- The ABCs of RBCs
- George McCandless
- The ABCs of RBCs is the first book to provide a basic introduction to Real Business Cycle (RBC) and New-Keynesian models. It is designed to teach the economic practitioner or student how to build simple RBC models. Matlab code for solving many of the models is provided, and careful readers should be able to construct, solve, and use their own models.
- Hardcover 2008
- Accounting for Tastes
- Gary S. Becker
- In this lively new collection Gary Becker confronts the problem of preferences and values: how they are formed and how they affect our behavior. He argues that past experiences and social influences form two basic capital stocks: personal and social. He then applies these concepts to assessing the effects of advertising, the power of peer pressure, the nature of addiction, and the function of habits.
- Hardcover 1996 / Paperback 1998
- Adam's Fallacy
- Duncan K. Foley
- This book could be called "The Intelligent Person's Guide to Economics." The title expresses Duncan Foley's belief that economics at its most abstract and interesting level is a speculative philosophical discourse, not a deductive or inductive science. Adam's fallacy is the attempt to separate the economic sphere of life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is led by the invisible hand of the market to a socially beneficial outcome, from the rest of social life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is morally problematic and has to be weighed against other ends.
- Hardcover 2006 / Paperback 2008
- Agriculture and Economic Growth
- Yair Mundlak
- The noted economist Yair Mundlak presents a theory of the growth of the agricultural sector in America within the context of a growing economy. He explores the various aspects of the dynamics of agriculture and their relationship to the dynamics of the economy at large, offering a unique blend of theory, methodology, and empirical analysis.
- Hardcover 2000
- Capital Resurgent
- Gérard Duménil
- Dominique Lévy
- Translated by Derek Jeffers
- Economists Duménil and Lévy show that, despite free market platitudes, neoliberalism was a planned effort by financial interests against the postwar Keynesian compromise. The cluster of neoliberal policies--including privatization, liberalization of world trade, and reduction in state welfare benefits--is an expression of the power of finance in the world economy. The authors argue for stabilizing the world economy before we run headlong into economic disaster.
- Hardcover 2004
- Capitalists, Workers, and Fiscal Policy
- Thomas R. Michl
- Drawing on the work of the classical-Marxian economists and their modern successors, this book sets forth a new model of economic growth and distribution, and applies it to two major policy issues: public debt and social security.
- Hardcover 2009
- Competition Policy for Small Market Economies
- Michal S. Gal
- Michal Gal's thorough analysis shows the effects of market size on competition policy, ranging from rules of thumb to more general policy prescriptions, such as goals and remedial tools. Competition policy in small economies is becoming increasingly important, since the number of small jurisdictions adopting such policy is rapidly growing. Gal's focus extends beyond domestic competition policy to the evaluation of the current trend toward the worldwide harmonization of policies.
- Hardcover 2003
- Contested Commodities
- Margaret Jane Radin
- How far should society go in permitting people to buy and sell goods and services? Margaret Jane Radin addresses this controversial issue in a detailed exploration of contested commodification. As a philosophical pragmatist, the author argues for a conception of incomplete commodification, in which some contested things can be bought and sold, but only under carefully regulated circumstances.
- Hardcover 1996 / Paperback 2001
- The Dismal Science
- Stephen A. Marglin
- Insurance may be an efficient way of organizing resources, but the deep social and human ties that constitute community are weakened by the shift from reciprocity to market relations. This book dissects the ways in which the foundational assumptions of economics justify a world in which individuals are isolated from one another and social connections are impoverished. Marglin presents an account of how this happened and an argument for righting the imbalance that this ideology has fostered.
- Hardcover 2008
- Does Atlas Shrug?
- Joel B. Slemrod
- Since the introduction of the income tax in 1913, controversy has raged about how heavily to tax the rich. Notably absent from this debate is hard evidence about the actual impact of taxes on the behavior of the affluent. This book presents evidence by leading economists of the effects of taxes on the formation of businesses, the supply of labor, the form of executive compensation, the accumulation of wealth, the allocation of portfolios, and the realization of capital gains.
