Economics of specific sectors Books

Book SynopsisGroundbreaking call to action by Donella Meadows, the bestselling author of Thinking in Systems! Limits to Growth was right. New research shows we're nearing collapse the Guardian The updated edition of the groundbreaking classic that kickstarted the movement for environmental and ecological reform! Perfect for fans of The Uninhabitable Earth and There is No Planet B It is no unknown fact that at the present rate of climate change, population growth and capitalistic expansion, we are over-exceeding our planet’s resources. We’re stretched pretty thin and if we continue at the present rate we’ll soon be headed towards irreversible consequences as a result of unchecked growth on a finite planet. Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows, three imminent environmental leaders, foresaw the early signs of wear and tear on our planet. They come together in Limits to Growth to offer an analysis of present and future trends in resource use and assess a variety of possible outcomes. Citing climate change as the most tangible example of our current overshoot, the scientists now provide us with a plan to reduce our needs to meet the carrying capacity of the planet. In many ways, the message contained in Limits to Growth is a warning. Rampant resource exhaustion cannot be sustained without collapse. But as the authors are careful to point out, there is reason to believe that humanity can still reverse some of the damage to Earth if we reduce inefficiency and waste. Limits to Growth is a work of stunning intelligence that has exposed the critical line between human growth and human development.Trade ReviewJohn N. Cooper, for AxisofLogic.com- This is a wonderful book. Originally published in 1972 as Limits to Growth and refreshed in 1992 in Beyond the Limits, the authors have now issued a 30-year appraisal [Chelsea Green Publishing, ISBN 1-931498-58-X], in which they examine the progress made both in their understanding of the mechanisms underlying the impact of humanity on the world ecology and of steps taken toward remediating the accelerating approach to trainwreck that is mankind's ill-managed and uncontrolled 'footprint' on this planet's environment. Briefly, humanity has overshot the limits of what is physically and biologically sustainable. That overshoot WILL lead to the collapse of the planetary environment's ability to support not only our species but much of the rest of the biosphere if we do not act rapidly and effectively to reduce our footprint. These conclusions provide reasons for both optimism and alarm: optimism because humanity has demonstrated its capacity to act appropriately in one specific instance; and alarm because thirty years have been largely wasted since the consequences of our failing to act were detailed. There is still time but the need to act quickly and effectively is urgent. The authors demonstrate that the most critical areas needing immediate attention are: population; wasteful, inefficient growth; and pollution. They show how attention to all three simultaneously can result in returning the human footprint on the environment to manageable, sustainable size, while sharply reducing the disparity between human well-being and fostering a generous quality-of-life worldwide. Absent this, the prospects are grim indeed. The book is divided into three sections, the first outlining in principle the authors' systems analytical approach to understanding the planet's ecology. Their presentation is clear and comprehensible with an abundance of charts and figures that make visualizing the concepts easy. They successfully avoid the pitfalls of many technical presentations by using familiar analogies and largely avoiding professional jargon. As a result readers come away with insights not just into global interconnectedness of inputs, outputs, accumulation and feedback but also the significance of such dynamics in local, even personal, situations. The second section deals with the authors' updated and revised modeling program, World3, which they utilize to test the plausible effects of changes in human political, economic and social behavior on the environment. Their discussion of World3 focuses on the assumptions for, and results of, a variety calculational scenarios. Details of their latest programming revisions are reserved for an index. Repeatedly they emphasize that their results are NOT prescriptive, but merely descriptive in general terms of likely consequences of humanity's failure or success in rising to meet the issues cited. Again excellent graphics for the various scenarios allow the reader to see at a glance what different approaches toward rectifying past, present and future environmental damage may have. The final chapters describe options open to humanity that the authors believe have the best chance of avoiding social, economic and probably political collapse in the next century or so. We have a choice: the human experiment, possibly even the biological experiment, that is life on this planet can yet succeed and persist in a sustainable way. But to do so will require our species as whole consciously and deliberately to take immediate, remediating steps, now, seriously and adequately to address the issues we have so far failed to do so effectively. It IS up to us. © Copyright 2005 by AxisofLogic.com. -- John N. Cooper"In 1972, The Limits to Growth was published as a clarion call to begin changing the way the world worked so we safely made it to 2050-2070. The authors were clear that the path of change needed to begin "now" so we made a course correction within the next 30 years. Sadly, the message they wrote got badly misunderstood and by 30 years later, scores of critiques to the book claimed the authors warned that the world would run out of oil and other scare resources by 1990 or 2000. It is time for the world to re-read Limits to Growth! The message of 1972 is far more real and relevant in 2004 and we wasted a valuable 30 years of action plans by misreading the message of the first book."--Matthew R. Simmons, energy analyst and founder, Simmons & Company International, The world's largest energy investment banking practiceTable of Contents1. Overshoot 2. The driving force: exponential growth 3. The limits: sources and sinks 4. World3: the dynamics of growth in a finite world 5. Back from beyond the limits: the ozone story 6. Technology, markets, and overshoot 7. Transitions to a sustainable system 8. Tools for the transition to sustainability

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Book SynopsisA leading economic historian presents a new history of financial crises, showing how some led to greater globalization while others kept nations apartTrade Review“[A] fascinating book. . . . James’s surprising conclusion is that supply shocks promote globalisation, while demand shocks inhibit it.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times, “Best Books of 2023—Economics”“A very enjoyable new book . . . applies the lens of whether each the seven advanced or set back the process of globalization to crises ranging from famines and blights in the 1840s via wars and depressions, commodity price hikes in the 1970s, the GFC and the Covid lockdowns and Russian invasion of Ukraine. . . . Masterly concise essays.”—Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist (blog)“James’ analysis is persuasive, and his book offers an illuminating history of how our world became so globalized.”—Mark Buchanan, Nature“Seven Crashes . . . offer(s) necessary and sober updates to the literature on financial crises.”—Rémi Meehan, International Affairs“Seven Crashes . . . sheds light on our most recent period of economic uncertainty.”— Kyle Scott, LSE Review of Booksshortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, sponsored by the Munk Centre for International Studies “An audacious historical interpretation of how global mega-shocks have driven globalization cycles over the last two centuries. Anyone hoping to forecast the future of the world economy should read it.”—Maurice Obstfeld, Class of 1958 Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley“Those who cherish economics will be fascinated by Harold James’s exploration of financial crises, and the ways in which they have validated the views of those economists who saw them coming.”—Edmund Phelps, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and director of the Center on Capitalism and Society, Columbia University“A brilliant book—James shows how economists often draw the wrong lessons from the past and why globalization is unlikely to vanish in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.”—Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World History“James’s masterful account sheds new light on how globalization has been shaped by economic crises since the nineteenth century and deepens our understanding of globalization’s opportunities and its challenges.”—Linda Yueh, author of The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them“If you are looking for a book that puts the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic into historical context and considers what it means for the economy’s future, this is it.”—Mark Zandi, author of Paying the Price: Ending the Great Recession and Ensuring a New American Century

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A convincing book that could make a big difference in the way we think about modern economic problems.”—Peter Passell, New York Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisA top-to-bottom look at England's national game, from one of the UK's leading business economists.The Premier League is the most commercially successful football league in history, the self-proclaimed 'best league in the world'. But success has come at a cost, unbalancing the English game to a profound and damaging degree.Football's stumbling response to COVID-19 and the European Super League disaster are just the most recent examples. It is estimated that more than two thirds of the country's 92 professional clubs are loss-making; payments to agents each year regularly total more than the combined income of all 44 clubs in Leagues 1 and 2; supporters have been squeezed to the limit; racist incidents are on the rise; grassroots facilities are in a dreadful state; and failed World Cup bids have severely weakened England's standing in the global game. The national team's performance at Euro 2020 can't paper over the cracks.There is an alternative. In this revealing and eye-opening analysis, leading economist Mark Gregory reveals the breadth and depth of the problems facing our national men's game, and shows us a way to bring football home for good.Trade ReviewMark Gregory... knows what he is talking about...you will understand a great deal more about English football and its coming cataclysm than you did before... [a] manifesto for change and returning the game to its roots' -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This book will make you fret and question your moral integrity.”—Financial Times“Guilluy, whose work is not universally admired in France, particularly by academic geographers and many on the left, seems to have seen it all coming. So there will be considerable interest in his latest work, published in French as Le Crépuscule de la France d’en haut in 2016 and now, by Yale. In a further development of his now-familiar argument, he tackles head on – and with great virulence – the flip side of La France périphérique, those he considers largely responsible for the country’s profound social, economic and political dislocation: hipsters, who the French call bourgeois-bohèmes or bobos.”— Jon Henley, The Guardian“An indispensable guide to understanding the fears and frustrations of an increasingly permanent underclass—not just in France, but throughout the world. . . . Disturbing and affecting . . . [Guilluy] has hit on something profound that extends well beyond the borders of France.”—Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times“[Guilluy] argues that France now has all the conditions in place for a ‘slave rebellion.’ . . . [His] polemic seems all the more prescient in light of the gilets jaunes protesters, who have caused havoc in Paris.”—Philip Delves Broughton, Wall Street Journal"This is a book with direct relevance outside France. Observing that metropolisation is “the domestic corollary of globalisation”, Guilluy cites London as “the quintessential ... citadel city”. Condemning elites, speaking up for the disregarded, he writes scathing, analytical Marxist class history very effectively...essential reading"— David Sexton, Evening Standard"This is indeed a remarkably prescient and powerful work, which not only is a frightening and accurate analysis of what seems to be happening right now in France, but also may well be an insight into what happens next." — Andrew Hussey, Literary Review“Written long before the riots began, this acute analysis explains the gilets jaunes” —Peter Conradi, Sunday Times (London)“Writing two years before the advent of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests), Guilluy convincingly shows how, once again, it’s all about class struggle.”—Pepe Escobar, Asia Times“There is much that is true in Guilluy’s book” —Lara Marlowe, The Irish Times “The book is already a cultural phenomenon” — John Tomaney, LSE Review of Books

