Maurice Dobb was the foremost Marxian economist of his generation in Britain. He was noted for his contributions to value theory, the theory of economic planning and the analysis of Soviet economic development. This set will re-issue 7 of his most important works.

The recent dramatic decline in the economic fortunes of the Republic of Ireland have been all the more painful, because it followed the most rapid period of economic development ever witnessed in Irish economic history, when growth rates since the early-1990s surpassed those in the rest of Western Europe. With an unusual openness to international trade and capital flows and a relatively benign corporate tax regime and closer links to the American economy (in terms of investment and trade) than other parts of Western Europe, this growth was something of an aberration in a wider European context and requires explanation. This book provides a synthesis of recent research on Irish economic development, tracing the evolution of the economy since independence with particular reference to how the state sought to shape, regulate and deregulate economic activity to deal with the challenges posed by the wider international environment. In many ways, this book is a follow up to Bielenberg's Ireland and the Industrial Revolution, published by Routledge in 2009. Bielenberg and Ryan chart Ireland's economic progress, examining the unsuccessful attempts to promote economic growth from 1932 through import-substitution and protectionism, the policy frameworks developed in the 1950s and 1960s which sought to create a more open economy, Ireland's entry into the EEC in 1973 and the improvement of the country's economic performance, as well as Ireland's economic relationships with Europe, the USA and the UK.

This book examines the causes of the economic and political crisis in Argentina in 2001 and the process of strong economic recovery. It poses the question of how a country which defaulted on its external loans and was widely criticized by international observers could have succeeded in its growth and development despite this decision in 2002. It examines this process in terms of the impact of neo-liberal policies on the economy and the role of development strategy and the state in recovering from the crisis

This book is an investigation into the economic policy formulation and practice of neoliberalism in Britain from the 1950s through to the financial crisis and economic downturn that began in 2007-8. It demonstrates that influential economists, such as F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman, authors at key British think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Centre for Policy Studies, and important political figures of the Thatcher and New Labour governments shared a similar conception of the consumer.

For neoliberals, the idea that consumers were weak in the face of businesses and large corporations was almost offensive. Instead, consumers were imagined to be sovereign agents in the economy, whose consumption decisions played a central role in the construction of their human capital and in the enabling of their aspirations. Consumption, just like production, came to be viewed as an enterprising and entrepreneurial activity. Consequently, from the early 1980s until the present day, it was felt necessary that banks should have the freedom to meet the borrowing needs of consumers. Credit rationing would be a thing of the past. Just like businesses, consumers and households could use debt to expand their stock of personal assets.

By utilizing the method of French philosopher Michel Foucault this book provides an original analysis of the policy ideas and political speeches of key figures in the New Right, in government and at the Bank of England. And it addresses the key question as to why policy-makers both in Britain and the United States did little or nothing to stem rising consumer and household indebtedness, instead always choosing to see increasing house prices and homeownership as a positive to be encouraged.

First published in 1979, The Transformation of England discusses the creation in late eighteenth century England of the industrial system and thereby the present world. Professor Mathias poses questions about the nature of industrialization, social change and historical explanation, issues that are his principal scholarly concern. This series of essays is divided into two groups. The first group of essays focuses upon general themes such as the 'uniqueness' in Europe of the industrial revolution, capital formation, taxation, the growth of skills, science and technical change, leisure and wages, and diagnoses of poverty. In the second section, Professor Mathias focuses on the social structure in the eighteenth century, considering the industrialization of brewing, coinage, agriculture and the drink industries, advances in public health and the armed forces, British and American public finance in the War of Independence, Dr Johnson and the business world.

First published in 1964, Was Stalin Really Necessary? is a thought-provoking work which deals with many aspects of the Soviet political economy, planning problems and statistics. Professor Nove starts with an attempt to evaluate the rationality of Stalinism and discusses the possible political consequences of the search for greater economic efficiency, which is followed by a controversial discussion of Kremlinology. The author goes on to analyse the situation of the peasants as reflected in literary journals, then looks at industrial and agricultural problems. There are elaborate statistical surveys of occupational patterns and the purchasing power of wages, followed by an examination of the irrational statistical reflection of irrational economic decisions. Professor Nove 's essay on social welfare was, unlike some of his other work, used in the Soviet press as evidence against over-enthusiastic cold-warriors, among whom the author was not always popular. Finally, the author seeks to generalise about the evolution of world communism.

