Economic theory and philosophy Books

Book SynopsisThe Golden Age of postwar capitalism has been eclipsed, and with it seemingly also the possibility of harmonizing equality and welfare with efficiency and jobs. Most analyses believe the the emerging postindustrial society is overdetermined by massive, convergent forces, such as tertiarization, new technologies, or globalization, all conspiring to make welfare states unsustainable in the future. Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies takes a second, more sociological and more institutional, look at the driving forces of economic transformation. What, as a result, stands out is postindustrial diversity, not convergence. Macroscopic, global trends are undoubtedly powerful, yet their influence is easily rivalled by domestic institutional traditions, by the kind of welfare regime that, some generations ago, was put in place. It is, however, especially the family economy that hold the key as to what kind of postindustrial model will emerge, and to how evolving tradeoffs will be manaTrade ReviewOnce again, Esping-Andersen has laid out for us an ambitious academic and political agenda. This book will certainly be of interest to the community of comparative welfare regime analysts, but should be read as well by analysts of U.S. welfare reform, for it reveals that many of the policy changes these scholars are charting are not confined to America. * Ann Shola Orloff, American Journal of Sociology *provocative and informative * Ann Shola Orloff, American Journal of Sociology *Esping-Andersen's new work shows the significant scholarly payoff from the sustained conversations that have come to characterize comparative welfare regime analysis, including those between feminists and others. His revised regime analysis highlights new material on household economies * Ann Shola Orloff, American Journal of Sociology *Gösta Esping-Andersen's rich new book analyzes the roots of the crises of today's welfare regimes * Ann Shola Orloff, American Journal of Sociology *clear and absorbing writing * Norman Ginsburg, Global Social Policy 1(1) *adds significantly to a more realistic understanding of contemporary welfare regimes by probing deeper into their "institutional fine grain". Social Foundations is essentially a timely addition to the views presented in The Three Worlds, centred around a new, persuasive, emphasis on the role of the household as a defining element driving postindustrial economies. * Government and Oppostion *this book impressively integrates detailed empirical analysis of the manifold aspects of the work-family-welfare nexus within a coherent synthetic framework. In this, the author again displays virtually unrivalled skill amidst current research * Government and Opposition *The book provides a wealth of interesting statistical information and analysis. * Andrew Sayer, Progress in Human Geography 24,3. *well worth reading as a highly informative analysis of the diversity of the social foundations of postindustrial economies. * Andrew Sayer, Progress in Human Geography 24,3. *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; PART ONE: VARIETIES OF WELFARE CAPITALISM ; 2. The Democratic Class Struggle Revisited ; 3. Social Risks and Wefare States ; 4. The Household Economy ; 5. Comparative Welfare Regimes Re-examined ; PART TWO: THE NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY ; 6. The Structural Bases of Postindustrial Employment ; 7. Managing Divergent Employment Dilemmas ; PART THREE: WELFARE CAPITALISM RECAST? ; 8. New Social Risks in Old Welfare States ; 9. Recasting Wefare Regimes for a Postindustrial Era ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe Golden Age of postwar capitalism has been eclipsed, and with it seemingly also the possibility of harmonizing equality and welfare with efficiency and jobs. Most analyses believe that the emerging postindustrial society is overdetermined by massive, convergent forces, such as tertiarization, new technologies, or globalization, all conspiring to make welfare states unsustainable in the future. Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies takes a second, more sociological and more institutional, look at the driving forces of economic transformation. What, as a result, stands out is postindustrial diversity, not convergence. Macroscopic, global trends are undoubtedly powerful, yet their influence is easily rivalled by domestic institutional traditions, by the kind of welfare regime that, some generations ago, was put in place. It is, however, especially the family economy that hold the key as to what kind of postindustrial model will emerge, and to how evolving tradeoffs will be manTrade Reviewwell worth reading as a highly informative analysis of the diversity of the social foundations of postindustrial economies. * Andrew Sayer, Progress in Human Geography 24,3. *The book provides a wealth of interesting statistical information and analysis. * Andrew Sayer, Progress in Human Geography 24,3. *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; PART ONE: VARIETIES OF WELFARE CAPITALISM ; 2. The Democratic Class Struggle Revisited ; 3. Social Risks and Wefare States ; 4. The Household Economy ; 5. Comparative Welfare Regimes Re-examined ; PART TWO: THE NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY ; 6. The Structural Bases of Postindustrial Employment ; 7. Managing Divergent Employment Dilemmas ; PART THREE: WELFARE CAPITALISM RECAST? ; 8. New Social Risks in Old Welfare States ; 9. Recasting Wefare Regimes for a Postindustrial Era ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn the United States the use of economics has had a dramatic influence on the study of corporate law. Professor Cheffins's book is the first in the United Kingdom to use economics to discuss in a systematic fashion company law issues. Company Law: Theory, Structure and Operation addresses a series of important questions which have not been analysed in detail elsewhere and examines in a fresh manner topics which are familiar to those interested in companylaw. It is an ideal book from which to teach company law in a fashion which is theoretically stimulating; at the same time it covers the core areas of the company law syllabus and will therefore be helpful to the average student as well as demanding for the more ambitious ones.Trade Review"Excellent analysis of company law from an economic perspective, includes extremely thorough accounts of certain specialised areas (eg. executive pay, non-executive directors), Lee Roach, University of Cardiff

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Book Synopsis* This is the new edition of a popular student textbook. The first edition was well-received. The author has made revisions and additions to enhance the book''s usefulness without destroying its distinctive character as a lucid, thorough, and readable text. It gives a broad treatment of optimization methods, building on simple economic theory and elementary linear algebra and calculus, and reinforcing each new mathematical idea by relating it to its economics application.Trade Review'The new edition is completely re-ordered, and the introductory material is now beautifully argued. It now affords a relaxed beginning to concave programming.' Peter Lambert, The Economic Journal, July 1991Table of ContentsLagrange's Method; Extensions and Generalizations; Shadow Prices; Maximum Value Functions; Convex Sets and Their Separation; Concave Programming; Second-order Conditions; Time: The Maximum Principle; Uncertainty; Dynamic Programming; Appendix - Kuhn-Tucker Theorem.

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Book SynopsisIn this revised second edition, An Introduction to the Economics of Information covers the consequences for the character and efficiency of the interaction between individuals and organizations when one party has more or better information on some aspect of the relationship. This is the condition of asymmetric information, under which the information gap will be exploited if, by doing so, the better-informed party can achieve some advantage. The book is written for a one-semester course for advanced undergraduates taking specialized course options, and for first-year postgraduate students of economics or business.After an introduction to the subject and the presentation of a benchmark model in which both parties share the same information throughout the relationship, chapters are devoted to the three main asymmetric information topics of Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection, and Signalling.The wide range of economic situations where the conclusions are applied includes such areas as financeTrade Reviewan excellent book. This is a major contribution to the literature in the area of information economics. The most important quality of the book is that it is relatively easy to understand the complicated models of information economics from this book. It is a useful book for all academics interested in modern economics and business issues * Prof. Sardar M. N. Islam, Victoria University, Australia *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. The Base Model ; 3. The Moral Hazard Problem ; 4. The Adverse Selection Problem ; 5. Signalling ; Mathematical Appendix ; Additional Exercises

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Book SynopsisWe are often faced with choices that involve the weighing of people''s lives against each other, or the weighing of lives against other good things. These are choices both for individuals and for societies. A person who is terminally ill may have to choose between palliative care and more aggressive treatment, which will give her a longer life but at some cost in suffering. We have to choose between the convenience to ourselves of road and air travel, and the lives of the future people who will be killed by the global warming we cause, through violent weather, tropical disease, and heat waves. We also make choices that affect how many lives there will be in the future: as individuals we choose how many children to have, and societies choose tax policies that influence people''s choices about having children. These are all problems of weighing lives.How should we weigh lives? Weighing Lives develops a theoretical basis for answering this practical question. It extends the work and methoTrade ReviewNumerous publications grapple with the value of life, but Weighing Lives is more important and more substantial than most. In an area in which many authors content themselves with a gallimaufry of peculiar moral intuitions, Broome digs deep and argues with rigour. * TLS *An engrossing book which is a model of clarity, elegance, and rigour. Written, as good philosophy should be, as a contribution to a joint enterprise, it sets out a bold position in a way that invites further discussion and provides a platform for the development of diverging views. It should serve as the reference-point for future theorizing about population ethics in particular, and the aggregation of well-being more generally. * Garrett Cullity, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of Contents1. Weighing lives ; 2. Some technical matters ; 3. Right and good ; 4. Features of Goodness ; 5. Quantities of lifetime wellbeing ; 6. Quantities of temporal wellbeing ; 7. Separability of times ; 8. Separability of lives ; 9. Same-number aggregation ; 10. The neutral level for existence ; 11. Nonstandard betterness ; 12. Indeterminate betterness ; 13. Separability of people ; 14. The standardized total principle ; 15. Same-lifetime aggregation ; 16. A life worth living ; 17. The value of a life ; 18. The theory of weighing lives ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisWhat motives underlie the ways humans interact socially? Are these the same for all societies? Are these part of our nature, or influenced by our environments?Over the last decade, research in experimental economics has emphatically falsified the textbook representation of Homo economicus. Literally hundreds of experiments suggest that people care not only about their own material payoffs, but also about such things as fairness, equity and reciprocity. However, this research left fundamental questions unanswered: Are such social preferences stable components of human nature; or, are they modulated by economic, social and cultural environments? Until now, experimental research could not address this question because virtually all subjects had been university students, and while there are cultural differences among student populations throughout the world, these differences are small compared to the full range of human social and cultural environments. A vast amount of ethnographic and hTrade ReviewIn my opinion this is one of the major social science projects of the last 20 years. * Professor Elinor Ostrom, University of Indiana *Table of Contents1. Introduction and Guide to the Volume ; 2. Overview and Synthesis ; 3. Measuring Social Norms and Preferences Using Experimental Games: A Guide for Social Sciences ; 4. Coalitional Effects on Reciprocal Fairness in the Ultimatum Game: A Case from the Ecuadorian Amazon ; 5. Comparative Experimental Evidence from Machiguenga, Mapuche, Huinca, and American Populations Shows Substantial Variation Among Social Groups in Bargaining and Public Goods Behavior ; 6. Dictators and Ultimatums in an Egalitarian Society of Hunter-Gatherers - the Hadza of Tanzania ; 7. Does Market Exposure Affect Economic Game Behavior? The Ultimatum Game and the Public Goods Game Among the Tsimane of Bolivia ; 8. Market Integration, Reciprocity, and Fairness in Rural Papua New Guinea: Results from a Two-Village Ultimatum Game Experiment ; 9. Ultimatum Game with an Ethnicity Manipulation: Results from Khovdiin Bulgan Sum, Mongolia ; 10. Kinship, Familiarity, and Trust: An Experimental Investigation ; 11. Community Structure, Mobility, and the Strength of Norms in an Africa Society: the Sangu of Tanzania ; 12. Market Integration and Fairness: Evidence from Ultimatum, Dictator, and Public Goods Experiments in East Africa ; 13. Economic Experiments to Examine Fairness and Cooperation among the Ache Indians of Paraguay ; 14. The Ultimatum Game, Fairness, and Cooperation among Big Game Hunters

