Political economy Books

Inspired by the new fiscal history, this book represents the first global survey of taxation in the premodern world. It introduces new theoretical and comparative approaches from the social sciences and extends its coverage beyond Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East to East Asia and the Americas.

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Book SynopsisUsing comparative research to theorize about the politics of industrial policy in countries in the early stages of capitalist transformation that also experience the pressures of elections, this book provides four in-depth African country studies that illustrate the challenges to economic transformation and the politics of implementing industrial policies.Trade Review'This provocative book goes beyond the aggregate data on economic growth in Africa to argue that industrial policy is the key to sustainable development. By carefully analyzing national- and sectorial-level variations in industrial policies in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda, the authors expose the problems and prospects of accomplishing meaningful economic transformation. Their findings will stimulate exciting new debates regarding the contemporary political economy of Africa.' Anne Pitcher, University of Michigan'This is a landmark contribution to the study of African political economy that brings considerable conceptual sophistication and empirical depth to key debates in the field. At the same time, this outstanding study provides insights for broader discussions of industrialization and the developmental state that will make it necessary reading for scholars and students of comparative politics more generally.' Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, University of OxfordTable of Contents1. The puzzle of limited economic transformation in Africa; Part I. Rethinking the Political Economy of Development: 2. The case for economic transformation and industrial policy; 3. Assessing economic transformation in Africa; 4. Elaborated political settlements theory and clientelism in Africa; Part II. Evolution of Political Settlements: 5. Increased vulnerability and contestation in Mozambique and Tanzania; 6. Dispersed power and elite fragmentation in Ghana and Uganda; Part III. African Experiences with Industrial Policy: 7. Mozambique: between elite capture and pockets of efficiency; 8. Tanzania: intense contestation within a weak dominant party; 9. Ghana: competitive clientelism and weak capitalists; 10. Uganda: competing factions and conflicting elite interests; 11. Conclusions and perspectives.

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Book SynopsisThis book shows that land redistribution - the most consequential form of redistribution in the developing world - occurs more often under dictatorship than democracy. It offers a novel theory of land reform and tests it using extensive original data dating back to 1900.Trade Review'This book is an exceptional achievement. It combines theoretical and methodological sophistication with empirical richness. Albertus demonstrates that land redistribution is more likely under dictatorship than democracy and builds a persuasive argument about why that is the case. The book is an outstanding contribution to the literatures on land redistribution, democracies and dictatorships, political economy, and Latin American politics.' Scott Mainwaring, Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame'Albertus' book is a must-read for understanding distributive politics in Latin America and beyond. Albertus provides a crucial contribution to the discipline by focusing on the political incentives leading to redistribution under different types of political regime. Based on an impressive study of land reforms, he provides a novel theory for understanding land redistribution and the different conditions that led to land renegotiation and colonization. This shift to the incentives of elites and their institutional possibilities provides a crucial contribution to the literature on democracy and redistribution. He finds support for his theory using an impressive dataset of cross-national evidence combined with in-depth longitudinal analyses of Peru and Venezuela. Without doubt, this book will become a reference in comparative studies of development and distributive politics more generally.' M. Victoria Murillo, Columbia University'In this important book Albertus provides new answers to a range of questions about land reform. When does meaningful land reform take place? Why are some reform programs more efficient than others? Albertus' answers - for example, that land reform is more likely under authoritarian regimes than under democratic ones - challenge the conventional wisdom. This book will be of interest to comparative scholars as well students of economic development.' Barry R. Weingast, Ward C. Krebs Family Professor, Stanford University'A great paradox of modern political life is that concentrated landed wealth is a great frozen ice cap blocking the emergence of modern democracy and development. Yet, democracies themselves seem less capable of implementing land reform than autocracies. To date we have only the barest understanding of the complex politics of land reform. In this careful and ambitious study, Michael Albertus untangles these puzzles, constructing the most comprehensive cross-national and historical dataset on land reform alongside carefully crafted case studies of Peru and Venezuela. The result is an argument that provides the most compelling political theory of land reform to date that has broad implications for the study of democracy, redistribution and autocracy.' Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University, MassachusettsTable of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Actors, interests, and the origins of elite splits; 3. A theory of land reform; 4. Measuring land reform; 5. A cross-national analysis of land reform in Latin America; 6. Elite splits and land redistribution under autocracy: Peru's 'revolution from above'; 7. Land reform transformed to redistribution: Venezuela's Punto Fijo democracy and Chávez's Bolivarian revolution; 8. Latin America in comparative perspective; 9. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisInvestment treaties have empowered foreign investors to file expensive, controversial, and wide-ranging claims against sovereign states. This book examines why and how the treaties were negotiated based on a novel theory of economic diplomacy rooted in behavioural economics and psychology.Trade Review'Well before the current hype in Europe over investor-state dispute settlement, Poulsen pioneered the view that many countries signed up to investment protection treaties in less than rational ways. This book provides careful, country-specific evidence in support, with eye-opening stories from across the world, ranging from Pakistan and Ghana to the Czech Republic, Costa Rica and South Africa. Countries simply assumed the economic benefits of investment treaties and underestimated the possibility and costs of legal claims. World Bank and UN officials promoted the treaties and so did Western lawyers and advisors. Debunking the rational premise of much of the academic scholarship, this book should be compulsory reading for a new generation of policymakers and scholars alike, if only to avoid the mistakes of the past and find better ways to address today's increasingly complex challenges of economic diplomacy.' Joost Pauwelyn, Graduate Institute, Geneva'BITs don't have to be boring! Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen has developed a simple yet elegant framework based on bounded rationality to explain why many less developed countries have made rationally foolish choices when signing bilateral investment treaties. By slightly relaxing the strong assumptions of rationality, and combining it with careful in-depth case analysis, he provides a compelling account of the bilateral investment treaty regime and its sometimes perverse consequences.' Duncan Snidal, Nuffield College, Oxford'In explaining why developing countries signed on to investment treaties that were arguably not in their interests, Poulsen adds greatly to Graham Allison's ground-breaking analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis so that we can better understand how government decision-making - in rich as well as poor countries - works in practice.' Louis T. Wells, Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management, Emeritus, Harvard Business School, Massachusetts'Lauge Poulsen makes a truly innovative contribution to political economy by using a rich set of insights from cognitive psychology and behavioral economics to explain the spread and impact of bilateral investment treaties. His thorough statistical and qualitative research convincingly demonstrates the superiority of this bounded-rationality theory over conventional rationalist accounts.' Kurt Weyland, Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts, Department of Government, University of Texas, Austin'Bounded Rationality and Economic Diplomacy will be fruitful reading not only for scholars of international political economy and international relations more broadly but also for those directly involved in treaty negotiations - diplomats, bureaucrats and international lawyers … Given the strength of his argument and the compelling evidence he puts forth, one wonders why others have been so reluctant to relax the rationality assumption. Hopefully other scholars will follow Poulsen's lead and push to understand the extent to which bounded rationality can explain other puzzling results in political behavior and decision making.' Xander Slaski, Journal of Politics'Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen's book is a superb contribution to this important body of research. Taking an international political economy perspective, the book sheds new light on the historical development of the international investment regime. … the book presents a solid theoretical framework and a persuasive body of evidence that sustain a different account of why low- and middle-income countries signed investment treaties. These features make the book a must read for anybody interested in the forces that shaped the historical development of today's international investment regime, and in exploring new trajectories in international economic diplomacy.' Lorenzo Cotula, Journal of International Economic Law'Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen's engaging and meticulously researched book is a timely contribution to International Political Economy scholarship. In Bounded Rationality and Economic Diplomacy, Poulsen poses the pertinent question: why did developing countries as diverse as China and the Marshall Islands ever sign up to an arbitration system that could later come back to bite them … Poulsen should be commended for providing the most detailed analysis of the origins of bilateral investment treaties and investor - state dispute settlement to date. As ISDS cases inevitably become more prominent in the coming years, Poulsen's book will serve as an authoritative guide to their origins for scholars of international political economy and institutional design, but also anyone curious about this increasingly salient topic.' Claire Peacock, International Affairs'Poulsen's extensively-researched but succinctly-written book is a tour de force. It should be read by all scholars and practitioners interested in the historical trajectory and ongoing policy issues associated with international investment treaties and arbitration, especially the topical issue of ISDS.' Luke Nottage, Journal of World Investment and Trade'This is a provocative thesis that Poulsen pursues with great skill and success. The effort goes to show that a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, fusing both 'problem-solving' and critical methods, contributes a great deal to our understanding of this complex field.' David Schneiderman, The European Journal of International Law'All scholars of international politics and perhaps others should read this interesting book. It makes valuable contributions, both specific and general. It develops an original, convincing explanation of the phenomenally rapid spread, especially during the 1990s, of bilateral investment treaties [BITs] involving developing countries, and of the treaties' puzzling content. It also demonstrating an insightful way to check and enrich rational choice analyses of many other political phenomena.' John S. Odell, International RelationsTable of ContentsPreface: the curious case of Pakistan; 1. Unanticipated consequences; 2. Bounded rationality and the spread of investment treaties; 3. A difficult beginning; 4. Promoting investment treaties; 5. A less then rational competition; 6. Narcissistic learning; 7. Letting down the guard: a case study; 8. Expanding the bounds of rationality in the investment regime.

