Search results for ""Edward Elgar""

Debt, Deficits and Exchange Rates presents recent work by Helmut Reisen on current international monetary problems in East Asia and Latin America. Written over the last four years, these papers are readily accessible and of immediate policy relevance. The first part is concerned with the debt problems of developing countries, including the growth of domestic public debt, means of hedging a country's debt portfolio against key currency fluctuations, evidence on the debt overhang hypothesis, an evaluation of the Brady Plan, and how to attract foreign direct investment. This is followed by essays on financial opening which discuss the impact of alternative exchange rate regimes during financial integration, the degree of financial openness in Korea and Taiwan, an appropriate strategy for the liberalization of capital flows, and the relationship between financial opening and capital flows. The final part underlines the need for exchange rate management. Issues considered include New Zealand's experience with a pure float, the use of the theory of optimal currency areas to assess whether Asian countries should peg to the Yen, institutional features of macroeconomic management in Asia, and how Latin America should respond to heavy capital flows.Bringing together under one cover a wealth of analysis, comment and argument by a leading international scholar, this volume will be welcomed by students, teachers and policymakers as an important contribution to understanding international monetary problems in the developing world.

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This thoroughly documented book provides an overview of social policies affecting women in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Norway, France and Sweden. The central theme is the relationship between paid and unpaid work, something very few European governments have been prepared explicitly to address as a social issue and which has yet to enter the European Commission's agenda.Contributors discuss the literature on women and welfare in their particular country concerned and outline the developments in social policies relating to women and the position of women in regard to reproductive and labour market behaviour in the post-War period. The essays analyse the assumptions behind policies affecting women's family and work lives and discuss specific legislative approaches to securing 'equality'. A concluding chapter discusses the European Community's contribution to the goal of equal opportunities for both men and women.The main aim of the book is to provide students with a source of easily accessible information about a major issue in social policy: the relationship between women, the family and employment.

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With the increasingly evident and widespread impact of economic activity on the environment, there is a growing concern in all parts of the world for environmental considerations to be more fully reflected in economic decision-making. The Polluter-Pays, User-Pays and Precautionary principles are increasingly being used as guidelines for environmental policy, and yet their developmental implications have barely been explored.Fair Principles for Sustainable Development is one of the first books to study the developmental implications of these basic tenets of environmental policy. Having assessed the merits, drawbacks and technical feasibility for developing countries of applying the Polluter-Pays and User-Pays principles, the contributors then examine the Precautionary principle from the same perspective. This is followed by discussion of Subsidiarity, which offers guidance on the application of these principles and aims to ensure that local interests are articulated and incorporated in the decision-making process. Finally an overview by the editor draws the material together to support the application of these principles, particularly in international trade and global environmental agreements, to serve the sustainable development in the Third World.As an important early contribution to the debate on the application of Polluter-Pays, User-Pays and Precautionary principles in development policy, as well as one of the first books to discuss the application of the subsidiarity principle to environmental policy, Fair Principles for Sustainable Development will be welcomed by researchers, students and policymakers attempting to come to terms with a new, important, but little understood, area.

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In Finance, Investment and Macroeconomics, Myron J. Gordon advances a theory of finance and investment under uncertainty and risk aversion which resolves problems left unsolved by Keynes in a manner consistent with his work. Keynes established that both the short-run and long-run performance of a capitalist system depend upon investment, but he failed to arrive at an alternative to the neoclassical theory of investment. Professor Gordon demonstrates that the extension of neoclassical theory to deal with uncertainty and risk aversion is based upon a string of assumptions which are empirically false. The competitive stationary state, the foundation for the neoclassical theory of a capitalist system, is shown to be unfeasible because it results in a very high probability of bankruptcy at the micro level and the system's early collapse on the macro level. Capitalists seeking long term survival are shown to be subject to a growth imperative, to the pursuit of monopoly power, and to a concern for financial policy. Later sections of the book discuss the consequences of this behaviour for short-run fluctuations and the long-run development of capitalist systems. This innovative book advances an important new theory of finance and investment which recognizes the problem of bankruptcy when the future is uncertain. It will be welcomed by both post Keynesian and neoclassical economists as a significant contribution to current economic understanding.