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers A New York Times Bestseller Winner of the 2017 Excellence in Financial Journalism Book Award, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants One of Bloomberg View's Great History Books of 2016 One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of Foreign Affairs' Editors' Picks 2016 One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016 One of The Wall Street Journal's "The 20 Books That Defined Our Year" 2016 One of Bloomberg View's "Five Books to Change Conservatives' Minds," chosen by Cass Sunstein #36 on Bloomberg's "50 Most Influential" List One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016 One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of the Washington Post's Best Economics Books 2016 Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog's "The Books We Loved in 2016" Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University "The Rise and Fall of American Growth... is the Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year."--Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading--a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis... [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past."--Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages."--Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries... The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period... If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study."--William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "Mr. Gordon uses exhaustive historic data to buttress his thesis."--Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is full of wonder for the miraculous things that America has accomplished."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "A masterful study to be read and reread by anyone interested in today's political economy."--Kirkus "Normally, these kinds of big-think books end with a whimper, as the author totally fails to identify solutions to the problem he is writing about. But Gordon's conclusion offers some admirably definitive policy advice."--Matthew Yglesias, Vox "Magnificent... Gordon presents his case... with great style and panache, supporting his argument with vivid examples as well as econometric data... Even if history changes direction... this book will survive as a superb reconstruction of material life in America in the heyday of industrial capitalism."--Economist "Every presidential candidate should be asked what policies he or she would offer to increase the pace of U.S. productivity growth and to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the economy. Bob Gordon's list is a good place to start."--David Wessel, WSJ.com's Think Tank blog "[W]hat may be the year's most important book on economics has already been published... What Gordon has provided is not a rejection of technology but a sobering reminder of its limits."--Robert Samuelson, Washington Post "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is an extraordinary work of economic scholarship... Moreover, this is one of the rare economics books that is on the one hand deeply analytical ... And on the other a pleasure to read... [A] landmark work."--Lawrence Summers, Prospect "Ambitious... The hefty tome, minutely detailed yet dauntingly broad in scope, offers a lively portrayal of the evolution of American living standards since the Civil War."--Eduardo Porter, New York Times "Two years ago a huge book on economics took the world by storm. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century ... became a surprise bestseller... Robert Gordon's tome on American economic growth stretches to 768 pages and its central message is arguably more important."--David Smith, Sunday Times "A landmark new book."--Gavin Kelly, The Guardian "Looking ahead, judging presidents by policies rather than outcomes may be all the more important. In a new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the economist Robert Gordon argues that we are in the midst of an era of meager technological change. Yes, we now have smartphones and Twitter, but previous generations introduced electric lighting, indoor plumbing and the internal combustion engine. In Mr. Gordon's view, technological change is just not what it used to be, and we had better get used to slower growth in productivity and incomes."--N. Gregory Mankiw, New York Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is likely to be the most interesting and important economics book of the year. It provides a splendid analytic take on the potency of past economic growth, which transformed the world from the end of the nineteenth century onward... Gordon's book serves as a powerful reminder that the U.S. economy really has gone through a protracted slowdown and that this decline has been caused by the stagnation in technological progress."--Tyler Cowen, Foreign Affairs "[A]n important new book."--Martin Ford, Huffington Post "[A] lightning bolt of a new book."--Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect "So powerful and intriguing are the facts and arguments marshaled by Gordon that even informed critics who think he is wrong recommend that readers plow through his The Rise and Fall of American Growth, with its 60 graphics and 64 tables spread over more than 700 pages. You don't need to be an economist to appreciate or understand the book. His thesis is straightforward."--David Cay Johnston, Al Jazeera America.com "What is novel about Gordon's approach to this problem is that he doesn't try to find political causes for our economic woes... [E]xhaustive and sweeping in scope, and novel in its thinking about growth."--Chris Matthews, Fortune.com "[A] fascinating new book."--Jeffrey Sachs, Boston Globe "One of the most important books of recent years... Powerful and impressive."--Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg View "This is a tremendous, sobering piece of research, which does a lot to explain the febrile, nervous state of modern Western democracies."--Marcus Tanner, The Independent "A new book by economist Robert Gordon--The Rise and Fall of American Growth--is causing quite a stir."--City A.M. "If he's right, and one links this with growing income inequality, our would-be leaders will have difficulty in making the case for achieving the American dream through steady incremental progress achieved through collaboration and political compromise."--Michael Hoffmann, Desert Sun "Robert Gordon's new book on productivity in the U.S. economy, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is masterful... Gordon skillfully lays out myriad information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal."--Edward Lotterman, St. Paul Pioneer Press "[I]mpressive."--Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald "In his unsettling new book, Gordon, who teaches at Northwestern, weighs in on the role of technology in the U.S. over the past century-and-a-half. He does so forcefully, so forcefully, in fact, as to wipe the smiles off the faces of most techno-optimists, myself included."--Peter A. Coclanis, Charlotte Observer "[A] thoughtful new book."--David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is this year's equivalent to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: an essential read for all economists, who are unanimously floored by its boldness and scope even if they don't agree with its conclusions."--Adam Davidson, New York Times Magazine "Gordon makes a compelling case for why the era of fast growth in America ended around 1970 and will not return in the foreseeable future, if ever."--Dick Meyer, DecodeDC "Gordon argues that we are not going to get another surge soon and that there are several headwinds that are going to work against faster growth, including income inequality, education as a differentiator and not an equalizer, the debt overhang, and demography."--John Mason, TheStreet.com "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] challenges every political claim, and every pundit's remedy, regarding how to get the lackluster American economy to boom again in the decades ahead, as it once did a half-century or more ago... [The book] represents the culmination of Gordon's many years of investigation into this key economic question of our age, namely: 'Why is it that the American economy has never been able to return to the happy boom years of our grandparents' time?' Why is it that, decade after decade, administration after administration, annualized productivity growth has only been about one-half to one-third that of the age of Truman and Eisenhower?"--Paul Kennedy, Tribune Content Agency "[M]asterful... Gordon skillfully lays out information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal... The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a rare example of a work with solid economics that can be understood, and enjoyed, by nearly any lay person."--Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman "As an economic historian, Gordon is beyond reproach."--Edward Luce, Financial Times "Provocative."--Associated Press "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is a deep dive into the past with an eye to the future... [The book] is part of a fascinating debate about future prospects for the American economy."--Knowledge@Wharton "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] has set the wonky world of economics aflame."--Ryan Craig, TechCrunch "Magisterial."--John Kay, Financial Times "[A] contentious new book."--Margaret Wente, The Globe & Mail "[A] fabulous new book... [I]mpressive."--Dr. Mike Walden, Morganton News Herald "Northwestern Bob Gordon's new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, offers a deeper explanation for the underlying mechanics behind slowed economic growth."--Jon Hartley, Forbes.com "So much of what the presidential candidates and the American people want to accomplish over the next four years and beyond depends on the U.S. economy growing faster, and more inclusively, than it has in recent years. This year's hot economics book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by one of America's most distinguished macroeconomists, Robert Gordon, casts a pall on whether this is possible, arguing that the U.S. had a golden century of increasing innovation from roughly 1870 to 1970, but this was unique."--Robert Litan, Fortune.com "Gordon's book offers the definitive account of how the many technological innovations between 1870 and 1940 dramatically improved life in the United States."--Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution's Defining Ideas blog "[M]agiserial... The Northwestern University professor lays out the case that the productivity miracle underlying the American way of life was largely a one-time deal."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "Robert Gordon's new book The Rise and Fall of American Growth has taken the economics world by storm this winter."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[M]assive."--Ben Casselman, FiveThirty Eight "[G]roundbreaking."--Zeeshan Aleem, Mic "With a painstaking--and fascinating--historical analysis of American productivity, [Gordon] argues that the innovations of today pale in comparison to earlier in our history and that we might actually be entering a period of prolonged stagnation. He may very well be right."--Greg Satell, Forbes.com "[P]rovocative."--Barrie McKenna, The Globe & Mail "[I]nfluential."--Martin Neil Baily, Fortune.com "[A] stimulating book."--George Will, Washington Post "Compulsive reading."--Andrew Hilton, Financial World "Gordon is not an alarmist, far from it. His is a sober voice of concern, of caution, which needs to be heard by those in the helm in America. And a fascinating lesson for ambitious and growing countries like India."--Dr R Balashankar, Sunday Guardian "[A] fascinating convergence of green and mainstream thought."--Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay Journal "[T]his panoramic book makes good reading."--Shane Greenstein, Harvard Magazine "The book's great contribution is the tapestry it weaves of all the innovations that changed most Americans' lives beyond recognition in the century from 1870 to 1970."--Martin Sandbu, Financial Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is unquestionably an important book that raises fundamental questions about the United States' economy and society."--New Criterion "[A] masterpiece."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "[An] impressive book... Gordon's book provides sufficient ammunition to show the colossal problems facing capitalism."--Socialism Today "Rich with detailed information, meticulous observations, and even anecdotes and stories ... a fascinating read."--Ricardo F. Levi, Corriere della Sera "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is essential reading for anyone interested in economics."--Choice "In an important new book, economist Robert Gordon makes the case for pessimism. He believes that technologies like smartphones, robots, and artificial intelligence aren't going to have the kind of big impact on the economy that earlier inventions--like the internal combustion engine and electricity--did."--Timothy B. Lee, Vox "Robert Gordon has written an engaging economic-based history of America... Gordon is to be commended for helping to stimulate a national debate on the current low level of economic productivity."--Allan Hauer, Innovation: The Journal of Technology & Commercialization "If you want to see how far we have come and how tough life was a century and a half ago, read Gordon's book."--David R. Henderson, Regulation "A fantastic read."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes "The book is well written, and one can only be in awe of Gordon's mastery of the factual history of the American standard of living."--Robert A. Margo, EH.net "Monumental."--John Cassidy, NewYorker.com "Zeitgeist-defining."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[A] magisterial treatise."--Nick Gillespie, Reason.com "[A]n essential read for anyone interested not only in US economic history but also American economic prospects ... a tremendous achievement."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "A comprehensive history of American economic growth."--Eric Rauchway, American Prospect "Professor Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a magisterial volume that will benefit any serious student of economics, demographics or history."--Wendell Cox, New Geography "A wonderful new book."--Jeff Sachs, Boston Globe "The most important economics book of 2016."--Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune "This spectacular history traces the rise and the plateau of the American economy since industrialization."--Jay Weiser, Weekly Standard "[A] landmark book... An impressive history of how the American people progressed in their standards of living and productivity in the 'golden century' of 1870-1970."--Stephen M. Millett, Strategy & Leadership "Gordon's encyclopedic The Rise and Fall of American Growth, a new history of modern U.S. economic life, [is] perhaps the best yet written."--Jonathan Levy, Dissent "One of our greatest economic historians... Gordon's exhaustive research program ... has knocked me back on my intellectual heels."--J. Bradford DeLong, Strategy + Business "This is the most important book on economics in many years."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth set out a thesis of technological diminishing returns that does much to explain an age of economic pessimism."--Lorien Kite, Financial Times "In the course of Gordon's book, a vivid picture of everyday life as our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived it emerges... What lingers in my mind, alongside these ideas, is a new, weightier sense of the past, and of what the people who lived in it ate, touched, heard, saw, and did. Reading The Rise and Fall of American Growth, I thought a lot about my grandparents. Gordon's book has made their lives more real to me."--Joshua Rothman, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner blog "Magisterial... While the book has gotten attention because of its bold projection of slow growth in the future, this is actually just one small element of a magnificent and detailed presentation of how our economy has changed since 1870. Most people don't fully appreciate what life was like in the past and Gordon gives a blow-by-blow description of how people lived in America from 1870 on. In addition, he carefully explains how each new innovation was created and how its adoption changed people's lives."--Stephen Rose, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas "Gordon constructs a strong case using conventional economic principles and exacting data measurement."--Don Pittis, CBC News "Gordon's genius is to weave together economic history with the story of the technology, know-how, politic, demographics and medicine that made the astonishing progress of the US perhaps the most remarkable ever."--Sean O'Grady, The IndependentTable of ContentsPreface ix 1. Introduction: The Ascent and Descent of Growth 1 PART I. 1870-1940-THE GREAT INVENTIONS CREATE A REVOLUTION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HOME 25 2. The Starting Point: Life and Work in 1870 27 3. What They Ate and Wore and Where They Bought It 62 4. The American Home: From Dark and Isolated to Bright and Networked 94 5. Motors Overtake Horses and Rail: Inventions and Incremental Improvements 129 6. From Telegraph to Talkies: Information, Communication, and Entertainment 172 7. Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death 206 8. Working Conditions on the Job and at Home 247 9. Taking and Mitigating Risks: Consumer Credit, Insurance, and the Government 288 Entr'acte. The Midcentury Shift from Revolution to Evolution 319 PART II. 1940-2015-THE GOLDEN AGE AND THE EARLY WARNINGS OF SLOWER GROWTH 329 10. Fast Food, Synthetic Fibers, and Split-Level Subdivisions: The Slowing Transformation of Food, Clothing, and Housing 331 11. See the USA in Your Chevrolet or from a Plane Flying High Above 374 12. Entertainment and Communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone 409 13. Computers and the Internet from the Mainframe to Facebook 441 14. Antibiotics, CT Scans, and the Evolution of Health and Medicine 461 15. Work, Youth, and Retirement at Home and on the Job 498 Entr'acte. Toward an Understanding of Slower Growth 522 PART III. THE SOURCES OF FASTER AND SLOWER GROWTH 533 16. The Great Leap Forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: What Set of Miracles Created It? 535 17. Innovation: Can the Future Match the Great Inventions of the Past? 566 18. Inequality and the Other Headwinds: Long-Run American Economic Growth Slows to a Crawl 605 Postscript: America's Growth Achievement and the Path Ahead 641 Acknowledgments 653 Data Appendix 657 Notes 667 References 717 Credits 741 Index 745

