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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, 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

  • Friday, 29 March, 2024
    Undercover EconomistUK tax
    Why the UK’s biscuit tax leaves a bad taste in the mouth

    A quandary over whether a flapjack is a cake or a muesli bar reveals an unseriousness at the heart of the UK’s tax system

  • Friday, 22 March, 2024
    Undercover EconomistSocial Media
    A TikTok ban won’t fix social media’s collective trap

    Why so many of us use platforms we dislike

  • Friday, 15 March, 2024
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Why Swifties, holidaymakers and the hygienic should cheer for surge pricing

    At the right price, supply and demand match perfectly, the challenge is merely to find it

  • Friday, 8 March, 2024
    Undercover EconomistPollution
    The surprising public health benefit of unemployment

    In the US, fewer people died during the great recession. Why?

  • Friday, 1 March, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The alternate universe in which Tottenham are top

    My son’s headmaster joked about his favourite team’s success but publication bias can have more serious consequences

  • Friday, 23 February, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Why friends are always right — no matter their views

    Don’t blame politicians for group polarisation. We’re more than capable of doing this to ourselves

  • Friday, 16 February, 2024
    Undercover EconomistArtificial intelligence
    The real quandary of AI isn’t what people think

    Our reliance on smartphones is a clue to the way we’ll eventually use generative technology

  • Friday, 9 February, 2024
    Undercover EconomistArtificial intelligence
    What the birth of the spreadsheet can teach us about generative AI

    Lessons from an earlier software tool that changed the world

  • Friday, 2 February, 2024
    Undercover EconomistArtificial intelligence
    Of top-notch algorithms and zoned-out humans

    Can we embrace automation without switching to autopilot?

  • Friday, 26 January, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The secret to finding the best idea ever? First think about the absolute worst 

    When looking for a business breakthrough, a design innovation, or a flash of artistic insight, it’s smart to think in reverse

  • Thursday, 25 January, 2024
    FT Magazine
    It’s only a matter of time before disinformation leads to disaster

    Fakes, forgeries and the meaning of meaning in our post-truth era

  • Monday, 22 January, 2024
    Life and Art from FT Weekend podcast16 min listen
    L&A: How to enjoy more by doing less

    The FT’s Undercover Economist Tim Harford on the art of subtraction

  • Friday, 19 January, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Are economists selfish? Not according to Monopoly

    The board game sums up wider misunderstandings about the role of economics

  • Friday, 12 January, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The planet’s got 99 problems, but exponential growth isn’t one

    Mathematics can only take us so far in understanding the environmental issues we face

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