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This authoritative history offers a major assessment of British industrial relations between the outbreak of the Second World War and the advent of Margaret Thatcher's government in 1979.Written by a group of leading specialists, this outstanding book examines the role of the government, the unions and employers, the influence of social welfare considerations on industrial relations policies and the patterns of strikes. Case studies focus on industrial relations in the docks, the motor manufacturing industry and road haulage between 1945 and 1979. A History of British Industrial Relations, 1939-1979 is both an up-to-date survey and a substantial addition to the literature which includes several chapters based upon new research. As well as revealing the complexities of British industrial relations in these four decades, the book also includes consideration of the extent to which, if at all, problems of industrial relations adversely affected the performance of the British economy.

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The economics of international investment is an area in which many important theoretical and empirical contributions have been made over recent years. This volume draws together a series of original new essays which reflect and refine developments in the concepts, theories and tools of analysis of international investment and uses them to analyse recent issues posed by the growth and altered structure of international investment.Featuring contributions by many of the leading figures in the field, the volume commences with discussion of the market for foreign investment since the debt crisis, the export and foreign investment decision process of the firm, the welfare implications of R&D activities by multinational enterprises in host countries and the relationship between foreign direct investment and regionalism with particular reference to the EC. Later papers focus on foreign direct investment in Eastern Europe, the influence of exchange rate regimes on international capital flows, the use of privatization schemes to reduce external debt overhang and Malaysia’s inverse saving-investment correlation.No other book offers as extensive a coverage of important recent issues, both theoretical and empirical, in the economics of international investment. In addition to providing students, teachers and researchers with an overview of current views and theories in the area of international investment, this volume will also serve as a useful platform from which future research can be launched.

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This timely volume features essays from an international group of economists which address issues relating to the objective of securing full employment. The contributors adopt a politicP>As well as offering a detailed empirical investigation of the unemployment experience in advanced countries, the book makes a critical evaluation of New Right economic policy making in the UK and the US, and examines the main international and domestic obstacles to the achievement of full employment, the prospects for job creation in the UK, and the impact of technological change.

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Russian democracy in the post-totalitarian era is intimately bound up with the fate of its representative institutions. In Russia's Road to Democracy, Victor Sergeyev and Nikolai Biryukov assess why the Congress of People's Deputies, and the other newly elected institutions founded under perestroika, not only failed to prevent, but also seemed to speed up and provoke, the disintegration of the Soviet Union. By studying the early history of the Congress, the book seeks insights on the prospects for democracy in Russia.Following an inquiry into the roots of Soviet political culture and the implications for future representative institutions, the book then examines the genesis of the Congress of People's Deputies and attempts a hermeneutical reconstruction of the deputies' models of social reality, as expressed in the texts of their parliamentary debates. The authors argue that the adoption of the concept of sobornost - a belief in society's organic unity - as the basic model for this institution proved utterly inadequate to the challenges the country faced. Including substantial new source material which is being made available in English for the first time, Russia's Road to Democracy presents an in-depth analysis with conclusions that contradict the hitherto prevailing theoretical assumptions.

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Recent Developments in the Economics of Education collects together the most important contributions in this rapidly developing field. Themes covered in this book include: efficiency and equity, externalities and the role of the government in providing education, the relationship between the markets for labour and education, cost functions in the education sector, the market for educators, and the economics of school choice. This volume complements an earlier volume in the series, The Economic Value of Education, edited by Mark Blaug.

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The articles in this volume give a balanced picture of the main debates of Dutch economic history after 1870: the slow industrialization in the nineteenth century, the protracted character of the depression of the 1930s; the 'Dutch miracle' of 1950 to 1973 and the 'Dutch disease' of the 1970s and 1980s. Some eminent contributions to these debates have been translated here in to English for the first time.