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Book SynopsisThe dramatic inside story of the most important case in the history of sovereign debt law Unlike individuals or corporations that become insolvent, nations do not have access to bankruptcy protection from their creditors. When a country defaults on its debt, the international financial system is ill equipped to manage the crisis. Decisions by key individuals—from national leaders to those at the International Monetary Fund, from holdout creditors to judges—determine the fate of an entire national economy. A prime example is Argentina’s 2001 default on $100 billion in bonds, which stands out for its messy outcomes and outsized impact on sovereign debt markets, sovereign debt law, and IMF policy. Default is the riveting story of Argentina’s sovereign debt drama, which reveals the obscure inner workings of sovereign debt restructuring. This detailed case study describes the intense fight over the role of the IMF in Argentina’s 2005 debt restructuring and the ensuing bitter decade of litigation with holdout creditors, demonstrating that outcomes for sovereign debt are determined by a complex interplay between financial markets, governments, the IMF, the press, and the courts. This cautionary tale lays bare the institutional, political, and legal pressures that come into play when a country cannot repay its debts. It offers a deeper understanding of how global financial capitalism functions for those who work in or study debt markets, international finance, international relations, and international law.Table of ContentsForeword Introduction1 Argentina Defaults Then Fights with the IMF (December 2001–March 2003)2 The Three-Way War: Argentina Battles with Creditors and the IMF over the Debt Deal (January 2003–April 2004)3 Kirchner's Triumph: Argentina's 2005 Debt Restructuring (April 2004–June 2005)4 Backstory: Elliot's War on Peru (1996–2000)5 Raid on the Argentine Central Bank (December 2005–January 2007)6 All Plaintiffs Big and Small (June 2005–December 2009)7 Turning Point (2010)8 Equal Treatment (October 2010–May 2014)9 Argentina's Economic Stumbles and Elliott's Worldwide War (October 2010–June 2014)10 It All Falls Apart (June 2014–November 2015)11 The Settlement (December 2015–April 2016)EpilogueConclusion AcknowledgmentsAppendix A: Featured CharactersAppendix B: Timeline of EventsGlossaryNote on SourcesNotesAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisExplains how the poor find solutions to their everyday financial problems by conducting year-long interviews with impoverished villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa - records that track penny by penny how specific households manage their money.Trade Review"A fascinating discussion of the finances of the world's poor."--Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com "Ten years ago, the authors of this unusual study began collecting detailed yearlong 'financial diaries' from households in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa... The diarists did things that might seem irrational--borrowing in order to save; paying interest on savings--but that made sense given their unpredictable incomes and limited options. While the authors do offer prescriptions for how to expand those options, it's their scrupulous attention to actual behavior that makes this book invaluable."--New Yorker "The book's methodology and conclusions are fascinating."--Publishers Weekly "The authors of Portfolios of the Poor found that a 'triple whammy' characterizes the financial lives of the poor. Incomes are not only low; they are also irregular and unpredictable... The authors' account suggests much that can be done to ease the financial conditions of poor people."--Anirudh Krishna, Science "A refreshingly distinct path. Portfolios of the Poor ... avoid[s] the big picture and zoom[s] in on the basics of daily poverty, exploring how poor families manage their money... The diaries reveal a 'real, ongoing, and substantial demand' for better financial services, which poor families need to provide better health care and schooling for their children... Rather than waiting for the world to debate and accept their ideas, these authors have taken them up on their own. In the war against global poverty, that feels like one small battle won."--Carlos Lozada, Washington Post "The research provides evidence of the sophistication with which poor people think about their finances."--The Economist "I recommend this book to anyone who has interest in improving the lives of the poor."--Melinda Gates, Co-chair, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Huffington Post "This is a very interesting book, which examines the quite sophisticated financial system developed by poor households to adjust their spending relative to their income."--Choice "A masterly assessment of the financial needs of people on very low incomes ... stuffed full of interesting and surprising insights, and should be read by anyone concerned with economic development and poverty reduction. I can't praise it highly enough. This is a model of the careful collection of evidence with important practical consequences."--Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist "A good overview of how the world's poor intersect with financial institutions at the micro level."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "This book is a major contribution to the understanding of the situation of the poor in developing countries and should be a 'must reading' for both academics and policymakers concerned with ways of improving developmental policies."--Werner Baer, Enterprise and Society "[A] fascinating and humanizing insight into the economic lives of the global poor, and a valuable resource for attempting to improve those lives."--Ethics & International Affairs "The book is written in a non-technical style accessible to the lay reader... [I]t makes a compelling case about the desperation of poverty, as well as the ingenuity of the people who live under conditions of poverty."--Sajeda Amin, Population and Development Review "Portfolios of the Poor should be read by anyone interested in microfinance, but also who interested in poverty more generally and in how the poor manage their day-to-day lives."--Isabelle Guerin, Enterprise, Development and Microfinance "[T]his is a great book. It remains an excellent survey of the poors' realities, certainly a 'must-have' for all researchers interested in the financial practices of the poor and microfinance."--Marek Hudon, Development and Change "[T]he book is enlightening, methodologically credible and accessible; it is recommended."--Roger MacGinty, Round Table "[W]e learn much about how the poor manage whatever little money they have. On that ground alone I highly recommend the book."--Rolf A.E. Muller, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture "As Collins, Morduch, Rutherford, and Ruthven summarize their argument, 'Not having enough money is bad enough. Not being able to manage whatever money you have is worse.' Their book is a detailed effort to understand how poor people manage--and, frequently, mismanage--the meager resources at their disposal. They draw on more than 250 financial diaries collected in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa that tracked how money was earned and spent, along with interviews with the diarists. The result is a unique window onto what poverty means for these households."--Timothy Besley, Foreign Affairs "The authors of Portfolios of the Poor ... make a convincing case both for the importance of finance in the lives of the extremely poor and for there being room to improve the provision of financial services to them."--Danny Reviews "One of my favourite books. It gathers new evidence about the financial services people on very low incomes need--and the answers are sometimes surprising. Should be read by anyone with views on microcredit and/or payday loans."--Enlightened Economist "A terrific book."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened EconomistTable of ContentsList of Tables vii List of Figures ix Chapter One: The Portfolios of the Poor 1 Chapter Two: The Daily Grind 28 Chapter Three: Dealing with Risk 65 Chapter Four: Building Blocks: Creating Usefully Large Sums 95 Chapter Five: The Price of Money 132 Chapter Six: Rethinking Microfinance: The Grameen II Diaries 154 Chapter Seven: Better Portfolios 174 Appendix 1: The Story behind the Portfolios 185 Appendix 2: A Selection of Portfolios 211 Acknowledgments 243 Notes 247 Bibliography 265 Index 273

