Economy & Finance: Your a16z Reading List
Since 2016, a16z has regularly shared their reading lists. Here is a compilation of excellent economy and finance books from their recommendations.
This publication features a list of books on economics, finance, and business recommended by a16z employees. For more recommendations, including fantasy, history, psychology, and other genres, check out this a16z article.
Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Author: Lyn Alden
Broken Money delves into the history of money through the lens of technology. While politics can influence things temporarily and locally, technology propels global and lasting change. The book aims to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of money and its history, covering both theoretical foundations and practical implications.
Who Gets What ― and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design
Author: Alvin Roth
In Who Gets What—and Why, Nobel laureate Alvin E. Roth uncovers the hidden matching markets around us and teaches us how to recognize a good match to make smarter, more confident decisions.
While most economic studies focus on commodity markets, where price links sellers and buyers, other kinds of "goods" exist, such as a spot in Yale's freshman class or a job at Google. If you've ever sought a job, hired someone, applied to college, guided your child into a good kindergarten, asked someone out, or been asked out, you've participated in a matching market. In these markets, "sellers" and "buyers" must choose each other, and price isn't the sole factor determining who gets what.
Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success
Author: Shane Snow
In Smartcuts, Shane Snow dismantles common beliefs about success, demonstrating how adhering to traditions like "paying dues" hinders progress, why children shouldn't be taught times tables, and how, paradoxically, building a large business can be easier than starting a small one.
From SpaceX to the Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative journey that debunks old success myths. It reveals how innovators and icons achieve the extraordinary by working smarter—and how the rest of us can, too.
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Author: Henry Hazlitt
Henry Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also remarkably prescient in dismantling economic fallacies that have become almost orthodox.
Hazlitt’s emphasis on non-governmental solutions, his well-reasoned anti-deficit stance, and his advocacy for free markets and economic liberty make Economics in One Lesson as relevant and valuable today as it was at the time of its publication.
From Hoodies to Suits: Innovating Digital Assets for Traditional Finance
Author: Annelise Osborne
From Hoodies to Suits bridges the gap between tech innovators and traditional financial professionals, offering an entertaining and insightful guide for implementing digital assets in an institutional setting.
The book discusses the possibilities unlocked by new technological advancements, including alternative investments, new marketplaces, interoperability between counterparties, and improved forms of diversification as well as the necessity of adoption of digital assets for the future of finance.
Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders
Author: Curtis Faith
Way of the Turtle unveils the secrets behind the success of the elusive trading system used by the group known as the “Turtles.” Top-earning Turtle Curtis Faith exposes the entire experiment, detailing how Dennis and Eckhardt recruited 23 ordinary individuals from diverse backgrounds and transformed them into exceptional traders in just two weeks.
The Curious Culture of Economic Theory
Author: Ran Spiegler
The Curious Culture of Economic Theory is a collection of essays that insightfully explores the professional culture of contemporary economic theory, highlighting the key features of successful economic theories from the last quarter-century. It is a valuable complement to standard textbooks in graduate-level economic theory, game theory, and behavioral economics.
Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society
Authors: Eric Posner and Glen Weyl
Many attribute today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability to the free market, suggesting that the solution is to rein it in. However, Radical Markets challenges this view and conventional thinking about markets, whether in favor or against them.
The book argues that only by radically expanding the scope of markets can we reduce inequality, restore robust economic growth, and resolve political conflicts. To achieve this, we must replace our most sacred institutions with truly free and open competition, as Radical Markets demonstrates.
The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You
Author: Scott Page
In The Model Thinker, social scientist Scott E. Page explores a range of mathematical, statistical, and computational models—from linear regression to random walks and beyond—that can enhance various fields of human endeavor. Central to the book is Page's "many-model paradigm," which teaches readers to apply multiple models to organize data, resulting in wiser decisions, more accurate predictions, and more robust designs.
The Inner Lives of Markets: How People Shape Them-And They Shape Us
Authors: Ray Fisman, Tim Sullivan.
The Inner Lives of Markets reveals that the business revolution extends beyond technology; it's truly about the transformation of markets. From the auction theories driving Google's ad sales algorithms to the models online retailers use to combat internet fraud, modern businesses are fundamentally powered by economic theories. This book uncovers the blueprint for how we work, live, and shop, offering insights on how to improve these aspects of our lives.