- Hardcover 2000 / Paperback 2002
- The Economic Structure of International Law
- Joel P. Trachtman
- This book presents policymakers and scholars with an over-arching analytical model of international law, one that demonstrates the potential of international law, but also explains how policymakers should choose among different international legal structures.
- Hardcover 2008
- Estimating How the Macroeconomy Works
- Ray Fair
- Fair is a resolute empiricist, developing and refining methods for testing theories and models. Using a multicountry econometric model, he examines several important questions, including what causes inflation, how monetary authorities behave and what are their stabilization limits, how large is the wealth effect on aggregate consumption, whether European monetary policy has been too restrictive, and how large are the stabilization costs to Europe of adopting the euro.
- Hardcover 2004
- General Equilibrium, Overlapping Generations Models, and Optimal Growth Theory
- Truman F. Bewley
- This book presents an exposition of general equilibrium theory for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level students of economics. It contains discussions of economic efficiency, competitive equilibrium, the welfare theorems, the Kuhn-Tucker approach to general equilibrium, the Arrow-Debreu model, and rational expectations equilibrium and the permanent income hypothesis. It presents a unified approach to portions of macro- as well as microeconomic theory and contains problems sets for most chapters.
- Hardcover 2007
- Income, Wealth, and the Maximum Principle
- Martin L. Weitzman
- This compact and original exposition of optimal control theory and applications is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in economics. It presents a new elementary yet rigorous proof of the maximum principle and a new way of applying the principle that will enable students to solve any one-dimensional problem routinely. Its unified framework illuminates many famous economic examples and models and also emphasizes the connection between optimal control theory and the classical themes of capital theory. The book will be valuable to students who want to formulate and solve dynamic allocation problems. It will also be of interest to any economist who wants to understand results of the latest research on the relationship between comprehensive income accounting and wealth or welfare.
- Hardcover 2003 / Paperback 2007
- Law and Social Norms
- Eric A. Posner
- Eric Posner argues that social norms are sometimes desirable yet sometimes odious, and that the law is critical to enhancing good social norms and undermining bad ones. He goes on to argue that the proper regulation of social norms is a delicate and complex task, and that current understanding of social norms is inadequate for guiding judges and lawmakers. What is needed, and what this book offers, is a model of the relationship between law and social norms.
- Hardcover 2000 / Paperback 2002
- Lectures on Economic Growth
- Robert E. Lucas
- In this book the Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Lucas collects his writings on economic growth, from his seminal On the Mechanics of Economic Development to his previously unpublished 1997 Kuznets Lectures.
- Hardcover 2002 / Paperback 2004
- Markets and Diversity
- Sherwin Rosen
- A staunch neoclassical economist, Rosen drew inspiration from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, particularly his theory of compensating wage differentials, which Rosen felt was central to all economic problems involving product differentiation and spatial considerations. The main theme of his collection is how markets handle diversity, including the determination of value in the presence of diversity, the allocation of idiosyncratic buyers to specialized sellers, and the effects of heterogeneity and sorting on inequality.
- Hardcover 2004
- The Matching Law
- Richard J. Herrnstein
- Edited by Howard Rachlin
- Edited by David I. Laibson
- This collection consists of Richard Herrnstein's most important and original contributions to the social and behavioral sciences--his papers on choice behavior in animals and humans and on his discovery and elucidation of a general principle of choice called the matching law.
- Hardcover 1997 / Paperback 2000
- The Mystery of Economic Growth
- Elhanan Helpman
- Far more than an intellectual puzzle for pundits, economists, and policymakers, economic growth--its makings and workings--is a subject that affects the well-being of billions of people around the globe. Helpman discusses the vast research that has revolutionized understanding of this subject in recent years, and summarizes and explains its critical messages in clear, concise, and accessible terms.
- Hardcover 2004
- New Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Matthew D. Adler
- Eric A. Posner
- In this book, the authors reconceptualize cost-benefit analysis, arguing that its objective should be overall well-being rather than economic efficiency. This book not only places cost-benefit analysis on a firmer theoretical foundation, but also has many practical implications for how government agencies should undertake cost-benefit studies.