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This authoritative and up to date bibliography is a comprehensive introduction to the large and disparate literature on the post Keynesian school of economics and its leading figures. With over three thousand entries listed under 18 headings, and a separate author index, this invaluable reference tool will improve access to the primary contributions to the school. In one volume J.E. King has collected material from the founders of the school, such as Richard Kahn, Nicholas Kaldor, Michal Kalecki, Joan Robinson, Piero Sraffa and Sidney Weintraub, their successors and disciples, and economists openly hostile to post Keynesianism whose work has nevertheless shed light on the school. This comprehensive and fully annotated bibliography covers the most important items published on post Keynesian economics from the 1930s to the present day.

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This major new book is the most up-to-date general survey of economic and political integration in the European Union. Recent key developments deriving from the Maastricht Treaty and the Single European Act are highlighted including the completion of the Single Market, the prospects for EMU, the Community budget, and the reform of the CAP. The main ingredients of EMU are discussed and the Maastricht monetary plan is critically explained. This is followed by an analysis of the Community budget to 1999 and the related reform of the CAP. Professor Swann also surveys the two other treaty pillars - Co-operation on Justice and Home Affairs and the development of Common Foreign and Security Policy. European Economic Integration concludes by reviewing the factors which have stimulated the process towards an even closer union and identifying the challenges which still face the Union as it moves towards the second millennium.

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Japan and South Korea are two of the most important success stories in recent economic history. Both countries have succeeded in achieving remarkably high growth rates to transform themselves from isolated agricultural societies to major industrial powers.In The Economics of Rapid Growth, Dirk Pilat uses catch-up theory to explain why countries with lower levels of income can use the technology of more advanced economies to foster growth and industrialization. His analysis emphasizes the importance of pre-existing education levels, financial and commercial institutions and infrastructure to explain the rapid economic growth of Japan and Korea. A growth accounting framework is used to show the contribution of capital, labour and land to the rapid economic growth from the early 1950s. This growth is put in an international perspective by detailed sectoral productivity comparisons which include discussion of some of the measurement problems implicit in international comparisons. The final parts of the book look at the links between productivity and competitiveness, as well as the role of trade policy and exports in productivity growth.This acclaimed book will be widely read by researchers, students and policymakers concerned with growth, development and the emergence of two of the most powerful economies in the modern world.

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In this important book, Gerard Dumenil and Dominique Levy assess the impact of the profit rate on modern economies, its role in the allocation of resources among industries, its influence on business fluctuations, and its relation to accumulation, technological change and wages.The Economics of the Profit Rate presents a broad synthesis of recent work and builds on classical theory, using the tools of modern economics, to suggest alternative approaches to conventional microeconomics and macroeconomics. In sharp contrast to the general equilibrium theory, the emphasis is placed on dynamics and the reaction of individual agents to disequilibrium. This impressive book includes an assessment of the history of the US economy in which theoretical and empirical analyses are consistently combined.

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Ergonomics (ergos - work; nomos - laws) and Human Factors have almost identical characteristics and identities and have both developed in similar ways, within the same period, and for the same reasons. The Ergonomics philosophy is the amalgamation of information from psychology, physiology and engineering to enable the environment to be designed to 'fit' the person. Ergonomics and Human Factors evolved at around the time of World War II, when fighting and defensive machines were being built far beyond the capacities and capabilities of the operators.The selection of papers included in these volumes present a corpus of material to enable the reader to obtain an overview of the subject through the writings of significant authors and reviewers in the field. Four main aspects of the working situation and of the human operator within that situation have been taken into consideration when selecting the articles for these volumes; the physical characteristics of the operator's body when 'fitting' the system, the operator's cognitive abilities when interacting with the system, the social situation in which the system operates, and the environmental features that 'surround' the system.

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Environmental regulation and policy making are increasingly influenced by economic considerations. Over the past 30 years, Wallace E. Oates has been closely involved in the development of environmental economics as a distinct and vital field for theoretical study, applied research and policy prescription.Drawing key papers together in a systematic fashion, Professor Oates's collection begins with thoughtful overviews of the field and then continues with discussion of specific issues. Among the topics addressed are instruments for environmental regulation, the use of fees and taxes, emission permits, environmental federalism and global environmental management. The Economics of Environmental Regulation includes a specially written introduction in which Professor Oates discusses the dramatic changes in environmental regulation and enforcement since the 1960s and the growing recognition of the importance of market approaches in environmental policy making.