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Co-Winner of the 2018 Allan Sharlin Memorial Award, Social Science History Association""Finalist for the 2017 Hayek Prize, The Manhattan Institute""Honorable Mention for the 2017 PROSE Award in European and World History, Association of American Publishers""One of MIT Technology Review’s Best Books of 2016""Fascinating.... [Mokyr] reminds us that the skirmishing of philosophers and their ideas, the preoccupation of popular historians, is in many ways a sideshow—that the revolution that gave Europe dominance was, above all, scientific, and that the scientific revolution was, above all, an artisanal revolution."---Adam Gopnik, New Yorker"A fine book. . . . One of our country's great economic historians has helped us better understand the greatest transformation in human welfare our planet has ever seen."---Richard Vedder, Wall Street Journal"Wide-ranging and erudite. . . . Mokyr offers a useful corrective to excessively deterministic and materialistic treatments of economic history, emphasizing ideas—the West, he argues, had a uniquely positive view about subjugating nature to human control—and individual agency in shaping broad socioeconomic shifts." * Publishers Weekly *"Ultimately, without the impetus of science, economic growth would have fizzled out after 1815. A Culture of Growth is certainly making me rethink."---Brad DeLong, Nature"A Culture of Growth is a brilliant book. You should buy it and even read it. It’s long, but consistently interesting, even witty."---Deirdre McCloskey, Prospect"In pointing to growth-boosting factors that go beyond either the state or the market, Mokyr's book is very welcome."---Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education"Mokyr . . . dives into the mystery of how the world went from being poor to being so rich in just a few centuries. . . . Drawing on centuries of philosophy and scientific advancements, Mokyr argues that there's a reason the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe and not, for example, in China, which had in previous centuries shown signs of more scientific advancement: Europe developed a unique culture of competitive scientific and intellectual advancement that was unprecedented and not at all predestined."---Ana Swanson, WashingtonPost.com's Wonkblog"The sheer elegance of Mr. Mokyr's theory . . . has much to commend it. And it is refreshing that an economist is taking seriously the idea that ideas and culture make a difference to economic growth." * The Economist *"Mokyr has written a book to read slowly and chew over thoroughly. . . . He is a wonderfully well-read lucid and continuously interesting guide to a vast literature and invariably thought provoking."---Alan Ryan, Literary Review"Someone needed to write a book like this, and there could have been no better author to do so than Mokyr."---Peer Vries, Foreign Affairs"Economic historian Joel Mokyr has written a capstone work on the dynamics of the industrial revolution."---Arnold Kling, Econlib"It is not often that a book leaves me gasping in admiration for the breadth and depth of an author's reading and knowledge, but this one did."---Ted Nield, Geoscientist Online"This book is the latest example of Mokyr's ability to explicate complex issues, illustrating his big-picture thesis with a myriad of fascinating details. He writes with clarity--enjoyable for the general reader as well as for the specialist in economic history. A Culture of Growth is a must-read for anyone interested in how Western society got where it is today and what this implies for the spread of technology in the global economy of the future." * Finance & Development *"A Culture of Growth is a book of immense importance for us Indians especially when we are getting comfortable, forever playing victim to the depredations of British imperialism instead of wholeheartedly focusing on beating the West at its game as the Chinese are doing. . . . Well worth tackling."---Uday Balakrishnan, Hindu Business Line"A Culture of Growth is an insightful quest into the economic history of the last five centuries. Mokyr’s historical laboratory is early modern Europe, when a small mass of highly skilled artisans, entrepreneurs, financiers and merchants laid the roots of what was to become the Industrial Revolution." * Progressive Post *"One has to admire the depth of knowledge and the subtlety of Mokyr’s argument. . . . For serious students of the Enlightenment itself, Mokyr’s magnum opus will be required reading for a long time to come."---Nicholas Crafts, History Today"A fresh historical treatment."---Darcy Allen, IPA Review"This is a tour d'horizon of an exciting new area of inquiry, which offers important insights into the future of our civilization and the evolution of an increasingly technical world. Mokyr's book is so rich and stimulating that no brief review can do it justice. So, dear reader, read the book!"---Wolfgang Kasper, Policy"The book represents recognition that culture has finally arrived as an important and legitimate concept in discussions of economic growth. In this endeavor, the book is an important landmark. . . . Students and scholars working in the field will benefit from the intelligent and rich discussion provided in A Culture of Growth."---Mark Koyama, Independent Review"What stands out from Mokyr’s approach is the highly contingent character of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. They happened because a lot ofdifferent things happened to fall into place; small deviations in the course of events could have given us an entirely different world of technological and economic power."---Diane Coyle, Financial Times"After reading this book, chances are that you won’t look at the economic, social, and political world in quite the same way as before."---Pierre Lemieux, Regulation"An important body of work. It contains ideas, propositions, historical facts, biographies of influential scholars, writersand scientists, and it is a confirmation of the author's expertise of a broad range of topics in the economics of culture and comparative economic history of an emerging Europe and China."---Dr Meltem Ince-Yenilmez, Rest Journal

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Book SynopsisDrawing from the leading scholarship in the field, Gender and Development: The Economic Basis of Women′s Power helps students develop a foundational understanding of the significant role that gender plays in developing societies. Award-winning scholars Samuel Cohn and Rae Lesser Blumberg have carefully selected and edited a collection of readings that encourage students to think critically about the economic power (or lack thereof) of women, and apply key concepts and theory related to gender and current development issues. From women’s participation in labor markets to their financial autonomy and purchasing power, these readings enable students to explore the economic implications of female power and the importance of women’s strategic indispensability. Key Features: Distinguished scholars in the field offer students distinctive personalized points of view that extend the study of women’s power, gender, and development in new and interesting directions. A wide range of countries/regions, perspectives, and issues is explored to enable instructors the flexibility to introduce students to a variety of key concepts in a manner that works for their classrooms. Analysis of the cause and effect of women’s power offers students insights on the inter-relation between gender and development. "Guide to the Book" provides students with context for understanding gender and development, as well as introduces students to the key theories that they will explore throughout the book. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments About the Editors About the Contributors 1. “Power of the Purse”: The Importance of Women’s Economic Power: Why Women’s Economic Power Is Absolutely Essential - Rae Lesser Blumberg and Samuel Cohn 2. Guide to the Book - Samuel Cohn and Rae Lesser Blumberg 3. Armed Actors, the Commodification of Women, and the Destruction of Childhood: Understanding the Connections Between Predatory Sexuality and the Violence of Capital in Colombia - Jasmin Hristov 4. The “Created Biology of Gender Stratification”: Links Between Economic Power and Gender Equality From Hunter-Gatherers to Today’s Global South and North - Rae Lesser Blumberg 5. Development, the State, and Gender: A Comparative Analysis of Iran and Tunisia - Valentine M. Moghadam 6. Poverty, Water, Sanitation Insecurities, and the Challenges of Maintaining Menstrual Hygiene - Rita Jalali 7. Male Preference and Women’s Economic Power: How Men’s Choices Open or Close Occupations For Women - Samuel Cohn 8. Women on the Fast Track?: Coloniality of Citizenship and Embodied Social Mobility - Manuela Boatca and Julia Roth 9. Gender through the Looking Glass: The Role of Low-Status Men in the Production of Global Gender Violence and Racial and Ethnic Bigotry - Kevin T. Leicht and Phyllis L. Baker 10. War, Women, and the Aftermath: Finding Resilience in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Nepal - Marie E. Berry 11. No Way Out: Women in Nepal Trapped in Cycles of Poverty, Gender Inequality, and Economic Disenfranchisement - Jennifer Rothchild and Priti Shrestha Piya 12. Authentic Activism: Domestic Workers as Global Development Agents - Jennifer N. Fish and Justin Sprague References Index

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Book SynopsisThe progressive economics writer redefines the national conversation about American freedom “Mike Konczal [is] one of our most powerful advocates of financial reform‚ [a] heroic critic of austerity‚ and a huge resource for progressives.”—Paul KrugmanHealth insurance, student loan debt, retirement security, child care, work-life balance, access to home ownership—these are the issues driving America’s current political debates. And they are all linked, as this brilliant and timely book reveals, by a single question: should we allow the free market to determine our lives? In the tradition of Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, noted economic commentator Mike Konczal answers this question with a resounding no. Freedom from the Market blends passionate political argument and a bold new take on American history to reveal that, from the earliest days of the republic, Americans have defined freedom as what we keep free from the control of the market. With chapters on the history of the Homestead Act and land ownership, the eight-hour work day and free time, social insurance and Social Security, World War II day cares, Medicare and desegregation, free public colleges, intellectual property, and the public corporation, Konczal shows how citizens have fought to ensure that everyone has access to the conditions that make us free. At a time when millions of Americans—and more and more politicians—are questioning the unregulated free market, Freedom from the Market offers a new narrative, and new intellectual ammunition, for the fight that lies ahead.Trade ReviewPraise for Freedom from the Market:“The Roosevelt Institute’s Konczal is one of the warriors in this fight, arguing fiercely for the need to set much narrower limits on what is left to markets than has been the case in recent decades. A powerful polemic.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times“Freedom from the Market arrives at a moment when, as Konczal observes, millions of Americans are recovering a legacy of fighting market rule.”—Los Angeles Review of Books“Freedom from the Market has the potential to be a very important book, focusing attention on the contested, messy but crucially important intersection between social movements and the state. It provides a set of ideas that people on both sides of that divide can learn from, and a lively alternative foundation to the deracinated technocratic notions of politics, in which good policy would somehow, magically, be politically self supporting, that has prevailed up until quite recently. Strongly recommended.”—Crooked Timber“Invaluable, thoughtful and thought-provoking.”—Midwest Book Review“By identifying an alternative grammar, one that is grounded in the American past, Freedom from the Market provides a way out of the political cul-de-sac created by the failure of the market to deliver on its promises of ‘freedom.’”—Democracy: A Journal of Ideas“With carefully selected examples and lucid prose, Konczal makes a convincing case that the American project has long depended on rigorous regulation of capitalism. Progressive voters and policy makers will find plenty of ammunition for their arguments in this cogent history.”—Publishers Weekly“An economic manifesto on behalf of the 99% poorly served by the present economy.”—Kirkus Reviews“Providing solid cases where government regulations helped to give Americans a better life, this will appeal to progressives looking for a history of their movement.”—Library Journal “Freedom from the Market is an impressive book, easily one of the best I’ve read in the past several years. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”—Matt Mazewski, Commonweal “Markets will set us free—except when they won’t, don’t, can’t. In this deeply researched yet eminently readable book, Mike Konczal tells the powerful forgotten story of how American democracy once tamed markets to advance our freedom, and shows us how it could do so once again.”—Jacob Hacker, professor of political science, Yale University, and New York Times bestselling author of Winner-Take-All Politics and American Amnesia “Konczal’s analysis brilliantly dismantles the false illusions of market freedom in every sector, including finance, health care, and labor. This book explains how Americans have been hoodwinked into a coercive economy even as we were promised the opposite.”—Mehrsa Baradaran, professor of law, UC Irvine, and author of The Color of Money and How the Other Half Banks “Mike Konczal is that rare economics commentator who thinks the economy should serve people, not the other way around. Freedom from the Market reclaims from the dustbin of history the Americans who dreamed of a vastly different kind of freedom than the one we’re now taught to revere.”—Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt and Work Won’t Love You Back “Mike Konczal’s powerful historical study links political struggles over land, time, care, and education around the idea of freedom, reclaiming this familiar watchword and asking readers to think anew about its real meaning.”—Kimberly Philips-Fein, associate professor, New York University, and author of Fear City and Invisible Hands