- Hardcover 2006
- Rationality and Freedom
- Amartya Sen
- Rationality and freedom are among the most profound and contentious concepts in philosophy and the social sciences. In two volumes on rationality, freedom, and justice, the distinguished economist and philosopher Amartya Sen brings clarity and insight to these difficult issues. This volume--the first of the two--is principally concerned with rationality and freedom.
- Hardcover 2003 / Paperback 2004
- Reconstructing Macroeconomics
- Lance Taylor
- This book presents both a critique of mainstream macroeconomics from a structuralist perspective and an exposition of modern structuralist approaches. The fundamental assumption of structuralism is that it is impossible to understand a macroeconomy without understanding its major institutions and distributive relationships across productive sectors and social groups.
- Hardcover 2004
- Rewarding Work
- Edmund S. Phelps
- Since the 1970s a gulf has opened between the pay of low-paid workers and the pay of the middle class. No longer able to earn a decent wage in respectable work, many have left the labor force, and the job attachment of those remaining has weakened, also reducing employment. For Edmund Phelps, this is a failure of political economy whose ill effects have spread widely and are undermining the free-enterprise system itself. His solution is a graduated schedule of tax subsidies to enterprises for every low-wage worker they employ. As firms hire more of these workers, the labor market would tighten, driving up their pay levels as well as their employment.
- Hardcover 1997 / Paperback 1999
- Rewarding Work
- Edmund S. Phelps
- Since the 1970s a gulf has opened between the pay of low-paid workers and that of the middle class, resulting in the departure or frustration of much of the labor force. For Phelps, this is a failure of political economy whose widespread effects are undermining the free-enterprise system. His solution is a graduated schedule of tax subsidies to enterprises for every low-wage worker they employ. As firms hire more of these workers, the labor market would tighten, driving up their pay levels as well as their employment.
- Paperback 2007
- The Smoking Puzzle
- Frank A. Sloan
- V. Kerry Smith
- Donald H. Taylor
- How do smokers evaluate evidence that smoking harms health? Some evidence suggests that smokers overestimate health risks from smoking. This book challenges this conclusion. The authors find that smokers tend to be overly optimistic about their longevity and future health if they quit later in life. Smokers over fifty revise their risk perceptions only after experiencing a major health shock. If smokers are informed of long-term consequences of a disease, and if they are told that quitting can indeed come too late, they are able to evaluate the risks of smoking more accurately, and act accordingly.
- Hardcover 2003
- The Sources of Economic Growth
- Richard R. Nelson
- Technological advance is the key driving force behind economic growth, argues Richard Nelson. Drawing on a deep knowledge of economic and technological history as well as the tools of economic analysis, he exposes the intimate connections among government policies, science-based universities, and the growth of technology.
- Hardcover 1996 / Paperback 2000
- The Spirit of Capitalism
- Liah Greenfeld
- The Spirit of Capitalism answers a fundamental question of economics: what are the reasons (rather than just the conditions) for sustained economic growth? Liah Greenfeld focuses on the problem of motivation behind the epochal change in behavior, which from the sixteenth century on has reoriented one economy after another from subsistence to profit, transforming the nature of economic activity. A detailed analysis of the development of economic consciousness in England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States allows her to argue that the motivation behind the modern, growth-oriented economy was nationalism.
- Hardcover 2001 / Paperback 2003
- Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth
- Richard R. Nelson
- This volume mounts a full-blown attack on the standard neo-classical theory of economic growth, which Richard Nelson sees as hopelessly inadequate to explain the phenomenon of economic growth. He presents an alternative theory which highlights that economic growth driven by technological advance involves disequilibrium in a fundamental and continuing way. The broad theory of economic growth Nelson presents sees the process as involving the co-evolution of technologies, institutions, and industry structure.
- Hardcover 2005
- Valuing Children
- Nancy Folbre
- While parents spend significant time as well as money on children, most estimates of the "cost" of children ignore the value of this time. Folbre provides a startlingly high but entirely credible estimate of the value of parental time per child by asking what it would cost to purchase a comparable substitute for it.
- Hardcover 2008
- Worlds of Production
- Michael Storper
- Robert Salais
- Hardcover 1997