 1500 to the present day), discusses the main concepts and terms that economists use (gross domestic product and gross national product, sustainable economic growth, unemployment, inequality and poverty), describes the features of various schools of economic thought (from Austrian and Marxist to neoclassical and Keynesian The difference between economic schools is clearly expressed (but, of course, far from being exhausted) in their recommendations in the conduct of economic policy. Apologists of the Austrian school argue that there should be no government intervention in the economy and that the best solution is a free market. The Marxist school advocates fully centralized planning and a planned economy. The neoclassical school recognizes that there are both market failures and state failures, and therefore allow interference in the work of the free market only on the condition that the benefits of government regulation outweigh the possible harm. The Keynesian school insists on active government intervention in the economy, an active fiscal policy (especially in times of crisis) and the redistribution of income in favor of the poor.), and also analyzes the role of the state and the market in the economy. This book can be an excellent starting point for the study of economics, an addition to any textbook on macroeconomics or a reference book on the history of economic thought.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb. "Black Swan. Under the sign of unpredictability »
Nassim Nicholas Taleb. "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable"

The advice to read The Black Swan, a world bestseller with over 3 million copies sold, is hardly original. Taleb, an erudite generalist and former trader, turned out to be a very fortunate author because he caught the moment correctly: he attacked economists and orthodox financiers who think of the world in simplistic terms in 2007, when the financial market was on the verge of its most significant crisis after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Taleb's main thesis is that over and over again people fall into the trap of overconfidence, thinking that they know more about the world around them than they really know. According to Taleb, we constantly pay attention to unimportant events that do not help explain what is happening around us, while underestimating the likelihood of big, truly significant events - the so-called "black swans". As a result, they become revelations for us that radically change our understanding of the surrounding reality. Not wanting to move away from a simplistic view of the world, over and over again we do not notice the really important things and reap bitter results.

Elie Ayache. "The Blank Swan: The End of Probability"
Eli Ayash. "Empty swan. End of Probability"

In The Black Swan, Taleb suggested that one day someone would subject his view of the world to scathing criticism and describe their arguments in a book entitled The White Swan. Indeed, three years later a book was published containing a critical response to Taleb, but it was called not The White Swan, but The Empty Swan. Its author, Eli Ayash, does not look for a flaw in Taleb's logic, but criticizes the foundations that form the modern view of the processes taking place in the financial markets. We are talking about the principles of probabilistic thinking, which people resort to when talking about possible scenarios for the development of events, including those in which they themselves participate.

For example, when Taleb writes about "white" and "black" swans, that is, about potentially predictable and unpredictable events, he perceives the probability of these events as something separate from the forecaster. In Taleb's worldview, traders are on their own, and chance is on its own. The former are always trying to determine the probability of the latter, and act on its basis by setting prices. For Ayash, this does not make sense: people themselves influence what happens in the financial markets, because traders are always in the center of events. If they looked at the world through Taleb's eyes, they would be like football players trying to guess the probability of winning a match they themselves are in.

Any event for Ayash is an unwritten script that is written by the investors themselves. Thus, the "swan" cannot be black or white - it can only be "empty", that is, an event that has not yet taken place, but a possible event, the final result of which depends on the specific actions of everyone who would try to predict it. The concept of probability as a mathematical concept does not apply here at all. Based on this idea, Ayash radically redefines the principles of pricing in the financial market.

Like Taleb, Ayash is a successful trader with an engineering background. But, in addition, he is a professional philosopher, and this allows him to derive his arguments from the works of many famous philosophers of the XIX-XXI centuries.

Which author is closer to the truth? Popularity is on the side of Taleb, but perhaps the truth is on the side of Ayash. Taleb himself gave the "Empty Swan" an extremely high rating: "Eli Ayash is the only person who has presented such arguments regarding the Black Swan and rare events that I did not think about."

Surprisingly, this very interesting, albeit difficult to read, book has not yet been translated into Russian.