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Book SynopsisThe first of its kind, this book is entirely dedicated to the implementation of monetary policy. Monetary policy implementation has gone through tremendous changes over the last twenty years, which have witnessed the quiet end of ''reserve position doctrine'' and the return of an explicit focus on short-term interest rates. Enthusiastically supported by Keynes and later by the monetarist school, reserve position doctrine was developed mainly by US central bankers and academics during the early 1920s, and at least in the US became the unchallenged dogma of monetary policy implementation for sixty years. The return of interest rate targeting also corresponds largely to the restoration of central banking principles established in the late 19th century.Providing a simple theory of monetary policy implementation, Bindseil goes on to explain the role of the three main instruments (open market operations, standing facilities, and reserve requirements) and reviews their use in the twentieth century. In closing, he summarizes current views on efficient monetary policy implementation.Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Monetary policy implementation within the theory of monetary policy ; 2. The central bank balance sheet and the quantity side of monetary policy implementation ; 3. The control of short-term interest rates: a simple model ; 4. Standing facilities ; 5. Open market operations ; 6. Reserve requirements ; 7. Practice of monetary policy implementation in the 20th century ; 8. From the old to the new view on monetary policy implementation

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a comprehensive and analytical overview of the development of economic theory, from its beginnings at the end of the Middle Ages up to contemporary contributions. Traditional theories are presented as living matter, and modern theories are presented as part of a historical process and not as established truths. In this way, the book avoids the dangerous dichotomy between pure historians of thought who dedicate themselves exclusively to studying facts, and pure theorists who are interested in the evolution of the logical structure of theories. The second edition contains several changes and additions. The authors give due consideration to the civil economy' perspective developed during Humanism and the Renaissance. The section on Adam Smith has been considerably extended and improved. The treatment of the post-Keynesian approach has been separated from new Keynesian macroeconomics'. Finally, a new chapter has been added to review the most recent developments in the Trade ReviewReview from previous edition The scope of this book is vast...The strength of the book is that it provides a clear, non-technical account of some of the most important recent developments in economic theory, which many readers will find informative...Though many conclusions reached by Screpanti and Zamagni are controversial, the book makes a stimulating read and provides a useful addition to the literature on this subject. * Times Higher Educational Supplement, October 1993 *Screpanti and Zamagni develop a thorough, informative and interesting narrative of the history of economic theory. * Choice, November 1993 *Table of ContentsFROM THE ORIGINS TO KEYNES; CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS OF ECONOMIC THEORY

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Book SynopsisBased on a rule-consequentialist account of the morality of individual reproduction, this book presents a theory of our obligations to future generations. It also brings together many different contemporary philosophical discussions, including the demands of morality and international justice, and includes discussions of contract-based accounts.Trade ReviewThe discussion is lively, incisive and provocative and will make an enduring contribution. Certainly anyone interested in consequentialism or moral status of future persons will learn a great deal from this fascinating and extremely worthwhile book. * M. A. Roberts, Mind Journal *What we owe to our own children, to the children of others, to our descendants, to the descendants of others, to future distant generations in our community, and to the future distant generation of distant others is a question few moral theories fully address. This glaring oversight is finally remedied by Tim Mulgan's Future People, an in-depth analysis of our obligations to future people, and the implications this analysis has for the plausibility of moral theories. Mulgan's extremely clear style makes Future People accessible and enjoyable. This book...should be read by all who take moral interest in others (and even more so by those who don't).... Mulgan has written a timely and important book of incredibly impressive scope and interest. He argues in favor of highly reasonable reproductive rules and his intriguing book will no doubt be of great value to this neglected area of ethics. * Rivka Weinberg, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. The Contract Theory ; 3. Value Theory ; 4. Hybrid Moral Theories ; 5. Rule Consequentialism ; 6. Reproductive Freedom ; 7. Optimism and Pessimism ; 8. Disagreement and Uncertainty ; 9. International Justice ; 10. The Limits of Rule Consequentialism ; 11. Dividing Morality

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Book SynopsisWe are often faced with choices that involve the weighing of people''s lives against each other, or the weighing of lives against other good things. These are choices both for individuals and for societies. A person who is terminally ill may have to choose between palliative care and more aggressive treatment, which will give her a longer life but at some cost in suffering. We have to choose between the convenience to ourselves of road and air travel, and the lives of the future people who will be killed by the global warming we cause, through violent weather, tropical disease, and heat waves. We also make choices that affect how many lives there will be in the future: as individuals we choose how many children to have, and societies choose tax policies that influence people''s choices about having children. These are all problems of weighing lives.How should we weigh lives? Weighing Lives develops a theoretical basis for answering this practical question. It extends the work and methoTrade ReviewNumerous publications grapple with the value of life, but Weighing Lives is more important and more substantial than most. In an area in which many authors content themselves with a gallimaufry of peculiar moral intuitions, Broome digs deep and argues with rigour. * TLS *Review from previous edition Weighing Lives is an exemplary piece of moral philosophy, written at an awesome level of clarity and rigour ... there is scarcely an extraneous word ... brilliant and provocative * Daniel Hausman, Mind *an engrossing book which is a model of clarity, elegance, and rigour. Written, as good philosophy should be, as a contribution to a joint enterprise, it sets out a bold position in a way that invites further discussion and provides a platform for the development of diverging views. It should serve as the reference-point for future theorizing about population ethics in particular, and the aggregation of well-being more generally. * Garrett Cullity, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of Contents1. Weighing lives ; 2. Some technical matters ; 3. Right and good ; 4. Features of Goodness ; 5. Quantities of lifetime wellbeing ; 6. Quantities of temporal wellbeing ; 7. Separability of times ; 8. Separability of lives ; 9. Same-number aggregation ; 10. The neutral level for existence ; 11. Nonstandard betterness ; 12. Indeterminate betterness ; 13. Separability of people ; 14. The standardized total principle ; 15. Same-lifetime aggregation ; 16. A life worth living ; 17. The value of a life ; 18. The theory of weighing lives ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades normative reasons-considerations that count in favor of one thing or another-have come to the theoretical fore in ethics and epistemology. A major attraction of normative reasons is that they have weight or strength. Reasons are particular considerations that count in favor of actions or attitudes to some degree. This feature is attractive to theorists who want to explain more complex normative phenomena in terms of a notion that is weighted. This volume aims to provide the beginnings for a theory of weight. The fourteen new essays fall into three groups. One set of essays addresses questions about the nature of weight. Topics include the relations between reasons and conditions and modifiers, between reasons and other weighted notions such as commitments, and different models of the interaction of reasons. A second set of essays addresses substantive questions: questions about weight relevant to value-first, desire-first, evidence-first and other normative research programs. A third set of essays applies issues in the theory of weight to broader ethical debates. The book thus not only makes novel contributions to debates in ethics and epistemology about the nature of normative reasons and their weight, it also makes a strong case for the theoretical fruitfulness of the ideology of normative reasons.Trade ReviewEven to those who, like this reader, are not particularly enthusiastic about this program's impact on the course of practical philosophy, the fourteen papers in the volume offer a worthwhile opportunity to reflect on its scope and significance. * Patricio A. Fernandez, Journal of Moral Philosophy *[T]he book contains a wealth of exciting topics on reasons ... you have definitely very weighty reasons to read [it] all. * Krister Bykvist, Analysis *Weighing Reasons is a refreshing collection ... All too often volumes of this type contain very little new work and so are sometimes a little bit stale. They tend to be on already much-debated topics and their famous contributors rarely venture outside their well-known views. This anthology, in contrast, is on a relatively unexplored topic, and its editors and many of its authors belong to a stellar younger generation of philosophers. * Jussi Suikkanen, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsContributors ; Introduction ; 1. An Opinionated Guide to the Weight of Reasons ; Errol Lord & Barry Maguire ; Section One: Machinery in the Theory of Weight ; 2. Conditions, Modifiers, and Holism ; Ralf Bader ; 3. How do reasons accrue? ; Shyam Nair ; 4. Reasons, Reason, and Context ; Daniel Fogal ; 5. Commitment: Worth the Weight ; Alida Liberman & Mark Schroeder ; Section Two: Analytic Issues in the Theory of Weight ; 6. Democratizing Humeanism ; Kate Manne ; 7. Value and the Weight of Practical Reasons ; Joseph Raz ; 8. The Distinction between Justifying and Requiring: Nothing to Fear ; Joshua Gert ; 9. Bearing the Weight of Reasons ; Stephen Kearns ; Section Three: Applications of the Theory of Weight ; 10. Reasoning with Precedents as Constrained Natural Reasoning ; John F. Horty ; 11. Comparativism: The Grounds of Rational Choice ; Ruth Chang ; 12. The Modesty of the Moral Point of View ; Karl Schafer ; 13. Making the <"Hard>" Problem of Moral Normativity Easier ; Stephen Darwall ; 14. The Implementation Problem for Deontology ; Michael Smith and Frank Jackson ; Index