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Money, Inflation and Employment examines issues of economic policy and theory through a series of original essays written in recognition of Sir James Ball's seminal contribution to macroeconomic modelling, forecasting and economic policy making.Contributions by leading policymakers focus primarily on the UK economy, with papers by Jeremy Bray, MP, on managing the economy, Alan Budd, Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury, on exchange rate policy, Sir Terence Burns, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, on the Treasury's responsibilities and character, and Bill Robinson on the effects of North Sea oil. Later contributions address technical questions, with papers by David Currie and Steven Hall on expectations and learning, D.F. Hendry and M.P. Clements on a theory of intercept corrections in macroeconomic forecasting, Lawrence Klein on economic forecasting and decision making under uncertainty, Ken Wallis and Keith Church on price homogeneity and the supply side in a number of models of the UK economy.

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This important book presents in one volume the most important articles and papers on three key issues in modern labor economics: the dynamics of labour demand, the related adjustment costs, and the effects of employment security policies.The poor employment performance of many of the industrialized countries in the 1970s and '80s has led to a dramatic growth of interest in the dynamics of labor demand and an outpouring of related policy initiatives in the European Community. In the United States, the erosion of the employment-at-will doctrine promises to arouse a similar growth of interest. This comprehensive reference collection brings together the seminal papers in this field, showing how the theory of labour demand dynamics and empirical analysis can be linked to the study of job security policies and their consequences.Dynamic Labor Demand and Adjustment Costs will be an invaluable resource for students of microeconomics, labour economics and macroeconomics, as well as policy analysts concerned with job security and employment.

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In Classical Economic Man, Allen Oakley argues that two of the fathers of modern economics espoused methodological strategies which rejected the concept of ‘economic man’ and gave primacy to the human origins of economic phenomena.Adam Smith and J.S. Mill are shown to have been sensitive to the need for a pluralistic methodology in economics, constructed in accordance with its demands as a strictly human science that must contend with the contingencies of situated human conduct. Each went on to explicitly confront this in their theoretical arguments and in the design of their economic policy strategies. Drawing extensively on the original literature, Professor Oakley demonstrates that Smith’s approach through moral philosophy, and Mill’s through psychology and the philosophy of science, alerted them to the problems of giving proper representation to human agents in formal, scientific analyses. Smith and Mill, it is argued, rejected a classical orthodoxy that required methodology to be driven by the ambition to emulate the epistemology of the physical sciences. Scholars and students of the history of economic methodology and doctrines will welcome this important study which builds upon the original arguments, extending the interpretation to include often neglected details about the nature of classical methodology and its use of the concept of the ‘economic man’.

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Population ageing has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, often expressed in alarmist language that advocates evasive policy action to avert an imminent demographic crisis. This forward-looking book evaluates the debates surrounding population ageing and offers a more optimistic outlook on its effect on the economy.William Jackson initially considers general theoretical approaches to population ageing, particularly in relation to the rising dependency burden. He then goes on to examine traditional topics such as employment, productivity, pensions and social security, along with less traditional topics such as informal care, within the context of long-run structural changes. The author draws on an extensive range of economic literature and considers neoclassical arguments before analysing the issue from a non-neoclassical economic, social gerontological and sociological perspective. He maintains that conventional economic theory tends to overstate the effects of population ageing on the economy. Thus, he argues that while population ageing is a complex issue requiring some policy adjustments, it is a less acute problem than is suggested in popular and academic discussion.This book will be of great importance to scholars and students with an interest in population economics and the economics of social policy.

