{"product_id":"beyond-the-invisible-hand-9780691173696","title":"Beyond the Invisible Hand","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of the central tenets of mainstream economics is Adam Smith's proposition that, given certain conditions, self-interested behavior by individuals leads them to the social good, almost as if orchestrated by an invisible hand. This deep insight has, over the past two centuries, been taken out of context, contorted, and used as the cornerstone of\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Alluring... [Basu's] latest book, subtitled Groundwork for a New Economics, aims to show that many economists have dogmatically accepted capitalist theories as fact and have failed, as a result, to scrutinize their own discipline... Basu devotes the bulk of the text to deconstructing some sacrosanct tenets of capitalism that have become entrenched in government policy over the past 60 years.\"--Timothy R. Homan, Bloomberg \"A most interesting and ... a most significant book... Basu's book is the first serious study of the modern myth related to the 'Invisible Hand' I have seen anywhere.\"--Gavin Kennedy, Adam Smith's Lost Legacy \"Basu has rethought and modernized socialism in this book. He has done so without cluttering it up with Marxist jargon or abstract mathematics; the worst the reader will encounter in this book is game theory, which, though it is not all fun and games, is pretty easy to follow. It is a book worth reading by the socialist types who run our country, as well as those who need to understand socialism to dissent from it.\"--Business World \"[A] very rewarding read... This is Basu's most ambitious and rewarding book, and it works--there's no public policy debate in India it's not relevant to.\"--The Economic Times \"This book should be read by anyone interested in economics for its in-depth thinking, although its targeted readership is more basically professional economists.\"--Wladimir Andreff, European Legacy \"Beyond the Invisible Hand will be useful to political economists who want to see how game theory can shed light on the ways that groups and races of rational actors may assume surprising dynamics. It could also be useful to policymakers who must justify arguments about group policies in standard economic terms. [The] author's contributions to political economy deserves to be taken seriously.\"--Jonathan Schlefer, Perspectives on Politics\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface ix      Chapter 1: In Praise of Dissent 1  Discontent and Discourse 1 Smith's Myth 9 The Lay of the Land 11  On Understanding 13      Chapter 2: The Theory of the Invisible Hand 16  Competition and Social Welfare 16  The Standard Critiques 20      Chapter 3: The Limits of Orthodoxy 24 The Dual Interpretation 24  Evolving Feasible Set 27  Evolving Preference 31  Social Norms and Culture 33  A Comment on Incentive Compatibility 41  On Methodological Individualism 43  On Knowledge 49      Chapter 4: The Economy according to Law 55 Kafka's Invisible Hand 55  Law's Economy: The Standard View 57  The Law as Focal Point 60  Implications of the Focal View of Law 66  A Game-Theoretic Illustration of Law as Focal Point 71  A Research Agenda 73      Chapter 5: Markets and Discrimination 77  Do Free Markets Reduce Discrimination? 77  The Literature 79  The Self-Reinforcement of Productivity 83  The Entrepreneur 85  Toward a New Theoretical Model 89  Appendix: Aptitude Test Administered to Slum Children at Anandan in Calcutta 95      Chapter 6: The Chemistry of Groups 97  Identity and Methodological Individualism 97  The Ingredients of Theory 101  Altruism, Trust, and Development 104  The Janus Face of In-group Altruism 110  The Malignancy of Identity 120      Chapter 7: Contract, Coercion, and Intervention 130  Principle of Free Contract 130  Coercion and Voluntariness 138  The Large Numbers Argument 141  Acts and Rules 148  Multiple Equilibria 153  Domains of Intervention 155      Chapter 8: Poverty, Inequality, and Globalization 157  Governance and the Globe 157  Inequality 158  Some Facts of Globalization 161  Some Analytics of Globalization 165  Inequality and Poverty: The Quintile Axiom 167  Poverty-Minimizing Inequality, with or without Globalization 171  Policy Implications 176      Chapter 9: Globalization and the Retreat of Democracy 180  Democracy in Deficit 180  Globalization and Influence 185  Dollarization and Democracy 187  Democratic Global Institutions 189      Chapter 10: What Is to Be Done? 193  Interpreting the World and Changing It 193  The'Environmental Case' against Inequality 199  Despair and Hope 208      Notes 213  References 235  Index 259","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49403840987479,"sku":"9780691173696","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/beyond-the-invisible-hand-9780691173696","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}