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Book SynopsisPolitical Consumerism captures the creative ways in which consumers and citizens turn to the market as their arena for politics. This book theorizes, describes, analyzes, compares and evaluates how political consumers target corporations to solve globalized problems. It demonstrates the reconfiguration of civic engagement, political participation and citizenship.Trade Review"Political Consumerism is well-argued, well-researched, and presents a good deal of original information. Engaging with the political science literature on governance and participation, it offers arguments for expanding conventional political science theory and concepts to better accommodate this growing pattern of contemporary politics. The idea that consumers are an increasingly important and organized political force on the planet seems at once obvious and woefully underdeveloped academically, particularly in political science. Dietlind Stolle and Michele Micheletti go a long way toward remedying this situation. This is a fine book." W. Lance Bennett, Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication, and Professor of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle"Political consumerism has become a growing form of social and political activism in recent decades, and Dietlind Stolle and Michele Micheletti have produced the authoritative study of the use and impact of political consumerism in politics today. This book should be the standard citation in the growing debate about political consumerism and other new forms of citizen action." Russell J. Dalton, University of California, IrvineTable of Contents1. Reconfiguring political responsibility; 2. Reconfiguring political participation; 3. Who are political consumers?; 4. Mapping political consumerism in Western democracies; 5. The organizational setting for political consumerism; 6. Discursive political consumerism; 7. Does political consumerism matter? Effectiveness and limits of political consumer action repertoires; 8. Political consumerism's scope and challenges.

