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Incentivology

The Forces That Explain Tremendous Success and Spectacular Failure

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Incentivology

By: Jason Murphy
Narrated by: Nikos Andronicos
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About this listen

Rewards. Punishments. Prices. The Nobel Prize. Candy Crush. Incentives take more forms than you might expect, and they can be hard to spot, but they shape our lives in ways that we rarely examine.

Some incentives are obvious, but many of the most powerful incentives are accidental, and invisible even to those who designed them. Some are tame - and some are most definitely not. Whether it’s bounties for criminals or Instagrammable meals, training your dog or saving the planet, incentives regularly backfire, go missing, mutate and evolve. Without oversight, their unintended consequences can have very global effects.

Here, economist Jason Murphy uncovers the huge incentive systems we take for granted and turns them inside out. In lively, entertaining prose he explores the mechanisms behind many spectacular failures and successes in our history, culture and everyday lives and shows us how to use (or lose) incentives in our world at large.

©2019 Jason Murphy (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd Economics Crime Inspiring
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OK for those audible veterans out there I’m sure there are hundreds of good books but for me, a relative new comer the authors writing style, content and the matching narration were sublime. If you like the books description you won’t be disappointed with the audible version it’s insightful educational story telling at it’s best. Well done Messers Murphy and Andronikos take a bow.

A great listen!!!

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I guess I was hoping for actionable content, and what I found was rambling stories and political commentary.

Mediocre

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This audio book was enjoyable, until the contradictory chapters toward the end - on one hand there was a lengthy discussion about taking action on climate change, followed by a chapter highlighting the folly of basing policy decisions on models that predict outcomes based on a complex number of inputs.
Despite that dose of irony, there were some great insights into incentive and disincentive systems and I certainly feel that my awareness levels have been substantially raised from this book.

All good, until the great contradiction...

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Murphy expounds on his topic with wit, insight and clear passion for understanding and teaching about human behaviours. 'Incentivology' takes a serious economic topic and enthuses it with compassion for our flaws and a strong sense of justice for how to avoid them in the future. A must read!

Fascinating and funny

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I found this book to be a self indulgent, often rambling, closet Ned Kelly fan piece. No actionable advice just fluff and waffle.

would not recommend

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