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Book SynopsisNamed one of the best strategy books of 2021 by strategy+businessGet to better, more effective strategy.In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference.Better, Simpler Strategy provides readers with a simple tool, the value stick, which every organization can use to make its strategy more effective and easier to execute. Based on proven financial mechanics, the value stick helps executives decide where to focus their attention and how to deepen the competitive advantage of their business.How does the value stick work? It provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success—the customer's willingness-to-pay and the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business. Companies that win, Oberholzer-Gee shows, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. The approach, proven in practice, is entirely data driven and uniquely suited to be cascaded throughout the organization.With many useful visuals and examples across industries and geographies, Better, Simpler Strategy explains how these two key measures enable firms to gauge and improve their strategies and operations. Based on the author's sought-after strategy course, this book is your must-have guide for making better strategic decisions.Trade ReviewNamed one of "The 10 Best Business Books of 2021" by Forbes"This book lives up to the promise of its title by distilling strategy into a beautifully simple premise…" — strategy+businessAdvance Praise for Better, Simpler Strategy:"In our fast-evolving and complex world, it's crucial to mobilize our teams with a clear and compelling strategy. In this enlightening and practical book, Oberholzer-Gee leads you to design a simple strategy statement and helps you understand how to maximize the gap between willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-sell." — Florent Menegaux, CEO, Michelin"Simplicity is a virtue, and Better, Simpler Strategy cuts through the jargon of business to provide an invaluable first-principles strategic guide. Illustrated by a wealth of in-depth examples, this book puts forward a new value-based framework for coming up with breakthrough strategies." — Adam Brandenburger, J.P. Valles Professor, NYU Stern School of Business; coauthor, Co-opetition"The value stick is an incredible tool based on Oberholzer-Gee's twenty years of research and practice in the field of strategy. It reveals the essence of strategic issues in a simple and intuitive manner, making formerly complex and difficult strategic decisions easy and effective." — Liu Xiaoyan, CEO, E Fund Management, China’s largest fund manager"Strategy is an art and a science, and often a mystery. Better, Simpler Strategy demystifies value creation, making strategy accessible and exceptional performance achievable to all levels of leaders." — Aman Bhutani, CEO, GoDaddy"Oberholzer-Gee expertly distills the complex topic of strategy down to the simplicity of the value stick, using hard data and real-life examples that bring the pitfalls and opportunities of a bad or good strategy to life. This book will change the way you think about strategy and competition." — Helen Riley, CFO, Google X

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Book SynopsisThis open access book offers unique and novel views on the social innovation landscape, tools, practices, pedagogies, and research in the context of higher education. International, multi-disciplinary academics and industry leaders present new developments, research evidence, and practice expertise on social innovation in higher education institutions (HEIs), across academic and professional disciplines.The book includes a selected set of peer-reviewed chapters presenting different perspectives against which relevant actors can identify and analyse social innovation in HEIs. The volume demonstrates how HEIs can respond to societal challenges, support positive social change, and contribute to the development of international public policy discourse. It answers the question ‘how does the present higher education system, in different countries, promote social innovation and create social change and impact’. In answering this question, the book identifies factors driving success as well as obstacles. Furthermore, it examines how higher education innovation assists societal challenges and investigates the benefits of effective social innovation engagement by HEIs.The interdisciplinary approach of the volume makes it a must-read for scholars, students, policy-makers, and practitioners of economics, education, business and management, political science, and sociology interested in a better understanding of social innovation.Table of ContentsIntroduction: An Overview of the Research.- Facets of Social Innovation in Higher Education.- Pathways towards Enhancing HEI’s Role in the Local Social Innovation Ecosystem.- Digital Transformation in Higher Education Institutions as a Driver of Social Oriented Innovations.- Design of a Social Innovation Competence Framework to Educate Entrepreneurs in Developing on the International Stage.- Higher Education Practices for Social Innovation and Sustainable Development.- The Role of Higher Education Institutions in Development of Social Entrepreneurship: The Case of Tallinn University Social Entrepreneurship Study Program, Estonia.- Fostering Research with Societal Impact in Higher Education Institutions: A Review and Conceptualization.- The Role of Higher Education in Creating Socially Responsible Innovations – A Case Study of the EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs project.- Defining ‘Responsible’ in Responsible Research and Innovation: The Case of Quadruple Helix Innovation in the Energy Sector in the Tampere Region.- A Human-Centric Co-Creation Platform for Solving Wicked Social Challenges.- “Thinking Outside the Box”: Social Innovations Emerging from Academic Nursing-Community Partnerships.- Social Innovation in Higher Education from a Disability Studies Perspective.- Possibilities of Social Bonds Using to Finance Higher Education Institutions.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of The Independent's Best Economics Books of the Year Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of the Year Financial Times Best Economics Books of of the Year One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2015, chosen by Martin Wolf One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of The Independent's Best Economics Books 2015 One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2015, chosen by Vitor Constancio "[Between Debt and the Devil] represents an important challenge to economic orthodoxy, which, as [Turner] rightly notes, has already failed us once."--John Cassidy, New Yorker "Extensively researched and well-written."--Edward Chancellor, Wall Street Journal "[A] remarkable new book."--Will Hutton, Observer "Lucid and forcefully-argued."--Peter Thal Larsen, Reuters Breakingviews "Turner offers a convincing account of the debt-fuelled global economic cycle of the last 15 years or so. I found myself skimming over large sections and nodding in agreement."--Erik Britton, Management Today "Turner is more than just another thinker merrily seeking to provoke his audience; he is an experienced British policymaker accustomed to weighing up the angles... [Between Debt and the Devil] is as good as it can be, an overdue challenge to a taboo against monetary finance held sacred for too long."--Giles Wilkes, Financial Times "Adair Turner, the former chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority and described by The Economist as a man for all policy crises, upends financial orthodoxy in Between Debt and the Devil. He argues that nothing regulators have done thus far has addressed the fundamental underlying cause of financial instability... Turner's book is tightly argued and is packed with insights about the financial markets as well as the real economy."--Brenda Jubin, Investing.com "If developed economies fall back into recession, people may hear quite a bit more about Lord Turner's ideas."--Economist "This is an important book because Turner thinks clearly where much analysis has been fuzzy ... [a] stimulating book."--Ben Chu, The Independent "Adair Turner's Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit and Fixing Global Finance--out this month--joins a select group of books that provide as clear an explanation of the financial crisis as one could hope for."--Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist "Some astonishingly original ideas."--Alex Brummer, Daily Mail "[A] brilliant new book... [The] prose crisply conveys analysis of real force."--Tom Clark, Guardian "[A] scintillating individual [contribution] to the debate not just on the future of finance but how we should run our economy."--Felix Martin, New Statesman "Adair Turner's new book Between Debt and the Devil is definitely worth your time."--Clive Crook, Bloomberg View "A challenging but relentlessly logical book about the flaws of the system that led us to the Great Recession: excess finance, excessive indebtedness. He adds to the literature that explains why more and more finance is not always good. The proposed cure requires going beyond the present financial regulatory reform. A bold and thought provoking book."--Vitor Constancio, Vice president, European Central Bank, one of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2015 "This book lays down a challenge which subsequent accounts of monetary policy will have to address."--David Willetts, Prospect "[An] excellent book."--Nick Butler, Financial Times "[H]is extensive work both at financial institutions and in academia, have given Turner an insider's view of the world of finance and economics. But his conclusions--that the banking system needs to be fundamentally restructured, and that periodically, instead of a government running up debt, the central bank should just print money for the government to spend--are far from conventional."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "This is a good book, well worth reading... It is well and clearly written and supported by good, non-technical analysis and empirical evidence."--Charles Goodhart, Financial World "These provocative and insightful arguments are particularly valuable at a time when austerity retains its intellectual luster despite its manifest failures."--Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "Turner's book should make policymakers and commentators sit up and take notice."--TT Ram Mohan, Economic & Political Weekly "This seminal book details an important reality of today's economy: generating enough demand to absorb potential supply depends on explosive increases in indebtedness-private or public, or both."--Martin Wolf, Financial TimesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Preface: The Crisis I Didn't See Coming xi Introduction: Too Important to Be Left to the Bankers 1 Part I Swollen Finance 17 1 The Utopia of Finance for All 19 2 Inefficient Financial Markets 34 Part II Dangerous Debt 49 3 Debt, Banks, and the Money They Create 51 4 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Debt 61 5 Caught in the Debt Overhang Trap 74 6 Liberalization, Innovation, and the Credit Cycle on Steroids 88 7 Speculation, Inequality, and Unnecessary Credit 108 Part III Debt, Development, and Capital Flows 131 8 Debt and Development: The Merits and Dangers of Financial Repression 133 9 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Capital Flow: Global and Eurozone Delusions 149 Part IV Fixing the System 161 10 Irrelevant Bankers in an Unstable System 163 11 Fixing Fundamentals 175 12 Abolishing Banks, Taxing Debt Pollution, and Encouraging Equity 186 13 Managing the Quantity and Mix of Debt 195 Part V Escaping the Debt Overhang 211 14 Monetary Finance-Breaking the Taboo 213 15 Between Debt and the Devil-A Choice of Dangers 231 Epilogue: The Queen's Question and the Fatal Conceit 241 Notes 253 Bibliography 277 Index 289