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Book SynopsisConventional economic theory assumes that consumers are fully rational, that they have well-defined preferences and easily understand the market environment. Yet, in fact, consumers may have inconsistent, context-dependent preferences or simply not enough brain-power to evaluate and compare complicated products. Thus the standard model of consumer behavior-which depends on an ideal market in which consumers are boundlessly rational-is called into question. While behavioral economists have for some time confirmed and characterized these inconsistencies, the logical next step is to examine the implications they have in markets.Grounded in key observations in consumer psychology, Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organization develops non-standard models of boundedly rational consumer behavior and embeds them into familiar models of markets. It then rigorously analyses each model in the tradition of microeconomic theory, leading to a richer, more realistic picture of consumer behavior. RTrade ReviewNobody thinks like Adam Smith when buying a toothbrush, but this is the assumption of consumer behavior offered in traditional economics textbooks. Marketing experts used to laugh at such naivety, but they will have to take economic theory more seriously from now on. Ran Spiegler's book takes on the challenge of rewriting the theory of industrial organization without the classical assumption that economic agents are all rational supermen. This is an important book that nobody working on industrial organization will wish to be without. * Ken Binmore, University College London *Spiegler's Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organization is a beautifully written book. He makes a compelling case that understanding what happens when boundedly rational consumers meet sophisticated firms is both intellectually interesting and practically important. He has a wonderful feel for using rigorous models to clarify arguments and develops insights from a number of branches of the emerging literature in a parsimonious way. It is a must read book. * Glenn Ellison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Table of Contents1 Introduction ; 1.1 Bibliographic Notes ; I Anticipating Future Preferences ; 2 Dynamically Inconsistent Preferences I: Unconstrained Contracting ; 2.1 The Multi-Selves Model ; 2.1.1 Naivety ; 2.2 Monopoly Pricing ; 2.2.1 Optimal Price Schemes for Sophisticated Consumers ; 2.2.2 Optimal Price Schemes for Naive Consumers ; 2.2.3 Screening the Consumer's Type ; 2.3 Competitive Pricing ; 2.4 Welfare Analysis ; 2.5 Educating Naive Consumers ; 2.6 The Interpretation of Naivety ; 2.7 Two Applications ; 2.8 Other Topics ; 2.8.1 The (?, ?) Model ; 2.8.2 Preference Heterogeneity ; 2.9 Summary ; 2.10 Bibliographic Notes ; 3 Dynamically Inconsistent Preferences II: Constrained Contracting ; 3.1 Two-Part Tariffs ; 3.1.1 Departure from Marginal-Cost Pricing ; 3.1.2 Welfare Analysis ; 3.2 Destabilization of Commitment Devices: Renegotiation and Spot Market ; Competition ; 3.3 Self-Control ; 3.3.1 Implications for Monopoly Pricing ; 3.3.2 Do Self-Control Costs Hamper Competition? ; 3.4 Summary ; 3.5 Bibliographic Notes ; 4 Dynamically Inconsistent Preferences III: Partial Naivety ; 4.1 Magnitude Naivety ; 4.1.1 Monopoly Pricing ; 4.1.2 Are More Sophisticated Consumers Always Better Off? ; 4.2 Frequency Naivety ; 4.2.1 First-Best Monopoly Pricing ; 4.2.2 Second-Best Monopoly Pricing ; 4.2.3 Does Competition Curb Exploitation? ; 4.3 Summary ; 4.4 Bibliographic Notes ; 5 Biased Beliefs without Dynamic Inconsistency ; 5.1 Monopoly Pricing with Over-Optimistic Consumers ; 5.1.1 Comparison with Related Models ; 5.2 Overconfidence: Three-Part Tariffs ; 5.3 Unforeseen Contingencies: Add-On Pricing ; 5.4 A Summary Exercise: Insurance Markets with Biased Consumers ; 5.4.1 Equilibrium Analysis when Subjective Beliefs are Observable ; 5.4.2 Equilibrium Analysis when Subjective Beliefs are Private Information ; 5.5 Summary ; 5.6 Bibliographic notes ; A Appendix to Part I: A Decision-Theoretic Perspective ; A.1 The Multi-Selves Model ; A.2 Self-Control Preferences ; A.3 The Relation between Self-Control Preferences and the Multi-Selves Model ; A.4 Other Classes of Temptation-Driven Preferences ; A.5 Bibliographic Notes ; II Responding to Market Complexity ; 6 Sampling-Based Reasoning: Price Competition and Product Differentiation ; 6.1 A Sampling-Based Choice Procedure ; 6.2 Price Competition and Technology Adoption ; 6.2.1 Nash Equilibrium ; 6.2.2 Welfare Analysis ; 6.3 Spurious Product Differentiation ; 6.3.1 Nash Equilibrium ; 6.3.2 Product Complexity as a Differentiation Device ; 6.4 Can the Market Educate Consumers? ; 6.5 Summary ; 6.6 Bibliographic Notes ; 7 Sampling-Based Reasoning: Obfuscation ; 7.1 A Model of Competitive Obfuscation ; 7.1.1 Nash Equilibrium ; 7.1.2 Welfare Analysis ; 7.2 Production Inefficiencies ; 7.3 Multi-Dimensional Prices ; 7.4 A Market Intervention: Introducing \Simple" Options ; 7.5 Summary ; 7.6 Bibliographic Notes ; 8 Coarse Reasoning ; 8.1 A Modeling Framework ; 8.2 Complex Price Patterns as a Discrimination Device ; 8.2.1 "DeBruijn" Price Sequences ; 8.2.2 Conditions for Profitability of Complex Price Patterns ; 8.3 Limited Understanding of Adverse Selection ; 8.3.1 A Buyer-Seller Example ; 8.3.2 A Benchmark: A Bayesian-Rational Buyer ; 8.3.3 A \Coarse" Buyer ; 8.3.4 Action-Dependent Feedback ; 8.4 Summary ; 8.5 Bibliographic Notes ; III Reference Dependence ; 9 Loss Aversion ; 9.1 Expected Price as a Reference Point: Monopoly Pricing ; 9.1.1 Reduced Price Variability ; 9.1.2 Impact on Expected Prices ; 9.2 Price Uniformity in a Duopoly Setting: \Kinked" Demand ; 9.3 Expected Consumption as a Reference Point: An \Attachment Effect" ; 9.3.1 Personal Equilibrium ; 9.3.2 Price Randomization ; 9.4 Discussion ; 9.4.1 Actual Prices as Reference Points ; 9.4.2 Pleasant Surprises ; 9.5 Summary ; 9.6 Bibliographic Notes ; 10 Inertia I: Price Competition ; 10.1 Price Competition under Consumer Inertia ; 10.2 Price-Frame Competition ; 10.2.1 Nash Equilibrium ; 10.2.2 Equilibrium Properties ; 10.2.3 Two Market Interventions ; 10.3 Consumer Switching ; 10.4 Asymmetric Default Assignment ; 10.5 A Few General Remarks ; 10.5.1 More than Two Frames ; 10.5.2 Revealed Preferences ; 10.6 Summary ; 10.7 Bibliographic Notes ; 11 Inertia II: Costly Marketing 261 ; 11.1 A Model of Competitive Marketing ; 11.2 Nash Equilibrium ; 11.3 The Effective Marketing Property ; 11.4 Discussion ; 11.5 Summary ; 11.6 Bibliographic Notes ; IV Discussion ; 12 Recurring Themes ; 12.1 Complex Pricing Strategies ; 12.2 Spurious Variety ; 12.3 Market Transactions as a Form of Speculative Trade ; 12.4 How Effective are Competition and Consumer Protection Policies? ; 12.5 Externalities between Rational and Boundedly Rational Consumers ; 12.6 Conclusion ; 13 But Can't we Get the Same Thing with a Standard Model? ; 13.1 Rationalization via Modified Information ; 13.2 Rationalization via Modified Preferences ; 13.3 Rationalization via Endogenization ; 13.4 Discussion ; 13.5 Epilogue ; 13.6 Bibliographic Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe game of tennis raises many questions that are of interest to a statistician. Is it true that beginning to serve in a set gives an advantage? Are new balls an advantage? Is the seventh game in a set particularly important? Are top players more stable than other players? Do real champions win the big points? These and many other questions are formulated as hypotheses and tested statistically. Analyzing Wimbledon also discusses how the outcome of a match can be predicted (even while the match is in progress), which points are important and which are not, how to choose an optimal service strategy, and whether winning mood actually exists in tennis. Aimed at readers with some knowledge of mathematics and statistics, the book uses tennis (Wimbledon in particular) as a vehicle to illustrate the power and beauty of statistical reasoning.Table of Contents1. Warming up ; Wimbledon ; Commentators ; An example ; Correlation and causality ; Why statistics ; Sports data and human behavior ; Why tennis? ; Structure of the book ; Further reading ; 2. Richard ; Meeting Richard ; From point to game ; The tiebreak ; Serving first in a set ; During the set ; Best-of-three versus best-of-five ; Upsets ; Long matches: Isner-Mahut 2010 ; Rule changes: the no-ad rule ; Abolishing the second service ; Further reading ; 3. Forecasting ; Forecasting with Richard ; Federer-Nadal, Wimbledon final 2008 ; Effect of smaller ~ p ; Kim Clijsters defeats Venus Williams, US Open 2010 ; Effect of larger ~ p ; Djokovic-Nadal, Australian Open 2012 ; In-play betting ; Further reading ; 4. Importance ; What is importance? ; Big points in a game ; Big games in a set ; The vital seventh game ; Big sets ; Are all points equally important? ; The most important point ; Three importance profiles ; Further reading ; 5. Point data ; The Wimbledon data set ; Two selection problems ; Estimators, estimates, and accuracy ; Development of tennis over time ; Winning a point on service unraveled ; Testing a hypothesis: men versus women ; Aces and double faults ; Breaks and rebreaks ; Are our summary statistics too simple? ; Further reading ; 6. The method of moments ; Our summary statistics are too simple ; The method of moments ; Enter Miss Marple ; Re-estimating p by the method of moments ; Men versus women revisited ; Beyond the mean: variation over players ; Reliability of summary statistics: a rule of thumb ; Filtering out the noise ; Noise-free variation over players ; Correlation between opponents ; Why bother? ; Further reading ; 7. Quality ; Observable variation over players ; Ranking ; Round, bonus, and malus ; Significance, relevance, and sensitivity ; The complete model ; Winning a point on service ; Other service characteristics ; Aces and double faults ; Further reading ; 8. First and second service ; Is the second service more important than the first? ; Differences in service probabilities explained ; Joint analysis: bivariate GMM ; Four service dimensions ; Four-variate GMM ; Further reading ; 9. Service strategy ; The server's trade-off ; The y-curve ; Optimal strategy: one service ; Optimal strategy: two services ; Existence and uniqueness ; Four regularity conditions for the optimal strategy ; Functional form of y-curve ; Efficiency defined ; Efficiency of the average player ; Observations for the key probabilities: Monte Carlo ; Efficiency estimates ; Mean match efficiency gains ; Efficiency gains across matches ; Impact on the paycheck ; Why are players inefficient? ; Rule changes ; Serving in volleyball ; Further reading ; 10. Within a match ; The idea behind the point model ; From matches to points ; First results at point level ; Simple dynamics ; The baseline model ; Top players and mental stability ; Lessons from the baseline model ; New balls ; Further reading ; 11. Special points and games ; Big points ; Big points and the baseline model ; Serving first revisited ; The toss ; Further reading ; 12. Momentum ; Streaks, the hot hand, and winning mood ; Why study tennis? ; Winning mood in tennis ; Breaks and rebreaks ; Missed breakpoints ; The encompassing model ; Further reading ; 13. The hypotheses revisited ; Winning a point on service is an iid process ; It is an advantage to serve first in a set ; Every point (game, set) is equally important to both players ; The seventh game is the most important game in the set ; All points are equally important ; The probability that the service is in, is the same in the men's singles as in the women's singles ; The probability of a double fault is the same in the men's singles as in the women's singles ; After a break the probability of being broken back increases ; Summary statistics give a precise impression of a player's performance ; Quality is a pyramid ; Top players must grow into the tournament ; Men's tennis is more competitive than women's tennis ; A player is as good as his or her second service ; Players have an efficient service strategy ; Players play safer at important points ; Players take more risk when they are in a winning mood ; Top players are more stable than others ; New balls are an advantage to the server ; Real champions win the big points ; The winner of the toss should select to serve ; Winning mood exists ; After missing breakpoint(s) there is an increased probability of being broken in the next game ; Appendix A: List of symbols ; Winning probabilities ; Score probabilities and importance ; Service probabilities ; Quality ; Operators ; Miscellaneous variables ; Random/unexplained parts ; Parameters ; Miscellaneous symbols ; Appendix B: Data, software, and mathematical derivations ; Data Program Richard ; Mathematical derivations ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisFrom the first stock markets of Amsterdam and London to the millions of credit card transactions governed by arbitration, privately produced and enforced economic regulations are more common, more effective, and more promising than commonly considered. In Private Governance, prominent economist Edward Stringham presents case-studies of the various forms of private enforcement, self-governance, or self-regulation among private groups or individuals that fill a void that government enforcement cannot. Through analytical narratives the book provides a close examination of the world''s first stock markets, key elements of which were unenforceable by law; the community of Celebration, Florida, and other private communities that show how public goods can be bundled with land and provided more effectively; and the millions of credit-card transactions that occur daily and are regulated by private governance. Private Governance ultimately argues that while potential problems of private governaTrade Review"Private Governance is a masterpiece of economic, philosophical, and legal reasoning that will shake progressive ideology to its foundations, and, if read by enough young people, dispatch it to a waiting grave." Andrew Napolitano, Fox News "Stringham dispels state-worshipping fiction with historical fact to show how good governance has preceded Leviathan, ignores it when necessary, and can surpass it when it fails." Peter Thiel, Entrepreneur "If you read this book you will have to readjust what you think is possible. A masterful account that mixes history, theory, and a deep understanding of what contracts really mean." Michael Munger, Duke University "The dominant view in economic and political theory is that markets can only exist in the 'shadow of the state.' This superb volume challenges this contention head on." Mark Pennington, King's College London "Explains how private governance can work in theory and carefully details a series of real-world case studies to illustrate how it actually works. Stringham writes so well that this book should be appreciated and enjoyed by academics and non-academics alike." Bruce Benson, Florida State University "The theory and practice of private provision of protection, security, and adjudication has a long and distinguished history. Private Governance is an extremely important contribution to understanding this issue." Leonard Liggio, Institute for Humane Studies "Adam Smith brought us the 'invisible hand.' Now, Stringham brings us 'private governance.' Am I going too far in comparing Stringham to Smith? Maybe so, but it is because Smith does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Stringham. Read this book (that's an order!)." Walter Block, Loyola University-New Orleans "Brimming with surprises and intellectual curiosity. Stringham turns the conventional wisdom on its head, in delightful and convincing fashion." Tom Woods, Historian "Masterfully weaves economic analysis with little-known history and elegant storytelling to demonstrate the power of individuals to create order without law or government. Essential reading for policy-makers, academics, and anyone else with questions about the power of freedom." Marcus Cole, Stanford UniversityTable of ContentsWhy private governance? ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Beyond the deus ex machina theory of law ; 3. Rules from voluntary associations as an alternative to coercive ones: Governance as a club good ; Privately governed markets in history and modern times ; 4. Markets without enforcement: Reciprocity and reputation mechanisms in the world's first stock market ; 5. The evolution of rules in exclusive clubs: From coffeehouses to the London Stock Exchange ; 6. Markets creating transparency: Competing listing and disclosure requirements from the Big Board in New York to the Alternative Investment Market in London ; 7. How technologically advanced markets can work even when fraud is "legal": Ex ante risk management by PayPal and other intermediaries ; 8. Bundling governance with bricks and mortar: Private policing in colleges, in California, North Carolina, and beyond ; 9. The most personal form of private governance: Individual self-governance ; 10. When third party review is <"necessary>": Adjudication by contract ; 11. Does private governance work in the most complex markets? Successful risk management on Wall Street even in the wake of the 2008 economic downturn ; Lessons of private governance ; 12. The relationship between public and private governance: Does the state help or crowd out good governance? ; 13. Applying Hayek's insights about discovery and spontaneous order to governance ; 14. The unseen beauty that underpins markets

