Fifty inventions that shaped the modern economy / Tim Harford.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-308) and index.

The plow -- I: Winners and losers: The gramophone ; Barbed wire ; Seller feedback ; Google search ; Passports ; Robots ; The welfare state -- II: Reinventing how we live. Infant formula ; TV dinners ; The Pill ; Video games ; Market research ; Air-conditioning ; Department stores -- III: Inventing new systems. The dynamo ; The shipping container ; The bar code ; The cold chain ; Tradable debt and the tally stick ; The Billy bookcase ; The elevator -- IV: Ideas about ideas. Cuneiform ; Public-key cryptography ; Double-entry bookkeeping ; Limited liability companies ; Management consulting ; Intellectual property ; The compiler -- V: Where do inventions come from?. The iPhone ; Diesel engines ; Clocks ; Chemical fertilizer ; Radar ; Batteries ; Plastic -- VI: The visible hand. The bank ; Razors and blades ; Tax havens ; Leaded gasoline ; Antibiotics in farming ; M-Pesa ; Property registers -- VII: Inventing the wheel. Paper ; Index funds ; The S-bend ; Paper money ; Concrete ; Insurance -- Conclusion: Looking forward -- Epilogue: The lightbulb.

"A smart, lively history of the world economy, seen through the crucial inventions that shaped it. Who thought up paper money? What was the secret element that made the Gutenberg printing press possible? What is the connection between The Da Vinci Code and the collapse of Lehman Brothers? In [this book], author and economist Tim Harford paints an epic yet intimate picture of economic change by telling the stories of the ideas, people, and tools that have had far-reaching and unexpected consequences for all of us. Drawing on his hugely popular BBC radio program and podcast ..., Harford expands on them with fascinating glimpses into the inventions that have transformed the ways, we work, play, and live. From the plow to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, Harford recounts the memorable story of each invention and introduces us to the characters who developed them, profited from them, and were in some cases ruined by them. The result is a wise and witty book of history, economics, and biography."--Jacket.

English.