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If you ever wonder why people--including your customers, partners, employees, and even family members--make the choices they do, an online course called Unexpected Economics may help you understand it better, according to Bill Gates, who just recommended that course, along with two others, to the millions of people who read his blog or follow his book recommendations every year.

As he does every holiday season, Gates recently released his book recommendations. This year's list includes three books, his extensive Spotify playlist of holiday music--and the online lectures of Macalaster College Economics Professor Timothy Taylor, offered by The Great Courses. Taylor is "one of my all-time favorite professors," he explains. In fact, when one of his children recently asked him to recommend a book on economics, the famously book-obsessed Gates thought of these videos instead.

Among Taylor's online courses, Unexpected Economics should have the greatest appeal to most people, Gates writes. It's a series of 24 lectures that take a deep look at how people make decisions--even ones you normally wouldn't think an economist would study, such as why people vote, why we get stuck in traffic jams, and why we're having fewer children but putting more time into raising the ones we do have. If you're trying to launch a new company or a new product, this insight into how people make choices could be truly valuable.

Gates also recommends two of Taylor's other courses. Economics, 3rd Edition is his "most straightforward offering," Gates writes. If your goal is to learn about economics, this one might be for you. Taylor's America and the New Global Economy "charts 50 years of global economic history to explain how each region of the world developed and changed over time," Gates writes. He finds the region-by-region analysis especially revealing. On the down side, the course is 15 years old and hasn't been updated since before the 2008 financial crisis.

These courses aren't cheap, especially if you buy them one by one or if you want them in DVD format. Unexpected Economics costs $239.95 to stream as video or $339.95 if you want DVDs. A better option might be to sign up for a Great Courses (a.k.a. Wondrum) membership that lets you stream all the lectures you want for $20/month or $150 for two years during the company's special holiday promotion. As economic choices go, that one might make the most sense.

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