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Meghnad Desai's work presents a significant challenge to economics as currently practised. Poverty, Famine and Economic Development brings together essays which reflect his long-standing interest in economic development. Issues discussed include econometric testing of the disguised unemployment hypothesis, theoretical and applied approaches to famine, poverty in rich as well as poor countries, poverty in Latin America and state involvement in economic development. The volume also includes a discussion of the essay by Lenin which was the basis of the 'New Economic Policy', the first attempt at Market Socialism in the Soviet Union.The volume also includes a substantial autobiographical preface, in which Lord Desai explains how he became an economist and the influences behind the development of his thought, as well as a specific introduction explaining how he came to produce the papers included in this volume.

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Economists have long sought to develop quantitative models of economic behaviour, which blend economic theory with data evidence. Econometric modelling of economic time series has strived to achieve this by seeking to discover sustainable and interpretable relationships. This important two-volume collection focuses on a central method used in selecting such models, namely simplification of an initially general model that adequately characterizes the empirical evidence within the investigators' theoretical framework. The volumes feature a wealth of evidence that has accrued over the last five years displaying its excellent abilities for model selection, based on Monte Carlo studies of automatic algorithms. These also throw light on several major methodological issues, and prompt many new ideas, which are discussed. The collection will be valuable to all empirical economists and econometricians.

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This major new reference collection reprints the most important published papers on the problems of war finance under varying constraints imposed by institutions, technology, geography, and strategy from the time of Alexander the Great to the Gulf War in 1991. Larry Neal has written a new comprehensive introduction to accompany the volumes.

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This volume comprises the classic articles on methods of identification and estimation of simultaneous equations econometric models. It includes path-breaking contributions by Trygve Haavelmo and Tjalling Koopmans, who founded the subject and received Nobel prizes for their work. It presents original articles that developed and analysed the leading methods for estimating the parameters of simultaneous equations systems: instrumental variables, indirect least squares, generalized least squares, two-stage and three-stage least squares, and maximum likelihood. Many of the articles are not readily accessible to readers in any other form.

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Some of the most important scholarly work in comparative politics has dealt with the domestic political consequences of the increasingly important and volatile international political economy.In this important two volume set, Ronald Rogowski draws together the core contributions from economics, history and political science. The first section presents the major theoretical essays; the second includes historical examples from the ancient, mediaeval and modern world; the third section discusses the implications for economic growth and the last section explores issues in industrial-state economic policy.

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This important book presents an authoritative, up-to-date examination of a number of major industries in Europe. It offers valuable insights into the nature of industrial activity in Europe, as well as providing comprehensive introductions to a series of key industries, such as defence, construction, tourism and biotechnology. Under the guidance of editor Peter Johnson, a team of specialist contributors presents authoritative case study material on aspects of industrial structure, behaviour and performance in Europe. The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are all represented as are industries, with special characteristics such as those with a long history of public sector ownership. The selection of industries is designed to show the variety of ways in which the European 'dimension' is reflected in industrial activities and awareness. In addition, the book analyses the development, operation and effectiveness of EC policy and the way that policy interacts with the policies of individual countries.European Industries will rapidly become established as an important source of reference which will be of value to students, researchers and all those concerned with the economic future of an integrated Europe.

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This important reference collection includes the seminal literature on the political economy of natural resources - broadly defined as not only minerals but also energy sources and agriculture. It includes key articles and papers on the politics of international markets in these resources, the effects of these markets on the world economy and on the domestic political economy as well as the domestic politics of policymaking on international resources.

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The political economy of international trade and trade policy - at both the domestic and international levels - has spawned a vast literature from both economists and political scientists. This two volume set includes seminal contributions to our understanding of international trade among the advanced industrial countries, between them and the lesser developed countries and between East and West. It includes work on the political economy of trade liberalization, protectionism and sanctions.

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Kenneth Boulding has, in the course of a long and distinguished career, made a seminal contribution to many branches of economics. This major book presents in one volume a selection of his most important recent papers and essays. In the first part of the book, Professor Boulding pushes economics towards a more evolutionary type of theory, towards a greater interest in the real world and towards some fairly specific theoretical positions. He stresses the importance of positive-feedback as well as equilibrium processes. The second part focuses on the grants economy, that is the study of the economics of one-way transfers. In part three, he turns his attention to international economic relations particularly the economics of conflict in unilateral national defence. The final part is on ecological systems, stressing that economies are essentially an eco-system of commodities, part of the total eco-system of the world, which is undergoing a constant and irreversible evolutionary change.