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Book SynopsisThis is a book about the discovery of macroeconomic ideas and concepts long before the term macroeconomics had been coined. The cast of authors varies from doctors and physicians (Sir William Petty and François Quesnay), to philosophers (David Hume and Adam Smith), to bankers (Richard Cantillon and Henry Thornton) to Prime Ministers of France (John Law and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot). These authors had very rich and varied careers and the book invites readers to imagine specific moments in their careers that influenced both their lives and their writings. Building on these events the contributions of each author are outlined and discussed. Examination of their writings show that by the start of the nineteenth century they had left a rich legacy of macroeconomics ranging from the analysis and measurement of national income, the depiction of the circular flow of income, the debate on the role of money in the economy, the way to model the economy, the importance of labour, land and capitaTable of Contents1. Introduction: The Genesis of Macroeconomics ; 2. Sir William Petty: National Income Accounting ; 3. John Law: A New Monetary System ; 4. Richard Cantillon: Macroeconomic Modelling ; 5. David Hume: The Classical Theory of Money ; 6. Francois Quesnay: The Circular Flow of Income ; 7. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot: The Importance of Capital ; 8. Adam Smith: Land, Labour, Capital and Social Cement ; 9. Henry Thornton: The Lender of Last Resort ; 10. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWilliam Petty (1623-1687) was a key figure in the English colonization of Ireland, the institutionalization of experimental natural philosophy, and the creation of social science. Examining Petty''s intellectual development and his invention of ''political arithmetic'' against the backdrop of the European scientific revolution and the political upheavals of Interregnum and Restoration England and Ireland, this book provides the first comprehensive intellectual biography of Petty based on a thorough examination not only of printed sources but also of Petty''s extensive archive and pattern of manuscript circulation. It is also the first fully contextualized study of what political arithmetic - widely seen as an ancestor of modern social and economic analysis - was originally intended to do.Ted McCormick traces Petty''s education among French Jesuits and Dutch Cartesians, his early work with the ''Hartlib Circle'' of Baconian natural philosophers, inventors, and reformers in England, his Trade ReviewWell written, often displaying an enviable turn of phrase and an eye for telling quotations from original sources...gives us a new way of looking at Petty and is likely to stimulate fresh thought about the ideas of his period more generally. * Michael Hunter, American Historical Review *[An] excellent biography of William Petty * Edward Higgs, Economic History Review *[A] fine book...one of the most original and illuminating publications on the histories of both thought and Ireland in many years. * Toby Barnard, Irish Studies Review *[a] fine intellectual biography * Steven Shapin, London Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: William Petty and Political Arithmetic ; 1. From Romsey to Paris ; 2. The Making of a Virtuoso ; 3. Surveying Ireland ; 4. Science and Policy in the Restoration ; 5. The Transmutation of the Irish ; 6. Corpuscles, Colonies, and Kingdoms ; 7. Political Arithmetic in Circulation ; 8. Death and Afterlife ; Conclusion: From Political Arithmetic to Political Economy ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisTim Mulgan develops an original theory of our obligations to future generations, based on a new rule-consequentialist account of the morality of individual reproduction. He brings together several different contemporary philosophical issues, including the demands of morality and international justice.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition What we owe to our own children, to the children of others, to our descendants, to the descendants of others, to future distant generations in our community, and to the future distant generation of distant others is a question few moral theories fully address. This glaring oversight is finally remedied by Tim Mulgan's Future People , an in-depth analysis of our obligations to future people, and the implications this analysis has for the plausibility of moral theories. Mulgan's extremely clear style makes Future People accessible and enjoyable. This book...should be read by all who take moral interest in others (and even more so by those who don't).... Mulgan has written a timely and important book of incredibly impressive scope and interest. He argues in favor of highly reasonable reproductive rules and his intriguing book will no doubt be of great value to this neglected area of ethics. * Rivka Weinberg, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *The discussion is lively, incisive and provocative and will make an enduring contribution. Certainly anyone interested in consequentialism or moral status of future persons will learn a great deal from this fascinating and extremely worthwhile book. * M. A. Roberts, Mind *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. The Contract Theory ; 3. Value Theory ; 4. Hybrid Moral Theories ; 5. Rule Consequentialism ; 6. Reproductive Freedom ; 7. Optimism and Pessimism ; 8. Disagreement and Uncertainty ; 9. International Justice ; 10. The Limits of Rule Consequentialism ; 11. Dividing Morality