First published in 1991, Stuart Bruchey's study is a historical tribute to the financial innovation of the American Stock Exchange. He chronicles the heyday of Wall Street - from events leading to the Great Depression, through the New Deal and World War II, to the electronic era, the crash of'87, and the new realities and global opportunities of the 1990s. We observe with fascination the transformation of the relocated outdoor Curb market on Broad Street to its cavernous indoor trading facility on Trinity Place, where it's been ever since - the first trading "posts" topped with light fixtures reminiscent of the outdoor lampposts they replaced. Bruchey relives for us the introduction of the first CRT terminals on the trading floor and the gradual, yet inevitable, influence of technology on the trading process. His study of modernization brings us right into the world of equity options, derivatives and other creative products introduced in latter part of the twentieth century - investment vehicles designed to serve an increasingly sophisticated and demanding marketplace of investors.

This and the following volume chart the history of financial institutions in England in the mid-late nineteenth century as well as examining the periods of boom and bust, their causes and effects. Using hitherto unpublished sources from the International Financial Society this book provides an unrivalled record of the development of the modern banking industry.

This book investigates the tensions between subjectivism and objectivism in the history of economics. The book looks at the works of Adam Smith, Carl Menger, Leon Walras, William Stanley Jevons, Oskar Morgenstern, Ludwig Mises, Piero Sraffa, and so on. The book highlights the diverse subjective and objective elements of their economic theories and suggests a reframing of methodology to better address the core problems of the theories.

Contributors of the volume are leading members of the Japan Society of History of Economic Thought who have provided a comprehensive overview on the economics methodology and the related problems. Hence, this book will be of an invaluable asset to not only those who are interested in the history of economic thought, but also to scholars who are concerned with the methodological problems of economic science.

This unique troika of Handbooks provides indispensable coverage of the history of economic analysis. Edited by two of the foremost academics in the field, the volumes gather together insightful and original contributions from scholars across the world. The encyclopaedic breadth and scope of the original entries will make these Handbooks an invaluable source of knowledge for all serious students and scholars of the history of economic thought. Each Handbook can be read individually and acts as a self-contained volume in its own right. It can be purchased separately or as part of a three-volume set. Volume I contains original biographical profiles of many of the most important and influential economists. These inform the reader about their lives, works and impact on the further development of the discipline. The emphasis is on their lasting contributions to our understanding of the complex system known as the economy. The entries also shed light on the means and ways in which the functioning of this system can be improved and its dysfunction reduced. Contributors include: T. Asada, T. Aspromourgos, M. Assous, V. Avtonomov, R. Baranzini, A. Baujard, A. Beraud, E. Bertrand, O. Bjerkholt, P. Boettke, D. Boegenhold, A. Brewer, G. Campagnolo, V. Caspari, V. Chick J. Creedy, F. Dal Degan, M. Dal Pont-Legrande, M. Dardi, J. de Boyer des Roches, D. Diatkine, V. Di Giovinazzo, R.W. Dimand, R. Dujmovits, I. Eliseeva, R.B. Emmett, N. Eyguesier, G. Faccarello, O. Favereau, A. Fossati, W. Gaertner, C. Gehrke, A. Giuliani, J. Glaeser, M. Goedl, R. Gomez Betancourt, H. Gram, M.E.L. Guidi, D. Haas, H. Hagemann, G.C. Harcourt, M.J. Holler, H. Janssen, J. Jespersen, J. Joachim Zweynert, P. Kalmbach, Y.-F. Kao, J.E. King, A. Kirman, H. Klausinger, M. Knell, S. Kolev, H.D. Kurz, B.J. Loasby, N. Makasheva, C. Martin, M. McLure, A. Molavi Vassei, A.E. Murphy, L. Nellinger, S. Oliver, A. Opocher, A. Orain, T. Raffaelli, A. Rainer, G. Rubin, M. Rutherford, M. Salles, N. Salvadori,B. Schefold, M. Schneider, C.P. Schroeder, M.H. Schutz, U. Schwalbe, R. Signorino, N. Skaggs, P. Spahn, P. Steiner, R. Sturn, H.-M. Trautwein, K. Tribe, R. Van den Berg, V. Vanberg, K. Velupillai, R. Venkatachalam, C.C. von Weizsacker, L.R. Wray, K. Yahia

From the early 1960s until his death in 1994, Alec Nove was one of the world's leading authorities on Russian and Soviet economic history. This Routledge Revivals collection brings together six of his most essential books on the Soviet Economy, taken from across the full breadth of his eminent career.

Written between 1961 and 1989, this definitive collection covers Soviet economic history from the height of the Cold War through to the cultural renaissance of Glasnost in the late 1980s. From Joseph Stalin through to Mikhail Gorbachev, via an exploration of Soviet political economy, efficiency, Socialism and development, this is a truly wide-ranging reissued collection, which will be a delight to Soviet economists and historians.