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Book SynopsisThis book reconstructs how a group of nineteenth-century labor reformers appropriated and radicalized the republican tradition. These 'labor republicans' derived their definition of freedom from a long tradition of political theory dating back to the classical republics.Trade Review'Alex Gourevitch's new book powerfully challenges received understandings of the relationship between liberal and republican ideas and unsettles familiar narratives about the history of American political thought. He shows that republican political theory is not as automatically or easily egalitarian as has often been assumed; that nineteenth-century laissez-faire free labor doctrines themselves made civic and not only liberal claims; and, most importantly and centrally, that those he identifies as 'labor republicans' offered a neglected, fascinating, and distinctively American critique of capitalism and wage labor. From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth is an exciting and highly original work.' Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill University'This is a mind-opening study of an American movement in which the republican idea of freedom was invoked in support of workers. It reminds us that, traditionally understood, freedom argues not just for an open market and a transparent state, but for employment and workplace conditions that guard against servitude and servility. The book makes for salutary reading in an age of 'business-friendly' government.' Philip Pettit, L. S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University'Every once in a rare while, a book comes along with an argument that, once advanced, not only changes how we think but makes you wonder how we ever could have thought anything else. Alex Gourevitch has written such a book … The transformative insight at the heart of [this] book is that in the nineteenth century, in the United States, slavery was not a rhetoric but a reality, which drove some of the most breathtaking innovations in how republicans thought about freedom. And once slavery was abolished, its successor - wage slavery, as it was called - drove even more innovations. What emerges from Gourevitch's treatment is a wholesale reconsideration of the republican tradition, in an utterly novel setting … Once we've read this book and digested its implications, we'll never talk about freedom, republicanism, or domination - not just in the past but in the present - in the same way.' Corey Robin, Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center'Provides a careful examination of labor arguments, uncovering the complex ways advocates 'embraced and recast' republican ideology.' Daniel J. McInerney, The Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction: something of slavery still remains; 1. The paradox of slavery and freedom; 2. 'Independent laborers by voluntary contract': the laissez-faire republican turn; 3. 'The sword of want': free labor against wage labor; 4. Labor republicanism and the cooperative commonwealth; 5. Solidarity and selfishness: the political theory of the dependent classes; Conclusion: the freedom yet to come.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores ways foreign intervention and external rivalries can affect the institutionalization of governance in weak states. When sufficiently competitive, foreign rivalries in a weak state can actually foster the political centralization, territoriality and autonomy associated with state sovereignty. This counterintuitive finding comes from studying the collective effects of foreign contestation over a weak state as informed by changes in the expected opportunity cost of intervention for outside actors. When interveners associate high opportunity costs with intervention, they bolster sovereign statehood as a next best alternative to their worst fear - domination of that polity by adversaries. Sovereign statehood develops if foreign actors concurrently and consistently behave this way toward a weak state. This book evaluates that argument against three 'least likely' cases - China, Indonesia and Thailand between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.Trade Review"Chong evaluates interactions among local political groups, governance institutions, external actors, and pressures from international system … He considers the competition among several powers (e.g., the US, Britain, Russia, Japan, France) as they intervened these fragile states, their rivalry creating conditions favorable for political centralization, territorial exclusivity, and external autonomy, the marks of the sovereign state. The argument Chong makes also applies to fragile states today, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Kosovo." G. A. McBeath, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, ChoiceTable of Contents1. Molding the institutions of governance: theories of state formation and the contingency of sovereignty in fragile polities; 2. Imposing states: foreign rivalries, local collaboration, and state form in peripheral polities; 3. Feudalizing the Chinese polity, 1893–1922: assessing the adequacy of alternative takes on state reorganization; 4. External influence and China's feudalization, 1893–1922: opportunity costs and patterns of foreign intervention; 5. The evolution of foreign involvement in China, 1923–52: rising opportunity costs and convergent approaches to intervention; 6. How intervention remade the Chinese state, 1923–52: foreign sponsorship and the building of sovereign China; 7. Creating Indonesia, 1893–1952: major power rivalry and the making of sovereign statehood; 8. Siam stands apart, 1893–1952: external intervention and rise of a sovereign Thai state; 9. Domesticating international relations, externalizing comparative politics: foreign intervention and the state in world politics.

