| Economist here. I disagree that if someone wants a broad introduction that by picking up Samuelson or MWG will be able to figure out the field from first (mathematical) principles. New Ideas from Dead Economists is a fantastic, broad introduction into the philosophy of economics that you appears interested in. Works by Keynes, Smith, Marx, Robinson, Hayek, and Ricardo do a fantastic job laying the groundwork for modern economic theory. If you're looking for the quantitative side of economics, Mostly Harmless Econometrics, Freakonomics, and (on the very theoretical side) Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics are must reads. Capital by Picketty is currently being debated, as the underlying evidence towards his theories are compelling but not necessarily testable. Game theory is also a fun field within economics, and has overlap in CS and (occasionally) statistics. |