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Book SynopsisProcesses of collective decision making are seen throughout modern society. How does a government decide on an investment strategy within the health care and educational sectors? Should a government or a community introduce measures to combat climate change and CO2 emissions, even if others choose not too? Should a country develop a nuclear capability despite the risk that other countries may follow their lead? This introductory text explores the theory of social choice. Social choice theory provides an analysis of collective decision making. The main aim of the book is to introduce students to the various methods of aggregating the preferences of all members of a given society into some social or collective preference. Written as a primer suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduates, this text will act as an important starting point for students grappling with the complexities of social choice theory. With all new chapter exercises this rigorous yet accessible primer avoids the Trade Review...an outstanding Primer for the field of social choice that will surely become a standard reference for those wanting to be initiated in the field. * Cambridge Journals *Table of ContentsGLOSSARY OF MAJOR CONCEPTS; HINTS TO EXERCISES

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Book SynopsisD. D. Raphael provides a critical account of the moral philosophy of Adam Smith, presented in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Whilst it does not have the same prominence in its field as his work on economics, The Wealth of Nations, Smith''s writing on ethics is of continuing importance and interest today, especially for its theory of conscience. Smith sees the origin of conscience in the sympathetic and antipathetic feelings of spectators. As spectators of the actions of other people, we can imagine how we would feel in their situation. If we would share their motives, we approve of their action. If not, we disapprove. When we ourselves take an action, we know from experience what spectators would feel, approval or disapproval. That knowledge forms conscience, an imagined impartial spectator who tells us whether an action is right or wrong. In describing the content of moral judgement, Smith is much influenced by Stoic ethics, with an emphasis on self-command, but he voTrade ReviewReview from previous edition Elegant and engaging. * Charlotte Brown, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Remarkably comprehensive, without sacrificing the subtlety of its critical exegesis... offers revealing treatment of Smith's work on a variety of key topics... this readable book is a welcome study of a fascinating and illuminating body of work. * Brian Feltham, Times Literary Supplement *...engaging...a gift to anyone interested in Adam Smith and the history of British moral philosophy. * Sylvana Tomaselli, British Journal for the History of Philosophy *Table of Contents1. Two Versions ; 2. Sympathy and Imagination ; 3. Motive and Consequence ; 4. Spectator Theory ; 5. The Impartial Spectator ; 6. Comparisons and Comment ; 7. Moral Rules ; 8. Virtue ; 9. The Cardinal Virtues ; 10. Virtue and Beauty ; 11. Ethics and Theology ; 12. Jurisprudence ; 13. Ethics and Economics ; 14. Smith's Enduring Contribution

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Book SynopsisThere are not many books that are genuine classics, and only a handful in business and management whose insights and ideas last for 50 years and more. This book is one of the very few ''must reads'' for anybody seriously interested in the role of management within the firm.Originally published in 1959, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm has illuminated and inspired thinking in strategy, entrepreneurship, knowledge creation, and innovation. Edith Penrose''s tightly-argued classic laid the foundations for the resource based view of the firm, now the dominant framework in business strategy. She analyses managerial activities and decisions, organizational routines, and also the factors that inevitably limit a firm''s growth prospects.For this new anniversary edition, Christos Pitelis has written a new introduction which both tells the story of Penrose''s extraordinary life, and provides a balanced assessment of her key ideas and their continuing relevance and freshness.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition A jewel of a volume. * John Kay, Financial Times *The basic propositions that Edith Penrose put forth in her book The Theory of the Growth of the Firm were provocative and path breaking. However, few then ventured to go down the path she blazed. Time has passed, and over the last decade that path has become crowded with scholars of firm behaviour, some of whom have only the dimmest awareness that the ideas they are working with were first put forward by Penrose. How good it is to have her book, long out of print, available again. Her insights, her arguments, still read fresh and right, and finally will get the attention they warrant. * Professor Richard R. Nelson, School of International & Public Affairs, Columbia University (On third edition) *The Theory of the Growth of the Firm is not only a classic, to be read as a historical milestone in the evolution of research on the strategy and management of firms, but also the most insightful contribution to the most contemporary theory of strategy: the resource based view of the firm. I cannot think of any book that I will put higher on the 'must read' list for students and scholars in the strategy field than this one. * Sumantra Ghoshal, formerly of the London Business School (On third edition) *Edith Penrose's pioneering work on the resource-based approach to the firm's growth has greatly inspired me and hundreds of other scholars. She was also one of the first to recognize the role of knowledge in business management. As we enter the 'knowledge society', this reissue of her classic work with its new foreword is well timed and welcome. * Professor Ikujiro Nonaka, Hitosubashi University of Tokyo (On third edition) *I believe her book bears reading and re-reading becuase it is a goldmine of concepts for understanding business and industrial organization. It is unique in that it seeks to provide an axiomatic treatment of economics, but grounds it in a theory of the firm and not of markets * Professor Michael Best, Centre for Industrial Competitiveness, University of Massachusetts Lowell (On third edition) *...here was a book that was doubly blessed - it has originality as well as argument, which though subtle, was available to intelligent students at all levels. * Economics (On first edition) *...packed with ideas. * R. L. Marris, The Economic Journal (On first edition) *...a serious book that ought to touch the survival instinct of every reflective businessman and investor. * Wall Street Journal (On first edition) *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Preface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. The Firm in Theory ; 3. The Productive Opportunity of the Firm and the 'Entrepreneur' ; 4. Expansion Without Merger: The Receding Managerial Limit ; 5. 'Inherited' Resources and the Direction of Expansion ; 6. The Economies of Size and the Economies of Growth ; 7. The Economics of Diversification ; 8. Expansion Through Acquisition and Merger ; 9. The Rate of Growth of Firms Through Time ; 10. The Position of Large and Small Firms in a Growing Economy ; 11. Growing Firms in a Growing Economy: The Process of Industrial Concentration and the Pattern of Dominance

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Book SynopsisWhat do we mean by inequality comparisons? If the rich just get richer and the poor get poorer, the answer might seem easy. But what if the income distribution changes in a complicated way? Can we use mathematical or statistical techniques to simplify the comparison problem in a way that has economic meaning? What does it mean to measure inequality? Is it similar to National Income? Or a price index? Is it enough just to work out the Gini coefficient?Measuring Inequality tackles these questions and examines the underlying principles of inequality measurement and its relation to welfare economics, distributional analysis, and information theory. The book covers modern theoretical developments in inequality analysis, as well as showing how the way we think about inequality today has been shaped by classic contributions in economics and related disciplines. Formal results and detailed literature discussion are provided in two appendices. The principal points are illustrated in the main teTrade ReviewIt complements contemporary theoretical developments * THES *Table of Contents1. First Principles ; 2. Charting Inequality ; 3. Analysing Inequality ; 4. Modelling Inequality ; 5. From Theory to Practice ; A. Technical Appendix 26 ; B. Notes on Sources and Literature

