Book of the week: Spousonomics by Paula Szuchman & Jenny Anderson

(Random House, $26)

Using principles from economics to manage your marriage “doesn’t sound very romantic,” said Lisa Bonos in The Washington Post. But financial reporters Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson have tried it, and they swear their home lives have been happier since they began making decisions based on such concepts as loss aversion and hyperbolic discounting. Because economics doesn’t care “who’s right and who’s wrong,” it makes a terrific arbiter of who should mow the lawn or whether it’s a good night to go out to a movie. Few of us, though, really need “fancy economic terminology” to spruce up our marriages, said Annie Lowrey in Slate.com. Most of the authors’ domestic tips could be arrived at through common sense. But if you look to this book less for its marital wisdom than for its breezy, cogent summary of behavioral economics, its practical value becomes unlimited. It’s loaded with “plenty of good, even adorable, advice.”

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