First published in 1930, John Hobson 's study deals with the economic dilemmas generated in the early twentieth century by the advent of mass production. Namely the over-production and surfeit of goods and the resultant failure of the expansion of markets leading to record levels of mass unemployment.

Seeking a solution to this dilemma, Hobson analyses all aspects of the problem: income, uses of the surplus, underconsumption, markets and distribution, and internationalism. The study also explores theories concerning economies of rationalisation, both in terms of productivity and consumption.

Central economic planning is often associated with failed state socialism, and modern capitalism celebrated as its antithesis. This book shows that central planning is not always, or even primarily, a state enterprise, and that the giant industrial corporations that dominated the American economy through the twentieth century were, first and foremost, unprecedented examples of successful, consensual central planning at a very large scale.

This is Volume II of Professor Parker's authoritative Official History of Privatisation, covering the period from the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in 1987 to the election of Tony Blair in 1997. Volume II considers in detail several of the major privatisations, including those of airports, steel, water, electricity, coal and the railways, as well as a number of smaller ones. Each privatisation involved major challenges in terms of industrial restructuring, organising successful sales and, in a number of cases, establishing effective regulatory regimes. The policy evolved and new methods of selling and regulating were put in place that enabled further disposals to occur. Monolithic nationalised industries with their emphasis on the benefits of economies of scale, vertical integration and rationalisation, were replaced by industrial structures rooted in the importance of commercial management, risk taking and competition. In government departments and parts of the National Health Service, direct employees were replaced by private contractors, and private investment became a characteristic of public infrastructure in the form of PFI/PPP schemes. This study draws heavily on the official records of the British government, to which the author was given full access and on interviews with the leading figures involved in each of the privatisations, including ex-ministers, civil servants, business and City figures, as well as academics that have studied the subject. This book will of great interest to students of privatisation, British political history and of business and economics in general.

The book is based on a rich and detailed quantitative material from research over the past decades with consecutive time series over production volumes, employment, productivity, investments etc. for sectors and branches covering the whole economy, even including estimates of non-marketed domestic work. It is also based on a broad literature from Swedish historiography with details on the individual level of firms, innovators and entrepreneurs. Focus is upon the interplay between technological, economic and social change where a number of broad themes are treated with a general interest to historians or economists, e.g. the role of social change and domestic markets versus international specialisation and exports as dynamic factors in Swedish economic growth.

Within the theoretical framework of the trade-growth and structural transformation-growth nexuses, the book examines the evolution of African (goods and service) trade in terms of value and share of global commerce relative to other regions during the period 1948-2017. It also identifies and discusses discernible changes in the composition and structure of African exports and imports between 1995 and 2015 and their implications for economic development in Africa. The study attributes Africa's laggard trade performance during the period primarily to sub-optimal macroeconomic policies and lack of bold export development policies and initiatives, among other factors. It also offers an incisive discussion of several inhibitions to the structural transformation of African exports and imports, including lack of finance, globalization, tariff, and non-tariff measures in global markets. The discussion of the evolution of African trade during the period 1948-2017 based on statistics and publications of international organizations, including the UNCTAD, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank, among others, is the first of its kind in terms of scope and depth of review of African trade. The analyses of cross-border trade during 1948-2017 and their implications for Africa's economic development prospects constitute a useful reference material for academics and students of African and development studies and African and international policymakers.

Poverty in Contemporary Economic Thought aims to describe and critically examine how economic thought deals with poverty, including its causes, consequences, reduction and abolition. This edited volume traces the ideas of key writers and schools of modern economic thought across a significant period, ranging from Friedrich Hayek and Keynes to latter-day economists like Amartya Sen and Angus Deaton. The chapters relate poverty to income distribution, asserting the point that poverty is not always conceived of in absolute terms but that relative and social deprivation matters also. Furthermore, the contributors deal with both individual poverty and the poverty of nations in the context of the international economy. In providing such a thorough exploration, this book shows that the approach to poverty differs from economist to economist depending on their particular interests and the main issues related to poverty in each epoch, as well as the influence of the intellectual climate that prevailed at the time when the contribution was made. This key text is valuable reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, economic development and the economics of poverty.