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Book SynopsisMany economists now accept that informal institutions and culture play a crucial role in economic outcomes. Driven by the work of economists like Nobel laureates Douglass North and Gary Becker, there is an important body of work that invokes cultural and institutional factors to build a more comprehensive and realistic theory of economic behavior. This book provides a comprehensive overview of research in this area, sketching the main premises and challenges faced by the field. The first part introduces and explains the various theoretical approaches to studying culture in economics, going back to Smith and Weber, and addresses the methodological issues that need to be considered when including culture in economics. The second part of the book then provides readers with a series of examples that show how the cultural approach can be used to explain economic phenomena in four different areas: entrepreneurship, trust, international business and comparative corporate governance.Trade Review'This important new book on culture in economics by Sjoerd Beugelsdijk and Robbert Maseland is most welcome. It fills an important gap in the literature that has only recently been recognised. After decades of sceptical methodological isolationism, economists have come to accept that without reference to people's systems of norms and beliefs a large part of the differences in performance across populations would go unexplained. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in truly understanding economics.' Luigi Guiso, Professor of Economics, European University Institute'Economic science has its roots in Anglo-American cultural values. With an increasing share of world economic power slipping out of Western hands, there is a crying need for an economic science in which cultural values are treated as a variable. [This] book by Beugelsdijk and Maseland is a welcome contribution to this development.' Geert Hofstede, author of Culture's Consequences'A new literature in economics has rediscovered fundamental insights in sociology and is using them to address long standing economic problems. This book does a superb job in placing this new line of research in a broader context, explaining its deep roots and how it opens up fundamental methodological issues. A very timely book that will have a lasting impact on one of the most exciting areas of research in the social sciences.' Guido Tabellini, Professor of Economics, Bocconi UniversityTable of ContentsList of figures; List of tables; List of textboxes; Prologue; Part I. Historical and Methodological Reflections on Culture in Economics: 1. Defining culture; 2. How culture disappeared from economics; 3. Explaining the rise of culture in modern economics; 4. Culture in economics: contemporary theoretical perspectives; 5. A methodological perspective on culture in economics; Part II. Applications of Culture in Contemporary Economics: Introduction to Part II; 6. Entrepreneurial culture; 7. Trust; 8. International business; 9. Comparative corporate governance; Part III. Evaluation: 10. Discussion; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisFor centuries following the spread of Islam, the Middle East was far ahead of Europe. Yet, the modern economy was born in Europe. Why was it not born in the Middle East? In this book Jared Rubin examines the role that Islam played in this reversal of fortunes. It argues that the religion itself is not to blame; the importance of religious legitimacy in Middle Eastern politics was the primary culprit. Muslim religious authorities were given an important seat at the political bargaining table, which they used to block important advancements such as the printing press and lending at interest. In Europe, however, the Church played a weaker role in legitimizing rule, especially where Protestantism spread (indeed, the Reformation was successful due to the spread of printing, which was blocked in the Middle East). It was precisely in those Protestant nations, especially England and the Dutch Republic, where the modern economy was born.Trade Review'In a fascinating analysis of why the Middle East fell behind, Jared Rubin points to events centuries ago that led the Middle East and the West to different sources of political legitimacy and different paths of institutional change. His insight not only explains why political autocracy and economic stagnation have dominated the Middle East but why our policies there seem to fail.' Philip Hoffman, California Institute of Technology'In the early Middle Ages, the Muslim Mediterranean world was technologically progressive and sophisticated and had a flourishing economy, while Western Europe was a poor backwater. In modern times, north-west Europe took the lead and became the cradle of economic growth. What explains this momentous reversal of fortune? In a fresh and original work, Rubin combines history, economics, and politics to come up with a startling new explanation that will have scholars arguing the matter for years.' Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University, Illinois'Jared Rubin is among the boldest and most creative young scholars of political economy today. His highly entertaining and enlightening book is a path-breaking magnum opus in the burgeoning field of economics of religion. Rulers, Religion, and Riches restores the pertinent role of secularism in sociopolitical and economic development to its rightful place.' Murat Iyigun, Calderwood Endowed Chair, University of Colorado, BoulderTable of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Propagation of Rule: A Theory of Economic Success and Stagnation: 2. The propagation rule; 3. Historical origins of rule propagation; Part II. Applying the Theory: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not: 4. Bans on taking interest; 5. Restrictions on the printing press; 6. Printing and the Reformation; 7. Success: England and the Dutch Republic; 8. Stagnation: Spain and the Ottoman Empire; 9. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis Element provides a critical but sympathetic overview of the literature on developmental states and ends with its revival and a look forward at the possibility for developmentalist approaches, both in the advanced and developing world.

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Book SynopsisWhat is the relationship between internal development and integration into the global economy in developing countries? How and why do statemarket relations differ? And do these differences matter in the post-cold war era of global conflict and cooperation? Drawing on research in China, India, and Russia and examining sectors from textiles to telecommunications, Micro-institutional Foundations of Capitalism introduces a new theory of sectoral pathways to globalization and development. Adopting a historical approach, the book''s Strategic Value Framework shows how state elites perceive the strategic value of sectors in response to internal and external pressures. Sectoral structures and organization of institutions further determine the role of the state in market coordination and property rights arrangements. The resultant dominant patterns of market governance vary by country and sector within country. These national configurations of sectoral models are the micro-institutional foundatTrade Review'Roselyn Hsueh has produced a major work featuring an inventive model, the Strategic Value Framework. This schema collapses an array of factors into a powerful template that explicates how three seemingly disparate states variously govern what their leaders perceive to be strategic versus non-strategic industrial sectors. The patterns she uncovers will surely be useful for researchers investigating other countries and other sectors.' Dorothy J. Solinger, Professor of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine'Roselyn Hsueh's book is a tour de force that elevates the standards of comparative political economy. Her argument develops a synoptic and comparative perspective on state priorities, combined with an interactive framework of microlevel sectoral structures and distribution of interested actors. What distinguishes her argument is attention to multiple faces of a state, the perceived value accorded to sectors, combined with governance micro-institutions that vary by sector. It is a must read for scholars of China, India and Russia and of comparative political economy.' Aseema Sinha, Wagener Chair of South Asian Politics and George R. Roberts Fellow, Claremont McKenna College'Micro-institutional Foundations of Capitalism is a highly original, sophisticated, and well-researched study of three large non-Western economies, each analyzed at the sectoral level using Hsueh's Strategic Value Framework. This book offers a compelling example of how to conduct in-depth research on important cases from different world regions while generating novel theoretical implications for comparative political economy.' Rudra Sil, Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, University of Pennsylvania'Roselyn Hsueh has developed an interesting strategic value framework and produced an enormously important book on the state, industrial sectors, and development. She applies her framework in meticulous studies of China, India, and Russia. The resulting comparison of these countries is a feast for the mind.' Dali L. Yang, William C. Reavis Professor of Political Science, The University of Chicago'Hsueh's new book on comparative economic governance is brilliant. The book's analysis of multiple sectors in China, India and Russia builds on but goes well beyond existing scholarship on state capacity and economic performance. Its sophisticated analytical framework integrates sectoral and sub-sectoral characteristics with national elites' intersubjective responses to external and internal pressures. The book's rigorous, grounded research sets a high standard for qualitative analysis. This is a must read for anyone interested in the political economy of development.' Richard Doner, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Emory University'Roselyn Hsueh's book achieves quite a few remarkable feats by underlining the significance of the perception of strategic value of a sector within the state. The book brings ideas and the state back in without undermining the importance of material factors. It is a remarkable feat to compare China, India and Russia in a historically serious way, without compromising methodological rigor. Hsueh is one of those rare scholars who have demonstrated that comparative area studies can marry richness with rigor, without compromising either.' Rahul Mukherji, Professor and Chair, Modern Politics of South Asia, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg UniversityTable of ContentsPart I. Politics of Market Governance: 1. Understanding varieties of market governance in the age of globalization; 2. Perceived strategic value and sectoral structures and organization of institutions; Part II. Nations and Sectors: Patterns of Market Governance: 3. China and sectoral variation: evolution of techno-security developmentalism and the rise of bifurcated capitalism; 4. Security imperatives, infrastructural development, and high-tech sectors: centralized governance in Chinese telecommunications; 5. Political stability, local goals, and labor-intensive sectors: decentralized governance in Chinese textiles; 6. India and sectoral variation: evolution of neoliberal self-reliance and the rise of bifurcated liberalism; 7. Pro-liberalization transnational business and high-tech services: regulated governance in Indian telecommunications; 8. Political legitimacy, economic stability, and labor-intensive small-scale sectors: centralized governance in Indian textiles; 9. Russia and sectoral variation: evolution of resource security nationalism and the rise of bifurcated oligarchy; 10. National security and infrastructure and resource sectors: centralized governance in Russian telecommunications; 11. Regional development and labor-intensive sectors: private governance in Russian textiles; Part III. National Configurations of Sectoral Models: 12. Development, new capitalisms, and future of global conflict and cooperation.

