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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 X.com (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Wednesday, 4 February, 2026
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The tyranny of targets

    Not only is quantification changing our behaviour, but we’re failing to notice this has happened

  • Wednesday, 28 January, 2026
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The end of the world as we know it (but I feel fine) 

    There’s a curious gap between our personal optimism and our gloominess about others

    An illustration shows one figure feeding a pencil into another figure’s open mouth
  • Wednesday, 21 January, 2026
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The paradox of work

    Why it brings misery into our lives — but also meaning

  • Saturday, 17 January, 2026
    FT Magazine
    Without my fitness tracker I’d never have run so far. Or behaved so weirdly

    The marathon, the algorithm and me

    Illustration of a runner falling amid floating smartwatches against a geometric red background.
  • Wednesday, 14 January, 2026
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    When psychologists mislead us

    From Piltdown Man to the Stanford prison experiment, many famous scientific discoveries have been exposed as hoaxes or distortions

    Cartoon illustration of 25 hardback text books which have been arranged into a precarious-looking pyramid
  • Wednesday, 7 January, 2026
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    How British queues got out of hand

    We were a nation that didn’t mind waiting in line. But this is ridiculous

    An illustration of a hand taking a  ticket from a “take-a-number”-style queueing ticket machine. The ticket reads “your turn” and is followed by a ludicrously long number.
  • Wednesday, 24 December, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Why self-improvement starts with maintenance

    Whether you’re talking about armies, motorcycles or teeth, the same rule applies — what you care for will endure

    Illustration of a wrench gripping a red heart-shaped bolt head.
  • Thursday, 18 December, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    From colonising Mars to measuring with Mars Bars — addressing your wilder monetary queries

    In the latest of his Christmas columns, the FT’s Undercover Economist fields some of your most outlandish proposals, and concludes that there is no such thing as a stupid question

    An illustrated gold-wrapped Mars chocolate bar shown against a blue background
  • Thursday, 11 December, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The economics of seasonal serenity

    Management scholars are making a case study of Christmas

    A stylised chart showing an upward trend, represented by a strand of multicoloured bulbs along the plotted line
  • Thursday, 27 November, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Santa Claus is still a woman

    There is something particularly stubborn about gender roles at Christmas

    Illustration of gift boxes overflowing from an open purse against a green background
  • Thursday, 20 November, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Don’t trade where you tweet

    Online conversations about hot meme stocks or cryptocurrencies are the source of some very bad decisions

    Surreal artwork depicting soft, melting Bitcoin tokens hanging from a branch and abstract forms, echoing Dalí’s style.
  • Thursday, 13 November, 2025
    Undercover EconomistPopulism
    Why populism became popular

    It appeals more to a way of thinking than to a set of ideas — but is it just wrong?

    Illustration of a winding blue road sign with multiple arrows on a red background
  • Thursday, 6 November, 2025
    Undercover EconomistMarket bubbles
    Are bubbles good, actually?

    On Jeff Bezos’s defence of AI mania

    A robot sits calmly in a room on fire saying, “This is fine.”
  • Thursday, 30 October, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Our devices work for Big Tech, not us

    Hate for a $100 to-do list is misplaced

    An illustration of a pen resting on an open paper notebook that resembles an open laptop: on one page is a drawing of a laptop keyboard and on the other one of a laptop screen.
  • Thursday, 23 October, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    What’s wrong with dating apps?

    The gap between what is promised and delivered is stark when it comes to intimacy

    Illustration of a winged figure aiming a bow and arrow against a blue background.
  • Thursday, 16 October, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The silver bullet fallacy

    The idea that a lot of problems are difficult to fully solve doesn’t mean we should stop trying

    Illustration of a maze with a silver bullet bursting through it
  • Thursday, 9 October, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    Should we put a high price on work visas?

    The US wants to make the immigration of skilled workers more expensive; the UK cheaper. Who’s wrong?

    Illustration of a US hundred-dollar bill against a bright red background.
  • Thursday, 2 October, 2025
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    In defence of digital ID

    Well-designed, it could strengthen the protection of important liberties

    An illustration of a pixelated hand cursor with a fingerprint on the index finger.
  • Thursday, 25 September, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The wrong kind of maths

    Why the mathematics used in economics for decades needs a rethink

    A Swiss army knife with math symbols.
  • Thursday, 18 September, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration 

    It’s not hard to see how so many came to worry about the issue. But the data isn’t there

    Illustration of a person in a yellow shirt, blindfolded with a Union Jack, shouting with one fist raised
  • Thursday, 11 September, 2025
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    The remorseless rule of my fitness tracker

    A cheap fitness watch has changed my life 

    Illustration of a yellow smartwatch placed inside a blue hamster wheel.
  • Thursday, 4 September, 2025
    Undercover EconomistBehavioural economics
    If AI lifts off, will living standards follow?

    Champions of artificial intelligence claim it could fuel genuine economic growth

    illustration showing red column chart on blue background
  • Thursday, 28 August, 2025
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    How to dodge the tourist traps

    Everyone hates being ambushed by a hidden fee, but few of us are savvy enough to avoid paying too much

    Illustration of a large black price tag reading “£9,99*” on a pink background. A red hand holds a magnifying glass over the last digit, revealing a repeated pattern of the number “9” inside the lens.
  • Thursday, 21 August, 2025
    Life & Arts
    My date with an octopus

    Whatever the request, ChatGPT is happy to help, often with unfortunate results

  • Thursday, 14 August, 2025
    Undercover EconomistLife & Arts
    Donald Trump’s firing of US stats chief doesn’t add up

    Political attacks on independent data threaten public trust

    A bell curve stylized as a ghost figure on a graph with x and y axes
Previous page1Next page

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