This book offers a comprehensive assessment of Douglass North's contribution to economics and the social sciences by examining the origins and structure of his New Institutionalist Economic History (NIEH). Informed by contemporary debates in the philosophy of economics, Krul describes the evolution of North's theory from mainstream economics to an increasingly heterodox form of New Institutionalism. He also examines what North's original aims were in developing the NIEH research programme and how well it has achieved these aims. By exploring major themes in North's NIEH, with an emphasis on the final stage of his theory, Krul sheds new light on the strengths and weaknesses of North's work. He also discusses the implications of this critical interpretation for the New Institutionalism in economics and other fields of social science.

This book introduces the work of Yoshihiko Uchida (1913-1989), one of the most prominent Japanese thinkers on the topic of civil society in the post-World War II era. The distinctive features of Uchida's approach to civil society are his view of the metabolic relationship between human beings and nature and his call for a social science rooted in the experiences and inquiries of ordinary citizens. This original approach did not develop in a straight line from Uchida's early work to his mature period, and this book follows the twists and turns in its formation through his reflections on the relationships between "the civil" and "the capitalistic," "the modern" and "the pre-modern," "the historical" and "the trans-historical," and "science by specialists" and "inquiry by laypeople." As a historian of economic thought, Uchida pursued these topical themes by examining figures such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Hajime Kawakami, a prominent thinker in Japan. By casting a light on these inquiries, this book offers the first depiction of Uchida's body of work as a whole and in doing so illuminates the emergence of original democratic thought in post-war Japan.

Although Portugal was one of the first European states with stable borders, the process of the making of a Portuguese fiscal state still remains to be studied in detail. This volume brings together studies on the development of the Portuguese fiscal state within a comparative perspective in relation to other kingdoms across Europe, such as Castile and Aragon, England, Tuscany, the Papal States, Holland and France, in order to bring Portugal into the broader and comparative international debate about the development of the fiscal state. As a very distinctive case, Portugal remains understudied and underrepresented in the broader literature on the development of fiscal states. There are relatively few studies on the building of a fiscal state in Portugal that are accessible to an international audience. This book will make a fundamental contribution to this field, which is still full of untapped potential. It will combine the latest theory and comparative context with a detailed reconstruction of Portuguese state finance, taking a longer chronological frame that follows its development from the medieval through to the early modern period. It will also make the latest research from Portuguese scholars available to a wider, international audience, and will be of particular interest to researchers and students of financial and economic history.

This collection gathers some of the greatest minds in economics to discuss their experiences of collaborative research and publication. Nobel Prize winners and other eminent scholars from a representative sample of economics' major sub-disciplines share how and why they came to work primarily in partnerships or on their own, whether naturally or by necessity. The contributions include discussions of personal experiences, statistical analyses, different levels of investment, and how the digital age has changed researcher interactions. As budget cuts and resource consolidation make working together vital in ever more fields of academia, this book offers valuable advice to help young and seasoned scholars alike identify the right co-author(s).

This book offers the first long-term analysis of the protracted struggle between Britain, France, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden for economic power and political influence in the northern part of the Eurasian continent between 1660 and 1860. This book shows how their commercial, diplomatic, and military entanglements determined the course of Baltic trade from the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century, provoking, among other things, the decline of the Dutch Republic and the partitions of Poland-Lithuania. The author conceptualizes the Baltic Sea as one of North Eurasia's western border basins, alongside the White, Black, and Caspian Seas, and employs novel statistical series of Baltic trade as a proxy for the long-term development of North Eurasian trade in world history. Based on extensive quantitative evidence and sources for the history of international relations, this book outlines how North Eurasian trade became an object of growing tensions between various larger and smaller powers with a stake in North Eurasia's riches. The book addresses the long-term impact of mercantilist policies, territorial greed, and military conflicts in North Eurasia's border basins, and accentuates the significance of developments in the preindustrial transport and commercial infrastructure of the North Eurasian landmass. Employing the concept of North Eurasia and its different borderlands and border basins, this book overcomes previous limitations in the historiography of globalization and sheds light on a large, continental landmass, which researchers tend to leave aside for the benefit of a predominant maritime perspective in historical studies of globalization. North Eurasian Trade in World History, 1660-1860 will be invaluable reading for students and scholars interested in world history, East European history, and the history of international relations and trade.

Monetisation and Commercialisation in the Baltic Sea, 1050-1450 explores the varied uses of silver and gold in the Baltic Sea zone during the medieval period. Ten original contributions examine coins and currencies, trade, economy, and power, taking care to avoid an out-of-date approach to economic history which assumes a progression from 'primitive' forms to 'developed' structures. Combining a variety of methodological approaches, and drawing on written sources, archaeological and numismatic evidence, and anthropological perspectives, the book considers the various ways in which silver and gold were used as monetary currency, fiscal instruments of power, and gifts in the High and Late Medieval societies of the Baltic Sea. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, as well as those interested in economic history, and the history of trade and commerce.

Neoclassical economics has been criticized from various angles by orthodox schools. The same can be said about its particular branch: the theory of the firm. This book demonstrates how a successful theory of the firm can be presented without flawed notions of a neoclassical framework and used to comprehend actual business history. The author argues that we should start from the assumption that businesses are inevitably imponderable, as that is their nature, in the process of economic evolution. The book offers an in-depth exploration of neoclassical limitations by examining each of the small details associated with the famous MR = MC rule. It follows a step-by-step approach, which starts off with neoclassical assumptions and then moves into more empirically sound theory, based on modeling logic and rooted in real world examples. The author presents a novel discussion on the size of the firm, both in terms of classifying a firm's expansion and about the factors that limit the size of the firm and argues how formal pricing theory can be built using more indeterminate assumptions about firms. Further, there is a discussion on how firms are rooted in amorphous industries, which helps to explain economic progress better by emphasizing the importance of economic experiments, mistakes and bankruptcies. This is a valuable reference for scholars and researchers who are interested in a range of topics from microeconomics, through pricing theory to industrial organization, history of economic thought and managerial economics.