Necessary books

Nicholas Gregory Mankiw. "Principles of Economics"
N. Gregory Mankiw. "Principles of Economics"

Now a classic, Mankiw is rightfully considered one of the most successful textbooks in economics, teaching, above all, the way to think and ask questions like an economist. There are not many specialized models presented in it, mathematical methods are practically not used, but a huge number of cases from various areas of life are analyzed, which makes the textbook quite simple and interesting to read. But its main advantage is the widest possible coverage of topics. "Principles of Economics" includes not only the foundations of fundamental economic theory (microeconomics, that is, the principles of operation of individual markets, and macroeconomics - the behavior of GDP and prices in the short and long term), but also the elements of the theory of international trade, the theory of industrial organization ( behavior of firms), public sector economics, and financial analysis—subjects on which separate thick textbooks have been written.

L. S. Tarasevich, V. M. Galperin, S. M. Ignatiev. "50 Lectures on Microeconomics"

This is not so much a textbook as a free lecture notes, with drawings in the margins and discussions after each lesson. At the same time, all important economic ideas are described in a detailed and accessible way, and the ease of presentation is combined with the necessary scientific rigor. What is especially valuable, the book provides numerous historical examples (for example, from the history of usury or Russian monopolies) and unique cases from the Russian economy of the 1990s (the authors, in particular, analyze taxes and social transfers, study prices, markets and rent-seeking processes). ).

Robert Pindyke, Daniel Rabinfeld. "Microeconomics"
Robert Pindyck, Daniel Rubinfeld. "Microeconomics"

The difference between the two parts of economics (macroeconomics and microeconomics) is sometimes ironically explained as follows: microeconomics is a coherent, carefully developed science based on serious mathematical apparatus, but capable of explaining only those things that have nothing to do with the real world, and macroeconomics deals with describing what is usually meant by "real economy", only at the same time in macroeconomics there are a large number of different schools, representatives of which give opposite forecasts and answers to the same question. It is all the more remarkable that the textbook by Pindike and Rabinfeld explains basic microeconomic concepts without requiring the reader to develop the advanced mathematical technique that is usually needed to read microeconomic textbooks. Practically without mathematical formulas, the authors tell and clearly show (in the list of trademarks and firms given as an example, there are more than 50 names, from Airbus to Wal-Mart), how the economy works at the level of individual markets, why and how people and firms negotiate and interact with each other. other, including under conditions of uncertainty and asymmetric information.

Olivier Blanchard. "Macroeconomics"
Olivier Blanchard. Macroeconomics

The fact that there are many macroeconomic schools affects both the teaching of macroeconomics and its perception in general: there are a lot of good textbooks on macroeconomics, but none of them gives a single picture and a complete picture of what everything is. it's macroeconomics. Against this background, Blanchard's book stands out for its clear structure and thoughtful presentation logic. Singling out three periods in the economy (short-term, medium-term and long-term), Blanchard consistently examines them and shows why different conclusions are valid at different time intervals. A large place in the textbook is given to the role of expectations of economic agents, as well as an analysis of the application of macroeconomic (fiscal and monetary) policies in a variety of real circumstances.

Textbooks and problem books in mathematics

The following part of the list is intended to give the reader a general idea of ​​what level of minimum knowledge is required to successfully pass the entrance examinations for master's programs at the Faculty of Economics of the European University at St. Petersburg. This part includes classic books of the Soviet period - because basic knowledge in mathematics, unlike economics, can (and probably even needs to) be obtained by studying old books. In the process of preparing for our exams, however, other textbooks, more modern and not necessarily in Russian, can be used. For example, many leading Western universities offer applicants who enroll in master's degree programs in economics the book of Karl Simon and Lawrence Blume "Mathematics for Economists" (Simon C. P., Blume L. E. Mathematics for Economists. W. W. Norton & Company, 1994).

Differential and integral calculus. M., 1988.

Bugrov Ya. S., Nikolsky S. M. Elements of linear algebra and analytic geometry. M., 1988.

Bugrov Ya. S., Nikolsky S. M. Higher Mathematics. Taskbook. M., 1987.

Ilyin V. A., Poznyak E. G. Linear algebra. M., 1999.

Kolemaev V. A., Staroverov O. V., Turundaevsky V. B. Theory of Probability and Mathematical Statistics. M., 1991.

Minorsky V.P. Collection of problems in higher mathematics. M., 1987.