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Book SynopsisA provocative new analysis of immigration's long-term effects on a nation's economy and culture. Over the last two decades, as economists began using big datasets and modern computing power to reveal the sources of national prosperity, their statistical results kept pointing toward the power of culture to drive the wealth of nations. In The Culture Transplant, Garett Jones documents the cultural foundations of cross-country income differences, showing that immigrants import cultural attitudes from their homelands—toward saving, toward trust, and toward the role of government—that persist for decades, and likely for centuries, in their new national homes. Full assimilation in a generation or two, Jones reports, is a myth. And the cultural traits migrants bring to their new homes have enduring effects upon a nation's economic potential. Built upon mainstream, well-reviewed academic research that hasn't pierced the public consciousness, this book offers a compelling refutation of an unspoken consensus that a nation's economic and political institutions won't be changed by immigration. Jones refutes the common view that we can discuss migration policy without considering whether migration can, over a few generations, substantially transform the economic and political institutions of a nation. And since most of the world's technological innovations come from just a handful of nations, Jones concludes, the entire world has a stake in whether migration policy will help or hurt the quality of government and thus the quality of scientific breakthroughs in those rare innovation powerhouses. Trade Review"Immigrants change the countries they move to. The Culture Transplant is the very best book on this phenomenon, reflecting the continuing rise of Garett Jones as a thinker and writer of real import."—Tyler Cowen, blogger, Marginal Revolution"Synthesizing decades of new work in development economics, Garett Jones re-examines and rejects some of the core assumptions within the modern immigration debate. Defenders of open borders—utilitarians in particular—will have to seriously grapple with this novel and groundbreaking book."—Hrishikesh Joshi, Bowling Green State University"A unique and authoritative treatment of the deep persistence of cultural attributes that permeates across generations, and through migration, shapes institutions and contemporary outcomes. By focusing on people rather than places, Garett Jones provides a unique perspective on how we should think about the role of migration and diversity in understanding modern successes and failures. Jones's treatment of the literature is a master class in distilling rigorous research and presenting it in a breezy fashion that is hard to put down once you get started."—Areendam Chanda, Louisiana State University"The Culture Transplant is a good read, a brief dive into the intriguing question of why some places and some people are so much more prosperous than others."—Robert VerBruggen, Wall Street JournalMuch of the literature on immigrant assimilation looks at easily observable questions about subsequent generations, such as whether they are learning English, graduating high school, and moving up the income ladder. Jones's book proves that these external accomplishments do not necessarily indicate assimilation at the deeper level of cultural values. This is of the greatest possible importance, because every day social science discovers further evidence that these cultural values, more than anything else, determine what a country's politics and its economy will look like in the future."—Helen Andrews, The American Conservative"Jones has written an excellent synopsis of the deep roots of culture and the persistent effects of these deep roots. The book is concise and easy to read, led by Jones's ability to decompose complicated ideas into easily understood examples and descriptions. Researchers and the public will gain valuable insights from The Cultural Transplant, a better understanding of the persistence of culture and longrunning factors that have placed countries on socioeconomic trajectories that have yielded vast differences in living standards across the world."—C. Justin Cook, The Developing Economies"Most economists agree that immigration—including illegal immigration—leads to greater economic growth and innovation. However, Jones argues that immigrants transplant their culture in the countries they move to, making the economies there similar to those in their home countries. Where immigrants come from and their home nation's technological development are critical to the economic and cultural impacts they have on the countries they move to."—P. Z. McKay, CHOICETable of Contents0. Preface: The Best Immigration Policy 0. Introduction: How Economists Learned the Power of Culture 1. The Assimilation Myth 2. Prosperity Migrates 3. Places or Peoples? 4. The Migration of Good Government 5. Our Diversity Is Our ____________ 6. The I-7 7. The Chinese Diaspora: Building the Capitalist Road 8. The Deep Roots across the Fifty United States 9. Intercalary: Je ne sais quoi 10. Conclusion: The Goose and the Golden Eggs

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Book SynopsisDiscover the extraordinary realities of the world's most advanced cybersecurity companies and tech In The Battle for Your Computer: Israel and the Growth of the Global Cyber-Security Industry, Israeli Defense Force (IDF) cyberwarfare veteran and tech product leader Alon Arvatz examines the why and the how of the extraordinarily strong connection between Israel's elite cyber military unit and that country's booming offensive and defensive cybersecurity industry. In the book, you'll explore the central role played by Israel in the global fight for cybersecurity supremacy. Featuring interviews with some of the world's leading cybersecurity professionals and leaders, The Battle for Your Computer explains how the IDF's Unit 8200 became the globe's most fruitful incubator of cyber technologies. You'll also find: Explanations of how the technologies that protect your own computers at home and at work probably began their lives in IDF personnel or equipmeTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Section 1: What is Cybersecurity? Chapter 1: The New Gold—Cybersecurity 101 Chapter 2: The Keyboard War—How Global Militaries Exploited the New Domain Chapter 3: “Hello, It’s Me, a Nigerian Prince”—New Crime Chapter 4: The New Money—Catalysts of Cybercrime Section 2: Cybernation Chapter 5: The Pioneer—The Story of Checkpoint Chapter 6: The Love Letter That Leaked—From Personal Security to Systems Security Chapter 7: From Security to Defense—The Cyber “Iron Dome” Chapter 8: The Best Cyberdefense—“Daddy, What Do You Do?” Chapter 9: From Crisis to Crisis—Israeli Cyber Grows Up Section 3: Offensive Cybersecurity Chapter 10: Reaching Through the Darkness: NSO and Zero-Click Disruption Chapter 11: In the Right Hands—the Israeli Companies that Stretched the Boundaries of Possibility Chapter 12: Criticism of Offensive Cybertechnology Chapter 13: Selling to the Good Guys —Regulation, Self-Criticism, and “Clean” Offensive Cybertechnology Section 4: Building a Cyberstate Chapter 13: The Israeli Silicon Valley—Small State, Big Data Chapter 14: Unit 8200—Secrets of the IDF’s Success Chapter 15: A Professor and a Hacker—Academia and Cybersecurity Chapter 16: Free Hand or Bear Hug—The State’s Role in the World of Innovation Chapter 17: Small and Nimble—Being a Small Island-Nation in the Middle East is Not Such a Bad Start Chapter 18: “Bro”—What Makes Israel’s Culture an Incubator of Cybersecurity Innovation? Chapter 19: The Cybersecurity Industry Snowball Effect—Elements of the Israeli Ecosystem Conclusion: Where Is Everything Going? The Ten Commandments of the Budding Entrepreneur Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisPhelps explores what makes nations prosper--and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but "flourishing"--meaningful work, self-expression, and personal growth for more people than ever before?Trade ReviewWinner of the 2014 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2014, chosen by chosen by Bjorn Wahlroos One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2013 A "Best Business Book of the Year for 2013" selected on LinkedIn by Matthew Bishop, Economics Editor of The Economist "[W]ide-ranging."--Benjamin Friedman, New York Review of Books "The book eloquently discusses the culture of innovation, which can refer to both an entrepreneurial mind-set and the cultural achievements during an age of change... The dismal science becomes a little brighter when Mr. Phelps draws the connections between the economic ferment of the industrial age and the art of Beethoven, Verdi and Rodin."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "[I]nquiring readers, not just academics and social scientists, will enjoy the vast learning in Phelps's sophisticated, sometimes sardonic, look at homo economicus."--Publishers Weekly "Phelps, a Nobel laureate in economics, defies categorisation. In this extraordinary book--part history, part economics and part philosophy--he proclaims individual enterprise as the defining characteristic of modernity. But he fears this dynamism is lost. One does not have to agree to recognise that Phelps has addressed some of the big questions about our future."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Phelps has written a book that transcends the materialist walls of standard economics... It is a book J.M. Keynes would have admired."--Paul DeRosa, American Interest "[F]ascinating, versatile and profound."--Felix Martin, New Statesman "A great book that will annoy big business and absolutely infuriate the left. I loved it."--Diana Hunter, Financial World "Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps' latest book should be read by those seeking a broader context to the challenges currently facing the global economies. In his wide-ranging and insightful book, Professor Phelps draws on historical trends and cultural shifts to present his hypothesis that a lack of dynamism in modern economies lies at the root of the current malaise... Indeed, this remarkable book addresses the central economic question of why some economies thrive while others languish."--Declan Jordan, London School of Economics Review of Books "Few leading economists ... have tried to develop Marx's contention that there is an ineluctable relationship between human psychology and market participation. This relationship is what Phelps describes as human 'flourishing.'"--Andrew Godley, International Journal of the Economics of Business "Phelps has produced an insightful work that bridges gaps among economics, sociology, and philosophy to identify countries that have the capabilities to prosper and flourish. This book is an essential read for individuals interested in better assessing countries' economies and competitive advantages."--Library Journal "The author ranges extremely widely and any student of any age will gain something from it, irrespective of political views."--Samuel Brittan, Financial Times "Phelps's book deserves credit for showing that the strength of an economy doesn't depend on small differences in the tax rate, or the tactics of a country's central bank. Phelps rightly points out that economic dynamism depends on much deeper issues like a culture's affinity for risk taking and respect for individual achievement. And he wields convincing statistics that suggest actors in our political economy, from our government, to corporations, to workers, have to some extent lost their reverence for these values."--Chris Matthews, Time.com Money & Business "I ... find his values-driven view of national prosperity fascinating--and applicable to corporate and personal prosperity. If innovation and the prosperity it yields stem from the values to which we subscribe as individuals, organizations, and nations, it stands to reason that we should be paying a great deal of attention to the particular values we adopt and espouse."--Theodore Kinni, Strategy-Business.com "[E]xciting."--William Watson, National Post "[W]ide-ranging... Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and Change, a distillation of years of research and thought about the changes in values and attitudes that once unleashed wide-scale creativity and risk-taking and which are under severe threat today."--Brian Milner, Globe & Mail "The book is wide-ranging and highly eclectic: in just two pages (pp. 280-281) you'll find references to Cervantes, Shakespeare, Hume, Voltaire, Jefferson, Keats, William Earnest Henley, William James, Walt Whitman, Abraham Maslow, Rawls, Nietzsche, and Lady Gaga! ... Anyone interested in the synthesis of free markets and social justice will find this eminent thinker's distinctive version of that synthesis both illuminating and thought-provoking."--Brink Lindsey, Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog "Phelps has given us a clear warning of the dangers of corporatism. I hope that more people hear and heed the warning."--Arnold Kling, Econlog "[I]t wasn't until today that I started looking at Mass Flourishing by Edmund Phelps, about the central role of innovation in modern growth and, more, in the enabling of the good life. Obviously I should have read it last week. It looks right on theme, and it is pleasing to pick up an economics book that has a chapter on Aristotle."--Enlightened Economist "One does not have to agree to recognise that Phelps has addressed some of the big questions about our future."--Financial Times "Mass Flourishing offers a brilliant dissection of the origins, causes, and eventual decline of modern capitalism--an inclusive economy characterized by the complex unfettered interactions among diverse indigenous innovators, entrepreneurs, financiers, and consumers... This book should be accessible to general readers and is especially stimulating for graduate students and those interested in economics, sociology, history, political science, and psychology."--Choice "It applies many important aspects of Virginia political economy, making a contribution to understanding not only the positive, but also the normative implications of the rules of the game."--Rosolino Candela, Public Choice "It challenges many of our prized assumptions about what makes economies succeed."--David P Goldman, Standpoint "This is a recommended read, not only because it was written by Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in economics, but for encouraging reflection on fundamental issues related to modern life and the contemporary interpretation of Aristotle's 'the good life'. The author is such an experienced and iconic guide that it makes the journey through the subjects covered in the book an excellent read for anyone."--Jacek Klich, Central Banking Journal "It is a marvelous book that deserves to be read by everyone, but particularly those entrusted with the design of the European future."--Bjorn Wahlroos, Bloomberg Businessweek "Phelps masterfully utilizes aggregate data on cross-comparative national economic productivity and adeptly complements it with international individual employee satisfaction survey results give the reader a rich empirical tapestry that support his theme."--Thomas A. Hemphill, Cato JournalTable of ContentsPreface vii Introduction: Advent of the Modern Economies 1 PART ONE The Experience of the Modern Economy 1 How Modern Economies Got Their Dynamism 19 2 Material Eff ects of the Modern Economies 41 3 The Experience of Modern Life 55 4 How Modern Economies Formed 77 PART TWO Against the Modern Economy 5 The Lure of Socialism 113 6 The Third Way: Corporatism Right and Left 135 7 Weighing the Rivals on Their Terms 170 8 The Satisfaction of Nations 193 PART THREE Decay and Refounding 9 Markers of Post-1960s Decline 219 10 Understanding the Post-1960s Decline 237 11 The Good Life: Aristotle and the Moderns 268 12 The Good and the Just 289 Epilogue: Regaining the Modern 310 Timeline: Modernism and Modernity 325 Bibliography 337 Acknowledgments 351 Index 353