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Book SynopsisMarkets are taken as the norm in economics and in much of political and media discourse. But if markets are superior why does the public sector remain so large? Avner Offer provides a distinctive new account of the effective temporal limits on private, public, and social activity. Understanding the PrivatePublic Divide accounts for the division of labour between business and the public sector, how it changes over time, where the boundaries ought to run, and the harm that follows if they are violated. He explains how finance forces markets to focus on short-term objectives and why business requires special privileges in return for long-term commitment. He shows how a private sector policy bias leads to inequality, insecurity, and corruption. Integrity used to be the norm and it can be achieved again. Only governments can manage uncertainty in the long-term interests of society, as shown by the challenge of climate change.Trade Review'Family, school, railways? What do they have in common? They cannot be run well, or at all, as private for-profit enterprises and yet they are crucial for a good life. In this well-written and tightly argued book Avner Offer brings arguments to delineate the areas that naturally belong to the market and to the state. At the time when the neoliberal version of capitalism is widely questioned, this books proposes a new set of answers.' Branko Milanovic, author of Global Inequality and Capitalism, Alone.'Avner Offer is, to my mind, the leading thinker on the Left from within the academic community of economists and historians. He is not afraid to think in radical terms, as he has shown in relation to an impressive range of issues, including colonialism, war, consumerism and, here, the state. His latest book is a must-read, imbued with both history and practical economics, and couldn't be more policy relevant. If you agree with Offer, it will add fire to your existing arsenal; if you disagree, it will represent a much-needed challenge. Either way, Offer's voice needs – and deserves – to be heard.' Victoria Bateman, author of The Sex Factor: How Women made the West Rich'As a scholar and as a citizen Avner Offer always puts Truth in the first place. He asks thorny questions that pierce to the heart of things. His judgements are so deeply grounded and so carefully considered that they seldom allow any appeal. Understanding the Private-Public Divide shows Offer's passions for veracity, for equality under the law, for social justice, for community responsibility and for a commensurate distribution of wealth: in a word his humanity. This immediately topical book goes to the heart of the contemporary crisis of untruthfulness, injustice, mistrust and disorder. Complacent satisfaction in contemporary democracy is more and more, he shows, a cloak for corruption and criminality.' Richard Davenport-Hines, author of Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes 'The Covid pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of individualism and the market mechanism as answers to a global catastrophe. Avner Offer, one of the most imaginative and thought-provoking of economic historians, shows how this is just one example of a failure to understand the proper roles of the public and private sectors. His book should be read by every economist, politician and journalist confronting the current economic position and the threat of climate change.' Roderick Floud, author of An Economic History of the English GardenTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Patient capital; 2. Corruption and integrity; 3. Plutocratic blowback; 4. Creating humans; 5. Exit from work; 6. Housing and democracy; 7. Climate change and time horizons; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThe phenomenon of post-truth poses a problem for the public policy-oriented sciences, including policy analysis. Along with fake news, the post-truth denial of facts constitutes a major concern for numerous policy fields. Whereas a standard response is to call for more and better factual information, this Element shows that the effort to understand this phenomenon has to go beyond the emphasis on facts to include an understanding of the social meanings that get attached to facts in the political world of public policy. The challenge is thus seen to be as much about a politics of meaning as it is about epistemology. The analysis here supplements the examination of facts with an interpretive policy-analytic approach to gain a fuller understanding of post-truth. The importance of the interpretive perspective is illustrated by examining the policy arguments that have shaped policy controversies related to climate change and coronavirus denial.Trade Review'With 'Truth and Post-Truth in Public Policy - interpreting the arguments', Frank Fischer offers us a powerful framework of critical analysis to unravel the complex thread that has brought us to the current and extreme situation of strong social confrontation … It is a book that not only feeds the debate, but our hopes.' Rosana Boullosa, Critical Policy Studies'Fischer guides readers through a systematic and artfully argued application of the interpretive policy framework, offering not only a nuanced discussion about post-truth but also a tour of the workings of the framework (e.g., the concepts of social cognition, plausibility structures, truth regimes, and narrative arguments). As such, this is both a contribution to scholarship and a useful text for those seeking to learn more about the framework itself. Readers will benefit from Fischer's multi-disciplinary and critical theoretical perspective, sharpened over a career of provocative research about public participation and expert knowledge in policymaking. Above all, the book is a highly enjoyable and fluid read that not only provides an appraisal of where policy research currently sits in understanding post-truth but also establishes a roadmap for that research in the coming decades.' Kris Hartley, International Review of Public PolicyTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction: Policy science, facts and the post-truth challenge; 2. Post-truth defined; 3. Post-truth: Ignorance and “anything goes”; 4. The political rise of the post-truth culture; 5. Emotion and post-truth: living with falsehoods; 6. Social media and disinformation; 7. Beyond the critique: rescuing interpretive social science; 8. The interpretive policy-analytic approach: social meanings and alternative realities; 9. Social Meaning in Interpretive Policy Analysis; 10. Interpretive social science and the scientific community: The “hard” sciences; 11. Citizens confront the experts: Context and emotion in ordinary reason; 12. Political and policy knowledge as ordinary practical knowledge; 13. Climate policy and denialism: A political illustration; 14. Climate Policy and politics: the social translation of evidence into political knowledge; 15. Climate research: Uncertain knowledge and falsification; 16. COVID-19 denialism: Interpreting narrative arguments; 17. Narrative arguments and the policy-analytic challenge: Interpreting COVID-19 statistics in social context; 18. Rejecting COVID-19 lockdown: Interpreting political-economic and ideological arguments; 19. Deliberating with post-truth deniers: Concluding remarks; References.

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Book SynopsisIn the crises of the past fifteen years, central bankers have become big public players in a drama that affects all our lives, involving financial market crashes, public health threats and devastating economic downturns. Having played a lead role in the global financial crisis and the coronavirus crisis, they are now being asked to broaden their appeal. But the key aim has always been one of simply ensuring monetary and financial stability. In this book, NIESR director Jagjit Chadha unpacks the world of central banking, explaining in accessible language the analytical techniques, policy toolkits or simple story-telling that they use to understand the economy, to implement monetary policy and to communicate their decisions to key decision-makers and the wider public.Trade Review'This wonderful book illuminates, entertains, explains and demystifies that most essential but rarely-understood entity, money. Above all, it demonstrates the link between money and the capacity of the state to tackle any collective problems: money fundamentally matters and so, therefore, do its minders in central banks. This book describes how central bankers think about their task, what models and evidence they use to make decisions about interest rates and other tools at their disposal - and also sets out how they should think about it.' Diane Coyle, University of Cambridge'A book like this has been needed for a long time: a primer on money-credit theory and practice for the interested generalist, which is up to date, informed by theory without drowning in abstraction, engages with the hazards of policy making, and takes institutions seriously.' Paul Tucker, Harvard Kennedy School'Through a fascinating series of old stories, lessons from economic history, and modern models, the author describes how central banking learned to provide stability in the value of money and financial stability. It is a must read for all students of money matters.' Michael Bordo, Rutgers Economics'This is a great book for anyone studying monetary economics in the UK. It will be perfect for undergraduates, and even graduates would benefit from it. It covers all the main issues in a clear and accessible style, with a great use of diagrams and appropriate quotations. It provides a good read, and the analysis is well done and sensible throughout.' Charles Goodhart, London School of Economics'… central bankers have limited political legitimacy. Here Chadha echoes Paul Tucker, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, about the need for central bankers to leave responsibility for picking winners and losers to politicians. The best central bankers can hope to achieve is 'stability'. Chadha finishes his book with a warning about how long it will take for the Bank of England to recover from its exertions in response to the financial crisis and the pandemic; he also calls for a broad reconsideration of its mandate. Both issues are at the top of the political agenda in Britain. Chadha's argument is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand that debate.' Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, vol. 64, no. 5, October–November 2022Table of Contents1. Of gold and paper money; 2. The great depression and its legacy; 3. Fine tuning out of control; 4. A science of monetary policy; 5. Where the great experiment went wrong; 6. A new art of central banking; Epilogue 1. Why forecast?; Epilogue 2. Monetary policy in troubled times; A final word; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis tour of the economist's mind explains the utility of crucial economic concepts. Rhoads uses relevant political examples to state his case, discusses controversies surrounding redistribution of wealth, and offers a critique of economists' unbalanced emphasis on narrow self-interest as both controlling motive and route to happiness.Trade Review'This is a 35th anniversary version of a classic. Rhoads, an emeritus professor of politics at the University of Virginia, has built upon the best explanation I know of how orthodox economists think about choice, markets, externalities and other concepts. The new edition will be valuable to non-economists and economists alike: the former will learn how economists think; and the latter will learn some of the limits to how they think.' Martin Wolf, A Financial Times Book of the Year'Rhoads puts the discipline's core concepts in wonderfully accessible form.' Barton Swaim, A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year'… one of the top 10 big picture economics books of the last 50 years.' David R. Henderson, RegulationTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Useful Concepts: 1. Opportunity Cost; 2. Marginalism; 3. Economic Incentives; Part II. Government and Markets, Efficiency and Equity: 4. Government and the Economy; 5. Economists and Equity; 6. Externalities and the Government Agenda; Part III. The Limits of Economics: 7. The Economist's Consumer and Individual Well-Being; 8. Representatives, Deliberation, and Political Leadership; 9. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisRoger Koppl develops a theory of experts and expert failure, and uses a wide range of examples - from forensic science to fashion - to explain the applications of his theory, including state regulation of economic activity. This book will appeal to researchers in economics, philosophy, law, science and technology studies and criminal justice.Trade Review'If you are skeptical of elitist experts, cronies in government or business, but fearful of the populist uprising against them, you will like reading this book in the intellectual tradition of B. Mandeville, Adam Smith, and F. A. Hayek.' Vernon Smith, Nobel Laureate, Professor of Economics and Law, Chapman University, California'The burgeoning literature on expertise, which crosses several disciplines, has needed an accessible, sophisticated, critical, synthetic overview that explains the importance of the issues. Roger Koppl has supplied one at last, and much can be learned from it.' Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida'In this lucid and wide-ranging examination, Roger Koppl sets forth several lines of thought that speak to this servant-master dichotomy. The book does not provide a recipe for creating servants and avoiding masters, but it provides a cogent framework for exploring this problem of human governance, closing with the wisdom: value expertise but fear expert power.' Richard Wagner, Harris Professor of Economics, George Mason University, Washington, DC'The growth of the administrative state, more intricate financial regulation, and the spread of behavioral economics as a basis for policy means that we are increasingly living under the rule of experts. Roger Koppl's book is an in-depth look at the epistemic and incentive problems created by what may appear to some as simply evidence-based policy. But much more is at stake here as Koppl revealingly demonstrates.' Mario J. Rizzo, Associate Professor of Economics, New York University'In Expert Failure, Roger Koppl has written a commanding synoptic and authoritative book on the fundamental problem of 'experts', when knowledge is not uniformly distributed. Koppl argues for polyarchy over hierarchy, covering an enormous range from Socrates, to the administrative state, to the tacit knowledge in the economy and the dangers of the 'entangled deep state'. Read this book.' Stuart Kauffman, FRSC, Emeritus Professor, University of PennsylvaniaTable of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Nature and History of the Problem: 2. Is there a literature on experts?; 3. Two historical episodes in the problem of experts; 4. Recurrent themes in the theory of experts; Part II. Foundations of the Theory of Experts: 5. Notes on some economic terms and ideas; 6. The division of knowledge through Mandeville; 7. The division of Knowledge after Mandeville; 8. The supply and demand for expert opinion; 9. Experts and their ecology; Part III. Expert Failure: 10. Expert failure and market structure; 11. Further sources of expert failure; 12. Expert failure in the entangled deep state.

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Book SynopsisEarning an income in our time often involves ownership of or control over creative assets. Employing the law and philosophy of economics, this illuminating book explores the legal controversies that emerge when authors, singers, filmmakers, and social media barons leverage their rights into major paydays. It explores how players in the entertainment and technology sectors articulate claims to an ever-increasing amount of copyright-protected media. It then analyzes efforts to reform copyright law, in the contexts of 1) increasing the rights of creators and sellers, and 2) allocating these rights after employment and labor disputes, constitutional challenges to intellectual property law, efforts to legalize online mashups and remixes, and changes to the amount of streaming royalties paid to actors and musicians. This work should be read by anyone interested in how copyright law - and its potential reform - shapes the ownership of ideas in the social media age.Trade Review'Travis has provided an engaging, fast-paced argument, setting out examples of how copyright has favoured one group over another … What makes this book interesting and worth reading is this creation of small stories and grand narratives around the nature and scope of copyright.' Phillip Johnson, European Intellectual Property ReviewTable of Contents1. On owning ideas in our time; Part I. IP Disparities: 2. Authors as hired hands; 3. Independent invention and its discontents; Part II. IP Liberties: 4. Hollywood's copyright exemptions?; 5. The Beijing consensus; Part III. Pirate's Dilemmas: 6. The inquisitorial internet; 7. Why we can't build universal digital libraries; 8. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Buckmaster, global compensation director at Nike, argues in his winning debut that America’s pay system is deeply broken. . . . Buckmaster packs his work with insight, and delivers his message in a charming, funny tone… This layperson’s guide will be a boon to anyone looking to understand the forces behind how that number got on their W-2.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Fair Pay . . . offer[s] deeply informed insight into how companies set pay rates . . . A thought-provoking counterpoint to typical fair-pay books." — Booklist "There is nothing more nuts-and-bolts about business than decisions on how to compensate employees, and there is nothing that could change the country quite so quickly or directly as tackling income inequality by paying most of them more. As Buckmaster writes, 'Now is the time to redeem the idea of fairness,' and his book is a perfect nuts-and-bolts, big picture place to start." — Porchlight “We have spent a generation laboring under the strange delusion that pay increases would impoverish the country. Fair Pay is both a corrective, but more interestingly, an insiders' account of the complexities inherent in how corporations really think about pay. Fascinating and essential reading for any economic reformer, or for that matter, anyone who earns a paycheck.” — Tim Wu, author of The Curse of Bigness and The Attention Merchants “In order to know your worth, you need to know how comp works. Anyone who reads this book is in for a treat. David Buckmaster’s unique insight as a corporate pay leader teaches us what the person on the other side of the pay negotiation table is really thinking, and how to make sure you get what you deserve.” — Claire Wasserman, founder of Ladies Get Paid “David Buckmaster describes why the current system of pay is broken and what to do about it. Fair Pay is a timely and important call to action, especially for business leaders whose workers make too little to make ends meet.” — Zeynep Ton, MIT Sloan School of Management and Good Jobs Institute “Take it from an insider: companies don’t compete for wages; they coordinate, making sure that employees are left in the dark. While most people may prefer not to know how sausages are made, knowing how wages are made is crucial for every employee. A must-read for employees and policy makers who believe that reforming the system remains possible.” — Katharina Pistor, author of The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality "[Knezevich's] vocal character is perfect for the author's intent—to help workers negotiate fair pay for themselves and become more knowledgeable about how business and our economy work. Knezevich has a broad and appealing range, and is fun to hear as he interprets every nuance and idea in this accessible guide." — AudioFile Magazine "Fair Pay provides both high-level and specific recommendations for how to reform compensation . . . An important, insider perspective on the principles and tactics needed for more equitable and dynamic organizations." — Charter

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower, a searching and provocative examination of the widespread institutional rot that threatens our collective futureWhat causes rich countries to lose their way? Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, increasing inequality, aging populations, antisocial behavior. But what exactly has gone wrong? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues in The Great Degeneration, is that our institutions—the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail—are degenerating. With characteristic verve and historical insight, Ferguson analyzes the causes of this stagnation and its profound consequences for the future of the West. The Great Degeneration is an incisive indictment of an era of negligence and complacency—and to arrest the breakdown of our civilization, Ferguson warns, will take heroic

