Harvard University Press - BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Innovation Corrupted

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Malcolm S. Salter
In contrast to the time-line narratives of previous books on Enron that offer interesting but largely unsystematic insight into individual actions and organizational processes, Innovation Corrupted pursues a more methodical analysis of the causes and lessons of Enron’s collapse.
Hardcover June 2008

The Race between Education and Technology

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Claudia Goldin
Lawrence F. Katz
This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This boosted income for most people and lowered inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this educational slow-down and what might be done to ameliorate it.
Hardcover June 2008

Free Riding

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Richard Tuck
A proposition of contemporary economics and political science is that it would be an exercise of reason, not a failure of it, not to contribute to a collective project if the contribution is negligible, but to benefit from it nonetheless.Tuck makes careful distinctions between the prisoner’s dilemma problem, threshold phenomena such as voting, and free riding. He analyzes the notion of negligibility, and shows some of the logical difficulties in the idea—and how the ancient paradox of the sorites illustrates the difficulties.
Hardcover June 2008

Privatization for the Public Good?

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Alberto Chong
Contributions by Suzanne Duryea
Contributions by Eliana La Ferrara
Contributions by Lorena Alcazar
Contributions by Felipe Barrera-Osorio
Contributions by Orazio Bellettini
Contributions by Fernando Carrillo-Florez
Contributions by Virgilio Galdo
Contributions by Sebastian Galiani
Contributions by Martin Gonzalez-Eiras
Contributions by Martin Gonzalez-Rozada
Contributions by Eduardo Nakasone
Contributions by Mauricio Olivera
Contributions by Martin A. Rossi
Contributions by Ernesto Schargrodsky
Contributions by Maximo Torero
Using unique household data sets for six Latin American countries, the essays collected in this volume put together a compelling picture of the effects of privatization.
Paperback May 2008

The Warping of Government Work

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

John D. Donahue
The divergent paths of public and private employment have intensified a long-standing pattern: elite workers spurn public jobs, while less skilled workers cling to government work as a refuge from a harsh private economy. The Warping of Government Work documents government’s isolation from the rest of the American economy and arrays the stark choices we confront for narrowing, or accommodating, the divide between public and private work.
Hardcover May 2008

Adam's Fallacy

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

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.
Paperback April 2008

The Origins of the Developmental State in Taiwan

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

J. Megan Greene
The rapid growth of Taiwan’s postwar “miracle” economy is most frequently credited to the leading role of the state in promoting economic development. Megan Greene challenges this standard interpretation in the first in-depth examination of the origins of Taiwan’s developmental state.
Hardcover April 2008

The ABCs of RBCs

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

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 March 2008

The Business of Lobbying in China

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Scott Kennedy
Based on over 300 in-depth interviews with company executives, business association representatives, and government officials, this study identifies a wide range of national economic policies influenced by lobbying, including taxes, technical standards, and intellectual property rights. These findings have significant implications for how we think about Chinese politics and economics, as well as government-business relations in general.
Paperback March 2008

Starved for Science

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Robert Paarlberg
Foreword by Norman Borlaug
Foreword by Jimmy Carter
In Starved for Science Paarlberg explains why poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought. He traces this obstacle to the current opposition to farm science in prosperous countries.
Hardcover March 2008

Outsiders?

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 2008 Report
Edited by Gustavo Márquez
Contributions by Viviane Azevedo
Contributions by Heather Berkman
Contributions by Sebastian Calonico
Contributions by Natalia Cardelli
Contributions by Juan Camilo Chaparro
Contributions by Alberto Chong
Contributions by Suzanne Duryea
Contributions by Nestor Gandelman
Contributions by Gianmarco Leon
Contributions by Eduardo Lora
Contributions by Mercedes Mateo Diaz
Contributions by Jaqueline Mazza
Contributions by Hugo Nopo
Contributions by Carmen Pages-Serra
Contributions by Mark Payne
Contributions by Sandra Polania
Contributions by Laura Ripani
Despite decades of reform and global integration, many people in Latin America claim they are worse off. This book argues that democratization, macroeconomic stabilization, and globalization have disrupted the traditional labor-market-based paths of integration based on public and formal employment and made those left behind more vulnerable to the traditional forces of discrimination and exclusion.
Paperback March 2008