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Book SynopsisArgues, the financial crisis, a dysfunctional international monetary system, and US policies have paradoxically strengthened the dollar's importance. This book examines how the dollar came to have a central role in the world economy and demonstrates that it will remain the cornerstone of global finance for the foreseeable future.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2015 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Business, Finance & Management, Association of American Publishers One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2014, chosen by Martin Wolf One of China Business News' Financial Books of the Year for 2014 "Thoughtful."--Jeff Sommer, New York Times "[A] surprising argument... [L]ucid."--David Wessel, Wall Street Journal "Richly detailed study of global finances, examining how and why the dollar became the favored currency of international trade."--Kirkus "To understand how the world of international finance works, what the agendas are and what is at stake, this work is indispensable."--Henny Sender, Financial Times "In his authoritative new book on the dollar, Eswar Prasad ... argues that China and other foreign countries that own around half the outstanding US federal government debt are trapped in a risky game where the US may be tempted to renege on its debt obligations by printing more dollars."--John Plender, Financial Times "A lively and compelling analysis on currency wars in the wake of the financial crisis--and the likely persistence of the U.S. dollar as the world's pre-eminent currency."--Harold James, Central Banking Journal "Highly recommended especially for those interested in understanding the paradigm shifts that happened in the international monetary regime in the 1970s and 1980s."--Mehmet Kerem Caban, Asian Journal of Public AffairsTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables ix Preface xi PART ONE Setting the Stage 1. Prologue 3 2. What Is So Special about the Dollar? 11 PART TWO Building Blocks 3. The Paradox of Uphill Capital Flows 31 4. Emerging Markets Get Religion 47 5. The Quest for Safety 63 6. A Trillion Dollar Con Game? 89 PART THREE Inadequate Institutions 7. Currency Wars 125 8. Seeking a Truce on Currency Wars 158 9. It Takes Twenty to Tango 171 10. The Siren Song of Capital Controls 188 11. Safety Nets with Gaping Holes 201 PART FOUR Currency Competition 12. Is the Renminbi Ready for Prime Time? 229 13. Other Contenders Nipping at the Dollar's Heels 262 14. Could the Dollar Hit a Tipping Point and Sink? 283 15. Ultimate Paradox: Fragility Breeds Stability 299 Appendix 309 Notes 317 References 375 Acknowledgments 393 Index 395

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Book Synopsis “People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book.” — Rebecca Solnit Trade Review"Stirring reportage." -- O Magazine"A remarkable book of immersive reporting... Bruder is an acute and compassionate observer." -- Margaret Talbot - The New Yorker" Bruder is a poised and graceful writer." -- Parul Sehgal - The New York Times"[A] devastating, revelatory book." -- Timothy R. Smith - The Washington Post"Stunning and beautifully written... brilliant and haunting…" -- Arlie Russell Hochschild - The New York Times Book Review"A first-rate piece of immersive journalism." -- San Francisco Chronicle"At once wonderfully humane and deeply troubling, the book offers an eye-opening tour of the increasingly unequal, unstable, and insecure future our country is racing toward." -- Astra Taylor - The Nation"This [Nomadland] is not some lookie-loo movie, condescendingly imagining the poor: Zhao and McDormand did the legwork—as did journalist Jessica Bruder, whose book inspired the film—entering communities and engaging with them in order to better tell their stories." -- Vanity Fair"I thought the book [“Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” by Jessica Bruder] was a very important document." -- David Strathairn - Los Angeles Times"Bruder’s lively, thoroughly reported book of the same name..." -- AO Scott - The New York Times"Ms. Zhao based her screenplay on Jessica Bruder’s 2018 book of the same name, an exceptional piece of nonfiction that emphasized social and economic upheaval in the wake of the Great Recession... Ms. Bruder’s book staked out the territory and brought its shifting population to life with calm, empathetic reporting." -- The Wall Street Journal

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction xiii Chapter One: Where Buffett and Silicon Valley Billionaires Agree 1 Chapter Two: Dividing Up the Turf 21 Chapter Three: What Monopolies and King Kong Have in Common 35 Chapter Four: Squeezing the Worker 63 Chapter Five: Silicon Valley Throws Some Shade 87 Chapter Six: Toll Roads and Robber Barons 111 Chapter Seven: What Trusts and Nazis Had in Common 137 Chapter Eight: Regulation and Chemotherapy 167 Chapter Nine: Morganizing America 195 Chapter Ten: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle 211 Conclusion: Economic and Political Freedom 233 Notes 249 Acknowledgments 283 About the Authors 285 Index 287