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Book SynopsisAn introduction to the concepts and tools of natural resource economics, including dynamic models, market failures, and institutional remedies.This introduction to natural resource economics treats resources as a type of capital; their management is an investment problem requiring forward-looking behavior within a dynamic setting. Market failures are widespread, often associated with incomplete or nonexistent property rights, complicated by policy failures. The book covers standard resource economics topics, including both the Hotelling model for nonrenewable resources and models for renewable resources. The book also includes some topics in environmental economics that overlap with natural resource economics, including climate change.The text emphasizes skills and intuition needed to think about dynamic models and institutional remedies in the presence of both market and policy failures. It presents the nuts and bolts of resource economics as applied to nonrenewable r

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Book SynopsisWhy policies should be based on careful consideration of their costs and benefits rather than on intuition, popular opinion, interest groups, and anecdotes.Opinions on government policies vary widely. Some people feel passionately about the child obesity epidemic and support government regulation of sugary drinks. Others argue that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they like. Some people are alarmed about climate change and favor aggressive government intervention. Others don't feel the need for any sort of climate regulation. In The Cost-Benefit Revolution, Cass Sunstein argues our major disagreements really involve facts, not values. It follows that government policy should not be based on public opinion, intuitions, or pressure from interest groups, but on numbers—meaning careful consideration of costs and benefits. Will a policy save one life, or one thousand lives? Will it impose costs on consumers, and if so, will the costs be high or negligib

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Book SynopsisA study of cross-border economic issues and developments comparing the disparate industrial growth and income gap between the regions on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction. The United States-Mexico Border Chapter 1. Along the United States-Mexico Border Chapter 2. Population Growth and Migration Chapter 3. U.S. Border States and Border Relations Chapter 4. Trade, Investment, and Manufacturing Chapter 5. The Environment Chapter 6. Formal and Informal Labor Chapter 7. Income, Equity, and Poverty Chapter 8. Living Standards Chapter 9. Human Development in the Border Region Chapter 10. The Future of United States-Mexico Border Regions Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisFrom one of America's foremost economic and political thinkers comes a vital analysis of our new hypercompetitive and turbo-charged global economy and the effect it is having on American democracy. With his customary wit and insight, Reich shows how widening inequality of income and wealth, heightened job insecurity, and corporate corruption are merely the logical results of a system in which politicians are more beholden to the influence of business lobbyists than to the voters who elected them. Powerful and thought-provoking, Supercapitalism argues that a clear separation of politics and capitalism will foster an enviroment in which both business and government thrive, by putting capitalism in the service of democracy, and not the other way around.

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Book SynopsisFrom the former economics columnist for Harper’s and The New York Times, a bold indictment of some of our most accepted mainstream economic theories—why they’re wrong, and how they’ve been harming America and the world.Ideas have the power to change history. But what happens when they are bad? In a tour de force of economics, history, and analysis, Jeff Madrick shows how theories on austerity, inflation, and efficient markets have become unassailable mantras over recent years, to the detriment of the country as a whole. Working backwards from the Great Recession, Madrick pulls no punches as he reconsiders seven of the greatest false idols of modern economic theory, from Say’s Law to Milton Friedman, illustrating how these ideas have been damaging markets, infrastructure, and individual livelihoods for years. Trenchant, sweeping, and empirical, Seven Bad Ideas resoundingly disrupts the status quo of modern economic theory.

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Book SynopsisPresident Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why government matters—presenting his ideas on restoring economic growth, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and pursuing a strategy to get us back in the future business.” He explains how we got into the current economic crisis, and offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He supports President Obama’s emphasis on green technology, saying that changing the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast-growing economy while enhancing our national security.Clinton also stresses that we need a strong private sector and a smart government working together to restore prosperity and progress, demonstrating that whenever we’ve given in to the tem

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Book Synopsis#1 New York Times Bestseller Los Angeles Times BestsellerOne of The Wall Street Journal''s 10 Books to Read Now One of Kirkus Reviews''s Best Nonfiction Books of the Year One of Publishers Weekly''s Most Anticipated Books of the YearShortlisted for the OWL Business Book Award and Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year AwardVersion 2.0, Updated and Expanded, with a New AfterwordWe all sense itsomething big is going on. You feel it in your workplace. You feel it when you talk to your kids. You can't miss it when you read the newspapers or watch the news. Our lives are being transformed in so many realms all at onceand it is dizzying.In Thank You for Being Late, version 2.0, with a new afterword, Thomas L. Friedman exposes the tectonic movements that are reshaping the world today and explains how to

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Book SynopsisCan Europe prosper without the euro?Trade Review"Much more than a demolition job. These chapters are full of constructive proposals - a glimpse of what the ‘rescues’ would have looked like had the troika, perish the thought, hired their critic Stiglitz to design them." -- Marin Sandbu - Financial Times"[Stiglitz] is surely right. Without a radical overhaul of its workings, the euro seems all but certain to fail." -- The Economist"Terrific and clarifying." -- Peter Goodman - The New York Times"Many of Mr. Stiglitz’s most damning observations are on target." -- Wall Street Journal"The euro is a modern tragedy.…As its embarrassments have mounted, its supporters club has teemed with political romantics and Europhile journalists. Stiglitz’s message to such people is that they are inadvertently destroying what they most cherish." -- Paul Collier - Times Literary Supplement"A cogent and urgent argument of compelling interest to economists and policymakers." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisThe first text to fully integrate economic principles with political analysis, State Power and World Markets provides a contemporary and comprehensive overview of the international political economy.

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Book Synopsis

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