Best of
Economics
2001
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
Theodore Dalrymple - 2001
Theodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist who treats the poor in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has seemingly seen it all. Yet in listening to and observing his patients, he is continually astonished by the latest twist of depravity that exceeds even his own considerable experience. Dalrymple's key insight in Life at the Bottom is that long-term poverty is caused not by economics but by a dysfunctional set of values, one that is continually reinforced by an elite culture searching for victims. This culture persuades those at the bottom that they have no responsibility for their actions and are not the molders of their own lives. Drawn from the pages of the cutting-edge political and cultural quarterly City Journal, Dalrymple's book draws upon scores of eye-opening, true-life vignettes that are by turns hilariously funny, chillingly horrifying, and all too revealing-sometimes all at once. And Dalrymple writes in prose that transcends journalism and achieves the quality of literature.
PowerNomics : The National Plan to Empower Black America
Claud Anderson - 2001
In this book, Dr. Anderson obliterates the myths and illusions of black progress and brings together data and information from many different sources to construct a framework for solutions to the dilemma of Black America. In PowerNomics: The National Plan, Dr. Anderson proposes new principles, strategies and concepts that show blacks a new way to see, think, and behave in race matters. The new mind set prepares blacks to take strategic steps to create a new reality for their race. It offers guidance to others who support blacks self-sufficiency. In this book, Dr. Anderson offers insightful analysis and action steps blacks can take to redesign core areas of life - Education, Economics, Politics and Religion - to better benefit their race. The action steps in each area require new empowerment tools that Dr. Anderson presents - a new group vision and a new culture of empowerment - tools designed to counter, if not break many of the racial monopolies in society. Vertical integration and Industrializing black communities are other major concepts and strategies that he presents in the book. He places a great deal of importance on building industries in black communities that are constructed upon group competitive advantages. A the same time he announced the release of PowerNomics: The National Plan, he also announced that he has established several models of the strategies he proposes in the book. PowerNomics: The Plan, is infused with Dr. Anderson's trademark creative thinking and answers questions such as: - Why are blacks the only group that equates success with working in a White corporation, government or the entertainment industry? - How did power and wealth - businesses, resources, privileges, income and control of all levels of government get so disproportionately distributed into the hands of White society?
Democracy: The God That Failed
Hans-Hermann Hoppe - 2001
Revisionist in nature, it reaches the conclusion that monarchy is a lesser evil than democracy, but outlines deficiencies in both. Its methodology is axiomatic-deductive, allowing the writer to derive economic and sociological theorems, and then apply them to interpret historical events.A compelling chapter on time preference describes the progress of civilization as lowering time preferences as capital structure is built, and explains how the interaction between people can lower time all around, with interesting parallels to the Ricardian Law of Association. By focusing on this transformation, the author is able to interpret many historical phenomena, such as rising levels of crime, degeneration of standards of conduct and morality, and the growth of the mega-state. In underscoring the deficiencies of both monarchy and democracy, the author demonstrates how these systems are both inferior to a natural order based on private-property.Hoppe deconstructs the classical liberal belief in the possibility of limited government and calls for an alignment of conservatism and libertarianism as natural allies with common goals. He defends the proper role of the production of defense as undertaken by insurance companies on a free market, and describes the emergence of private law among competing insurers.Having established a natural order as superior on utilitarian grounds, the author goes on to assess the prospects for achieving a natural order. Informed by his analysis of the deficiencies of social democracy, and armed with the social theory of legitimation, he forsees secession as the likely future of the US and Europe, resulting in a multitude of region and city-states. This book complements the author's previous work defending the ethics of private property and natural order. Democracy - The God that Failed will be of interest to scholars and students of history, political economy, and political philosophy.
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - 2001
The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile,and The Bed of Procrustes.
The Volatility Machine: Emerging Economics and the Threat of Financial Collapse
Michael Pettis - 2001
Pettis combines the insights of economic history, economic theory, and finance theory into a comprehensive model for understanding sovereign liability management and the causes of financial crises. He examines recent financial crises in emerging market countries along with the history of international lending since the 1820s to argue that the process of international lending is driven primarily by external events and not by local politics and/or economic policies. He draws out the corporate finance implications of this approach to argue that most of the current analyses of the recent financial crises suffered by Latin America, Asia, and Russia have largely missed the point. He then develops a sovereign finance model, analogous to corporate finance, to understand the capital structure needs of emerging market countries. Using this model, he finally puts into perspective the recent crises, a new sovereign liability management theory, the implications of the model for sovereign debt restructurings, and the new financial architecture.Bridging the gap between finance specialists and traders, on the one hand, and economists and policy-makers on the other, The Volatility Machine is critical reading for anyone interested in where the international economy is going over the next several years.
Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data
Jeffrey M. Wooldridge - 2001
The book makes clear that applied microeconometrics is about the estimation of marginal and treatment effects, and that parametric estimation is simply a means to this end. It also clarifies the distinction between causality and statistical association. The book focuses specifically on cross section and panel data methods. Population assumptions are stated separately from sampling assumptions, leading to simple statements as well as to important insights. The unified approach to linear and nonlinear models and to cross section and panel data enables straightforward coverage of more advanced methods. The numerous end-of-chapter problems are an important component of the book. Some problems contain important points not fully described in the text, and others cover new ideas that can be analyzed using tools presented in the current and previous chapters. Several problems require the use of the data sets located at the author's website.
Toward An Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams
David Graeber - 2001
David Graeber reexamines a century of anthropological thought about value and exchange, in large measure to find a way out of quandaries in current social theory, which have become critical at the present moment of ideological collapse in the face of Neoliberalism. Rooted in an engaged, dynamic realism, Graeber argues that projects of cultural comparison are in a sense necessarily revolutionary projects: He attempts to synthesize the best insights of Karl Marx and Marcel Mauss, arguing that these figures represent two extreme, but ultimately complementary, possibilities in the shape such a project might take. Graeber breathes new life into the classic anthropological texts on exchange, value, and economy. He rethinks the cases of Iroquois wampum, Pacific kula exchanges, and the Kwakiutl potlatch within the flow of world historical processes, and recasts value as a model of human meaning-making, which far exceeds rationalist/reductive economist paradigms.
Zen and the Art of Funk Capitalism: A General Theory of Fallibility
Karun Philip - 2001
By looking at the issue of the meta-knowledge problem-how disadvantaged people do not know how to find out what knowledge is valuable, where to acquire it, and how to finance it-the book discovers the core reason for enduring poverty of entire communities. The book starts with a core axiom that knowledge is fallible (and meta-knowledge even more so) and discusses the implications of that for ideas in welfare, education, entrepreneurship, banking, law, ethics and religion.In its Appendix, entitled "A Rationalist's Guide to Religion" the book provides an interpretation of the world's major faiths in light of the fallibility axiom.
Asset Pricing
John H. Cochrane - 2001
Samuelson Award for scholarly writing on lifelong financial security, John Cochrane's Asset Pricing now appears in a revised edition that unifies and brings the science of asset pricing up to date for advanced students and professionals. Cochrane traces the pricing of all assets back to a single idea--price equals expected discounted payoff--that captures the macro-economic risks underlying each security's value. By using a single, stochastic discount factor rather than a separate set of tricks for each asset class, Cochrane builds a unified account of modern asset pricing. He presents applications to stocks, bonds, and options. Each model--consumption based, CAPM, multifactor, term structure, and option pricing--is derived as a different specification of the discounted factor.The discount factor framework also leads to a state-space geometry for mean-variance frontiers and asset pricing models. It puts payoffs in different states of nature on the axes rather than mean and variance of return, leading to a new and conveniently linear geometrical representation of asset pricing ideas.Cochrane approaches empirical work with the Generalized Method of Moments, which studies sample average prices and discounted payoffs to determine whether price does equal expected discounted payoff. He translates between the discount factor, GMM, and state-space language and the beta, mean-variance, and regression language common in empirical work and earlier theory.The book also includes a review of recent empirical work on return predictability, value and other puzzles in the cross section, and equity premium puzzles and their resolution. Written to be a summary for academics and professionals as well as a textbook, this book condenses and advances recent scholarship in financial economics.
Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor Dethroned?
Steve Keen - 2001
When the original Debunking Economics was published in 2001, the market economy seemed invincible, and conventional "neoclassical" economic theory basked in the limelight. Steve Keen argued that economists deserved none of the credit for the economy's performance, and "The false confidence it has engendered in the stability of the market economy has encouraged policy-makers to dismantle some of the institutions which initially evolved to try to keep its instability within limits." That instability exploded with the devastating financial crisis of 2007, and now haunts the global economy with the prospect of another Depression. In this expanded and updated new edition, Keen builds on his scathing critique of conventional economic theory while explaining what mainstream economists cannot: why the crisis occurred, why it is proving to be intractable, and what needs to be done to end it. Essential for anyone who has ever doubted the advice or reasoning of economists, Debunking Economics (Revised and Expanded Edition) provides a signpost to a better future.
Engines That Move Markets: Technology Investing from Railroads to the Internet and Beyond
Alasdair Nairn - 2001
Today's investors will learn about past approaches to technological advances such as-electricity, the railroad, the telephone, the computer, and much more-while gaining insights on how to appraise the "new technology" companies of the future. This complete and well researched history of industries and investing wouldn't be complete without a look at: how Thomas Edison lost control of his company, the impact of the Standard Oil breakup, the early days of the wireless industry, and the changing face of the computer industry today. Investors looking for industry-shaping investments will undoubtedly use Engines That Move Markets as their guide.
The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy
Marjorie Kelly - 2001
The underlying illness is shareholder primacy. In The Divine Right of Capital, she shows that the corporate drive to maximize shareholder profits at any cost is not only out of step with democratic and free-market principles, but is detrimental to the long-term health of individual companies and the economy as a whole. Kelly offers a far-reaching solution to rebuild corporations in a way that serves all.
An Introduction to Islamic Finance
Muhammad Taqi Usmani - 2001
As long as a person advancing money expects to share in the profits earned (or losses incurred) by the other party, a stipulated proportion of profit is legitimate. The philosophy is enshrined in the traditional Islamic concepts of musharakah and mudarabah, along with their specialized modern variants murabahah, ijarah, salam, and istisna'. This invaluable guide to Islamic finance clearly delineates the all-important distinctions between Islamic practices and conventional procedures based on interest. Justice Usmani of Pakistan, who chairs several Shari'ah supervisory boards for Islamic banks, clearly explains the various modes of financing used by Islamic banks and non-banking financial institutions, emphasizing the necessary requirements for their acceptability from the Shari'ah standpoint and the correct method for their application. He deals masterfully with practical problems as they arise in the course of his presentation, and offers possible solutions in each instance.
The Essential Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith - 2001
Galbraith’s new introductions place the works in their historical moment and make clear their enduring relevance for the new century. THE ESSENTIAL GALBRAITH will delight old admirers and introduce one of our most beloved writers to a new generation of readers. It is also an indispensable resource for scholars and students of economics, history, and politics, offering unparalleled access to the seminal writings of an extraordinary thinker.
The Chastening: Inside The Crisis That Rocked The Global Financial System And Humbled The IMF
Paul Blustein - 2001
Based on hundreds of interviews with officials at the IMF, the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the White House, and many foreign governments, The Chastening offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Fund during an extraordinarily turbulent period in modern economic history and at a time when the IMF has become the object of intense political controversy. While the IMF and its overseers at the Treasury and the Fed have sought to cultivate an image of economic masterminds coolly dispensing effective economic remedies, the reality is that as markets were sinking and defaults looming, the guardians of global financial stability were often floundering, improvising, and feuding among themselves. The Chastening casts serious doubt on the IMF's ability to combat of investor panics at a time when massive flows of money traverse borders and oceans. A readable, compelling account of the deeply flawed workings of the international political system, The Chastening is vital reading for students and scholars of international diplomacy, government, and economic and public policy.
The Architecture of Markets: An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century Capitalist Societies
Neil Fligstein - 2001
Yet we still have a rudimentary understanding of how markets themselves are social constructions that require extensive institutional support. This groundbreaking work seeks to fill this gap, to make sense of modern capitalism by developing a sociological theory of market institutions. Addressing the unruly dynamism that capitalism brings with it, leading sociologist Neil Fligstein argues that the basic drift of any one market and its actors, even allowing for competition, is toward stabilization.The Architecture of Markets represents a major and timely step beyond recent, largely empirical studies that oppose the neoclassical model of perfect competition but provide sparse theory toward a coherent economic sociology. Fligstein offers this theory. With it he interprets not just globalization and the information economy, but developments more specific to American capitalism in the past two decades — among them, the 1980s merger movement. He makes new inroads into the ”theory of fields,” which links the formation of markets and firms to the problems of stability. His political-cultural approach explains why governments remain crucial to markets and why so many national variations of capitalism endure. States help make stable markets possible by, for example, establishing the rule of law and adjudicating the class struggle. State-building and market-building go hand in hand.Fligstein shows that market actors depend mightily upon governments and the members of society for the social conditions that produce wealth. He demonstrates that systems favoring more social justice and redistribution can yield stable markets and economic growth as readily as less egalitarian systems. This book will surely join the classics on capitalism. Economists, sociologists, policymakers, and all those interested in what makes markets function as they do will read it for many years to come.
Chaos and Time-Series Analysis
Julien Clinton Sprott - 2001
Emphasis is on physical concepts and useful results, rather than rigorous mathematical proofs. Completeing this volume is free and user-friendly software.
After Capitalism: From Managerialism to Workplace Democracy
Seymour Melman - 2001
For nearly half a century, Seymour Melman has been an influential commentary on capitalism, militarism and their discontents
Money & Wealth in the New Millennium: A Prophetic Guide to the New World Economic Order
Norm Franz - 2001
Money and Wealth in the New Millennium is an easy-to-read biblical expose' about the global economic problems of the last days and how God plans to deliver His people.
Entrepreneurs of Life: Faith and the Venture of Purposeful Living
Os Guinness - 2001
He then shows readers how to answer their own callings to become the entrepreneurs of life.
The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values
Nancy Folbre - 2001
As Folbre points out in her provocative and insightful new book, every society must confront the problem of balancing self-interested pursuits with care for others—including children, the elderly, and the infirm. Historically, most societies enjoyed an increased supply of care by maintaining strict limits on women’s freedom. But as these limits happily and inevitably give way, there are many consequences for those who still need care.Using the image of “the invisible heart” to evoke the forces of compassion that must temper the forces of self-interest, Folbre argues that if we don’t establish a new set of rules defining our mutual responsibilities for caregiving, the penalties suffered by the needy—our very families—will increase. Intensified economic competition may drive altruism and families out of business.A leading feminist economist, Nancy Folbre writes in a lively, personal style—Molly Ivins cheek-to-cheek with John Kenneth Galbraith—and develops a distinctive approach to the economics of care. Unlike others who praise family values, Folbre acknowledges the complicated relationship between women and altruism. Her book offers new interpretations of such policy issues as welfare reform, school finance, and progressive taxation, and it confronts the challenges of globalization, outlining strategies for developing an economic system that rewards both individual achievement and care for others.
