Book · 2008
A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity
A Stanford University provost and a star student and world-class tennis player clash about the virtues of top-down intervention versus order that emerges from the bottom up. Along the way, a group of students protest the role of a big-box retailer on campus, entangling the provost and her pupil.
Russ Roberts's best novel, he thinks, The Price of Everything explores emergent order in the economy and the sources of our standard of living.
“The best attempt to teach economics through fiction that the world has seen to date.”
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution“This is a great story about human, social, and economic betterment brought about by the forces of spontaneous coordination. Read and enjoy.”
Vernon Smith, Nobel Prize-winning economist“A remarkable use of parables and dialogues to convey economic intuitions.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan“An unusual and wildly enjoyable book.”
Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics