Best of
Economics

2002

Dismantling America: and other controversial essays


Thomas Sowell - 2002
    This decline has been more than an erosion. It has, in many cases, been a deliberate dismantling of American values and institutions by people convinced that their superior wisdom and virtue must over-ride both the traditions of the country and the will of the people.Whether these essays (originally published as syndicated newspaper columns) are individually about financial bailouts, illegal immigrants, gay marriage, national security, or the Duke University rape case, the underlying concern is about what these very different kinds of things say about the general direction of American society.This larger and longer-lasting question is whether the particular issues discussed reflect a degeneration or dismantling of the America that we once knew and expected to pass on to our children and grandchildren. There are people determined that this country's values, history, laws, traditions and role in the world are fundamentally wrong and must be changed. Such people will not stop dismantling America unless they get stopped—and the next election may be the last time to stop them, before they take the country beyond the point of no return.

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages


Carlota Pérez - 2002
    Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter's theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a "New Economy" and how these "opportunity explosions", focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society. By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this book sheds light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today.

Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment


Thomas Gilovich - 2002
    Do I have a strong enough case to go to trial? Will the Fed change interest rates? Can I trust this person? This book examines how people answer such questions. How do people cope with the complexities of the world economy, the uncertain behavior of friends and adversaries, or their own changing tastes and personalities? When are people's judgments prone to bias, and what is responsible for their biases? This book compiles psychologists' best attempts to answer these important questions.

The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty & War


Jacque Fresco - 2002
    Fresco envisions a global civilization in which science and technology are applied with human and environmental concern, offering a standard of living far beyond anything ever imagined in the past. It is a new vision of hope for the future of humankind in this technological age. This book is accompanied by 72 color photos of Fresco's original and imaginative designs from sustainable cities on land and in the sea to clean efficient energy systems, which help one visualize the fulfilling lifestyle of this attainable future. This book presents an alternative vision for a sustainable new world civilization unlike any social system before. It offers a possible way out of our recurring cycles of boom and recession, famine, poverty, a declining environment, and territorial conflicts where peace is merely the interval between wars. It outlines an attainable, humane social design of the near future were human rights are not longer paper proclamations but a way of life. The Best That Money Can't Buy is a challenge to all people to work toward a society in which all of the world's resources become the common heritage of all of the earth's people.

Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity


Timothy Mitchell - 2002
    These explore the way malaria, sugar cane, war, and nationalism interacted to produce the techno-politics of the modern Egyptian state; the forms of debt, discipline, and violence that founded the institution of private property; the methods of measurement, circulation, and exchange that produced the novel idea of a national "economy," yet made its accurate representation impossible; the stereotypes and plagiarisms that created the scholarly image of the Egyptian peasant; and the interaction of social logics, horticultural imperatives, powers of desire, and political forces that turned programs of economic reform in unanticipated directions.Mitchell is a widely known political theorist and one of the most innovative writers on the Middle East. He provides a rich examination of the forms of reason, power, and expertise that characterize contemporary politics. Together, these intellectually provocative essays will challenge a broad spectrum of readers to think harder, more critically, and more politically about history, power, and theory.

Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective


Ha-Joon Chang - 2002
    Adopting a historical approach, Dr Chang finds that the economic evolution of now-developed countries differed dramatically from the procedures that they now recommend to poorer nations. His conclusions are compelling and disturbing: that developed countries are attempting to 'kick away the ladder' with which they have climbed to the top, thereby preventing developing counties from adopting policies and institutions that they themselves have used. This book is the winner of the 2003 Myrdal Prize, European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy. For more information please see the book website: http: //kickingawaytheladder.anthempressblog.com

Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights


Thom Hartmann - 2002
    He begins by uncovering an original eyewitness account of the Boston Tea Party and demonstrates that it was provoked not by "taxation without representation" as is commonly suggested but by the specific actions of the East India Company, which represented the commericial interests of the British elite.Hartmann then describes the history of the Fourteenth Amendment--created at the end of the Civil War to grant basic rights to freed slaves--and how it has been used by lawyers representing corporate interests to extend additional rights to businesses far more frequently than to freed slaves. Prior to 1886, corporations were referred to in U.S. law as "artificial persons." but in 1886, after a series of cases brought by lawyers representing the expanding railroad interests, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were "persons" and entitled to the same rights granted to people under the Bill of Rights. Since this ruling, America has lost the legal structures that allowed for people to control corporate behavior.As a result, the largest transnational corporations fill a role today that has historically been filled by kings. They control most of the world's wealth and exert power over the lives of most of the world's citizens. Their CEOs are unapproachable and live lives of nearly unimaginable wealth and luxury. They've become the rudder that steers the ship of much human experience, and they're steering it by their prime value--growth and profit and any expense--a value that has become destructive for life on Earth. This new feudalism was not what our Founders--Federalists and Democratic Republicans alike--envisioned for America.It's time for "we, the people" to take back our lives. Hartmann proposes specific legal remedies that could truly save the world from political, economic, and ecological disaster.

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School


Gene Callahan - 2002
    Gene Callahan shows that good economics isn't about government planning or statistical models. It's about human beings and the choices they make in the real world. This may be the most important book of its kind since Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. Though written for the beginner, it has been justly praised by scholars too, including Israel Kirzner, Walter Block, and Peter Boettke.

A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II


Murray N. Rothbard - 2002
    Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor. You will treasure this volume. From the introduction by Joseph Salerno: "Rothbard employs the Misesian approach to economic history consistently and dazzlingly throughout the volume to unravel the causes and consequences of events and institutions ranging over the course of U.S. monetary history, from the colonial times through the New Deal era. One of the important benefits of Rothbard's unique approach is that it naturally leads to an account of the development of the U.S. monetary system in terms of a compelling narrative linking human motives and plans that often-times are hidden, and devious, leading to outcomes that sometimes are tragic. And one will learn much more about monetary history from reading this exciting story than from poring over reams of statistical analysis. Although its five parts were written separately, this volume presents a relative integrated narrative, with very little overlap, that sweeps across three hundreds years of U.S. monetary history."

Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism


Joshua Muravchik - 2002
    Indeed, no religion ever spread so far so fast. Yet while socialism had established itself as a fact of life by the beginning of the 20th century, it did not create societies of abundance or give birth to 'the New Man'. Each failure inspired new searches for the path to the promised land: revolution, communes, social democracy, Communism, Fascism, Third World socialism. None worked, and some exacted staggering human tolls. Then, after two hundred years of wishful thinking and fitful governance, socialism suddenly imploded in a fin du siecle drama of falling walls and collapsing regimes. This book traces this fiery trajectory through sketches of the thinkers and leaders who developed the theory, led it to power, and presided over its collapse. Muravchik's accomplishment in 'Heaven on Earth' is to tell a story filled with character and event while at the same time giving us an epic chronicle of a movement that tried to turn the world upside down -- and for a time succeeded.

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science


Charles Wheelan - 2002
    In fact, you won’t be able to put this bestseller down. In our challenging economic climate, this perennial favorite of students and general readers is more than a good read, it’s a necessary investment—with a blessedly sure rate of return. This revised and updated edition includes commentary on hot topics such as automation, trade, income inequality, and America’s rising debt. Ten years after the financial crisis, Naked Economics examines how policymakers managed the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.Demystifying buzzwords, laying bare the truths behind oft-quoted numbers, and answering the questions you were always too embarrassed to ask, the breezy Naked Economics gives you the tools to engage with pleasure and confidence in the deeply relevant, not so dismal science.

Controversial Essays


Thomas Sowell - 2002
    One of conservatism's most articulate voices dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, education, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects.

Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce A.D. 300-900


Michael McCormick - 2002
    It brings fresh evidence to bear on the fall of the Roman empire and the origins of the medieval economy. The book uses new material from recent excavations, and develops a new method for the study of hundreds of travelers to reconstitute the communications infrastructure that conveyed those travelers--ship sailings, overland routes--linking Europe to Africa and Asia, from the time of the later Roman empire to the reign of Charlemagne and beyond.

The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought


Jerry Z. Muller - 2002
    Philosophers, politicians, poets and social scientists have debated the cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism for centuries, and their claims have been many and diverse. The Mind and the Market is a remarkable history of how the idea of capitalism has developed in Western thought.Ranging across an ideological spectrum that includes Hobbes, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Hegel, Marx, and Matthew Arnold, as well as twentieth-century communist, fascist, and neoliberal intellectuals, historian Jerry Muller examines a fascinating thread of ideas about the ramifications of capitalism and its future implications. This is an engaging and accessible history of ideas that reverberate throughout everyday life.

Tomorrow's Gold: Asia's Age of Discovery


Marc Faber - 2002
    Far from being a sensational reading of the runes, this book delves deep into the past, to chart how old investor trends developed and assess how new patterns might emerge. Change is the thread. As Faber points out, the world is experiencing a transformation as great as Europe s late-15th Century golden age of discovery and the Industrial Revolution of the19th Century events that altered the commercial face of the Earth forever.And from this dramatic landscape a world in which economic, social and political conditions are morphing at an alarming rate Faber identifies investment opportunities.Asia s three-billion-strong population will have a profound effect on the world, writes Faber, cautioning that today s richest cities and clusters of wealth are unlikely to retain their exalted positions in the future.

Gold Wars


Ferdinand Lips - 2002
    It shows how governments, fearing the affinity of free people for gold, fight it, thereby helping to destroy countries and the gold-mining industry.

The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money, the Story of Power


Stephen A. Zarlenga - 2002
    

Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns


Elroy Dimson - 2002
    In the 1950s, who but the most rampant optimist would have dreamt that over the next fifty years the real return on equities would be 9% per year? Yet this is what happened in the U.S. stock market. The optimists triumphed. However, as Don Marquis observed, an optimist is someone who never had much experience. The authors of this book extend our experience across regions and across time. They present a comprehensive and consistent analysis of investment returns for equities, bonds, bills, currencies and inflation, spanning sixteen countries, from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. This is achieved in a clear and simple way, with over 130 color diagrams that make comparison easy.Crucially, the authors analyze total returns, including reinvested income. They show that some historical indexes overstate long-term performance because they are contaminated by survivorship bias and that long-term stock returns are in most countries seriously overestimated, due to a focus on periods that with hindsight are known to have been successful.The book also provides the first comprehensive evidence on the long-term equity risk premium--the reward for bearing the risk of common stocks. The authors reveal whether the United States and United Kingdom have had unusually high stock market returns compared to other countries. The book covers the U.S., the U.K., Japan, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, and South Africa. Triumph of the Optimists is required reading for investment professionals, financial economists, and investors. It will be the definitive reference in the field and consulted for years to come.

The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society


David T. Beito - 2002
    Unfortunately, many proposals for improving our communities rely on renewed governmental efforts without a similar recognition that the inflexibility and poor accountability of governments have often worsened society's ills. The Voluntary City investigates the history of large-scale, private provision of social services, the for-profit provision of urban infrastructure and community governance, and the growing privatization of residential life in the United States to argue that most decentralized, competitive markets can contribute greatly to community renewal.Among the fascinating topics covered are: how mutual-aid societies in America, Great Britain, and Australia provided their members with medical care, unemployment insurance, sickness insurance, and other social services before the welfare state; how private law, known historically as the law merchant, is returning in the form of arbitration; and why the rise of neighborhood associations represents the most comprehensive privatization occurring in the United States today.The volume concludes with an epilogue that places the discoveries of The Voluntary City within the theory of market and government failure and discusses the implications of these discoveries for theories about the private provision of public goods. A refreshing challenge to the position that insists government alone can improve community life, The Voluntary City will be of special interest to students of history, law, urban life, economics, and government.David T. Beito is Associate Professor of History, University of Alabama. Peter Gordon is Professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and Department of Economics, University of Southern California. Alexander Tabarrok is Vice President and Research Director, the Independent Institute.

The Boom and the Bubble: The US in the World Economy


Robert Brenner - 2002
    So impressive was the surface appearance of this rescue mission that all manner of commentators proclaimed—once again—that a ‘new economy’ or ‘new paradigm’ of unlimited and harmonious growth had been forged. Today, as recession looms, the babble about Internet start-ups is exposed as vapid. Yet the pundits are no nearer an understanding of how or why the boom turned into a bubble, or why the bubble has burst. In this crisp and forensic book, Robert Brenner demonstrates that the boom was always a fragile phenomenon—buoyed up by absurd levels of debt and stock-market overvaluation—which never broke free from the fundamental malady of overcapacity and overproduction which continues to afflict the global economy. Carefully dismantling the myths and hype that surround the US boom in terms of profitability, investment, and productivity, Brenner restores the properly international context to the process. He portrays the ‘zero-sum’ character of the American success, which presupposed the relative weakness of its main German and Japanese competitors: a strategy that has laid huge obstacles in the path of a ‘soft landing’ to end the current phase of growth. A substantial new Postscript provides and up-to-date analysis of the Bush economic debacle—the crisis of manufacturing, the telecom bust, the record twin deficits, plummeting employment, and the real estate bubble.

Globalization: Capatalism and Its Alternatives


Leslie Sklair - 2002
    The book will continue to offer a concise and illuminating treatment of globalization for all students and academics in understanding how the global system works.

Power in the Global Age: A New Global Political Economy


Ulrich Beck - 2002
    Beck offers an illuminating account of the changing nature of power in the global age and assesses the influence of the ever-expanding counter-powers. The author puts forward the provocative thesis that in an age of global crises and risks, a politics of "golden handcuffs" - the creation of a dense network of transnational interdependencies - is exactly what is needed in order to regain national autonomy, not least in relation to a highly mobile world economy. It is imperative that the maxim of nation-based realpolitik - that national interests have necessarily to be pursued by national means - be replaced by the maxim of cosmopolitan realpolitik. The more cosmopolitan our political structures and activities, Beck suggests, the more successful they will be in promoting national interests, and the greater our individual power in this global age will be.

Social Marketing: Improving the Quality of Life


Philip Kotler - 2002
    Actual cases and research efforts richly support each of the eight steps in the process. Included in the text are more than 25 in-depth cases, about 100 examples of social marketing campaigns, and ten research highlights to represent the scope of research methodologies. The appendix includes worksheets for each step to complete a marketing plan for students and practitioners.The methodologies in this text have been classroom tested and refined by students who prepared marketing campaigns using this eight step planning process.

Auction Theory


Vijay Krishna - 2002
    The book develops the main concepts of auction theory from scratch in a self-contained and theoretically rigorous manner. It explores auctions and competitive bidding as games of incomplete information through detailed examinations of themes central to auction theory.This book complements its superb presentation of auction theory with clear and concise proofs of all results on bidding strategies, efficiency, and revenue maximization. It provides discussions on auction-related subjects, including private value auctions; the Revenue Equivalence Principle; auctions with interdependent values; the Revenue Ranking (Linkage) Principle; mechanism design with interdependent values; bidding rings; multiple object auctions; equilibrium and efficiency with private values; and nonidentical objects.This book is essential reading for graduate students taking courses on auction theory, the economics of information, or the economics of incentives, as well as for any serious student of auctions. It will also appeal to professional economists or business analysts working in contract theory, experimental economics, industrial organization, and microeconomic theory.

Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century


Mark Blyth - 2002
    Blyth analyzes the 1930s and 1970s, two periods of deep-seated institutional change that characterized the twentieth century. Viewing both periods of change as part of the same dynamic, Blyth argues that the 1930s labor reacted against the exigencies of the market and demanded state action to mitigate the market's effects by embedding liberalism and the 1970s, those who benefited least from such embedding institutions, namely business, reacted against these constraints and sought to overturn that institutional order. In Great Transformations, Blyth demonstrates the critical role economic ideas played in making institutional change possible and he rethinks the relationship between uncertainty, ideas, and interests on how, and under what conditions, institutional change takes place. Mark Blyth is an assistant professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University specializing in comparative political economy. He has taught at Columbia University, and at the University of Birmingham, UK. Blyth is a member of the editorial board of the Review of International Political Economy.

Salvos Against the New Deal: Selections from the "Saturday Evening Post" 1933-1940


Garet Garrett - 2002
    Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton PressIn response to the Great Depression FDR rolled out the collection of sweeping reforms known as the New Deal - and few dared to oppose them.  However, Saturday Evening Post columnist Garet Garrett believed that the reforms would permanently alter and damage the American way of life - so, at great risk to his own career - oppose them he did.

Applied Computational Economics and Finance


Mario J. Miranda - 2002
    It emphasizes practical numerical methods rather than mathematical proofs and focuses on techniques that apply directly to economic analyses. The examples are drawn from a wide range of subspecialties of economics and finance, with particular emphasis on problems in agricultural and resource economics, macroeconomics, and finance. The book also provides an extensive Web-site library of computer utilities and demonstration programs.The book is divided into two parts. The first part develops basic numerical methods, including linear and nonlinear equation methods, complementarity methods, finite-dimensional optimization, numerical integration and differentiation, and function approximation. The second part presents methods for solving dynamic stochastic models in economics and finance, including dynamic programming, rational expectations, and arbitrage pricing models in discrete and continuous time. The book uses MATLAB to illustrate the algorithms and includes a utilities toolbox to help readers develop their own computational economics applications.

The Efficient Society: Why Canada Is as Close to Utopia as It Gets


Joseph Heath - 2002
    In Canada, personal liberty takes precedence over collective well-being, which makes it an efficient society, but this efficiency is under siege. Can we resist the allure of shortsighted tax cuts? Can we maintain our quality of life in the face of relentless pressure to increase our productivity-both at work and at home? This is a profound and important look at how government and business conspire to improve our lives-and at the dramatic changes that will decide our social and economic future.

The Art of Buying Art


Alan Bamberger - 2002
    Soft cover; 284 pages. By Alan S. Bamberger, noted art expert, author, and syndicated columnist.

After Capitalism


David Schweickart - 2002
    He names this system Economic Democracy, a successor-system to capitalism which preserves the efficiency strengths of a market economy while extending democracy to the workplace and to the structures of investment finance. Drawing on both theoretical and empirical research, Schweickart shows how and why this model is efficient, dynamic, and superior to capitalism along a range of values."

The Drama of the Commons


Elinor Ostrom - 2002
    It has had tremendous value for stimulating research, but it only describes the reality of human-environment interactions in special situations. Research over the past thirty years has helped clarify how human motivations, rules governing access to resources, the structure of social organizations, and the resource systems themselves interact to determine whether or not the many dramas of the commons end happily. In this book, leaders in the field review the evidence from several disciplines and many lines of research and present a state-of-the-art assessment. They summarize lessons learned and identify the major challenges facing any system of governance for resource management. They also highlight the major challenges for the next decade: making knowledge development more systematic; understanding institutions dynamically; considering a broader range of resources (such as global and technological commons); and taking into account the effects of social and historical context. This book will be a valuable and accessible introduction to the field for students and a resource for advanced researchers.

Alienation And Freedom


Richard Schmitt - 2002
    His concern focuses specifically on those who are alienated-- those persons who have difficulty finding meaning in their lives, who lack confidence in themselves and trust in others and, finally, who are constantly distracted by consumer society. He explores how and why alienation occurs. From friendship, love, and work, Alienation and Freedom touches on issues meaningful to us all.

Fat Cats and Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism


Vijay Prashad - 2002
    Behind the screams over workers' disappearing pensions, disappearing jobs, and disappearing CEO responsibility lies a bigger story: What Enron has done to the world. Included is "A Manual for Corporate Terrestrial Conquest," complete with juicy tips for imperialist globalization:how to fix prices using ADM as a model; how to enlist the henchmen of the imperial state (such as the CIA's economic espionage division and USAID, as Enron has done);and how to use terrorism and the drug war to push for more corporate control as Enron did in Colombia.Prashad shows we have come full-circle, back to the imperialism practiced by the East India Company from 1600-1857. Even as Enron collapsed, Enronism is the new normal. A new level of criminality. Criminality perfected by Enron.

The Global Political Economy of Israel


Jonathan Nitzan - 2002
    What lies behind this transformation? In order to understand capitalist development, argue Bichler and Nitzan, we need to break the artificial separation between "economics" and "politics", and think of accumulation itself as "capitalisation of power". Applying this concept to Israel, they reveal the big picture that never makes it to the news. Diverse processes – such as regional conflicts and energy crises, ruling class formation and dominant ideology, militarism and dependency, inflation and recession, the politics of high-technology and the transnationalisation of ownership – are all woven into a single story. The result is a fascinating account of one of the world’s most volatile regions.

The Development of Modern Business


Gordon Boyce - 2002
    It addresses enduring concerns for entrepreneurs and managers and demonstrates the value of a historical perspective from which to judge present-day issues. Each chapter considers an issue of current significance, introduces theories to illuminate the topic, and discusses historical evidence and debates.

Russia's Virtual Economy


Clifford G. Gaddy - 2002
    Circulated at the highest levels of the Russian and U.S. governments and reported in leading publications worldwide, their thesis--that Russia's economy is based on illusion or pretense about nearly every important economic yardstick, including prices, sales, wages and budgets--has forced broad recognition of the inadequacies of the intended market reform policies in Russia. More important, their work has provided a coherent framework for understanding how and why so much of Russia's economy has resisted reform. Gaddy and Ickes now use the virtual economy concept to project the near- and middle-term future of the Russian economy and suggest possible policy responses. Drawing on new empirical material from published and unpublished sources and from their own extensive field work in Russia, the authors examine critical aspects of the virtual economy: manufacturing enterprises, households and the public sectors, both local and federal. For the first time, they will also integrate the financial and agricultural sectors into their model. Gaddy's and Ickes' book can be expected to be a seminal work for understanding the inner workings of the Russian economy. Clifford G. Gaddy is a fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution and a member of Brookings' Center on Social and Economic Dynamics. He is the author of The Price of the Past: Russia's Struggle with the Legacy of a Militarized Economy (Brookings, 1996) and coauthor of Open for Business: Russia's Return to the Global Economy(Brookings, 1992). Barry W. Ickes is associate professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University and director of research at the New Economic School, Moscow.

Food for All: The Need for a New Agriculture


John Madeley - 2002
    He outlines a low-external input approach, along with a re-integration of new farming practices like organic agriculture and permaculture, and a range of "green" technologies which would eventually make world agriculture a viable livelihood for farmers, providing enough food for the hungry, and safe and good-tasting for the rest of us--all without harming the environment.

Beyond the Market: The Social Foundations of Economic Efficiency


Jens Beckert - 2002
    Prevailing economic theory, which explains efficiency using formalized rational choice models, often simplifies human behavior to the point of distortion. Jens Beckert finds such theory to be particularly weak in explaining such crucial forms of economic behavior as cooperation, innovation, and action under conditions of uncertainty--phenomena he identifies as the proper starting point for a sociology of economic action.Beckert levels an enlightened critique at neoclassical economics, arguing that understanding efficiency requires looking well beyond the market to the social, cultural, political, and cognitive factors that influence the coordination of economic action. Beckert searches social theory for the components of an alternative theory of action, one that accounts for the social embedding of economic behavior. In Durkheim and Parsons he finds especially useful approaches to cooperation; in Luhmann, a way to understand how people act under highly contingent conditions; and in Giddens, an understanding of creative action and innovation. Together, these provide building blocks for a research program that will yield a theoretically sophisticated understanding of how economic processes are coordinated and the ways that markets are embedded in social, cultural, and cognitive structures.Containing one of the most fully informed critiques of the neoclassical analysis of economic efficiency--as well as one of the most thoughtful blueprints for economic sociology--this book reclaims for sociology the study of one of the most important arenas of human action.

Patents, Citations, and Innovations: A Window on the Knowledge Economy


Adam B. Jaffe - 2002
    This book demonstrates the usefulness of patents and citations data as a window on the process of technological change and as a powerful tool for research on the economics of innovation. Patent records contain a wealth of information, including the inventors' identity, location, and employer, as well as the technological field of the invention. Patents also contain citation references to previous patents, which allow one to trace links across inventions.The book lays out the conceptual foundations for such research and provides a range of interesting applications, such as examining the geographic pattern of knowledge spillovers and evaluating the impact of university and government patenting. It also describes statistical tools designed to handle methodological problems raised by the patent and citation processes. The book is accompanied by a set of auxiliary materials, including complete data on 3 million patents with more than 16 million citations and a range of author-devised measures of the importance, generality, and originality of patented innovations. This is available for download at http: //mitpress.mit.edu/jaffecdcontents.

Market Failure or Success: The New Debate


Tyler Cowen - 2002
    According to the new paradigm, we can expect substantial failure in the markets for labor, credit, insurance, software, new technologies and even used cars, to give but a few examples. This volume brings together the key papers on the subject, including classic papers by Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof and Paul David.The book provides powerful theoretical and empirical rebuttals challenging the assumptions of these new models and questioning the usual policy conclusions. It goes on to demonstrate how an examination of real markets and careful experimental studies are unable to verify the new theories. New frontiers for research are also suggested.The first systematic analysis of these important new theories, Market Failure or Success is required reading for all who seek to better understand one of the most exciting debates in economics today.

Introduction to Digital Audio Coding and Standards


Marina Bosi - 2002
    The topic of digital audio coding is of interest to a wide audience, including engineering and industrial professionals working in telecommunications, hardware design, music, and software product development. Introduction to Digital Audio Coding and Standards provides a detailed introduction to the methods, implementations, and official standards of state-of-the-art audio coding technology. In the book, the theory and implementation of each of the basic coder building blocks is addressed. The building blocks are then fit together into a full coder and the reader is shown how to judge the performance of such a coder. Finally, the authors discuss the features, choices, and performance of the main state-of-the-art coders defined in the ISO/IEC MPEG and HDTV standards and in commercial use today. The ultimate goal of this book is to present the reader with a solid enough understanding of the major issues in the theory and implementation of perceptual audio coders that they are able to build their own simple audio codec. There is no other source available where a non-professional has access to the true secrets of audio coding. Introduction to Digital Audio Coding and Standards is based on a graduate course at Stanford University going into its 7th year. The subject material has been fine-tuned through this process to be accessible to readers of vastly differing backgrounds, levels of preparation, and interests. Exercises that apply the concepts covered are included at the end of each chapter.

Post Walrasian Macroeconomics: Beyond the Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model


David Colander - 2002
    The latest evolution is the development of a new synthesis that combines insights of new classical, new Keynesian and real business cycle traditions into a dynamic, stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model that serves as a foundation for thinking about macro policy. That new synthesis has opened up the door to a new antithesis, which is being driven by advances in computing power and analytic techniques. This new synthesis is coalescing around developments in complexity theory, automated general to specific econometric modeling, agent-based models, and non-linear and statistical dynamical models. This book thus provides the reader with an introduction to what might be called a Post Walrasian research program that is developing as the antithesis of the Walrasian DSGE synthesis.

Foreign Direct Investment: Theory, Evidence and Practice


Imad A. Moosa - 2002
    Moosa presents a survey of the vast body of literature and ideas relating to foreign direct investment that will be invaluable as a reference work for all these groups. He provides concise definition and analysis of the theories behind foreign direct investment, and considers factors affecting its implementation. The impact of foreign direct investment on economic development, host countries and the growth of multinationals, together with methods for evaluating foreign direct investment projects are discussed.

American Economic Policy in the 1990s


Peter R. Orszag - 2002
    Strong economic growth and falling unemployment were accompanied by low inflation and rising budget surpluses. Although personal bankruptcies climbed, the personal saving rate fell, and the trade deficit expanded, overall, U.S. economic performance during the 1990s was outstanding.This book is a unique attempt to write the first history of the making of American economic policy during the 1990s. One way to view it is as a "debriefing" of those who made the decisions. Each chapter is devoted to a particular area of economic policy and consists of a background paper written by leading academic economists together with short essays by prominent policymakers, many of whom served in the Clinton administration or previous administrations, and by independent observers. The questions asked about each policy area include: What were the pros and cons of alternative options under consideration? What decision was made? What were the relevant economic arguments for that decision, and what political interests were served? Were other options missing from consideration? Is it possible to judge whether the decision was the right one? Are there lessons for the future?

The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Approach


Robin Hahnel - 2002
    'Lucidly written, comprehensive in coverage, based on expert understanding and insight.' Noam Chomsky

The No-Nonsense Guide to Class, Caste & Hierarchies


Jeremy Seabrook - 2002
    In older but less industrialized societies, notably India, the caste system defines inherited and fixed positions in society. In totalitarian regimes, a hierarchical structure is created through party allegiance and bureaucratic or military rank.

Lectures on Economic Growth


Robert E. Lucas Jr. - 2002
    The framework in all the chapters is a model with accumulation of both physical and human capital, with emphasis on the external benefits of human capital through diffusion of new knowledge or on-the-job learning, often stimulated by trade. The Kuznets Lectures consider the interaction of human capital growth and the demographic transition in the early stages of industrialization. In the final chapter, Lucas uses a diffusion model to illustrate the possibility that the vast intersociety income inequality created in the course of the Industrial Revolution may have already reached its peak, and that income differences will decline in this century.

When All Else Fails: Government as the Ultimate Risk Manager


David A. Moss - 2002
    Moving beyond the most familiar public functions--spending, taxation, and regulation--When All Else Fails spotlights the government's pivotal role as a risk manager. It reveals, as never before, the nature and extent of this governmental function, which touches almost every aspect of economic life.In policies as diverse as limited liability, deposit insurance, Social Security, and federal disaster relief, American lawmakers have managed a wide array of private-sector risks, transforming both the government and countless private actors into insurers of last resort. Drawing on history and economic theory, David Moss investigates these risk-management policies, focusing in particular on the original logic of their enactment. The nation's lawmakers, he finds, have long believed that pervasive imperfections in private markets for risk necessitate a substantial government role. It remains puzzling, though, why such a large number of the resulting policies have proven so popular in a country famous for its anti-statism. Moss suggests that the answer may lie in the nature of the policies themselves, since publicly mandated risk shifting often requires little in the way of invasive bureaucracy. Well suited to a society suspicious of government activism, public risk management has emerged as a critical form of government intervention in the United States.

The Brandgym: A Practical Workout for Boosting Brand and Business


David Taylor - 2002
    It will help brand managers ensure the healthy life of their brands by focusing on the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques that make sustained brand growth happen.

Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa


Leo Zeilig - 2002
    Includes interviews with leading African socialists and activists.With contributions from Leo Zeilig, David Seddon, Anne Alexander, Dave Renton, Ahmad Hussein, Jussi Vinnikka, Femi Aborisade, Miles Larmer, Austin Muneku, Peter Dwyer, Trevor Ngwane, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tafadzwa Choto, and Azwell Banda.Leo Zeilig coordinated the independent media center in Zimbabwe during the presidential elections of 2002 and, prior to this, worked as a lecturer at Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. He then worked for three years as a lecturer and researcher at Brunel University, moving later to the Center of Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg. He has written on the struggle for democratic change, social movements, and student activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Zeilig is co-author of The Congo: Plunder and Resistance 1880–2005.

The Myth of Consumerism


Conrad Lodziak - 2002
    brilliantly original ... brings cultural and post-colonial theory to bear on a wide range of authors with great skill and sensitivity.' Terry Eagleton

The Empire of the St. Lawrence: A Study in Commerce and Politics


Donald Grant Creighton - 2002
    Lawrence, 1760-1850" and re-issued in its present form in 1956, Donald Creighton's study of the St. Lawrence became an essential text in Canadian history courses. This, his first book, helped establish Creighton as the foremost English Canadian historian of his generation. In it, he examines the trading system that developed along the St. Lawrence River and he argues that the exploitation of key staple products by colonial merchants along the St. Lawrence River system was key to Canada's economic and national development. Creighton tells the story of the St. Lawrence empire largely from the perspective of these Canadian merchants, who, above all others, struggled to win the territorial empire of the St. Lawrence and to establish the Canadian commercial state.Christopher H. Moore, historian and Governor General Award winner, has written a new introduction to this classic text.

Machine Nature: The Coming Age of Bio-Inspired Computing


Moshe Sipper - 2002
    Researchers at the frontiers of computer science have turned to nature for solutions to the problem of machine adaptation and learning. By applying models of complex biological systems to the realm of computing machines, they have given rise to a new breed of adaptive software and hardware. In "Machine Nature," computer scientist Moshe Sipper takes readers on a thrilling journey to the terra nova of computing, to provide a compelling look at cutting-edge computers, robots, andmachines now and in the decades ahead, including: "Embryonic" chips that self-heal and artificial immune systems that function like their biological counterparts to fight off computer viruses DNA computing--a technique for building computers out of DNA instead of silicon The deeper questions arising from the arrival of machines that are adaptive, autonomous, lifelike, and perhaps--one day--living

State Banking in Early America: A New Economic History


Howard Bodenhorn - 2002
    Dr. Bodenhorn's book explores regional differences in banking structures, which bear indirectly in the conection between financial and economic development. If a single theme emerges, it is that the United States benefitted from its free banking philosophy in which state governments, rather than a centralized authority, created financial structures designed to serve specific, local needs. Thus decentralized federalism provided state legislatures with a great deal of flexibility in their individual approaches to economic and financial issues. The important lessons to be learned from Dr. Bodenhorn's historical account are that successful banking systems are flexible, predictable, and incentive-compatible; they meet the needs of the borrowers, depositors and shareholders, and they reduce downside risks to generally agreed upon levels. These lessons imply that we cannot, a priori, define an optimal, one-size-fits-all banking system. We need to know something about the formal and informal institutions underlying an economy and about the risk preferences of its citizenry. Historically, outsiders view Americans as experimenters and risk takers. Nowhere is this experimentation and risk taking more apparent than in early American banking policies.

Macroeconomic Policy: Demystifying Monetary and Fiscal Policy


Farrokh K. Langdana - 2002
    The book demystifies the linkages between monetary and fiscal policies and key macroeconomic variables such as income, unemployment, inflation and interest rates. MBA and Executive MBA students who appreciate the importance of monetary and fiscal analysis should find this text to be of use. Financial analysts and individual investors who need to strip away economic myths and jargon and systematically examine and understand the effects of macro policies may also find the book useful. One feature of this book is the extensive use of specially written newspaper articles designed to simulate current macroeconomic news. Topics such as unemployment, soft landings, overheated economies, asset-price bubbles, liquidity traps, hyperinflations and exchange rate meltdowns are incorporated in these articles. Each chapter contains exercises that enable the reader to relate specific underlined passages in these articles to the theory presented in preceding chapters.

Economic Methodology: An Inquiry


Sheila C. Dow - 2002
    It presents issues in economics in order to demonstrate the need for methodological awareness and debate. The core of the book then explains the content anddevelopment of thought in methodology in relation to issues in economics, with an especial emphasis on the most recent thinking in the area.

Marketing Research: An Integrated Approach


Alan M. Wilson - 2002
    The text integrates the key concepts and techniques of marketing research with the management of customer information from databases, loyalty cards and customer files.Marketing Research is written in a clear and accessible style using many examples, real-life case histories and discussions of current issues in marketing research and customer information management that makes it very suitable for supporting the delivery of single semester modules on marketing research.Online resources include an Instructor’s Manual and PowerPoint slides for instructors, along with a free CD incorporating a ‘demo’ version of SNAP, one of the leading fully-integrated survey software packages for questionnaire design, data collection and analysis.

Turn Your Debt Into Wealth


John M. Cummuta - 2002
    Get completely out of debt -- including your home mortgage -- and start building real wealth with the money you already make.Whether or not your credit cards are maxed out and you have a huge mortgage to pay off, you can still get rid of all your debt in five to seven years -- and begin rapid wealth-building."Turn Your Debt Into Wealth" shows you how to attain real financial freedom by focusing every dollar that you are currently using on debt payments towards building wealth -- without sacrificing the things that mean the most to you.In "Turn Your Debt Into Wealth," you'll learn:How you've been misled by a system designed to keep you imprisoned in debtA simple, low-risk/high-return strategy for wealth-buildingHow to retire early with your investments providing all the income you needHow to redefine the American Dream to fit your personal vision of success

Unequal Partners: A Primer on Globalization


William K. Tabb - 2002
    But do we know the effect of the global market on education, the spread of AIDS, and the costs of basic medicines? In clear detail, Unequal Partners shows how the merger of corporate and governmental interests has sacrificed public health and the environment for profits. The book also provides a blueprint for resistance by describing “globalization from below”: the coalition of movements that has been increasingly effective in influencing corporate and governmental behavior worldwide. Unequal Partners is for anyone who wants to understand how to keep the escalating forces of globalization in check.

Critical Notes on Political Economy: A Revolutionary Humanist Approach to Marxist Economics


Ernesto Che Guevara - 2002
    As minister for industry and head of Cuba’s National Bank, Che Guevara prepared this manuscript to compare the Cuban experience with that of the Soviet bloc. With extensive appendices, this is the complete anthology of Che Guevara on political economy. Writing in 1965, Che explained his critique was necessary “because Marxist research in the field of the economy is proceeding along dangerous routes. The intransigent dogmatism of the Stalin era has been succeeded by an inconsistent pragmatism.” He justified what he described as his “heresy” by pointing to Marx’s statement in the first few pages of Capital, about “capitalism’s inability to criticize itself, using apologetics which now, unfortunately, can be applied to Marxist political economy.” He argued for doing away with capitalist concepts and formulas and concentrating instead on the motivation and development of individual human beings. Published in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana.

Capitalism and Religion: The Price of Piety


Philip Goodchild - 2002
    Philip Goodchild develops arguments from Nietzsche, Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marx, to suggest that our love of Western modernity is an expression of a piety in which capitalism becomes a global religion, in practice, if not always in belief. This book presents a philosophical alternative that demands attention from philosophers, critical theorists, philosophers of religion, theologians, and those in ecological politics.

Transforming Mozambique: The Politics of Privatization, 1975-2000


M. Anne Pitcher - 2002
    This study of Mozambique's shift from a command to a market economy draws on a wealth of empirical material, including archival sources, interviews, political posters and corporate advertisements, to reveal that the state is a central actor in the reform process, despite the claims of neo-liberals and their critics. Alongside the state, social forces--from World Bank officials to rural smallholders--have also accelerated, thwarted or shaped change in Mozambique. M. Anne Pitcher offers an intriguing analysis of the dynamic interaction between previous and emerging agents, ideas and institutions, to explain the erosion of socialism and the politics of privatization in a developing country. She demonstrates that Mozambique's present political economy is a heterogenous blend of ideological and institutional continuities and ruptures.

Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century America


Wendy A. Woloson - 2002
    Yet two hundred years ago American consumers treasured sugar as a rare commodity and consumed it only in small amounts. In Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century America, Wendy A. Woloson demonstrates how the cultural role of sugar changed from being a precious luxury good to a ubiquitous necessity. Sugar became a social marker that established and reinforced class and gender differences.During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Woloson explains, the social elite saw expensive sugar and sweet confections as symbols of their wealth. As refined sugar became more affordable and accessible, new confections—children's candy, ice cream, and wedding cakes—made their way into American culture, acquiring a broad array of social meanings. Originally signifying male economic prowess, sugar eventually became associated with femininity and women's consumerism. Woloson's work offers a vivid account of this social transformation—along with the emergence of consumer culture in America.

Between the Two World Wars: Monetary Disorder, Interventionism, Socialism, and the Great Depression


Ludwig von Mises - 2002
    In 1996, Richard and Anna Ebeling discovered the papers in an archive in Moscow. This volume from Liberty Fund represents a treasure trove of important essays.Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) was the leading spokesman of the Austrian school of economics throughout most of the twentieth century.Richard Ebeling is Professor of Economics at Northwood University.

Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization Cases


Joseph G. Louderback - 2002
    The authors have meticulously reviewed hundreds of cases to create this outstanding package.

Crony Capitalism and Economic Growth in Latin America: Theory and Evidence


Stephen H. Haber - 2002
    Haber and his expert contributors draw from case studies in Mexico, Brazil, and other countries around the world to examine the causes and consequences of cronyism.

Global Decisions, Local Collisions: Urban Life In The New World Order


David Ranney - 2002
    They were designed for a world where the U.S. manufactured at home, and where portions of U.S.-based labor had traded social stability for high wages. In this thought provoking work, David Ranney shows how our world has changed and offers a plan for remaking progressive politics to meet the crises brought about by what George H. W. Bush first termed the new world order. Drawing from his experiences in Chicago politics, first as a factory worker and later as an activist and academic, Ranney shows how the increasing mobility of capital, the easy availability of credit, and a changing government policies have reshaped the urban world where U.S. workers live their everyday lives. This is not the story of the interconnectedness of modern business, but rather the need for self-respecting people who bring home a weekly paycheck to see the common, global problems they face, and to work together to bring about meaningful change. Showing how globalization has led to specific local consequences for cities and the workers that inhabit them, David Ranney presents a means for taking stock of the effects of globalization; a look at these changes in la

India Working: Essays on Society and Economy


Barbara Harriss-White - 2002
    The book explores a range of topics, including labor, class, the state, gender, religious plurality, caste and space. Harris-White's conclusion adeptly challenges the prevailing belief that liberalization releases the economy from political interference.

On Borrowed Time: Assessing the Threat of Mineral Depletion


John Tilton - 2002
    Economist John Tilton responds by analyzing recent trends in the consumption and availability of minerals that are most integral to the needs of modern civilization. He reminds readers that, if the arguments about scarcity sound familiar, it is because the story of minerals scarcity is almost as old as human history-and so too is substitution and technological innovation. The issue at hand is the unprecedented acceleration in exploitation and use. Given global population growth, rising living standards, and environmental concerns, how seriously should today's society take the threat of mineral exhaustion? On Borrowed Time? provides general interest and student readers with an accessible framework for understanding scarcity. Tilton defines important concepts and explores the methods used to study mineral scarcity, including physical measures of known reserves and the total resource base, and economic measures, such as extraction and end-user costs. He notes the increasing emphasis on the social and environmental costs of mineral production and use, placing the scarcity debate in context of broader concerns about sustainability and equity. He adds a history of thought about scarcity, from Malthus and Ricardo to Harold Hotelling, Donella Meadows, to the present day.

The Financial System in Nineteenth-Century Britain


Mary Poovey - 2002
    Topics covered include currency and credit instruments; the national debt and the stock exchange; banks and the banking system; and the money market, company law, and financial fraud. The documents represent a variety of perspectives, including working-class radicals' complaints about the burden the national debt imposed on the poor, Indian economists' warnings about how debt was impoverishing India, political economists' celebrations of "magic" capital, and satirists' exposures of the frauds perpetrated by nefarious swindlers and company promoters. Most of the selections are reproduced in their entirety so that readers can see how closely financial matters were intertwined with the politics, ethics, and literary concerns of the period. An introduction by the editor and a chronology of the British financial system help place the materials in their historical context. Ideal for courses in Victorian literature, culture, and history, The Financial System in Nineteenth-Century Britain will also interest general readers who have been puzzled by references to financial matters in writings of the period. This unique collection reveals how England rose to a position of international financial supremacy and how writing about finance both monitored and supported that triumph.

The Bear Watches the Dragon: Russia's Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth Century: Russia's Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth Century


Alexander Lukin - 2002
    In his interpretation of this relationship from the Russian point of view, Alexander Lukin shows how over the course of three centuries China has seemed alternately to threaten, mystify, imitate, mirror, and rival its northern neighbor. Lukin traces not only the changing dynamics of Russian-Chinese relations but the ways in which Russia's images of China more profoundly reflected Russia's self-perception and its perceptions of the West as well. As both Russia and China take distinctive approaches to political and economic development and integration in the twenty-first century global economy, this reinterpretation of their relationship is timely and valuable not only to historians but to all students of international affairs.

The Investor's Guide to Economic Fundamentals


John P. Calverley - 2002
    The Investor's Guide to Market Fundamentals covers both the theory and practice of this often-complicated subject, and gives readers a reliable source of market information.

For the Common Good?: American Civic Life and the Golden Age of Fraternity


Jason Kaufman - 2002
    Joining clubs, fraternities, militias, and mutual benefit societies between the Civil and First World Wars was so prevalent that many contemporaries see it as a model for a revitalization of American civil society today. Relying on extensive analysis of city directories, club histories, and membership lists, For the Common Good? aims to dispel many of the myths about the curative powers of clubbing while bringing to light the hidden lessons therein.

Readings Economic Sociology


Nicole Woolsey Biggart - 2002
    Beginning with the foundation of Smith, Marx, Engels and Polanyi, the volume gathers some of the best writings by economic sociologists that consider national and world economies as both products and influences of society. Contains over twenty articles by classical and contemporary economic social theorists. Covers important topics on economic action, states, and markets. Includes insightful editorial introductions and further reading suggestions.

Japan's Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reform


Aurelia George Mulgan - 2002
    Economic reform is crucial to the recovery of the Japanese economy, but the political system is not delivering the necessary reforms. All eyes are on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his program of "structural reform." The Koizumi Administration has enjoyed most of the political conditions identified as conducive to economic reform. Why then, has the Koizumi revolution failed? This book explains why the process of economic reform in Japan is so problematic, and why reviving Japan's economy is proving so difficult. It offers a new explanation for Japan's failure to reform in terms of what is identified as Japan's "party-bureaucratic government" which undermines the power of the Prime Minister and in which forces opposed to reform are embedded. It concludes that achieving economic reform will require that Japan first reform its policymaking system to give sufficient power to the executive in order to override the

The Money Changers: Currency Reform from Aristotle to E-Cash


David Boyle - 2002
    But the last few years have seen an increasingly powerful resurgence of interest in changing the system fundamentally, and bringing the monetary trends that affect all our lives under our control. Few realize that the debate has roots and a tradition, covering mainstream economists like Keynes and Hayek, statesmen like Lincoln, entrepreneurs like Ford and Soros, as well as the imaginative mavericks behind local currencies and e-money. This volume collects together some of their most influential writings to provide a handbook on a vital train of ideas, and a guide to a debate on changing money that is becoming increasingly important.

The Mexican Economy, 1870-1930: Essays on the Economic History of Institutions, Revolution, and Growth


Jeffrey Bortz - 2002
    During the period of the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship (1876-1911), however, a series of institutional reforms reignited growth and created rents that enabled the Díaz government to threaten its opponents with military force or to buy them off.These institutional reforms came out of distinctly political processes, which often had to be brokered among multiple groups of economic elites and regional political bosses. Therefore, they were often structured to encourage investment by specifying property rights or creating streams of rents for particular entrepreneurs. In short, Porfirian Mexico is an excellent natural laboratory in which to investigate not only how institutional change can foment economic growth, but also how specific features of political institutions give rise to specific economic institutions that have both positive and negative effects on growth and distribution.In fact, the distributional consequences of the Porfirian regime gave rise to the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917, which produced a further round of dramatic changes in Mexico’s political institutions. These changes, in turn, restructured the institutions that governed property rights and those that determined the allocation of rents generated by property rights. This book aims both to identify the crucial institutions and to measure their economic effects.In addressing these issues, the contributors to this volume employ theoretical insights from the New Institutional Economics and statistical hypothesis-testing as well as traditional archival methods. Thus, in addition to advancing the field of Latin American economic history by studying the interaction of political and economic institutions during the period 1870-1930, the book also makes a methodological contribution by using analytic tools not previously employed in the literature.

Post-Communist Transition


Leszek Balcerowicz - 2002
    This work argues that the larger the scope of market-oriented reforms, the better the performance in terms of growth, low inflation and environmental improvement.

The Influence of Natural Religion on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind


Philip Beauchamp - 2002
    As the creator of a system that defined human happiness in terms of a moral calculus based on pleasure and pain, Bentham was quite skeptical of all claims of religion. Thus it is not surprising that the results of BenthamÆs analysis of the influence of natural religion on human happiness are decidedly negative.Divided into two parts, Bentham first criticizes the major tenets of belief in a supreme being and its alleged benefits to humanity. Among these criticisms he notes the unreliability and incoherence of religion's promises of rewards or punishments after death, especially as an inducement to good conduct in this life; its generally fuzzy concepts concerning the character and will of God; and its inefficiency in preventing commonplace human evils. In the second part, Bentham catalogues the many ways in which natural religion harms both individuals and society as a whole: it taxes the individual's emotional well-being with the psychological burdens of fear, scruples, and guilt; prejudices the objectivity of the intellect; splinters society into contentious factions; and has other negative consequences which he details at length.At a time when the Anglican Church was still a highly influential institution in English society, it is easy to understand how this work would have been considered controversial. Some may still find it so today, and it remains an interesting challenge to traditional theism by a first-rate thinker.

Socioeconomic Democracy: An Advanced Socioeconomic System


Robley E. George - 2002
    The alternative socioeconomic democracy, and advanced theoretical model in which there is some form of universal guaranteed income as well as a limit to maximum allowable personal wealth, combined with a realistic degree of human flexibility based on public choice theory.Arguing that such a procedure would allow a society to democratically control the extreme limits of material wealth and poverty, the author forecasts that such a system will create strong economic incentives while reducing the present undesirable and expensive social problems associated with the maldistribution of wealth. This innovative book will be of interest to scholars and others interested in exploring ways to strengthen democracy while improving economic systems around the world.

China's Developmental Miracle: Origins, Transformations, and Challenges


Alvin Y. So - 2002
    Decollectivization, marketization, state enterprise reforms, and reintegration into the world economy have led to very rapid economic development in China over the past two decades. These economic reforms, in turn, triggered profound social and political changes. This collection examines the origins, nature, and impact, as well as the future prospects of these reforms and changes. The contributors are all active researchers from a variety of disciplines, including economics, sociology, political science, and geography.

Health Economics


Barbara McPake - 2002
    Featuring an array of case studies based on systems from around the world, the book successfully bridges the divide between the insurance-based system employed in the United States, the publicly-funded options more common in Europe and Canada, and the mixed arrangements characteristic of most developing countries.This informative textbook, essential for students on the ever-growing number of health economics courses internationally, will also be useful in other areas, such as public health studies, medicine and health science.

Challenging Traditional Views of Russian History


Stephen G. Wheatcroft - 2002
    This collection presents radically new views on key aspects of Russian/Soviet history: the non-Slavic sources of Russian statehood, tsarist penal systems, the pre-evolutionary technological level, the famine of 1931-3, patronage practices in Stalin's Russia, the incidence and mechanism of Stalinist repression, the dissident roots of glasnost, Russian patriotic histories of War in the Caucasus, and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Advanced Macroeconomics: A Primer


Patrick Minford - 2002
    In this text, the authors guide the student through what has become the conceptual and mathematical maze of modern macroeconomics. It is intended primarily for the postgraduate student but will also be useful for upper level undergraduates. It explains the basics of each topic and provides a solid grounding for the student to tackle more complex and detailed material in the area. The topics covered include: an introduction to the traditional macro-classical macro/adaptive expectations; how to understand and solve standard macro models with rational expectations; implications of rational expectations for monetary and fiscal policy; the open economy; the new models of representative agents and real business cycles; the political economy of economic policy (the "political business cycle") and independent central banks; the supply-side, unemployment and growth; empirical testing of the rational expectations hypothesis; and the efficient markets hypothesis with empirical applications including bond and exchange markets.

Monetary Stability and Economic Growth: A Dialog Between Leading Economists


Allen J. Coombes - 2002
    The mechanisms that link monetary policy - including foreign exchange regimes and the international monetary system - to economic performance are examined, and the ways in which countries can stimulate economic growth are explored.

Big Players and the Economic Theory of Expectations


Roger Koppl - 2002
    The problem is how to construct a theory of expectations that assumes people interpret their situations in unpredictable ways. Building on the evolutionary economics of F.A.Hayek, Koppl gives us such a theory. This includes a theory of 'Big Players', demonstrating that discretionary policy interventions create ignorance and uncertainty. The volume uses innovative methods to address many vital problems in economic theory, and connects with many other schools of economics including New Institutional Economics, Constitutional Economics and Post Walsarian Economics.

Distributing Health Care: Economic and Ethical Issues


Paul Dolan - 2002
    It is based firmly in the discipline of economics and, as such, it fills a gap in the health economics market. But, unlike other texts in the area, it is very explicit about the distributive implications of economic models and it provides clear rathionale for public involvement in the market for health care. It separatesthe efficiency reasons for public involvement(based on notions of 'market failure') from the equity reasons(based on the views of society that health care should be distributed according to the notion of health needs rather than according to ability to pay). The book illustrates the distributional aspects of money flows in the financing and provision of health care, and discusses who are the gainers and who are the losers under different financing arrangements. A central part of the book contains a discussion of those techniques that are increasingly being used to aid decisions about how to distribute health care. Beyond the parameters included in economic evaluation techniques such as cost- benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis, the book discusses some key ethical issues that are relevant for decision-makers when setting health care priorities.

Monetary Orders: Ambiguous Economics, Ubiquitous Politics


Jonathan Kirshner - 2002
    A principal defining characteristic of the contemporary global economy, Jonathan Kirshner contends, is the rise and preeminence of monetary phenomena--international financial crises, Central Bank Independence and inflation fighting, the creation of the euro, and monetary reform in emerging economies, to name only a few. Moreover, unlike most debates in political economy (such as those regarding trade policy), which are generally recognized as political, monetary phenomena and macroeconomic policies are typically represented as expressly apolitical. In Monetary Orders, a distinguished group of scholars explores the inescapable political origins of choices about money. The essays in Monetary Orders each address a specific issue or puzzle relating to money and its management. Their authors focus on markedly disparate cases but share a common observation: for most policy choices about money, market forces and economic logic can rule out certain options, but are indeterminate in explaining why one policy rather than another will be chosen. Ultimately, political factors are essential to explain fundamental and consequential choices about money.

The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism


Shoshana Zuboff - 2002
    The Support Economy explores the chasm between people and corporations and reveals a new society of individuals who seek relationships of advocacy and trust that provide support for their complex lives.Unlocking the wealth of these new markets can unleash the next great wave of wealth creation, but it requires a radically new approach--"distributed" capitalism. The Support Economy is a call to action for every citizen who cares about the future.

Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook


John Andrew Gray - 2002
    This book provides a framework for empowerment that concentrates on increasing poor people's freedom of choice and action to shape their own lives. This framework pertains to five areas of action to improve development effectiveness - provision of basic services, improved local governance, improved national governance, access to justice and legal aid, and pro-poor market development. This Sourcebook gives 20 Tools and Practices, which concentrate on a wide-range of topics to encourage the empowerment of the poor from poor people's enterprises, information and communication technologies to diagnostic tools including corruption surveys and citizen report cards.

The Political Economy of British Historical Experience, 1688-1914


Donald Winch - 2002
     Political economy has frequently served as the favourite mode of public discourse when analysing or justifying British economic policies, performance and institutions. These sixteen essays, centering on the peculiarities of the British experience, are grouped under five main themes: foreign assessments of that experience; land tenure; empire and free trade; fiscal and monetary regimes; and the poor law and welfare. This is a collaborative endeavour by historians with established reputations in their field, which will appeal to all those interested in the current development of these branches of historical scholarship.

Foundations of Non-Cooperative Game Theory


Klaus Ritzberger - 2002
    Ritzberger provides precise and extensive descriptions of key concepts and ideas in the field, creating an invaluable reference tool for researchers and graduate students in the social sciences.

Economic Reforms in Chile: From Dictatorship to Democracy


Ricardo Ffrench-Davis - 2002
    Written in accessible and readable prose, Economic Reforms in Chile begins with an overview of the Chilean economy during the last fifty years. This historical time frame is divided into three periods of economic reform. The first period covers the Pinochet regime, during which the more orthodox neoliberalism was implemented. The second period includes the Pinochet dictatorship, during which economic policy shifted toward pragmatism, particularly in the areas of trade and finance; it also includes the crisis of 1982 and its effects. The third period begins in 1990 with the return to democratic elections and the significant reforms to prior reforms. This section also examines the search for growth-with-equity, success in investment and growth performance, macroeconomic sustainability, and the reduction of poverty. Ffrench-Davis addresses several "paradoxes," or results that defy the expectations of policymakers, in order to analyze the significance of comprehensive macroeconomic equilibrium and its implications for sustainable stability, growth, and equity. Economic Reforms in Chile will be of interest to economists, political scientists, and policymakers involved with the economies of emerging and developing countries. Ricardo Ffrench-Davis is Principal Regional Advisor, ECLAC, Santiago, and Professor of Economics, University of Chile.

Governing from Below: Urban Regions and the Global Economy


Jefferey M. Sellers - 2002
    This new role fits within a context that nation-states, global market forces and cities themselves continue to define. The analysis of this book focuses on how local efforts in the distinct European systems of France and Germany as well as American counterparts have provided for environmental quality and social inclusion alongside local economic development. Only in certain European settings has policy making at multiple levels accomplished all three objectives at once. In those settings, effective governance from below has relied on adequate support from higher levels of governments and a favorable position in the global economy.

Marxist History and Postwar Japanese Nationalism


Curtis Anderson Gayle - 2002
    It shows how they developed in their historical writing ideas of 'radical nationalism', which accepted presupposed ideas of Japan's 'ethnic homogeneity', but which they saw as a 'revolutionary subject', creating a sphere of radical political action against the state, the American Occupation and global capital. It compares this approach in both prewar and postwar Marxist historiography, showing that in the postwar period ideas were more elaborate, and put much more emphasis on national education and social mobilization. It also shows how these early postwar discourses have made their way into contemporary ethnic nationalism and revisionism in Japan today. The book's rich and interesting analysis will appeal not just to historians of Japan, but also to those interested in nationalism and Marxism more generally.

Money and Its Laws: Embracing a History of Monetary Theories, and a History of the Currencies of the United States


Henry Varnum Poor - 2002
    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.