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This important reference collection focuses on central issues in contemporary feminist debate. It includes sections on the critique of mainstream political theories, the feminist reconstruction of political concepts, the impact on moral theory of the 'different voice' ethic of care, and the equality/difference debate. Feminism includes the most important literature on the central themes of domination and subordination, essentialism, race and class.

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This thoroughly documented book provides an overview of social policies affecting women in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Norway, France and Sweden. The central theme is the relationship between paid and unpaid work, something very few European governments have been prepared explicitly to address as a social issue and which has yet to enter the European Commission's agenda.Contributors discuss the literature on women and welfare in their particular country concerned and outline the developments in social policies relating to women and the position of women in regard to reproductive and labour market behaviour in the post-War period. The essays analyse the assumptions behind policies affecting women's family and work lives and discuss specific legislative approaches to securing 'equality'. A concluding chapter discusses the European Community's contribution to the goal of equal opportunities for both men and women.The main aim of the book is to provide students with a source of easily accessible information about a major issue in social policy: the relationship between women, the family and employment.

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The theory of monopoly capital is central to any satisfactory analysis of accumulation and stagnation in advanced capitalist economies. This major new book presents in one volume recent discussions of monopoly capitalism to emphasize the centrality and vitality of this tradition in modern political economy.Following the work of Kalecki, Steindl and Baran and Sweezy, a number of leading economists address key issues such as the calculation of the economic surplus, the division of income between labour and capital, oligopoly collusion over output and pricing, the growth of unproductive activity, the degree of monopoly, surplus absorption and stagnation and the history of the present crisis.

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This major textbook presents for the first time a thoroughly modern introduction to policy studies - one of the fastest growing areas in the academic curriculum.Public Policy provides a lively, clear and highly accessible introduction to the theory and practice of public policy. Interdisciplinary and comparative in scope, this text covers agenda setting, and problem definition, policy making, implementation and evaluation. The book has been designed to be used with a wide range of policy oriented courses. Wayne Parsons surveys the development of the policy sciences over the past fifty years and focuses on the key ideas, thinkers and concepts which have shaped the field. His authoritative narrative draws on a wide range of policy disciplines - including political science, psychology, sociology, economics, and management. A central theme of the book is its emphasis on taking a multi-framed approach to analysing the increasingly complex policy problems and processes of industrial societies. Unique features include case studies, guides to further reading, background notes and numerous graphics to support and illustrate the main text. Public Policy will be welcomed as a comprehensive examination of the models and methods needed to understand policy making in the modern state. Comprehensive, critical and up-to-date, this textbook promises to define the field for a new generation of students and teachers.

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This important book presents theoretical and empirical studies of the current reorganization of economic, political and social relations in Britain, West Germany and Scandinavia. An international list of distinguished contributors provide critical and well-informed commentaries on issues such as the transition from ‘Fordism’ to ‘Post-Fordism’, discourses and strategies of flexibility, the recomposition of labour markets and labour processes, the changing functions of the welfare state, and the transformation of the state. The arguments are illustrated using cases drawn equally from these three significant and distinct patterns of political economy. In particular, the book assesses how the need for increased ‘flexibility’ influenced the intellectual and organizational responses of these countries to the crises of the late 1970s.

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Econometric issues have provoked a lively and sometimes adversarial debate in the economics profession. The excitement and intellectual vitality of that debate is captured here for the reader in a lucid overview of econometric approaches, describing their advantages and limitations. This ambitious book focuses on the underlying methodological issues rather than concentrating upon econometric techniques. The limits of econometric investigations are identified through a critical appraisal of three different approaches associated with the work of Professors Hendry, Leamer and Sims. After explaining why the early optimism in econometrics was misplaced, it argues that rejection is not an appropriate response. It offers a rich spectrum of approaches to a problem of central importance in the development of modern economics. The book will appeal not only to all econometricians whatever their persuasion but also to all those with an interest in the methodology of economics.