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Book SynopsisBrian Skyrms presents eighteen essays which apply adaptive dynamics (of cultural evolution and individual learning) to social theory. Altruism, spite, fairness, trust, division of labor, and signaling are treated from this perspective. Correlation is seen to be of fundamental importance. Interactions with neighbors in space, on static networks, and on co-evolving dynamics networks are investigated. Spontaneous emergence of social structure and of signaling systems are examined in the context of learning dynamics.Trade ReviewIt is rewarding and exemplifies a good way of doing formal philosophy. It sheds light on what evolutionary approaches, especially simulations, can and cannot do for philosophy. But mostly, it highlights the fact that our understanding of social phenomena cannot be complete if we neglect a dynamical point of view ... We may not need only books like this in philosophy; but we need some, and we certainly need more of them. And if the recent literature is any indication, we will have them -- in no small part due to Skyrms' remarkable, pioneering work * Cédric Paternotte, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; PART I: CORRELATION AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT ; Introduction to part I ; 1. Evolution and the Social Contract ; PART II: IMPORTANCE OF DYNAMICS ; Introduction to part II ; 2. Trust, Risk, and the Social Contract ; 3. Bargaining with Neighbors: Is Justice Contagious? ; 4. Stability and Explanatory Significance of Some Simple Evolutionary Models ; 5. Dynamics of Conformist Bias ; 6. Chaos and the Explanatory Significance of Equilibrium: Strange Attractors in Evolutionary Game Dynamics ; 7. Evolutionary Dynamics of Collective Action in N-person Stag Hunt Dilemmas ; 8. Learning to Take Turns ; 9. Evolutionary Considerations in the Framing of Social Norms ; PART III: DYNAMIC NETWORKS ; Introduction to part III ; 10. Learning to Network ; 11. A Dynamic Model of Social Network Formation ; 12. Network Formation by Reinforcement Learning: The Long and the Medium Run ; 13. Time to Absorption in Discounted Reinforcement Models ; PART IV: DYNAMICS OF SIGNALS ; Introduction to part IV ; 14. Learning to Signal: Analysis of a Micro-Level Reinforcement Model ; 15. Inventing New Signals ; 16. Signals, Evolution and the Explanatory Power of Transient Information ; 17. Co-Evolution of Pre-Play Signaling and Cooperation ; 18. Evolution of Signaling Systems with Multiple Senders and Receivers ; Index

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Book SynopsisAn intense debate has played out in recent years regarding how to implement a so-called flexicurity system-a labor market reform that combines flexibility, particularly in the hiring and firing process of firms, with security in the employment and income of the workforce. In Flexicurity Capitalism, Flaschel and Greiner lay out the macroeconomic structure of this system, providing the detailed mathematical models necessary to ponder seriously how such a system can work. Their book rests on three pillars of thought: Marx, Kalecki-Keynes, and Schumpeter. The authors highlight the relevant contributions from the work of each and build upon it. They in turn provide a basic framework for flexicurity capitalism and then compare their economic system to pure capitalism to determine the best and most practical way forward. Their scope is ambitious: to address the shortcomings of a narrow focus on mass unemployment, selective-schooling systems, property rights based solely on ownership without qTable of ContentsNotation ; Introduction ; 1 Marx: Socially Acceptable Capitalism? ; 1.1 Introduction ; 1.2 Theminimum wage debate ; 1.3 Sustainable social evolution through an unrestricted reserve army mechanism? ; 1.4 Classical growth dynamics ; 1.5 Hiring and firing, social security and restricted reserve army fluctuations ; 1.5.1 Human rights: Basic income and minimum wages ; 1.5.2 Capital's and labor's responsibility: Minimum wages and basic income ; needs ; 1.5.3 Capital's and labor's responsibility: Upper bounds for real wage increases ; 1.5.4 Automatic stabilizers: Blanchard and Katz error correction terms ; 1.6 Conclusions ; Appendix: Wage dynamics. A specific theoretical foundation ; 2 Kalecki: Full Employment Welfare Capitalism? ; 2.1 Introduction ; 2.2 Economic and political aspects of full employment ; 2.3 Themodel ; 2.4 The implied laws ofmotion ; 2.4.1 The DADmodule: multiplier and employment dynamics ; 2.4.2 The DAS module: real wage dynamic and capital accumulation ; 2.5 Steady state configurations and reduced-form3D dynamics ; 2.5.1 Balanced growth in the 4D dynamics ; 2.5.2 Reduced-form3D dynamics ; 2.6 Feedback structures ; 2.6.1 Feedback channels in KMGS growth ; 2.6.2 The feedback structure of the KGR model of capital accumulation ; and employment dynamics ; 2.6.3 A feedback-suggested local stability scenario ; 2.6.4 Consensus-based economies: Attraction towards accepted steady ; state positions ; 2.7 Local instability and global boundedness ; 2.7.1 Conflict-driven economies: Repelling steady state configurations ; 2.7.2 Kalecki-type upper turning points ; 2.7.3 Goodwin-type upper turning points? ; 2.7.4 Rose-type lower turning points ; 2.7.5 Goodwin-type lower turning points? ; 2.8 Numerical examples ; 2.9 Political aspects of the Kaleckian investment and employment cycle ; 2.9.1 Monetary policy ; 2.9.2 Fiscal policy ; 2.10 Conclusions ; 3 Schumpeter: Capitalism, Flexicurity and Democracy? ; 3.1 Introduction ; 3.2 From Marxian reserve army to Schumpeter's competitive socialism and beyond ; 3.3 Flexicurity capitalism: budget equations, consumption and investment ; 3.3.1 Full-employment capitalism: Ideal, status-quo and compromises ; 3.3.2 Basic principles and problems ; 3.3.3 Sectoral accounts, consumption and investment ; 3.4 Dynamics: Stability and sustainability issues ; 3.4.1 Stability of balanced reproduction ; 3.4.2 Sustainability of balanced reproduction ; 3.5 Pension funds and credit ; 3.6 Education and schooling ; 3.6.1 The educational system: Basic structure and implications ; 3.6.2 Equal opportunities and life-long learning ; 3.7 Challenge I: Keynesian business fluctuations ; 3.8 Challenge II: Schumpeterian processes of 'creative destruction' ; 3.9 The future of capitalism: A brief appraisal ; 3.10 Elites in flexicurity societies ; 3.10.1 Basic aspects ; 3.10.2 Elite groups and areas of operation ; 3.10.3 Education: Foundation for administrative authority and social behavior ; 3.10.4 Career advancement and decent paths ; 3.10.5 Preferences, incentives and responsibilities ; 3.10.6 Elite failures ; 3.10.7 The remuneration of elites under flexicurity: A baseline proposal ; 3.10.8 A summing up ; 3.11 Price formation: Time dependent markup pricing around long-period prices ; of production ; 3.12 Conclusions and outlook ; Appendix 1: Stability of Balanced Reproduction ; Appendix 2: Sustainability of Balanced Reproduction ; 4 Unleashed Capitalism: The Starting Point for Societal Reform ; 4.1 Introduction ; 4.2 Real disequilibria, balanced portfolios and the real-financial markets interaction ; 4.3 A portfolio approach to KMG growth dynamics ; 4.3.1 Households ; 4.3.2 Firms ; 4.3.3 Fiscal and monetary authorities ; 4.3.4 The wage-price spiral ; 4.3.5 Capital markets: Gross substitutes and stability ; 4.3.6 Cumulative processes in capital gains expectations: Chartists' behavior251 ; 4.4 A baseline stability scenario ; 4.5 Likely outcomes of unleashed capitalism: Local instability and regime-switch ; induced viability ; 4.6 A further risk-bearing asset: Long-termbonds ; 4.6.1 Intensive form ; 4.6.2 Steady state ; 4.6.3 Comparative statics ; 4.6.4 Stability ; 4.6.5 Summary ; 4.7 Interest rate policy in the KMG portfolio approach ; 4.8 Conclusion ; 5 Conclusions ; Mathematical Appendix: Stability Theorems ; Notes ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisIn spite of recurrent criticism and an impressive production of alternative indicators by scholars and NGOs, GDP remains the central indicator of countries'' success. This book revisits the foundations of indicators of social welfare, and critically examines the four main alternatives to GDP that have been proposed: composite indicators, subjective well-being indexes, capabilities (the underlying philosophy of the Human Development Index), and equivalent incomes. Its provocative thesis is that the problem with GDP is not that it uses a monetary metric but that it focuses on a narrow set of aspects of individual lives. It is actually possible to build an alternative, more comprehensive, monetary indicator that takes income as its first benchmark and adds or subtracts corrections that represent the benefit or cost of non-market aspects of individual lives. Such a measure can respect the values and preferences of the people and give as much weight as they do to the non-market dimensions. Trade ReviewFleurbaey and Blanchet have written a brilliant and deeply-learned survey of the ways to measure a society's condition. Among its many contributions, Beyond GDP offers a powerful defense of equivalent incomes as the core of a new approach- an approach that respects the diversity of individual preferences and the multiplicity of sources of human well-being. * Matthew Adler, Richard A. Horvitz Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy, Duke University *Table of ContentsContents ; vii ; Preface ix ; Introduction: The four musketeers xi ; 1 A wealth of indicators 1 ; 1.1 Introduction ; 1.2 A bird's eye view ; 1.3 Aggregating the non-aggregatable? ; 1.4 Correcting GDP ; 1.5 Sustainability assessment: weak or strong? ; 1.6 Coping with multidimensionality: dashboards ; 1.7 An overhanging question: how far can aggregation go? ; 2 Measuring sustainability ; 2.1 Introduction ; 2.2 Wealth and sustainable well-being ; 2.2.1 Discounting future streams of well-being? ; 2.2.2 From intertemporal well-being to sustainable consumption ; 2.3 The savings approach: a reference framework ; 2.3.1 Shifting the focus to sustainability : why? ; 2.3.2 Assessing sustainability in imperfect but predictable economies. ; 2.3.3 An example ; 2.4 The savings approach: several pending problems ; 2.4.1 Monetization in practice ; 2.4.2 Behavioral indeterminacy or when 'weak' indicators can ; turn out too strong ; 2.4.3 Technological and normative uncertainties ; 2.4.4 An additional problem: the cross-national dimension of ; unsustainability ; 2.5 Conclusion: where to go from there? ; iii ; iv CONTENTS ; 3 A price for everything? ; 3.1 A revealed preference argument ; 3.1.1 The argument for an individual consumer ; 3.1.2 Extending the argument to social welfare through a representative agent ; 3.1.3 Extending the argument to social welfare with an opti- ; mality assumption ; 3.2 A variant of the revealed preference argument ; 3.3 The theory of index numbers ; 3.3.1 An axiomatic approach ; 3.3.2 Approximating welfare changes ; 3.4 Decomposing welfare ; 3.4.1 A first decomposition, with the social expenditure function ; 3.4.2 A second decomposition, in terms of effeciency and equity ; 3.4.3 A new decomposition, based on Bergson curves ; 3.4.4 Another decomposition, for small variations ; 3.5 Specific problems with imputed prices and full income ; 3.6 Conclusion ; 4 Equivalent income, or how to value what has no price ; 4.1 Money-metric utility and equivalent income ; 4.2 Knock-out criticism? ; 4.2.1 Not welfarist enough ; 4.2.2 Too welfarist ; 4.2.3 Potentially regressive ; 4.2.4 Reference dependent ; 4.2.5 Arrow's coup de grace ; 4.3 Fairness to the rescue ; 4.3.1 The equivalence approach in fair allocation theory ; 4.3.2 Arrow Independence is not compelling ; 4.3.3 References need not be arbitrary ; 4.3.4 The right dose of welfarism ; 4.3.5 Bundle dominance is unacceptable ; 4.3.6 Egalitarianism is demanding ; 4.4 Social welfare decomposition ; 4.5 Conclusion ; 5 Is happiness all that matters? ; 5.1 The Easterlin paradox: Have we been wrong for 70,000 years? ; 5.1.1 Bentham is back ; 5.1.2 The debate about subjective welfarism ; 5.1.3 Is happiness the ultimate goal? ; 5.1.4 The key objection to subjective scores ; 5.2 A theory of subjective well-being ; 5.2.1 A[currency]ects and judgments ; 5.2.2 The three problems of the respondent ; CONTENTS v ; 5.2.3 Heterogeneous and shifting standards ; 5.2.4 What do people care about? ; 5.2.5 Comparisons across preferences ; 5.3 Making use of happiness data ; 5.3.1 Proposed indicators ; 5.3.2 Putting a[currency]ects in their place ; 5.3.3 Identi?cation problems ; 5.3.4 Can happiness data be improved? ; 5.4 Conclusion ; 6 Empowering capabilities ; 6.1 The capability approach ; 6.1.1 From basic needs to capabilities ; 6.1.2 Functionings, between 'opulence' and 'utility' ; 6.1.3 From functionings to capabilities ; 6.2 Capabilities as opportunities ; 6.2.1 Valuing sets ; 6.2.2 The relevant aspects of opportunities ; 6.2.3 Shaping opportunity sets ; 6.2.4 Equality against set valuation ; 6.2.5 Why capabilities? ; 6.3 The valuation issue ; 6.3.1 The intersection approach ; 6.3.2 Disagreement and respect for diversity ; 6.3.3 Implications of respect for personal preferences ; 6.4 Is the CA a separate approach? ; Conclusion: How to converge on a multiplicity ; Why synthetic indicators? ; Shortcuts and pitfalls ; Vices and virtues of monetary indicators ; A multiplicity of synthetic indicators ; Sustainability warnings ; A A theory of the reference for equivalent incomes ; A.1 The model ; A.2 Reference operators ; A.3 Non-market goods ; A.4 Market prices ; A.5 The household problem ; B Proofs 233 ; B.1 A Paretian rank-dependent criterion ; B.2 Reference-price independence ; B.3 A simple proof of Arrow's theorem in an economic framework ; vi CONTENTS ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book lays out foundations for a science of morals. Binmore uses game theory as a systematic tool for investigating ethical matters. He reinterprets classical social contract ideas within a game-theory framework and generates new insights into the fundamental questions of social philosophy. In contrast to the previous writing in moral philosophy that relied on vague notion such as societal well-being and moral duty, Binmore begins with individuals; rational decision-makers with the ability to emphasize with one another. Any social arrangement that prescribes them to act against their interests will become unstable and eventually will be replaced by another, until one is found that includes worthwhile actions for all individuals involved.Trade Reviewa worthwhile addition to the growing literature on the evolution and nature of fairness norms. * William F. Harms, Philosophy in Review *Table of ContentsPREFACE; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