The principal themes pursued in this book emerge from the great transformation that the Latin American and the Caribbean economies experienced in the aftermath of both the foreign debt crisis of 1982 and the macroeconomic stabilisation policies that vividly and painfully produced the so-called "lost decade" of the 1980s. Latin America implemented an economic liberalisation process during the late 1980s and the 1990s. The main policy reforms involved in that course can be summarized as privatization of state owned firms, trade openness, deregulation of the foreign direct investment (FDI) regime and fiscal discipline. Latin American countries have also embarked in regional trade agreements, the most important ones being Mercosur and the North American Free trade Agreement (NAFTA). This book compares results from the experience of North-South and South-South moulds of integration. Thus, the impacts of these policies on growth, development, technological progress, poverty and inequality are analysed. Orthodox and heterodox economic policies and theories are discussed along with relevant empirical evidence with a view to assess, on the one hand, the relative merits of the various policy reforms applied by different countries in the region, and on the other, the experience of integration into the global economy. There are thirteen chapters in this collection linked in varying ways to the series of economic reforms introduced in the region in the last decades. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, students and policymakers interested in the study of economic development in emerging economies and in particular in Latin America.

This book is a comparative study of organized crime groups from five different parts of the world: Europe; North America; Central America/South America/Caribbean basin; Africa; and Asia/Western Pacific. Each part contains two case studies and a shorter essay, a vignette. From Europe the case studies focus on the Italian mafias and the Russian mafia; the vignette, on the Albanian mafia. From North America the case studies highlight the US Mafia and the Mexican drug cartels; the vignette, organized crime in Canada. From Central America/South America/Caribbean basin the case studies concentrate on the Colombian drug cartels and gangs of the Caribbean; the vignette, on organized crime in Cuba. From Africa the case studies examine resource wars and Somali piracy; the vignette, relations among international drugs trafficking, organized crime, and terrorism in North and West Africa. And from Asia/Western Pacific the case studies spotlight the Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuza; the vignette, relations among international drugs trafficking, organized crime, and terrorism in
Afghanistan.

Written in non-specialist language, An Economic History of Organized Crime provides an original overview of a crucial problem of our times: the growing scourge of global organized crime. This book can be read with profit by the general public, but it also has value for academic specialists and professionals in law enforcement.

"When Money Dies" is the classic history of what happens when a nation's currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany's finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake.

Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, "quantitative easing," that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country's deficit--necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure--it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.

First published in 1986, 1987 and 1990, this three volume reissue covers the life and times of leading economic theorist, Alfred Marshall - one of the founders of neoclassical economics. David Reisman's incisive and comprehensive study divides Marshall's work into three key areas: economics, progress and politics, and moral principles. The author deals with everything from Marshall's magnum opus Principles of Economics through to his contribution to the progressive evolution in Victorian politics; and finally the way in which his background and upbringing influenced his highly moral approach to economic theory.

First published in 1986, The Economics of Alfred Marshall is concerned with the theories of demand, supply, market structure and income distribution which the celebrated author of the Principles of Economics developed while standing on the shoulders of giants. It is thus concerned with hidden assumptions, institutional constraints, tentative conclusions and blurred distinctions; for these are an integral part of the contribution of an economist who warned against spurious over-simplification of that which is inherently complex.

The economics of Alfred Marshall appears easy when in fact it is fraught with difficulties. The Economics of Alfred Marshall seeks to explain Marshalla (TM)s theories in detail and to evaluate them in depth. The book attempts in that way to help the reader to gain a deeper understanding of an influential thinker whose insights, however difficult, continue to shed a great deal of light on the nature and workings of the economic system.

First published in 1938 this Routledge Revival is a reissue of the autobiography of influential economist J. A. Hobson. A comprehensive work, it details many aspects of his life including his background, influences, ethical principles, philosophy and religion. In a life which spanned great social, political and economic change - not least that brought about in the aftermath of the first world war - Hobson's humanist economic philosophy had a lasting impact upon economic and sociological thought.

This book uses an institutional-evolutionary approach to analyse economic problems associated with developments in capitalism during the second half of the twentieth century. It argues that economics should centre on institutions - the durable fabric of the economy over time.Drawing on the foundations of Marxist and institutional political economy, the book traces the lineages of institutional themes, as well as considering feminist, post-Keynesian, holistic economics and Schumpeterian perspectives. The nature of institutions in the growth and instability of capitalism is then explored with reference to social structures of accumulation. Particular reference is given to the world economy, the family, the Keynesian welfare state and neo-liberalism, Fordism, the flexible mode of accumulation, and financial regulation and deregulation. The author concludes, using institutional-evolutionary themes of political economy, that the evolution of modern capitalism is likely to be unstable as we move into the next century.

First Published in 2005. This book has been written as an outline history of the development of Japanese business. A good deal of literature exists on some aspects, and some periods, but this is the first attempt to follow the entire course from the Tokugawa period to the present, and to analyse the salient features from the vantage point of modernisation. A separate section in each chapter deals exclusively with the value problem and the impact of values on business and economic development. The Glossary gives an explanation of Japanese terms that are used in the text.