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Part of the Pioneers in Economics series, this text comprises articles on neoclassical economics and its critics.

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George Scrope was a prolific anti-Ricardian Tory economist, Member of Parliament and Fellow of the Royal Society. However, this was a highly eccentric toryism. Scrope opposed the Malthusian theory of population, favoured free trade and agitated for parliamentary reform. Thomas Attwood was the leading monetary crank of his day and was ridiculed for promoting the ideas of a paper standard currency. Although he presented the mammoth Chartist petition to parliament in 1839, even the Chartists would not contemplate his radical and futuristic monetary innovations.What McCulloch was to Ricardo, John Elliot Cairnes was to John Stuart Mill, a faithful disciple who did not always see eye to eye with his master. He has been called the last of the classical economists and the title is well deserved. Edwin Chadwick, a one time secretary to Bentham, was influential during the second quarter of the nineteenth century and much of his work, in particular his contributions to the 'Blue Books' of the period, helped to lay the foundations of the British Welfare State. Although a utilitarian in politics and a Ricardian in economics, he had a view of the problems of externalities which went way beyond anything dreamed of by Ricardo.This series of essays on these four maverick figures vividly conveys the flavour of the English Classical Political Economy in the heyday of the industrial revolution.

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Ricardo's intellectual appeal, both amongst his contemporaries and more recently, rested on his remarkable gift for heroic abstractions: he seized hold of a wide range of significant problems with a simple analytical model and yielded, after a few elementary manipulations, dramatic conclusions of a distinctly practical nature. In short, precisely the art Keynes was to use so successfully. Although his reputation ebbed towards the end of the nineteenth century, he was still being acclaimed by economists as diverse as Marx and Marshall. Ironically, since Sraffa's work revived Ricardo's reputation, this most bourgeois of economists has been brought back into contemporary debate by economists seeking Marx's intellectual mentors. This selection of recent articles reflects the renewal of interest in Ricardo's work.

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David Hume is best known for his work on political philosophy. However, he wrote a series of essays on money, population and international trade which must rank among the major economic writings of the 18th century. Certainly they influenced Adam Smith and have a sparkling quality that still makes them worth reading today. His statement of the so-called 'specie-flow mechanism' constituted his answer to the mercantilist concern with the maintenance of a chronic surplus in the balance of payments. He also put forward what is now known as the 'theory of creeping inflation' and advocated the notion that political freedom flows from economic freedom. James Steuart was a British mercantilist, the last in a long line stretching back to the 16th century. He advocated the entire armoury of mercantilist policies: the regulation of foreign trade to induce an inflow of gold, the promotion of industry by inducing cheap raw material imports, protective duties on imported manufactured goods, encouragement of exports, particularly finished goods because they are labour-intensive, control of the size of population by emigration and immigration to keep wages low, all capped by a denial of Hume's argument that an inflow of gold will only raise prices and thus drive gold abroad.

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This unique, up-to-date volume features new essays by prominent economists and psychologists working at the frontiers of the subject. A number of these essays probe beliefs about rationality, consumer behaviour and expectations, while others assess psychological explanations of economic behaviour and the contribution of experimental economics.

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The Mercantilist School never presented a common front but is associated with a common outlook: the idea of specie or bullion as the essence of wealth and the notion that a positive balance of trade is an index of national welfare. It is also associated with an emphasis on population growth and low wages, a concern with full employment and the far reaching denial of foreign trade as a source of net gain to the world as a whole; that is, international trade was regarded as a zero-sum gain and particular nations were thought to benefit from international trade only at the expense of others. The underlying idea that a permanent balance of trade surplus should be beneficial to a nation has been a source of discussion right down to the present day.