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Book SynopsisThomas Schelling won the Nobel Prize in economics for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis. This came after he had taught a course in game theory and rational choice to advanced students and government officials for 45 years. In this book, Robert Dodge provides in language for a broad audience, the concepts that Schelling taught. Armed with Schelling''s understanding of game theory methods and his approaches to problems, the general reader can improve daily decision making. Mathematics often make game theory challenging but was not a major part of Schelling''s course and is even less of a factor in this book. Along with a summary of the material Schelling presented, included are problems from the course and similar less challenging questions. While considerable analysis is done with the basic game theory tool -- the two-by-two matrix -- much of the book is descriptive and rational decision-making is explained with stories. Chapter sTrade ReviewPraise for Schelling's Game Theory: How to Make Decisions Gives readers an excellent Harvard game theory course by a renowned Nobel Prize winner through the eyes of his Boswell. This book is a must read for political scientists, economists, and anyone who has to make decisions of import. * New York Journal of Books *Table of ContentsForeword by Thomas C. Schelling ; Chapter I Thomas Schelling and His Signature Course on Strategic Thinking ; Part One: The Schelling Approach to Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making ; Chapter 2 Introduction to Strategic Thought ; Chapter 3 Vicarious Thinking ; Chapter 4 Game Theory ; Chapter 5 The Two-By-Two Matrix ; Part Two: Strategies and Tactics ; Chapter 6 Strategies Defined and Illustrated ; Chapter 7 Tactics ; Chapter 8 Self-Command ; Part Three: Models as Metaphors For What Decisions Do ; Chapter 9 Interaction Models ; Chapter 10 The Dollar Auction ; Chapter 11 Musical Chairs and Inescapable Mathematics ; Part Four: The Prisoner's Dilemma, Competition and Cooperation ; Chapter 12 The Prisoner's Dilemma ; Chapter 13 Cooperation ; Chapter 14 Coordination ; Part Five: Individual Decisions and Group Agreement ; Chapter 15 Collective Choice and Voting ; Chapter 16 The Commons and Fair Division ; Chapter 17 Case Study, Overcoming Professional Basketball's Commons Dilemma: ; The Phil Jackson Story ; Part Six: Decisions that Mix and Sort Populations, Decisions Based on ; Randomization ; Chapter 18 Critical Mass and Tipping ; Chapter 19 Individual Decisions and Group Outcomes ; Chapter 20 Randomization in Decision-Making ; Part Seven: Case Study and Review ; Chapter 21 Case Study, The Cuban Missile Crisis: Analysis and Review

