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Financial Times
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Tim Harford

Senior Columnist

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 ten books, including the million-selling The Undercover Economist and most recently How To Make The World Add Up and The Truth Detective. He hosts the Cautionary Tales podcast and presents More or Less on BBC Radio.

Tim is the winner of the Royal Statistical Society award for journalistic excellence, the Wincott Prize, the Bastiat Prize, the Rybczynski Prize and several other awards. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. 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)
  • Friday, 4 October, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    First instincts vs second thoughts, which side are you on?

    Studying the way we stumble into cognitive traps could be key to understanding how to beat misinformation

  • Friday, 27 September, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Should everyone earn their pay rise?

    In a flourishing economy, what counts as a competitive wage is always increasing

    An illustration of a conductor leading an orchestra on top of a speeding train, set against a bold red background. The conductor stands at the front, while the musicians behind play instruments
  • Friday, 20 September, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    My biggest productivity mistake

    I often write about how to get things done but that doesn’t mean I always succeed

    Two wooden mannequin hands reaching upward, appearing to juggle three crumpled white paper balls, set against a solid yellow background
  • Friday, 6 September, 2024
    FT MagazineThe marvellous money machine
    How a mind-boggling device changed economic history

    In 1949, a little-known engineer astonished the academic world with the first ever computer model of a national economy — made of Perspex and water

  • Friday, 6 September, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    What we can and can’t say about what we do and don’t know

    Sometimes trying to think through the probabilities is a clarifying exercise, and sometimes it offers nothing more than false reassurance

  • Friday, 30 August, 2024
    Undercover EconomistMisinformation
    Misinformed about misinformation

    Are ordinary citizens really helpless to distinguish truth from lies, and is misinformation as prevalent as we have been led to believe?

  • Friday, 23 August, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    How to stay curious while avoiding distraction

    Unexpected answers from the masters of focus

  • Friday, 16 August, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The real questions posed by counterfeit clobber

    Who’s being ripped off by a fake designer baseball cap?

  • Friday, 9 August, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    What geeks can learn from sport

    It’s been a vintage summer for social scientists interested in how individuals and teams can perform

  • Friday, 26 July, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Gamification — it’s like fun but more hellish

    Smartphone points, streaks and pseudo-rewards engender excitement but have no value

  • Friday, 19 July, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    UK inequality is getting worse, right? But what if it isn’t?

    The problem is not that economic growth has been too narrow, but that it has barely happened at all

  • Friday, 12 July, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Counting the cost of my ‘major keying error’

    When a system requires perfection from operators, the consequences can be troubling

    The image displays the word ‘Money’ with the letter ‘e’ replaced by the British pound symbol (£) and a zigzag red line below it, set against a black background
  • Friday, 5 July, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    AI has all the answers. Even the wrong ones

    ChatGPT has the appearance of a brilliant logician and that’s a problem

  • Friday, 28 June, 2024
    Undercover EconomistUK economy
    How to fix the UK? Let me count the ways

    After a revolving cast of prime ministers, less uncertainty will be a good start

    A photo montage shows houses of parliament in Westminster, with a spanner hovering over Big Ben
  • Friday, 21 June, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    In Broken Britain, even the statistics don’t work

    The government is spending billions with its eyes shut

  • Friday, 14 June, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Who’s responsible for our accountability problem?

    From the algorithm that raises your insurance premium to institutional denials over state scandals, it’s a problem with deep roots

    An illustration of a squirrel being passed through a shredder
  • Friday, 7 June, 2024
    FT MagazineUS-China trade dispute
    What zebras can teach us about international trade

    US tariffs on Chinese goods are the result of a highly complex ecosystem

  • Friday, 31 May, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    What’s Shakespeare’s forgotten legacy? Numerical hyperbole

    The Bard was understandably loose with his numbers. We must do better

  • Friday, 24 May, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The detours on memory lane

    A vague impression can be enough to prompt clear, specific memories of non-existent events

  • Friday, 17 May, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    There’s no need to lose our minds over the Jevons paradox

    The Victorian economist’s analysis of energy use is useful but not inescapable

  • Friday, 10 May, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    When your smartphone tries to be too smart

    Modern devices may seem simple and easy to use, whereas they are in fact fantastically complicated

  • Friday, 3 May, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The lesson of Loki? Trade less

    Going back as far as the Norse gods, the market has tricked investors into making rash decisions

  • Friday, 26 April, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Fossil fuels could have been left in the dust 25 years ago

    If only we’d followed Wright’s Law, solar tech could have been cheaper much sooner

  • Friday, 19 April, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The surprising data behind supercentenarians

    Lies, damn lies and longevity

  • Friday, 5 April, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Why we’re all a bit like Jasmin Paris

    The endurance athlete has completed a feat that defies belief — but her motivations are familiar

Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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