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This major reference book has been designed to provide a comprehensive coverage of radical political economy. International in scope, The Elgar Companion to Radical Political Economy includes contributions from a very wide range of specialists who discuss topics, ideas and theories in the field. Radical political economy is a term used to encompass a range of different schools of thought. These include post Keynesian, Kaleckian, Marxian, Institutionalist, Sraffian and other approaches to economics which share the common theme of production, rather than the exchange focus of neoclassical and Austrian economics. Their concern with the generation and use of the surplus leads them to an interest in dynamics, income distribution, growth and development, and capital accumulation. With over 100 entries, the companion provides detailed information on a wide range of aspects of radical political economy as well as some important insights into its theoretical underpinning. A special feature of the book is its emphasis upon explaining the positive elements in radical political economy. As the first book of its kind devoted to radical political economy, the companion will be an essential reference source for scholars and students with an interest in the development of economic ideas.

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Volume VIII focuses on the theme of the dual aspects of method in the development of economic thought. It contains new papers that address methodolological issues, others that deal with the evolution of analytic techniques or the social or personal milieux in which ideas emerged and the extent to which they became part of the body of literature we call political economy.

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Capitalism With a Human Face is a carefully edited selection of Samuel Brittan’s most important recent essays. It covers topics ranging from utilitarianism and the ethics of self-interest, to the principles of macroeconomic policy and how to price people into work without throwing them into poverty. The book will be controversial, for the individualistic ethic, which it is so fashionable to attack, is not merely defended but celebrated. This collection will be of special interest both to readers of Samuel Brittan’s articles who would like a more extended treatment and those new to his work. A notable feature is a specially written introduction explaining how the author came to take up political economy and how he arrived at the positions elaborated in this book.

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This major reference collection presents in an accessible form the key articles and papers on the theory and history of financial crises. It includes both classic and contemporary writings on domestic financial crises, the transmission of crises between countries and the resolution of crises by both private and government authorities acting as lender of last resort.The book is divided into five sections. Section I on theories of financial crises presents two rival approaches to financial crises; the monetarist approach and the Fisher-Kindleberger-Minsky approach. It also includes recent Rational Expectations approaches. Section II contains readings on financial crises in US history while Section III presents case studies for other countries. Section IV contains readings on the international transmission of financial crises. Section V concludes with a number of articles on the resolution of financial crises.Financial crises have been a topic of perennial interest - perhaps as old as economic science. This landmark book makes a singular contribution by presenting the most significant literature on this important topic in an accessible form.

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This major reference work is a collection of over 125 of the best, most significant and influential articles in the field of social psychology. The three volume set provides a comprehensive overview of the field of social psychology including such topics as social cognition, attribution, attitudes, self, conformity, persuasion, groups, aggression, attraction, racism and research methods. Each article was selected on the basis of its contribution to the advancement of social psychological knowledge and to provide the reader with a representative sampling of the best articles in each of the major sub-fields (topics) of social psychology.Social Psychology covers over 70 years of social psychological research including articles of great historical significance and contemporary pieces destined to become classics in the field. It will be an essential reference source to those teaching graduate seminars as well as to the generalist seeking primary sources to provide an in-depth overview of the field of social psychology.

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Rethinking Economics is a major contribution to the reconstruction of an economic theory appropriate to the 21st century.Just as major changes are occurring in the world economy, economics itself is on the brink of change. Orthodox economics is now widely criticized for its sterility and its limited applicability to real-world economic problems. Standard theoretical tools such as general equilibrium theory are now regarded, even by their leading practitioners, as highly limited and problematic. New ideas from chaos theory, evolutionary modelling and institutional theory point to new, non-reductionist approaches in which there are units of analysis other than the atomistic individual. This work addresses core economic concepts, such as individual choice, prices, markets, production, industries, technology, innovation and economic growth in the light of these developments.This unique, up-to-date volume makes a seminal contribution at the frontiers of economic theory.

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The State and its Critics is an authoritative selection of recent essays in normative political philosophy on the state as a form of political institution, focusing on its role with respect to such values as freedom, justice, well-being, economic efficiency, community, democracy and peace. These essays represent a variety of views about the state, from anarchist to statist and a variety of philosophical orientations, conservative, libertarian, Marxian and liberal.

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