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Book SynopsisIn the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historTrade ReviewWinner of the 2017 Excellence in Financial Journalism Book Award, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers A New York Times Bestseller One of Bloomberg View's "Five Books to Change Conservatives' Minds," chosen by Cass Sunstein #36 on Bloomberg's "50 Most Influential" List One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016 One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History One of Bloomberg View's Great History Books of 2016 One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016 One of The Wall Street Journal's "The 20 Books That Defined Our Year" 2016 One of Foreign Affairs' Editors' Picks 2016 One of the Washington Post's Best Economics Books 2016 Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog's "The Books We Loved in 2016" Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University "The Rise and Fall of American Growth... is the Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year."--Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading--a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis... [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past."--Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages."--Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries... The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period... If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study."--William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "Mr. Gordon uses exhaustive historic data to buttress his thesis."--Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is full of wonder for the miraculous things that America has accomplished."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "A masterful study to be read and reread by anyone interested in today's political economy."--Kirkus "Normally, these kinds of big-think books end with a whimper, as the author totally fails to identify solutions to the problem he is writing about. But Gordon's conclusion offers some admirably definitive policy advice."--Matthew Yglesias, Vox "Magnificent... Gordon presents his case... with great style and panache, supporting his argument with vivid examples as well as econometric data... Even if history changes direction... this book will survive as a superb reconstruction of material life in America in the heyday of industrial capitalism."--Economist "Every presidential candidate should be asked what policies he or she would offer to increase the pace of U.S. productivity growth and to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the economy. Bob Gordon's list is a good place to start."--David Wessel, WSJ.com's Think Tank blog "[W]hat may be the year's most important book on economics has already been published... What Gordon has provided is not a rejection of technology but a sobering reminder of its limits."--Robert Samuelson, Washington Post "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is an extraordinary work of economic scholarship... Moreover, this is one of the rare economics books that is on the one hand deeply analytical ... And on the other a pleasure to read... [A] landmark work."--Lawrence Summers, Prospect "Ambitious... The hefty tome, minutely detailed yet dauntingly broad in scope, offers a lively portrayal of the evolution of American living standards since the Civil War."--Eduardo Porter, New York Times "Two years ago a huge book on economics took the world by storm. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century ... became a surprise bestseller... Robert Gordon's tome on American economic growth stretches to 768 pages and its central message is arguably more important."--David Smith, Sunday Times "A landmark new book."--Gavin Kelly, The Guardian "Looking ahead, judging presidents by policies rather than outcomes may be all the more important. In a new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the economist Robert Gordon argues that we are in the midst of an era of meager technological change. Yes, we now have smartphones and Twitter, but previous generations introduced electric lighting, indoor plumbing and the internal combustion engine. In Mr. Gordon's view, technological change is just not what it used to be, and we had better get used to slower growth in productivity and incomes."--N. Gregory Mankiw, New York Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is likely to be the most interesting and important economics book of the year. It provides a splendid analytic take on the potency of past economic growth, which transformed the world from the end of the nineteenth century onward... Gordon's book serves as a powerful reminder that the U.S. economy really has gone through a protracted slowdown and that this decline has been caused by the stagnation in technological progress."--Tyler Cowen, Foreign Affairs "[A]n important new book."--Martin Ford, Huffington Post "[A] lightning bolt of a new book."--Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect "So powerful and intriguing are the facts and arguments marshaled by Gordon that even informed critics who think he is wrong recommend that readers plow through his The Rise and Fall of American Growth, with its 60 graphics and 64 tables spread over more than 700 pages. You don't need to be an economist to appreciate or understand the book. His thesis is straightforward."--David Cay Johnston, Al Jazeera America.com "What is novel about Gordon's approach to this problem is that he doesn't try to find political causes for our economic woes... [E]xhaustive and sweeping in scope, and novel in its thinking about growth."--Chris Matthews, Fortune.com "[A] fascinating new book."--Jeffrey Sachs, Boston Globe "One of the most important books of recent years... Powerful and impressive."--Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg View "This is a tremendous, sobering piece of research, which does a lot to explain the febrile, nervous state of modern Western democracies."--Marcus Tanner, The Independent "A new book by economist Robert Gordon--The Rise and Fall of American Growth--is causing quite a stir."--City A.M. "If he's right, and one links this with growing income inequality, our would-be leaders will have difficulty in making the case for achieving the American dream through steady incremental progress achieved through collaboration and political compromise."--Michael Hoffmann, Desert Sun "Robert Gordon's new book on productivity in the U.S. economy, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is masterful... Gordon skillfully lays out myriad information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal."--Edward Lotterman, St. Paul Pioneer Press "[I]mpressive."--Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald "In his unsettling new book, Gordon, who teaches at Northwestern, weighs in on the role of technology in the U.S. over the past century-and-a-half. He does so forcefully, so forcefully, in fact, as to wipe the smiles off the faces of most techno-optimists, myself included."--Peter A. Coclanis, Charlotte Observer "[A] thoughtful new book."--David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is this year's equivalent to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: an essential read for all economists, who are unanimously floored by its boldness and scope even if they don't agree with its conclusions."--Adam Davidson, New York Times Magazine "Gordon makes a compelling case for why the era of fast growth in America ended around 1970 and will not return in the foreseeable future, if ever."--Dick Meyer, DecodeDC "Gordon argues that we are not going to get another surge soon and that there are several headwinds that are going to work against faster growth, including income inequality, education as a differentiator and not an equalizer, the debt overhang, and demography."--John Mason, TheStreet.com "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] challenges every political claim, and every pundit's remedy, regarding how to get the lackluster American economy to boom again in the decades ahead, as it once did a half-century or more ago... [The book] represents the culmination of Gordon's many years of investigation into this key economic question of our age, namely: 'Why is it that the American economy has never been able to return to the happy boom years of our grandparents' time?' Why is it that, decade after decade, administration after administration, annualized productivity growth has only been about one-half to one-third that of the age of Truman and Eisenhower?"--Paul Kennedy, Tribune Content Agency "[M]asterful... Gordon skillfully lays out information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal... The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a rare example of a work with solid economics that can be understood, and enjoyed, by nearly any lay person."--Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman "As an economic historian, Gordon is beyond reproach."--Edward Luce, Financial Times "Provocative."--Associated Press "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is a deep dive into the past with an eye to the future... [The book] is part of a fascinating debate about future prospects for the American economy."--Knowledge@Wharton "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] has set the wonky world of economics aflame."--Ryan Craig, TechCrunch "Magisterial."--John Kay, Financial Times "[A] contentious new book."--Margaret Wente, The Globe & Mail "[A] fabulous new book... [I]mpressive."--Dr. Mike Walden, Morganton News Herald "Northwestern Bob Gordon's new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, offers a deeper explanation for the underlying mechanics behind slowed economic growth."--Jon Hartley, Forbes.com "So much of what the presidential candidates and the American people want to accomplish over the next four years and beyond depends on the U.S. economy growing faster, and more inclusively, than it has in recent years. This year's hot economics book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by one of America's most distinguished macroeconomists, Robert Gordon, casts a pall on whether this is possible, arguing that the U.S. had a golden century of increasing innovation from roughly 1870 to 1970, but this was unique."--Robert Litan, Fortune.com "Gordon's book offers the definitive account of how the many technological innovations between 1870 and 1940 dramatically improved life in the United States."--Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution's Defining Ideas blog "[M]agiserial... The Northwestern University professor lays out the case that the productivity miracle underlying the American way of life was largely a one-time deal."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "Robert Gordon's new book The Rise and Fall of American Growth has taken the economics world by storm this winter."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[M]assive."--Ben Casselman, FiveThirty Eight "[G]roundbreaking."--Zeeshan Aleem, Mic "With a painstaking--and fascinating--historical analysis of American productivity, [Gordon] argues that the innovations of today pale in comparison to earlier in our history and that we might actually be entering a period of prolonged stagnation. He may very well be right."--Greg Satell, Forbes.com "[P]rovocative."--Barrie McKenna, The Globe & Mail "[I]nfluential."--Martin Neil Baily, Fortune.com "[A] stimulating book."--George Will, Washington Post "Compulsive reading."--Andrew Hilton, Financial World "Gordon is not an alarmist, far from it. His is a sober voice of concern, of caution, which needs to be heard by those in the helm in America. And a fascinating lesson for ambitious and growing countries like India."--Dr R Balashankar, Sunday Guardian "[A] fascinating convergence of green and mainstream thought."--Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay Journal "[T]his panoramic book makes good reading."--Shane Greenstein, Harvard Magazine "The book's great contribution is the tapestry it weaves of all the innovations that changed most Americans' lives beyond recognition in the century from 1870 to 1970."--Martin Sandbu, Financial Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is unquestionably an important book that raises fundamental questions about the United States' economy and society."--New Criterion "[A] masterpiece."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "[An] impressive book... Gordon's book provides sufficient ammunition to show the colossal problems facing capitalism."--Socialism Today "Rich with detailed information, meticulous observations, and even anecdotes and stories ... a fascinating read."--Ricardo F. Levi, Corriere della Sera "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is essential reading for anyone interested in economics."--Choice "In an important new book, economist Robert Gordon makes the case for pessimism. He believes that technologies like smartphones, robots, and artificial intelligence aren't going to have the kind of big impact on the economy that earlier inventions--like the internal combustion engine and electricity--did."--Timothy B. Lee, Vox "Robert Gordon has written an engaging economic-based history of America... Gordon is to be commended for helping to stimulate a national debate on the current low level of economic productivity."--Allan Hauer, Innovation: The Journal of Technology & Commercialization "If you want to see how far we have come and how tough life was a century and a half ago, read Gordon's book."--David R. Henderson, Regulation "A fantastic read."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes "The book is well written, and one can only be in awe of Gordon's mastery of the factual history of the American standard of living."--Robert A. Margo, EH.net "Monumental."--John Cassidy, NewYorker.com "Zeitgeist-defining."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[A] magisterial treatise."--Nick Gillespie, Reason.com "[A]n essential read for anyone interested not only in US economic history but also American economic prospects ... a tremendous achievement."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "A comprehensive history of American economic growth."--Eric Rauchway, American Prospect "Professor Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a magisterial volume that will benefit any serious student of economics, demographics or history."--Wendell Cox, New Geography "A wonderful new book."--Jeff Sachs, Boston Globe "The most important economics book of 2016."--Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune "This spectacular history traces the rise and the plateau of the American economy since industrialization."--Jay Weiser, Weekly Standard "[A] landmark book... An impressive history of how the American people progressed in their standards of living and productivity in the 'golden century' of 1870-1970."--Stephen M. Millett, Strategy & Leadership "Gordon's encyclopedic The Rise and Fall of American Growth, a new history of modern U.S. economic life, [is] perhaps the best yet written."--Jonathan Levy, Dissent "One of our greatest economic historians... Gordon's exhaustive research program ... has knocked me back on my intellectual heels."--J. Bradford DeLong, Strategy + Business "This is the most important book on economics in many years."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth set out a thesis of technological diminishing returns that does much to explain an age of economic pessimism."--Lorien Kite, Financial Times "In the course of Gordon's book, a vivid picture of everyday life as our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived it emerges... What lingers in my mind, alongside these ideas, is a new, weightier sense of the past, and of what the people who lived in it ate, touched, heard, saw, and did. Reading The Rise and Fall of American Growth, I thought a lot about my grandparents. Gordon's book has made their lives more real to me."--Joshua Rothman, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner blog "Magisterial... While the book has gotten attention because of its bold projection of slow growth in the future, this is actually just one small element of a magnificent and detailed presentation of how our economy has changed since 1870. Most people don't fully appreciate what life was like in the past and Gordon gives a blow-by-blow description of how people lived in America from 1870 on. In addition, he carefully explains how each new innovation was created and how its adoption changed people's lives."--Stephen Rose, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas "Gordon constructs a strong case using conventional economic principles and exacting data measurement."--Don Pittis, CBC News "Gordon's genius is to weave together economic history with the story of the technology, know-how, politic, demographics and medicine that made the astonishing progress of the US perhaps the most remarkable ever."--Sean O'Grady, The Independent "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon, is that rarest thing: a work of densely researched macroeconomics that is compulsively readable."--Bill Morris, The MillionsTable of ContentsPreface ix 1. Introduction: The Ascent and Descent of Growth 1 PART I. 1870-1940-THE GREAT INVENTIONS CREATE A REVOLUTION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HOME 25 2. The Starting Point: Life and Work in 1870 27 3. What They Ate and Wore and Where They Bought It 62 4. The American Home: From Dark and Isolated to Bright and Networked 94 5. Motors Overtake Horses and Rail: Inventions and Incremental Improvements 129 6. From Telegraph to Talkies: Information, Communication, and Entertainment 172 7. Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death 206 8. Working Conditions on the Job and at Home 247 9. Taking and Mitigating Risks: Consumer Credit, Insurance, and the Government 288 Entr'acte. The Midcentury Shift from Revolution to Evolution 319 PART II. 1940-2015-THE GOLDEN AGE AND THE EARLY WARNINGS OF SLOWER GROWTH 329 10. Fast Food, Synthetic Fibers, and Split-Level Subdivisions: The Slowing Transformation of Food, Clothing, and Housing 331 11. See the USA in Your Chevrolet or from a Plane Flying High Above 374 12. Entertainment and Communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone 409 13. Computers and the Internet from the Mainframe to Facebook 441 14. Antibiotics, CT Scans, and the Evolution of Health and Medicine 461 15. Work, Youth, and Retirement at Home and on the Job 498 Entr'acte. Toward an Understanding of Slower Growth 522 PART III. THE SOURCES OF FASTER AND SLOWER GROWTH 533 16. The Great Leap Forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: What Set of Miracles Created It? 535 17. Innovation: Can the Future Match the Great Inventions of the Past? 566 18. Inequality and the Other Headwinds: Long-Run American Economic Growth Slows to a Crawl 605 Postscript: America's Growth Achievement and the Path Ahead 641 Acknowledgments 653 Data Appendix 657 Notes 667 References 717 Credits 741 Index 745

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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