The Economic History of Byzantium

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Angeliki E. Laiou
Paperback March 2008

China during the Great Depression

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST

Tomoko Shiroyama
The Great Depression was a global phenomenon: every economy linked to international financial and commodity markets suffered. The aim of this book is not merely to show that China could not escape the consequences of drastic declines in financial flows and trade but also to offer a new perspective for understanding modern Chinese history.
Hardcover March 2008

Brand New China

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

Jing Wang
One part riveting account of fieldwork and one part rigorous academic study, Brand New China offers a unique perspective on the advertising and marketing culture of China. Wang's experiences in the disparate worlds of Beijing advertising agencies and the U.S. academy allow her to share a unique perspective on China during its accelerated reintegration into the global market system.
Hardcover January 2008

The Dismal Science

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

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 January 2008

Identification for Prediction and Decision

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

Charles F. Manski
This book is a full-scale exposition of Manski's new methodology for analyzing empirical questions in the social sciences. He recommends that researchers ask first what can be learned from data alone, and then what can be learned when data are combined with credible weak assumptions. Each chapter juxtaposes developments of methodology with empirical or numerical illustrations.
Hardcover January 2008

Valuing Children

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

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 January 2008

Worst-Case Scenarios

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Cass R. Sunstein
Nuclear bombs in suitcases, anthrax bacilli in ventilators, tsunamis and meteors, avian flu, scorchingly hot temperatures: nightmares that were once the plot of Hollywood movies are now frighteningly real possibilities. Sunstein explores these and other worst-case scenarios and how we might best prevent them in this vivid, illuminating, and highly original analysis.
Hardcover November 2007

The New Argonauts

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

AnnaLee Saxenian
A new perspective on globalization, The New Argonauts tells the story of the foreign-born, technically skilled investors and entrepreneurs who return home to start new companies while remaining tied to powerful economic and professional communities in the United States. AnnaLee Saxenian's research brings a fresh perspective to the way that technology entrepreneurs build regional advantage in order to compete in global markets. This pathbreaking book illuminates profound transformations in the global economy.
Paperback October 2007

Pull

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Pamela Walker Laird
In retelling success stories from Benjamin Franklin to Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates, Laird goes beyond personality, upbringing, and social skills to reveal the critical common key--access to circles that control and distribute opportunity and information. She contrasts how Americans have prospered--or not--with how we have talked about prospering.
Paperback October 2007

Rewarding Work

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

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 October 2007

The Tyranny of the Market

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Joel Waldfogel
Economists have long counseled reliance on markets rather than on government to decide a wide range of questions, in part because allocation through voting can give rise to a "tyranny of the majority." Markets, by contrast, are believed to make products available to suit any individual, regardless of what others want. But the argument is not generally correct. In markets, you can't always get what you want. This book explores why this is so and its consequences for consumers with atypical preferences.
Hardcover October 2007

Income, Wealth, and the Maximum Principle

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

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.
Paperback September 2007

Strategies of Commitment and Other Essays

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Thomas C. Schelling
All of the essays in this new collection by Thomas Schelling convey his unique perspective on individuals and society. Schelling, a 2005 Nobel Prize winner, has been one of the four or five most important social scientists of the past fifty years, and this collection shows why.
Paperback September 2007

A Nation of Counterfeiters

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Stephen Mihm
Prior to the Civil War, the United States did not have a single, national currency. Counterfeiters flourished amid this anarchy, putting vast quantities of bogus bills into circulation. Their success, Mihm reveals, is more than an entertaining tale of criminal enterprise: it is the story of the rise of a country defined by freewheeling capitalism and little government control. Mihm shows how eventually the older monetary system was dismantled, along with the counterfeit economy it sustained.
Hardcover September 2007