Numerical Methods in Finance and Economics: A Matlab-Based Introduction
Paolo Brandimarte - 2001
Reflecting this development, Numerical Methods in Finance and Economics: A MATLAB?-Based Introduction, Second Edition bridges the gap between financial theory and computational practice while showing readers how to utilize MATLAB?--the powerful numerical computing environment--for financial applications. The author provides an essential foundation in finance and numerical analysis in addition to background material for students from both engineering and economics perspectives. A wide range of topics is covered, including standard numerical analysis methods, Monte Carlo methods to simulate systems affected by significant uncertainty, and optimization methods to find an optimal set of decisions. Among this book's most outstanding features is the integration of MATLAB?, which helps students and practitioners solve relevant problems in finance, such as portfolio management and derivatives pricing. This tutorial is useful in connecting theory with practice in the application of classical numerical methods and advanced methods, while illustrating underlying algorithmic concepts in concrete terms. Newly featured in the Second Edition: * In-depth treatment of Monte Carlo methods with due attention paid to variance reduction strategies * New appendix on AMPL in order to better illustrate the optimization models in Chapters 11 and 12 * New chapter on binomial and trinomial lattices * Additional treatment of partial differential equations with two space dimensions * Expanded treatment within the chapter on financial theory to provide a more thorough background for engineers not familiar with finance * New coverage of advanced optimization methods and applications later in the text Numerical Methods in Finance and Economics: A MATLAB?-Based Introduction, Second Edition presents basic treatments and more specialized literature, and it also uses algebraic languages, such as AMPL, to connect the pencil-and-paper statement of an optimization model with its solution by a software library. Offering computational practice in both financial engineering and economics fields, this book equips practitioners with the necessary techniques to measure and manage risk.
The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective
Angus Maddison - 2001
In this period, world population rose 22-fold, while per capita gross domestic product increased 13-fold and world GDP nearly 300-fold. The biggest gains occurred in the wealthy regions of today (Western Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan). The gap between the world leader, the United States and the poorest region, Africa, is now 20 to 1. In the year 1000, today's wealthiest countries were poorer than Asia and Africa. The book has several objectives. The first is a pioneering effort to quantify the economic performance of nations over the very long term. The second is to identify the forces which explain the success of the wealthy countries and explore the obstacles, which hindered advance in regions which lagged behind. The third is to scrutinize the interaction between the rich and the rest to assess the degree to which this relationship was exploitative. This monumental reference is a "must" for scholars of economics and economic history, and casual readers will also find much of interest. The book is a sequel to the author's Monitoring the World Economy: 1820 -1992 (OECD,1995), and his 1998 Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run (OECD, 1998).
The Economics of Risk and Time
Christian Gollier - 2001
Von Neumann and Morgenstern pioneered the use of expected utility theory in the 1940s, but most utility functions used in financial management are still relatively simplistic and assume a mean-variance world. Taking into account recent advances in the economics of risk and uncertainty, this book focuses on richer applications of expected utility in finance, macroeconomics, and environmental economics.The book covers these topics: expected utility theory and related concepts; the standard portfolio problem of choice under uncertainty involving two different assets; P the basic hyperplane separation theorem and log-supermodular functions as technical tools for solving various decision-making problems under uncertainty; s choice involving multiple risks; the Arrow-Debreu portfolio problem; consumption and saving; the equilibrium price of risk and time in an Arrow-Debreu economy; and dynamic models of decision making when a flow of information on future risks is expected over time. The book is appropriate for both students and professionals. Concepts are presented intuitively as well as formally, and the theory is balanced by empirical considerations. Each chapter concludes with a problem set.
Statistics and the German State, 1900 1945: The Making of Modern Economic Knowledge
Adam Tooze - 2001
The Weimar Republic and the Third Reich were in the forefront of statistical innovation in the interwar decades. New ways of measuring the economy were inspired both by contemporary developments in macroeconomic theory and the needs of government. Under the Nazi regime, these statistical tools provided the basis for a radical experiment in economic planning. Based on the German example, Tooze argues for a more wide-ranging reconsideration of the history of modern economic knowledge.
Consuming Life
Zygmunt Bauman - 2001
In this new consumer society, individuals become simultaneously the promoters of commodities and the commodities they promote. They are, at one and the same time, the merchandise and the marketer, the goods and the travelling salespeople. They all inhabit the same social space that is customarily described by the term the market. The test they need to pass in order to acquire the social prizes they covet requires them to recast themselves as products capable of drawing attention to themselves. This subtle and pervasive transformation of consumers into commodities is the most important feature of the society of consumers. It is the hidden truth, the deepest and most closely guarded secret, of the consumer society in which we now live.In this new book Zygmunt Bauman examines the impact of consumerist attitudes and patterns of conduct on various apparently unconnected aspects of social life politics and democracy, social divisions and stratification, communities and partnerships, identity building, the production and use of knowledge, and value preferences.The invasion and colonization of the web of human relations by the worldviews and behavioural patterns inspired and shaped by commodity markets, and the sources of resentment, dissent and occasional resistance to the occupying forces, are the central themes of this brilliant new book by one of the worlds most original and insightful social thinkers.
The Joy of Freedom: An Economist's Odyssey
David R. Henderson - 2001
Freedom from government meddling and taxation. Freedom of association. These freedoms are inseparable, and they are the engines of human progress. A simple idea? Perhaps. Yet this simple idea has been responsible for more human happiness than any other. In The Joy of Freedom, David R. Henderson shines a light on freedom at work in every corner of human life, making the most powerful case for free markets since Milton and Rose Friedmans Free to Choose. Along the way, he demolishes the conventional wisdom that has justified governments role in environmental regulation, education, social security, and healthcare; and shows once and for all why government programs perpetuate poverty instead of eliminating it. Forget the dismal science: Economist Henderson writes with passion about the joyous science. You will always know where he stands: with freedom, and against tyranny-in any guise. Free and healthy, at half the costHow deregulation and the Internet can make healthcare more competitive-and less expensiveNatures best friend: property rights How property rights are protecting wildlife, from elephants to hawksInterviewing Ralph NaderNader defends regulations that kill thous
Supply Chain Strategy
Edward H. Frazelle - 2001
Efficent supply chains can simultaneously improve customer service, reduce operating expenses, and minimize capital investment. This text addresses logistics performance and benchmarking procedures, processes for customer service and order processing, supply chain intergration, logistics information systems architectures and implementation. It aims to help the reader develop a comprehensive supply chain strategy to support the company's overall business objectives.
Pay Yourself First: The African American Guide to Financial Success and Security
Jesse B. Brown - 2001
Brown. Discover the easy-to-follow, down-to-earth secret to living your dreams, whether it's buying a new home, buying a new car, sending your children to college, retiring rich, or going on that once-in-a-lifetime vacation.Pay Yourself First is a must-have reference guide for all African Americans who want to experience their own financial security. If you make less than $30,000 a year-or if you are simply a first-time investor-here is your financial "411" on:* How to get out of debt and stay out of debt permanently* How to avoid the most common mistakes people make with their money* How to put time and money to work for you instead of against you* Everything you need to know about today's best investment options, including IRAs, insurance, stocks, bonds, and mutual fundsJesse Brown has already shown thousands and thousands of African Americans how to successfully manage their money-and make even more while they're doing it. Now you can begin your own journey to wealth. From free money for family emergencies to the fundamentals of saving and investing, Jesse Brown will give you the help you need to secure the things you want and be a winner.
Foundations of Mathematical Economics
Michael Carter - 2001
Rather than simply offer a collection of problem-solving techniques, the book emphasizes the unifying mathematical principles that underlie economics. Features include an extended presentation of separation theorems and their applications, an account of constraint qualification in constrained optimization, and an introduction to monotone comparative statics. These topics are developed by way of more than 800 exercises. The book is designed to be used as a graduate text, a resource for self-study, and a reference for the professional economist.
The Dark Side of the Force: Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory
Jack Hirshleifer - 2001
But there is another way of getting ahead-- through conflict or the dark side--that is by appropriating what others have produced. Logically parallel or military aggression and resistance, the dark side includes nonmilitary activities such as litigation, strikes and lockouts, takeover contests, and bureaucratic back-biting struggles. This volume brings the analysis of conflict into the mainstream of economics. Part I explores the causes, conduct, and consequences of conflict as an economic activity. Part II delves more deeply into the evolutionary sources of our capacities, physical and mental, for both conflict and cooperation.
Methodological Individualism: Background, History and Meaning
Lars Udehn - 2001
This volume covers the development of methodological individualism, including the individualist theory of society from Greek antiquity to modern social science. It is a comprehensive and systematic treatment of methodological individualism in all its manifestations.
A Mathematical Approach To Economic Analysis
Peter Toumanoff - 2001
Toumanoff and Nourzad's ability to assist student comprehension by using a building-block approach and including several instructional aids in the text, makes this book perfect for in and out of classroom use.
Silent Revolution: The International Monetary Fund, 1979-1989
James M. Boughton - 2001
Boughton discusses the IMF's surveillance of the international monetary system in the 1980s; the Fund's role in the international debt crisis of the 1980s, and IMF lending in support of structural adjustment in low-income countries during that period. The volume concludes with a general history of the institution, including the quota system, the SDR, membership, and other institutional matters.
Fundamentals of Convex Analysis
Jean-Baptiste Hiriart-Urruty - 2001
Its pedagogical qualities were particularly appreciated, in the combination with a rather advanced technical material. Now [18] hasa dual but clearly defined nature: - an introduction to the basic concepts in convex analysis, - a study of convex minimization problems (with an emphasis on numerical al- rithms), and insists on their mutual interpenetration. It is our feeling that the above basic introduction is much needed in the scientific community. This is the motivation for the present edition, our intention being to create a tool useful to teach convex anal ysis. We have thus extracted from [18] its "backbone" devoted to convex analysis, namely ChapsIII-VI and X. Apart from some local improvements, the present text is mostly a copy of the corresponding chapters. The main difference is that we have deleted material deemed too advanced for an introduction, or too closely attached to numerical algorithms. Further, we have included exercises, whose degree of difficulty is suggested by 0, I or 2 stars *. Finally, the index has been considerably enriched. Just as in [18], each chapter is presented as a "lesson," in the sense of our old masters, treating of a given subject in its entirety."
Fuzzy Math: The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Plan
Paul Krugman - 2001
Always the equal-opportunity critic when it comes to faulty economics, Krugman also tucks into the Democratic alternatives to the Bush plan.This little book packs a big wallop. Together with major media appearances, it puts Krugman's wisdom and steely-eyed analysis firmly at the center of the debate about how to spend upwards of $2 trillion. It may very well change the course of history.
Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work
Jennifer Roback Morse - 2001
The family must care for children while leading them, as a side effect of loving them, to be trusting and trustworthy -- qualities without which neither individuals nor societies can be truly free. So-called substitutes for the family -- single parents, government programs, and daycare -- cannot fill this role.-- What did adopting a badly neglected orphan teach Dr. Morse about love and politics?-- Do "single parents" and "quality daycare" exist?-- Why is cohabitation harmful?
As Time Goes by: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution (Paperback)
Christopher Freeman - 2001
'As Time Goes By' puts this revolution in the perspective of previous waves of technical change: steam-powered mechanization, electrification, andmotorization. It argues for a theory of reasoned economic history which assigns a central place to these successive technological revolutions.
Doing Well and Doing Good: Money, Giving, and Caring in a Free Society
Os Guinness - 2001
But for all the preoccupation with the making of money, little attention has been paid to the meaning of money in modern society. Likewise overlooked is the companion question of the culture of giving and caring that automatically accompanies any dominant view of money.Doing Well and Doing Good addresses this blind spot. What is the meaning of money? What are the deepest motives to give? Why should we care for those outside our own groups, especially for the poor and needy outside any group? Answers to questions such as these are decisive for the character of any society, but especially for the citizens of free societies that would remain free. It is not too much to say that as a society creates wealth, gives, and cares, so it is. Doing Well and Doing Good explores the big ideas that shaped the rise of the Western tradition of giving and caring by examining selected writings from some of the most influential thinkers of Western society. Sometimes controversial, often challenging, always illuminating, the issues of money, giving, and caring are fascinating and vital themes that stand at the crossroads of many issues in contemporary society. They are topics that no responsible citizen or leader can afford to ignore.
The Vested Interests and the Common Man
Thorstein Veblen - 2001
It emphasizes the automation and the loss of direct human relations within the industrial arts as well as social repercussions of capitalistic industry. AUTHOR BIO: Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was an American economist and social critic. After studying at Carleton College and at Johns Hopkins, Yale-where he received a Ph.D. in 1884-and Cornell, Veblen taught at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and the University of Missouri, as well as at the New School for Social Research in New York. His works include The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904), The Engineers and the Price System (1921), and Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times (1923).
Global Trade and Conflicting National Interests
Ralph E. Gomory - 2001
Trade today is dominated by manufactured goods, rapidly moving technology, and huge firms that benefit from economies of scale. This is very different from the largely agricultural world in which the classical theories originated. Gomory and Baumol show that the new and significant conflicts resulting from international trade are inherent in modern economies.Today improvement in one country's productive capabilities is often attainable only at the expense of another country's general welfare. The authors describe why and when this is so and why, in a modern free-trade environment, a country might have a vital stake in the competitive strength of its industries.
The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization
Tomas Larsson - 2001
Larsson takes the reader on a fast-paced, worldwide journey that extends from the slums of Rio to the brothels of Bangkok and shows what access to global markets means for those struggling to get ahead in the world.
Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason (Why Marx Rejected Politics and the Market)
Allan Megill - 2001
Megill's examination of Marx's formative writings casts new light on Marx's relation to philosophy and reveals a hitherto largely unknown 'rationalist' Marx. In demonstrating how Marx's rationalism permeated his attempts to understand politics, economics, and history generally, Megill forces the reader to rethink Marx's entire intellectual project. While Megill writes as an intellectual historian and historian of philosophy, his highly original redescription of the Marxian enterprise has important implications for how we think about the usability of Marx's work today. Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason will be of interest to those who wish to reflect on the fate of Marxism during the era of Soviet Communism. It will also be of interest to those who wish to discern what is living and what is dead, what is adequate and what requires replacement or supplementation, in the work of a figure who, in spite of everything, remains one of the greatest philosophers and social scientists of the modern world.
The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions--and What You Can Do About It
Charles Lewis - 2001
Sure to enlighten and outrage, The Cheating of America is a must -- read for every citizen.
Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment
Partha Dasgupta - 2001
In developing quality of life indices, he pays particular attention to the natuaral environment, illustrating how it can be incorporated, more generally, into economic reasoning in a seamless manner. Such familiar terms as sustainable development, social discount rates, and Earth's carrying capacity are given a firm theoretical underpinning. The author shows that, whether we are interested in valuing the state of affairs in a country or in evaluating economic policy there. The index that should be used is the economy's wealth, which is the social worth of its capital assets. Dasgupta puts the theory he develops to use in extended commentaries on the economics of population, poverty traps, global warming, structural adjustment programs, and free trade, particularly in relation to poor countries. The result is a treatise that goes beyond quality-of-life measures and offers a comprehensive account of the newly emergent subject of ecological economics. With the publication of this new paperback edition, Dasgupta has taken the opportunity to update and revise his text in a number of ways, including developments to facilitate its current use on a number of graduate courses in environmental and resource economics. The treatment of the welfare economics of imperfect economies has been developed using new findings, and the appendix has been expanded to include applications of the theory to a number of institutions and to develop approximate formulae for estimating the value of environmental natural resources.
Eyewitness to Wall Street: 400 Years of Dreamers, Schemers, Busts and Booms
David Colbert - 2001
From the first IPO through today's mass obsession with the Dow and Nasdaq, the book brims with accounts from people who saw it happen. 50 photos & illustrations.
The Tyranny of George III
Rufus Fears - 2001
What turned loyal British colonists into armed traitors declaring their independence? Edmund Burke suggested the answer when he observed that in England, "the great contests for freedom were, from the earliest times, chiefly upon the question of taxes."
The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile
Haggai Erlich - 2001
Analyzing the context of the dispute across a span of more than a thousand years, The Cross and the River delves into the heart of both countries' identities and cultures." Erlich weaves together three themes: the political relationship between successive Ethiopian and Egyptian regimes; the complex connection between the Christian churches in the two countries; and the influence of the Nile river system on Ethiopian and Egyptian definitions of national identity and mutual perceptions of "the Other." Drawing on a vast range of sources, his study is key to an understanding of a bond built on both interdependence and conflict.
There is an Alternative: Subsistence and Worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization
Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen - 2001
Theoreticians and activists from feminist, environmental, anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles across five continents report on existing community-based initiatives, and demonstrate how we can all defy the creed of corporate globalization.Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Maria Mies and her colleagues, which culminates in the elaboration of the ‘subsistence perspective’, the book is in three parts, dealing first with the theory of subsistence, then considering globalization as colonization and finally reporting on concrete cases of resistance to globalization in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Pacific. The subsistence perspective emerges as a fertile matrix for creative thinking and action to reclaim our labour, our communities, our environment, our bodies and our lives.Anyone who refuses to believe that corporate globalization is our inevitable destiny will find this book a solid basis for formulating ideas and implementing strategies for the creation of a future in the image and the interest of the world’s peoples.
In the Market: An Illustrated World History of the Financial Markets
Christopher Finch - 2001
A chronological narrative explains the origins of market economies in the ancient world, tracing the evolution of markets from the Greek agora and medieval fairs to the first joint stock companies, and detailing the rise of today's commodity and financial markets. Accompanying this text are 17 highly visual features; each is devoted to a type of market transaction, from "cash on the barrelhead" to the most sophisticated speculation in derivatives. These features take the reader from the world of bartering to those of the commodity trader, government finance, and business investments in industries ranging from transportation to entertainment, aerospace, and the Internet. The illustrations emphasize the financial market's practical and profound effects on businesses' and workers' production of goods and services. Also included are 100 biographies of men and women who have reshaped the international marketplace, from John Jacob Astor to Victoria Claflin Woodhall.
Priceless Markets: The Political Economy of Credit in Paris, 1660-1870
Philip T. Hoffman - 2001
Its authors challenge the usual assumption that organized financial markets—and hence the opportunity for economic growth—did not emerge outside of England and the Netherlands until the nineteenth century. Drawing on innovative research, the authors show that as early as the Old Regime, financial intermediaries in France were mobilizing a great tide of capital and arranging thousands of loans between borrowers and lenders.The implications for historians and economists are substantial. The role of notaries operating in Paris that Priceless Markets uncovers has never before been recognized. In the wake of this pathbreaking new study, historians will also have to rethink the origins of the French Revolution. As the authors show, the crisis of 1787-88 did not simply ignite revolt; it was intimately bound up in an economic struggle that reached far back into the eighteenth century, and continued well into the 1800s.
The Business of Options: Time-Tested Principles and Practice
Martin P. O'Connell - 2001
While it addresses the principles and practices of option trading and hedging in great detail, the book is the first to do so from a management perspective. O'Connell's extensive experience in option trading, training, and consulting enables the book to offer a unique combination of sophistication, clarity and insight. Most option books that are written for professionals focus on advanced math or on specific trades. This book goes farther, incorporating broad strategic considerations and exploring the implications of likely human behavior. It often challenges conventional wisdom of "what works" in the options business. Its intuitive approach to complex issues involving options enables readers to stretch their mathematical capabilities. Its down-to-earth explanations about the business of options reflect both the optimism and skepticism of a seasoned practitioner in the option market who has, for over 20 years, advised and trained professional dealers and users of options around the world.
Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science
Philip Mirowski - 2001
In it Philip Mirowshki shows how what is conventionally thought to be "history of technology" can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. His analysis combines Cold War history with the history of the postwar economics profession in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with the content of such abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. He links the literature on "cyborg science" found in science studies to economics, an element missing in the literature to date. Mirowski further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents found in the larger culture, arguing that neoclassical economics has surreptitiously participated in the desconstruction of the integral "Self." Finally, he argues for a different style of economics, an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism. Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame. He teaches in both the economics and science studies communities and has written frequently for academic journals. He is also the author of More Heat than Light (Cambridge, 1992) and editor of Natural Images in Economics (Cambridge, 1994) and Science Bought and Sold (University of Chicago, 2001).
The Case for Legalizing Capitalism
Kel Kelly - 2001
Well, Kel Kelly responds to this myth in this fast-paced and darn-near comprehensive treatment of the truth about the free market and intervention.His thesis is that the problem isn't capitalism; it is that capitalism in the sense of a free market is not even legal in the United States. Sure, we have private property and some measure of commercial freedom, and enterprise thrives wherever it is permitted. But it is also strangled, hobbled, injured, and suffocated in nearly every aspect of American economic life.He considers every important topic: banking, education, taxation, labor, environment, trade, war and peace, safety, medicine, drugs, and far more. He presents the reader with a basic explanation of how capitalism is supposed to work and how society functions when commerce is free. He then turns to all the areas of life that are distorted and destroyed by the great "helping hand" of government.Kel Kelly had several ambitions in writing this book. He wanted a final and decisive answer to the constant attacks on economic freedom that have emerged since the housing bust. As in the 1930s, the enemies of capitalism are having a field-day with - but with bad analytics, bad economics, and a dreadful prescription that only makes matters worse. Also, Kel wanted to bring the energy, rigor, enlightenment, and fun of the website of the Mises Institute to the printed page.In both respects, he has succeeded many times over. It is a book that every freedom lover can rally around and give to the deeply confused. And it is true that this book is very powerful: it can convince those who are looking for answers in the ever-lasting recession.It moves the Austrian theory of the business cycle up front to present a popular understanding of booms and busts. Without understanding this point, there is scarce hope for figuring out the rest of the puzzle that is the economic stagnation of today. His entire treatment is, as Rothbard would say, "100% sound" in every area: it has that persuasive power that comes with telling it the way it is.
Urban and Regional Economics
Philip McCann - 2001
Offering a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to the main foundational models, principles, and theories--including Classical, Neo-classical, and Keynesian approaches--the book uses a range of international examples to illustrate the ideas it explains. It is ideal for courses in economics, urban economics, regional economics, economic geography, land management, and urban and regional planning.
Reflection Without Rules: Economic Methodology and Contemporary Science Theory
D. Wade Hands - 2001
Professor Hands investigates economists' use of naturalistic and sociological paradigms to model economic phenomena and assesses the roles of pragmatism, discourse, and situatedness in discussions of economic practice before turning to a systematic exploration of more recent developments in economic methodology. The treatment emphasizes the changes taking place in science theory and its relationship to the movement away from a rules-based view of economic methodology.
Development, Trade, and the Wto: A Handbook
Bernard M. Hoekman - 2001
New WTO negotiations on a broad range of subjects were launched in November 2001. Determining whether and how international trade agreements can support economic development is a major challenge. Stakeholders in developing countries must be informed on the issues and understand how their interests can be pursued through international cooperation. This handbook offers guidance on the design of trade policy reform, surveys key disciplines and the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and discusses numerous issues and options that confront developing countries in using international cooperation to improve domestic policy and obtain access to export markets. Many of the issues discussed are also relevant in the context of regional integration agreements. Includes two CD-ROMs: CD-ROM 1 with 'A Dataset on Trade and Production, 1976-99' by Alessandro Nicita and Marcelo Olarreaga; and CD-ROM 2 with 'Applied Trade Policy for Developing Countries: Outline, Content, and Readings for a Short Course' by Jaime de Melo and Marc Bacchetta.
Whither China?: Intellectual Politics in Contemporary China
Xudong Zhang - 2001
Because many cultural and intellectual paradigms of the previous decade were left in ruins by that event, Chinese intellectuals were forced in the early 1990s to search for new analytical and critical frameworks. Soon, however, they found themselves engulfed by tidal waves of globalization, surrounded by a new social landscape marked by unabashed commodification, and stunned by a drastically reconfigured socialist state infrastructure. The contributors to Whither China? describe how, instead of spearheading the popular-mandated and state-sanctioned project of modernization, intellectuals now find themselves caught amid rapidly changing structures of economic, social, political, and cultural relations that are both global in nature and local in an irreducibly political sense. Individual essays interrogate the space of Chinese intellectual production today, lay out the issues at stake, and cover major debates and discursive interventions from the 1990s. Those who write within the Chinese context are joined by Western observers of contemporary Chinese cultural and intellectual life. Together, these two groups undertake a truly international intellectual struggle not only to interpret but to change the world.Contributors. Rey Chow, Zhiyuan Cui, Michael Dutton, Gan Yang, Harry Harootunian, Peter Hitchcock, Rebecca Karl, Louisa Schein, Wang Hui, Wang Shaoguang, Xudong Zhang
The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation
Davis Dyer - 2001
In the nineteenth century, Corning developed colored signal lights forrailroads. In the twentieth century, it created Pyrex and color television tubes; today, it is a Fortune 500 company leading the international marketplace in areas such as fiber optics and photonics. If you use the Internet, drive a car, or simply turn on a light, then Corning is a part of your life. The Generations of Corning tells the fascinating stories of its founding family--the Houghtons, the inventors, and the adventures, behind Corning's remarkable achievements--from unexpecteddiscoveries, like the laboratory mishap that led to Corning Ware, to the years of painstaking, often frustrating, research that led to its breakthrough in fiber optics. From 1851 to 1996, five generations of Houghtons made Corning a company that combined a culture of continuous innovation with a sense of loyalty to its employees and their community. Davis Dyer and Daniel Gross show how the critical changes in organization and leadership that accompanied each newgeneration helped Corning not just survive, but to prosper, and push itself to the cutting edge of materials technology in decade after decade. The Generations of Corning is a classic success story and a triumph of the inventive spirit.
The Vienna Circle - Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism
Friedrich Stadler - 2001
The author has unearthed previously unpublished archival material, which he uses together with recent literature, to refute a number of widespread clich�s about "logical positivism". Following some metatheoretical and methodological remarks on the troubled relation between the history of science and the philosophy of science, the author offers an accessible introduction to the complex subject of "scientific philosophy". At the same time he provides a detailed account of the socio-cultural background of the so-called "rise of scientific philosophy". The central section of the book focuses on the intellectual setting of "late enlighten-ment". Here the author analyzes the dynamic of the Schlick Circle and presents extensive archival material related to the Unity of Science conferences that took place between 1929 and 1941. Stadler then introduces some of the leading intellectuals of the Schlick Circle and its periphery. Karl Menger's "Mathematical Colloquium" is also documented here for the first time. The author then describes the relations between Moritz Schlick and Otto Neurath, the Vienna Circle and Ludwig Wittgenstein as well as between the Heinrich Gomperz Circle and Karl Popper. The first publication of the protocols of the Schlick Circle and of an interview with Karl R. Popper completes these studies. The final chapter of this section describes the de-mise of the Vienna Circle and the forced exodus of scientists and intellectuals from Austria. The second part of the book includes a bio-bibliographical documentation of the activities of the Vienna Circle and of the assassination of Moritz Schlick and an appendix comprising an extensive list of sources and literature. In this book, the author presents an exemplary study of the rise of scientific thought and its vicissitudes in this century.
Joseph Schumpeter's Two Theories of Democracy
John Medearis - 2001
Schumpeter's theory of democracy as a competition among elites has influenced several generations of political scientists, but this book is the first to show that Schumpeter also conceived of democracy as a powerful transformative tendency leading toward the establishment of democratic socialism. Deploring this prospect, he theorized elite-dominated forms of society in which democratic change could be reined in.The contrasts between the two perspectives are striking. The neglected transformative view, which this book expounds, stressed the importance of democratic beliefs and ideology, whereas the elite conception minimized their significance. The transformative perspective highlighted the radicalizing, dynamic effects of movements that attempt to realize democratic values and act upon democratic ideologies, while the better-known elite model depicted democracy in static terms and as institutionally stable.Despite the sharp contrasts, both perspectives were part of Schumpeter's complex and deeply conservative response to political change in his lifetime. Precisely because he viewed democracy as a potent transformative social force, he labored strenuously to theorize a form of society in which elites could restrain the pace and nature of democratic change.
The Atlantic Economy: Britain, the Us and Ireland
Denis O'Hearn - 2001
Follows the history of the Atlantic economy since the sixteenth century and shows how Ireland's repeated attempts to industrialise were transformed by British and American power.Explains the problems of economic growth and industrialisation from the perspectives of both the developed and developing countries. Addresses the most important question in developmental politics - how can a developing country emerge from a historical cycle of underdevelopment?. Ends with a radicalcritique of the Irish 'Celtic Tiger' phenomenon of the 1990s and argues that Ireland's recent economic success is not a decisive break with past patterns because economic growth is concentrated in a limited area.
Las raíces torcidas de América Latina (Así Fue)
Carlos Alberto Montaner - 2001
This indispensable book is vital for a comprehensive understanding of the reasons that Latin America, to this day, has stood for an unfulfilled promise.
A Swift, Elusive Sword: What if Sun Tzu and John Boyd Did a National Defense Review?
Chet Richards - 2001
Chester Richards (USAF Ret.), suggests that ancient strategic wisdom may help solve the dilemma confronting the U.S. military: spending on defense exceeds that of any combination of potential adversaries, but the services still face cancellation of weapon systems and lack of funds for training, spares, and care and feeding of the troops. Richards suggests U.S. military leaders can break out of the "dollars equals defense" mindset, and create more effective forces. The second edition contains a new forward written in response to the effects that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States have engendered in the U.S. military.
Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis
Richard A. DeFusco - 2001
No prior financial knowledge is assumed. Several features of this book are tailored specifically to help the reader. First, learning outcome statements (LOS) specify the objective of each chapter. Second, examples and problem practice are emphasized so that the reader can gain confidence in meeting the LOS objectives. Finally, examples and problems seek to present situations faced by investment practitioners and reflect the global investment community.
Just Capital: The Liberal Economy
Adair Turner - 2001
It considers the proposition that the "globalization" of the world economy limits our ability to combine economic success and a "good" society. It explores how information technology is transforming businessess and economic structures, identifies where the market is failing, and examines where the state can usefully intervene to achieve desirable social and environmental ends.
The Commonwealth of Life: Economics for a Flourishing Earth
Peter G. Brown - 2001
DeCamp professor of bioethics, Princeton University “Peter Brown has given us a structure that unites an economics of stewardship with a politics of trusteeship, based on an ethics of rights and corresponding duties. Highly recommended!”—Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland In this important book Peter G. Brown seeks to chart a new future for all who share this planet. Through a series of careful arguments, he identifies three challenges ahead of us: first, to come up with an adequate account of our minimal obligations to each other, and to the rest of the natural order; second, to redefine and reshape the institutions of economics, government, and civil society to reflect these obligations; and third, to reconceptualize and redirect the relations between nations to foster these institutions and discharge these obligations. Brown also argues that we have direct moral obligations to non-humans—this he calls “respect for the commonwealth of life.” Peter G. Brown is a professor at McGill University and director of the McGill School of Environment in Montreal. He is the author of Restoring the Public Trust: A Fresh Vision for Progressive Government in America.
Strategies for eCommerce Success
Bijan Fazlollahi - 2001
Many experts believe that by the beginning of the 22nd century the majority of business transactions and communications will be conducted through the use of Web-enabled technologies, particularly e-commerce. As a result, many organizations around the world are looking into the emerging applications of e-commerce technologies and ways to utilize them in support of their business strategies. With this field growing so rapidly, the object of all businesses is to examine the critical elements that could impact a user's perception of business-to-business and business-to-consumer electronic commerce. This volume presents a study of key components and concepts of e-commerce, evaluating the critical success factors, economics and practical issues involved with e-commerce.
Probability and Finance: It's Only a Game!
Glenn Shafer - 2001
A strong philosophical approach with practical applications. Presents in-depth coverage of classical probability theory as well as new theory.
National Purpose in the World Economy
Rawi Abdelal - 2001
Using this framework, and drawing on field research in Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus, he provides an in-depth look at the link between national identity and the economic policies of the new states formed by the breakup of the Soviet Union.All these states, from the Baltic coast to central Asia, were economically dependent on Russia during the 1990s. However, they reacted very differently to that dependence, and their reactions can be traced, Abdelal contends, to their individual societies. Some, such as Belarus, found dependence inevitable and sought economic reintegration with Russia. Others, like Lithuania, interpreted dependence as a large-scale security threat and reoriented their economies away from Russia. A third group, typified by Ukraine, demonstrated no coherent economic policy at all regarding dependence.Abdelal distinguishes the Nationalist tradition in international political economy from the Realist tradition, and shows that economic nationalism is different than mercantilism. He demonstrates the ways that national identity affects economic policy and explains why some governments seek economic autonomy while others prefer regional reintegration. He then applies his approach to other cases of economic reorganization after the end of empire--eastern Europe in the 1920s after the Habsburgs, 1950s Indonesia, and French West Africa in the 1960s.
The New Evolutionary Microeconomics: Complexity, Competence and Adaptive Behaviour (New Horizons in Institutional and Evolutionary Economics)
Jason Potts - 2001
The text charts a research programme for evolutionary economics that encompasses various theories.
Measurement and Meaning in Economics: The Essential Deirdre McCloskey
Deirdre Nansen McCloskey - 2001
The essays have been presented to show McCloskey's evolution over time: from economist to critic, positivist to postmodernist, conventional economist to feminist economist, man to woman. Measurement and Meaning in Economics allows the reader to experience an astonishing personal and intellectual journey with one of today's most fascinating economists.McCloskey argues that economics has become ahistorical and narrowly scientific, which is a harmful development for a moral science. In all of the papers presented in this volume she writes with historical consciousness and critical understanding, in an attempt to repair the dysfunctional relationship between economics and the humanities.This book should be read not only by students and scholars of economic history and philosophy, but by all those concerned with the state of economics and its place in the social sciences.
Risk, Ambiguity and Decision (Studies in Philosophy (New York, N.Y.).)
Daniel Ellsberg - 2001
Ellsberg elaborates on "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms" and mounts a powerful challenge to the dominant theory of rational decision in this book.
A Theory of the State: Economic Rights, Legal Rights, and the Scope of the State
Yoram Barzel - 2001
The protector or ruler is assumed to be self-seeking. Individuals will install a protector only after they create institutions to control him. Organized protection engenders legal institutions that enforce rights. A state of nature then gradually turns into a rule-of-law state. Individuals employ both the state and other third parties for enforcement. The fraction of agreements that the state enforces determines its scope. Rule-of-law states encourage market transactions and standards that facilitate trade. The larger the domain of the state's ultimate enforcer, the greater the advantage of scale economies to contracting. This force may explain the creation of rule-of-law empires.
Learning and Expectations in Macroeconomics
George W. Evans - 2001
Inflation, asset prices, exchange rates, investment, and consumption are just some of the economic variables that are largely explained by expectations. Here George Evans and Seppo Honkapohja bring new explanatory power to a variety of expectation formation models by focusing on the learning factor. Whereas the rational expectations paradigm offers the prevailing method to determining expectations, it assumes very theoretical knowledge on the part of economic actors. Evans and Honkapohja contribute to a growing body of research positing that households and firms learn by making forecasts using observed data, updating their forecast rules over time in response to errors. This book is the first systematic development of the new statistical learning approach.Depending on the particular economic structure, the economy may converge to a standard rational-expectations or a "rational bubble" solution, or exhibit persistent learning dynamics. The learning approach also provides tools to assess the importance of new models with expectational indeterminacy, in which expectations are an independent cause of macroeconomic fluctuations. Moreover, learning dynamics provide a theory for the evolution of expectations and selection between alternative equilibria, with implications for business cycles, asset price volatility, and policy. This book provides an authoritative treatment of this emerging field, developing the analytical techniques in detail and using them to synthesize and extend existing research.
Computational Statistics Handbook with MATLAB
Wendy L. Martinez - 2001
Often intimidated or distracted by the theory, researchers and students can lose sight of the actual goals and applications of the subject. What they need are its key concepts, an understanding of its methods, experience with its implementation, and practice with computational software.Focusing on the computational aspects of statistics rather than the theoretical, Computational Statistics Handbook with MATLAB uses a down-to-earth approach that makes statistics accessible to a wide range of users. The authors integrate the use of MATLAB throughout the book, allowing readers to see the actual implementation of algorithms, but also include step-by-step procedures to allow implementation with any suitable software. The book concentrates on the simulation/Monte Carlo point of view, and contains algorithms for exploratory data analysis, modeling, Monte Carlo simulation, pattern recognition, bootstrap, classification, cross-validation methods, probability density estimation, random number generation, and other computational statistics methods.Emphasis on the practical aspects of statistics, details of the latest techniques, and real implementation experience make the Computational Statistics Handbook with MATLAB more than just the first book to use MATLAB to solve computational problems in statistics. It also forms an outstanding, introduction to statistics for anyone in the many disciplines that involve data analysis.
Roads to Success (Business Masterminds)
Robert Heller - 2001
Charting each guru's rise to the top, Heller analyzes the factors that contributed to each one's phenomenal success. Combining these with a series of inspiring masterclasses, Heller shows you how to make their strategies world for your own success. Learn how Warren Buffet identifies strong brands, minimizes risk, recognizes ideal business acquisitions, and values hard work and honesty. Comprehend the strategies Bill Gates uses to focus on his goals, forge key collaborations, hire the best brains, make solid decisions, and dominate the market place. Discover the ideas of Peter Drucker on managing by objectives, achieving innovation, and focusing on customers. Realize why Tim Peters' management strategies enable businesses to exploit "perpetual revolution" and live with chaos in a commercially volatile world. Understand why Stephen Covey advocates widening circles of influence, developing "abundance mentalities," exercising self-leadership, and optimizing personal capabilities. Appreciate how Charles Handy sees businesses as communities, challenges dogmas, makes groups work, and lives by the "doughnut principle." Grasp the methods Andrew Grove uses to manage innovation, drive performance, and master revolutionary change.
Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan: The Road to the Future
Takeo Hoshi - 2001
Combining financial theory with new data and original case studies, they show why the Japanese financial system developed as it did and how its history affects its ongoing evolution.The authors describe four major periods within Japan's financial history and speculate on the fifth, into which Japan is now moving. Throughout, they focus on four questions: How do households hold their savings? How is business financing provided? What range of services do banks provide? And what is the nature and extent of bank involvement in the management of firms? The answers provide a framework for analyzing the history of the past 150 years, as well as implications of the just-completed reforms known as the Japanese Big Bang.Hoshi and Kashyap show that the largely successful era of bank dominance in postwar Japan is over, largely because deregulation has exposed the banks to competition from capital markets and foreign competitors. The banks are destined to shrink as households change their savings patterns and their customers continue to migrate to new funding sources. Securities markets are set to re-emerge as central to corporate finance and governance.
Moral Science and Moral Order
James M. Buchanan - 2001
Buchanan’s philosophical views as he deals with fundamental problems of moral science and moral order. As one might expect, Buchanan always goes back to fundamental principles first. From there, his observations and conclusions range far and wide from his own discipline. The thirty essays collected in Moral Science and Moral Order are divided into these categories: 1.Methods and Models 2.Belief and Consequence 3.Moral Community and Moral Order 4.Moral Science, Equality, and Justice 5.Contractarian Encounters In his foreword, Hartmut Kliemt says, “The British and Scottish Moralists of the Enlightenment period would have felt very comfortable with James Buchanan. Like them, Buchanan may be seen as a ‘man of letters’ who concerns himself with fundamental problems of moral science and moral order. But, also like them, Buchanan is not a secondhand dealer in old ideas. On the contrary, taking as inspiration classical philosopher-economists (in particular, Adam Smith), Buchanan not only proposes new applications of the neoclassical economic paradigm, he also addresses, in innovative ways, fundamental issues of his discipline and beyond.” Kliemt’s lengthy foreword highlights some of the major philosophical currents with which Buchanan is engaged in the papers collected in this volume. His introduction to these philosophies provides an excellent grounding for economists and all readers who may not be familiar with the philosophical and fundamental issues Buchanan undertakes. James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century. The entire series will include:Volume 1: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty Volume 2: Public Principles of Public Debt Volume 3: The Calculus of Consent Volume 4: Public Finance in Democratic Process Volume 5: The Demand and Supply of Public Goods Volume 6: Cost and Choice Volume 7: The Limits of Liberty Volume 8: Democracy in Deficit Volume 9: The Power to Tax Volume 10: The Reason of Rules Volume 11: Politics by Principle, Not Interest Volume 12: Economic Inquiry and Its Logic Volume 13: Politics as Public Choice Volume 14: Debt and Taxes Volume 15: Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory Volume 16: Choice, Contract, and Constitutions Volume 17: Moral Science and Moral Order Volume 18: Federalism, Liberty, and the Law Volume 19: Ideas, Persons, and Events Volume 20: Indexes
Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives
Jean Drèze - 2001
Option Pricing And Portfolio Optimization: Modern Methods Of Financial Mathematics
Ralf Korn - 2001
Banks and financial houses all over the world recognize this and are avidly recruiting mathematicians, physicists, and other scientists with these skills. The mathematics involved in modern finance springs from the heart of probability and analysis, for example: the It calculus, stochastic control, differential equations, and martingales. The authors give rigorous treatments of these topics, while always keeping the applications in mind. Thus, the way in which the mathematics is developed is governed by the way it will be used, rather than by the goal of optimal generality. Indeed, most of purely mathematical topics are treated in extended excursions from the applications into the theory. Thus, with the main topic of financial modelling and optimization in view, the reader also obtains a self-contained and complete introduction to the underlying mathematics. This book is specifically designed as a graduate textbook.
The Economic World View: Studies in the Ontology of Economics
Uskali Maki - 2001
These criteria include fundamental, unarticulated ideas regarding the basic constitutents and structure of social reality, that is, about human beings and the social arrangement of their lives. This important collection will be of great value to economists and philosophers of social sciences.
Applied Macroeconometrics
Carlo A. Favero - 2001
This is no longer the case: the Cowles Commission approach broke down in the 1970s, replaced by three prominent competing methods of empirical research: the LSE (London School of Economics) approach, the VAR approach, and the intertemporal optimization/Real Business Cycle approach. This book discusses and illustrates the empirical research strategy of these three alternative approaches by interpreting them as different proposals to solve problems observed in the Cowles Commission approach.
Game Theory: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences
Yanis Varoufakis - 2001
The articles gathered here chart the intellectual history of game theory from its place in the Enlightenment tradition, through the explosion of literature in the late 1970s, to issues of current and emerging debates. This extensively indexed set will be a valuable reference tool to researchers in sociology and politics, as well as economics.
A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists
Philip Arestis - 2001
It is an extensive and authoritative guide to economists both past and present, providing biographical, bibliographical and critical information on over 100 economists working in the non-neoclassical traditions broadly defined. It includes entries on, amongst others, radical economists, Marxists, post-Keynesians, behaviourists, Kaleckians and institutionalists. The book demonstrates the extent and richness of the radical heterodox tradition in economics.This second edition continues to mark a departure from what is usually found in a biographical dictionary for, in addition to providing standard biographical information, living economists have themselves been asked to state their principal contributions to economics, supplemented by a list of their leading books and articles.A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists, Second Edition will continue to be an essential reference source for instructors, researchers and students of economics, its development and history.
Cliffs Notes on Heilbroner The Worldly Philosophers
Mary Ellen Snodgrass - 2001
This comprehensive guide supplements the text and covers the important concepts brought about by Adam Smith, Parson Malthus, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, and more.
The UK Economy
Malcolm C. Sawyer - 2001
Comprehensively rewritten and updated at frequent intervals, The UK Economy has become acknowledged as one of the most systematic, up to date, and balanced assessments of British economic life. Written by a team of specialist economists and edited for the second time by Malcolm Sawyer, it combines factual information and informed analysis in the single most accessible guide to the character, problems, and performance of the British economy.Each chapter is written by an expert contributor. For this new edition all of the chapters have been carefully updated to include new data and analysis, ensuring that book remains fully up to date, and continues to provide an excellent introduction to the UK economy in its domestic, EU and global context.This new edition will have a companion web site containing Powerpoint slides for lecturers, annotated web links and a brief commentary on useful web sites. The site will be updated twice a year to provide new statistics and information regarding policy changes. The site will also contain material that contributors were unable to include in their chapters.
Landmark Papers in General Equilibrium Theory, Social Choice and Welfare Selected by Kenneth J. Arrow and G�rard Debreu
Kenneth J. Arrow - 2001
Together, they have made unparalleled contributions on the properties of general equilibrium systems in economics, the study of collective choice and welfare economics. The editors have shown their usual rigor in selecting those papers which, in their view, have made the most important contributions in their particular areas of expertise. This volume will be an essential source of reference for students, researchers and practitioners alike.
Patronage or Partnership: Local Capacity Building in Humanitarian Crises
Ian Smillie - 2001
By critically examining the dilemma from local perspectives, "Patronage or Partnership" finds genuine hope amidst the prevailing rhetoric and confusion.
Money and the End of Empire: British International Economic Policy and the Colonies, 1947-58
Gerold Krozewski - 2001
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, when political control was feasible, discriminatory management of the colonies sustained Britain's postwar recovery. But synergy turned into conflict as Britain moved towards economic liberalization and financial cosmopolitanism, and found it increasingly difficult to reconcile established relations with emerging priorities. Based on a wide range of archival and other sources, this study relates political and economic developments in Britain and the colonies in original ways to overcome the gulf between peripheralist and Euro-centric explanations of postwar British imperial relations, and helps redress the neglect of the empire in modern international history. Money and the End of Empire will nourish debates in British and international economic and political history and is essential reading for historians of Britain and the empire.
A Companion to Theoretical Econometrics
Badi H. Baltagi - 2001
This companion focuses on the foundations of the field and at the same time integrates popular topics often encountered by practitioners. The chapters are written by international experts and provide up-to-date research in areas not usually covered by standard econometric texts. Focuses on the foundations of econometrics. Integrates real-world topics encountered by professionals and practitioners. Draws on up-to-date research in areas not covered by standard econometrics texts. Organized to provide clear, accessible information and point to further readings.
The Fundamental Institutions of Capitalism
Ernesto Screpanti - 2001
Ernesto Screpanti puts forward a number of provocative arguments that expose common ground in both neoclassical and Marxist orthodoxies. It will appeal to a broad audience of social scientists including advanced students and professionals with an interest in politics and economics.
Landmark Papers in Economics, Politics and Law Selected by James M. Buchanan
James M. Buchanan - 2001
This notable volume seeks to identify for future generations the landmark contributions to this area made in the twentieth century.
Growth Without Miracles: Readings on the Chinese Economy in the Era of Reform
Ross Garnaut - 2001
It not only significantly improved the living conditions of the Chinese population but also provides a useful model of economic transition from central planning to a market economy. Growth without Miracles brings together thirty widely-cited articles by prominent economists in the field of China studies to offer authoritative and through assessments and analyses of China's experience during the reform period.