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Book SynopsisWhen we fail to achieve our goals, procrastination is often the culprit. But how exactly is procrastination to be understood? It has been described as imprudent, irrational, inconsistent, and even immoral, but there has been no sustained philosophical debate concerning the topic.This edited volume starts in on the task of integrating the problem of procrastination into philosophical inquiry. The focus is on exploring procrastination in relation to agency, rationality, and ethics -- topics that philosophy is well-suited to address. Theoretically and empirically informed analyses are developed and applied with the aim of shedding light on a vexing practical problem that generates a great deal of frustration, regret, and harm. Some of the key questions that are addressed include the following: How can we analyze procrastination in a way that does justice to both its voluntary and its self-defeating dimensions? What kind of practical failing is procrastination? Is it a form of weakness of Trade ReviewThe Thief of Time is an interesting and important book. It deals in fresh ways with well-known philosophical problems: will and rationality and their weaknesses, vice and virtue, identity, the nature of lived time. And more importantly, Andreou and White's collection often weds these questions to ordinary struggles and anxieties - lucidly and sometimes enjoyably ... Worth putting off rubbish television for it. * Damon Young, Philosophers' Magazine *Table of ContentsNotes on the Contributors ; Introduction, Chrisoula Andreou and Mark D. White ; Part I ; 1. Procrastination: The Basic Impulse, George Ainslie ; 2. Economic Models of Procrastination, Don Ross ; 3. Is Procrastination Weakness of Will?, Sarah Stroud ; 4. Intransitive Preferences, Vagueness, and the Structure of Procrastination, Duncan MacIntosh ; 5. Bad Timing, Jon Elster ; Part II ; 6. Prudence, Procrastination, and Rationality, Olav Gjelsvik ; 7. Procrastination and Personal Identity, Christine Tappolet ; 8. Procrastination, Vagueness and the Policy as Action Model, Sergio Tenenbaum ; 9. Virtue for Procrastinators, Elijah Millgram ; 10. Procrastination as Vice, Jennifer A. Baker ; Part III ; 11. Overcoming Procrastination through Planning, Frank Wieber and Peter M. Gollwitzer ; 12. Coping with Procrastination, Chrisoula Andreou ; 13. Resisting Procrastination: Kantian Autonomy and the Role of the Will, Mark D. White ; 14. Procrastination and the Extended Will, Joseph Heath and Joel Anderson ; 15. Procrastination and the Law, Manuel A. Utset ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisForeword Introduction PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. The Classes of Income 2. The Classes of Wealth 3. The Meaning of Money 4. Capital and Income 5. Consumption and Investment 6. The Meaning of Equilibrium PART II: ACCUMULATION IN THE LONG RUN 7. ASimple Model 8. Section I - Accumulation with One Technique 9. Accumulation with Constant Technique 10. Technical Progress 11. Section II - The Technical Frontier 12. The Spectrum of Techniques 13. The Evaluation of Capital 14. The Technical Frontier in a Golden Age 15. Productivity and the Real Capital Ratio 16. Accumulation without Inventions 17. A Surplus of Labour 18. Section III - Accumulation and Technical Progress 19. Accumulation with Neutral Technical Progress 20. Accumulation with Biased Progress 21. Synopsis of the Theory of Accumulation in the Long Run PART III: THE SHORT PERIOD 22. Prices and Profits 23. Wages and Prices 24. Fluctuations in the Rate of Investment 25. Cycles and Trends PART IV: FINANCE 26. Money and Finance 27. The RatesTrade Review'Classics are classics for a reason. Classics show us that when we flatter ourselves into thinking we have clear title to the ideas we advance, they are really just borrowed from a more eloquent past. Robinson's The Accumulation of Capital shows how difficult it is in economics today to say something that is both new and profound. Her blend of theory and realism is what we all strive for in parsing modern economic problems. Her criticisms of the orthodoxy were enormously productive in that economic methodologies have blossomed to account for inadequacies she pointed out in the equilibrium approach. To Robinson and The Accumulation of Capital we are all deeply indebted, whether we realize it or not.' Bill Gibson, John Converse Professor of Economics, University of Vermont, USA 'Joan Robinson's most difficult and ambitious book still constitutes a formidable challenge to contemporary theory. Her search for the fundamental but simple principles which underlie the process of growth in a classical Marxian-Kaleckian-Keynesian setting contrasts sharply with the logic and the language of current growth models. Her extraordinary command of logic allowed her to dispense with mathematics, with no loss of clarity and insights. The new Introduction by two leading Robinson scholars provides the thread leading through the labyrinth of case studies and changes in assumptions. It will certainly attract fresh readers to her book, and also lure back those already acquainted with it.' Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, Professor of Economics, Sapienza, University of Rome, ItalyTable of ContentsForeword Introduction PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. The Classes of Income 2. The Classes of Wealth 3. The Meaning of Money 4. Capital and Income 5. Consumption and Investment 6. The Meaning of Equilibrium PART II: ACCUMULATION IN THE LONG RUN 7. ASimple Model 8. Section I - Accumulation with One Technique 9. Accumulation with Constant Technique 10. Technical Progress 11. Section II - The Technical Frontier 12. The Spectrum of Techniques 13. The Evaluation of Capital 14. The Technical Frontier in a Golden Age 15. Productivity and the Real Capital Ratio 16. Accumulation without Inventions 17. A Surplus of Labour 18. Section III - Accumulation and Technical Progress 19. Accumulation with Neutral Technical Progress 20. Accumulation with Biased Progress 21. Synopsis of the Theory of Accumulation in the Long Run PART III: THE SHORT PERIOD 22. Prices and Profits 23. Wages and Prices 24. Fluctuations in the Rate of Investment 25. Cycles and Trends PART IV: FINANCE 26. Money and Finance 27. The Rates of Interest PART V: THE RENTIER 28. Consumption of Profits 29. Consumption and Accumulation in the Long Run 30. Rentiers and the Trade Cycle 31. Rentiers and Finance PART VI: LAND 32. Land and Labour 33. Factor Ratios and Techniques. A Digression 34. Land and Accumulation 35. Land, Labour and Accumulation 36. Increasing and Diminishing Returns PART VII: RELATIVE PRICES 37. Supply and Demand PART VIII: International Trade 38. External Investment 39. International Investment NOTES ON VARIOUS TOPICS 40. Postscript 41. The Value of Invested Capital

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Book SynopsisThe human imprint on the biosphere has become so pronounced in recent years that there has been talk of a new geological era, the 'Anthropocene'. Gathering contributions from some of the world's foremost heterodox economists, this book explores the new economic directionsandparadigmsthat are required to respond to this crisis.Table of ContentsThe Integration of Social, Ecological and Economic Knowledge; C. Spash The Fog of Economics; R. Ayres New Narratives for Sustainability: The Red Pill for Economists; M. Giampietro & K. Mayumi Social Metabolism, Environmental Cost-Shifting and Valuation Languages; J. Martinez-Alier Meanings and Significance of Property with Reference to Today's Three Major Eco-Institutional Crises; R. Steppacher & J. Gerber An Institutional and Evolutionary Critique of Natural Capital; L. Krall & J. Gowdy From Utilitarianism to Evolution in Ecological Economics; G. Hodgson Economics: The Dismal Science? S. Marglin Moving from a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy; H. Daly Global Poverty and Financial Crisis: Are We Trapped in an Obsolete Economic Order? D. Bromley

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Book SynopsisJULIAN LE GRAND is theRichard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He is a leadingexpert on public and social policy and acted as a senior policy advisor to the Prime Minister between 2003 and 2005. He is the author, co-author or editor of seventeen books and over ninety articles on economics, philosophy and public policy. CAROL PROPPER holds professorships at the University of Bristol, where she co-founded the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, and at Imperial College, London where she heads the new Healthcare Management Group. She specializes in the economics of healthcare provision markets, particularly the role of incentives,and has published extensively in economics and professional journals. SARAH SMITH is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University of Bristol. She has previously worked as an economist at HM Treasury, the Financial Services Authority andthe Institute for Fiscal Studies. Her wor

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Book Synopsis***One of Barack Obama''s best books of 2024***Shortlisted for the 2024 Financial Times & Schroders Business Book of the YearA revelatory account of the past, present, and future of economic growth - and how we should rethink itOver the past two centuries, economic growth has freed billions from poverty and made our lives far healthier and longer. As a result, the unfettered pursuit of growth defines economic life around the world. Yet this prosperity has come at an enormous price: deepening inequalities, destabilizing technologies, environmental destruction and climate change.Resolving this growth dilemma, best-selling economist Daniel Susskind argues, is the urgent task of our age. For many, in our era of sluggish productivity, the worry is slowing growthin the UK, Europe, China and elsewhereand reversing this stagnation is the goal of every politician. Others understandably claim, given its social and environmental costs, that the only way forward is through ''degrowth'', deliberating shrinking our economies.At this time of uncertainty about growth and its value, Susskind has written an essential reckoning. In a sweeping analysis full of historical insight, he explores what really drives growth, offering original ideas for combatting our economic slowdown. He argues that we cannot abandon growth but shows instead how we can redirect it, making it better reflect what we truly value.Lucid, thought-provoking and brilliantly researched, Growth: A Reckoning is a vital guide to one of our greatest challenges.

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Book SynopsisThe greatest strength of this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of Lectures on International Trade is its rigorous algebraic and geometric treatment of the various models and results of trade theory. The authors, who now include Arvind Panagariya, offer both policy insights and empirical applications. They have added nine entirely new chapters as well as new sections to several existing chapters (e.g., a greatly expanded treatment of the growing theory of preferential trade agreements).

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Book SynopsisIn this potentially controversial book, Berch Berberoglu argues that the internationalization of U.S. capital via worldwide expansion of U.S. transnational monopolies has led to the decline of the U.S. domestic economy--bringing about class polarization between labor and capital.Table of ContentsTheories of the world economy and world empire; the postwar rise of the US economy onto the world scene; the internationalization of US capital and the resurgence of global rivalry; economic decline and increading class polarization in the United States; declining living standards of US workers; the response of the US state to the social and economic crisis; labor's response to economic decline and decay; conclusion - which way out of the crisis?.

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Book SynopsisWhy in prosperous market democracies do so many people find themselves unhappy? Robert Lane shows that the main sources of well-being in advanced economies are friendship and a good family life; income has little to do with happiness once a person rises above the poverty level.Trade Review"The day is near when people will discover the Sisyphusian nature of the pursuit of material goods as a source of lasting contentment and meaning. Professor Lane's well-written and well-documented book will be the text of the new recognition that all who are out of poverty must formulate other goals in life than the amassment of objects during the day and their consumption at night." Amitai Etzioni, author of The New Golden Rule "A book of great importance for our time. Lane asks whether our most treasured institutions - market economies and democratic political systems - are good for subjective well-being. He approaches this question with a breadth of knowledge and scholarship that is difficult to match." David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles

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Book SynopsisIn this text, social psychologist David G. Myers asks why, in an era of great material wealth, America suffers from such a disturbing array of social problems that reflect a deep spiritual poverty. He offers positive advice on how to spark social renewal and dreams a new American dream.Trade Review"A call to action, an exhortation to hope, this book is clearly required reading for the concerned citizen." Choice "A remarkable book: combines the findings of social sciences with good sense, better yet - with keen moral judgment. Well written by an outstanding social psychologist." Amitai Etzioni, author of The Spirit of Community "A new millennium calls for a new vision of America. We have had enough blatant materialism, too much selfish sexism that makes a mockery of marriage and family. The American Paradox gives us such a new vision of America and we would do well to read it seriously. As the good book says: 'Without vision the people perish.' Theodore M. Hesburgh, President Emeritus, University of Notre Dame "The American Paradox will deepen family therapists' commitment to help families think through their relationship to the broader culture and make sound decisions about time and money, shopping and media." Mary Pipher, Networker

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Book SynopsisIVOR SEELEY was long-time editor of the Macmillan Building and Surveying Series, and the author of a number of successful texts within the series.GEORGE MURRAY was for many years undergraduate course leader at Napier University, and is the author of Measurement of Building Services (Macmillan, 1997).

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