Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign In
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Middle East war
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    Most Read
    • Harris launches media blitz in bid to regain momentum against Trump
    • China’s economic ills are serious but not incurable
    • Reeves aims to close £40bn funding gap as she plans tax rises in Budget
    • Trump pledges to impose sweeping tariffs on imported cars
    • US warns Israel humanitarian crisis in Gaza could threaten military aid
  • UK
    Sections
    • UK Home
    • UK Economy
    • UK Politics
    • UK Companies
    • Personal Finance
    Most Read
    • Reeves aims to close £40bn funding gap as she plans tax rises in Budget
    • General Sir Michael Jackson, 1944-2024
    • Rise of Gail’s shows big British appetite for craft bakery
    • Wealthy non-doms lobby Reeves for Italian-style tax regime in UK
    • This UK recruitment downturn looks set to last
  • Companies
    Sections
    • Companies Home
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
    Most Read
    • ASML shares drop sharply after warning on semiconductor recovery
    • LVMH reports fall in third quarter sales and warns of ‘uncertain’ outlook
    • Founder Anne Wojcicki races to rescue 23andMe
    • Boeing seeks up to $35bn to bolster its balance sheet
    • Goldman profits jump 45% to $3bn after trading boost
  • Tech
    Sections
    • Tech Home
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Semiconductors
    • Cyber Security
    • Social Media
    Most Read
    • ASML shares drop sharply after warning on semiconductor recovery
    • Founder Anne Wojcicki races to rescue 23andMe
    • Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi | 5 Questions
    • Google orders small modular nuclear reactors for its data centres
    • Investors should be wary of Tesla’s robotaxi hype
  • Markets
    Sections
    • Markets Home
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Crypto
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Wealth Management
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
    Most Read
    • ASML shares drop sharply after warning on semiconductor recovery
    • Boeing seeks up to $35bn to bolster its balance sheet
    • Has Boeing done enough to avoid the credit rating junk yard?
    • American love of credit cards will blunt instant payment appeal
    • The Fed should beware declaring the war on inflation over prematurely
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    Sections
    • Opinion Home
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
    Most Read
    • China’s economic ills are serious but not incurable
    • The sperm donor bros of tech
    • Elon Musk’s feat of engineering
    • JPMorgan rewrites laws of finance — with some help
    • Rise of Gail’s shows big British appetite for craft bakery
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
    Sections
    • Work & Careers Home
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Europe's Start-Up Hubs
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    • Working It
    Most Read
    • This UK recruitment downturn looks set to last
    • Podcaster Stebbings raises one of Europe’s biggest venture funds
    • Back to the (retro)future: Carlo Scarpa’s Modernist Venice
    • Why mature executives return to study for an EMBA
    • Power and influencers: CEOs on social media
  • Life & Arts
    Sections
    • Life & Arts Home
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
    Most Read
    • LVMH reports fall in third quarter sales and warns of ‘uncertain’ outlook
    • Rivals — starry Jilly Cooper bonkbuster is puerile, gratuitous and an absolute riot
    • Five green gadgets to buy now
    • The skincare wisdom of Emma Lewisham
    • ‘More Neutra than Neutra’: how to upgrade an architectural gem 
  • HTSI
MenuSearch
  • Home
  • World
  • UK
  • Companies
  • Tech
  • Markets
  • Climate
  • Opinion
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
  • Life & Arts
  • HTSI
Financial Times
SubscribeSign In

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, 11 October, 2024
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    If I want to get fitter, should I wear a fitness watch?

    My every movement is being quantified, and I am obsessed

  • 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

Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

Useful links

Support

View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

Legal & Privacy

Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyManage CookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

Services

Share News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsProfessional SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on XFT ChannelsFT Schools

Tools

PortfolioFT AppFT Digital EditionFT EditAlerts HubBusiness School RankingsSubscription ManagerNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

Community & Events

FT Live EventsFT ForumsBoard Director Programme

More from the FT Group

Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2024. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
Edition:UK
International
Subscribe for full access

Top sections

  • Home
  • World
    • Middle East war
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
  • UK
    • UK Economy
    • UK Politics
    • UK Companies
    • Personal Finance
  • Companies
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
  • Tech
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Semiconductors
    • Cyber Security
    • Social Media
  • Markets
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Crypto
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Wealth Management
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Europe's Start-Up Hubs
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    • Working It
  • Life & Arts
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
  • Personal Finance
    • Property & Mortgages
    • Investments
    • Pensions
    • Tax
    • Banking & Savings
    • Advice & Comment
    • Next Act
  • HTSI
  • Special Reports

FT recommends

  • Alphaville
  • FT Edit
  • Lunch with the FT
  • FT Globetrotter
  • #techAsia
  • Moral Money
  • Visual and data journalism
  • Newsletters
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • News feed
  • FT Schools
  • FT Live Events
  • FT Forums
  • Board Director Programme
  • myFT
  • Portfolio
  • FT Digital Edition
  • Crossword
  • Our Apps
  • Help Centre
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In