The views of Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) on population, first published in his Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798, continue to be hotly debated, either acclaimed or opposed, as do his views on macroeconomics. There is a widely held view that his macroeconomics lacks coherence and is merely a collection of isolated jottings. This book challenges this view; it presents textual evidence that Malthus's macroeconomics constitutes a significant system of thought with considerable academic merit. It reawakens debate about the relative merits of Malthus and Ricardo as macroeconomists and contends that Malthus offers important macroeconomic ideas and policy proposals relevant to modern economic problems. It presents and analyses Malthus' ideas on topics such as the determinants of aggregate economic growth; the causes of general depression; the remedies for mass unemployment; the balance between laissez-faire and government intervention; the optimum division of expenditure between consumption, saving, and investment; the distribution of income between wages, profits, and rents; and the degree of economic inequality. Particular emphasis is given to his view that the pattern of distribution of wealth between the upper, lower, and middle classes is a major determinant or factor in the production of wealth, and that continued economic development depends on the growth of a large and affluent middle class. The radical nature of some of his ideas and policy proposals on the ownership and distribution of land is highlighted. An extensive treatment of Say's Law, incorporating aspects of the correspondence between Say and Malthus, addresses the question of whether Malthus showed that Say's Law is merely a truism and lacks any scientific relevance. The book also sheds new light on the nature of the influence of Malthus on Keynes. This combination of a search for textual authenticity and a critical assessment of the views of commentators on Malthus will be of significant interest to students and scholars of economic theory and the history of economics.

This book examines the history of what became one of Portugal's largest banks, the Caixa Geral de Depositos. The bank was founded in 1876 by the state to run public deposits, and evolved into a savings bank, catering for both public and private deposits. Its history goes beyond the history of banking, as it ties in with the role of the state in the banking sector and financial markets. The book weaves in and out of different political and international contexts, following the many changes of the Portuguese political regime and of its interactions with the national and international economy. The most important lesson from the study is that publicly owned institutions can compete successfully with the private sector when they simultaneously cater for the interests of policy makers as well as those of the public, in this case, the depositors. The history of the Caixa Geral de Depositos therefore shows how the state of a peripheral economy is capable of successfully managing a large financial institution when the right set of incentives is in place. This work will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of financial and economic history at both the advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It will also provide interesting insights for practitioners in the financial sector.

The volume deals with the main problems faced by capitalist economies, inflation and unemployment, in a new and original way, and provides the theoretical foundations for quantum macroeconomic analysis. Its aim is to allow English-speaking economists and interested readers to have a direct access to the analysis provided by Schmitt in his 1984 book Inflation, chomage et malformations du capital. Orthodox economics has failed to provide a consistent insight of the pathologies hindering our economies, and both the academic and the economic worlds are much in need for an alternative approach capable to explain the origins of these pathologies and how they can eventually be disposed of. Schmitt's volume provides a revolutionary explanation of the cause of today's economic disorder as well as an innovative solution allowing for the passage from disorder to order. Neoclassical and Keynesian theories of any type are essentially based on equilibrium analysis and this is why none of them has ever been able to provide a consistent macroeconomic analysis based on macroeconomic foundations. This is what Schmitt's book aims for: developing a new analysis built on identities rather than conditions of equilibrium, capable to explain the objective origins of inflation and unemployment. In this volume, Schmitt introduces a new, revolutionary analysis centred on the concept of quantum time. The topics analysed by Schmitt cover the entire field of national macroeconomics, from production to capital accumulation, the leading role in this ground-breaking investigation being played by what he calls the theory of emissions. The ensuing macroeconomic theory is built on a set of laws derived from the monetary nature of our economic systems and defines the logical framework of inquiry into modern macroeconomics.

A concsie, comprehensive textbook on twentieth century Britain inclding thematic chapters and case-study chapters on key periods and topics that will engage attention. British History is still widely studied and this book provides an up-to-date survey of that history. The book is fully updated and engages with the most recent historioigraphy as well as what people said they needed, such as more qunatative approaches, movement away from the binary focus on pre- and post-1945.

The first book to look at gender as a specific subject in urban history across Europe A great overview of a very broad timespan Will be of interested to gender historians as well as urban historians

The first book to look at gender as a specific subject in urban history across Europe A great overview of a very broad timespan Will be of interested to gender historians as well as urban historians

First published in 1941, The Reconstruction of World Trade analyses the collapse of the international trading model after the First World War; the challenges presented by totalitarian methods of bilateral trade, and the problems anticipated in the attempt to reconstruct world trade after the end of the Second World War. The author studies national economic policies of several countries to argue that while economic problems are not contained with national borders, these still are an outcome of conflicting national economic policies. This book will be of interest to students of history, political science and economy.

Originally published in 1982, The Railwaymen examines the impact of the transformation which took place in the British Railways in the second half of the 20th Century on the people who maintained British railway services and reveals the change which took place in the union to which most of them belonged: the National Union of Railwaymen (now part of the National Union of Rail and Maritime Transport Workers: RMT). The union's reaction to the Beeching closures of the 1960s and the Industrial Relations Act of 1971, its policies on the closed shop, inter-union rivalries, representation in Parliament and the constitution of the Labour Party are treated authoritatively by the author who had access to all the union's records.

Originally published in 1963, The Railwaymen recounts the struggle of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants from its foundation in 1872 until the first national railway strike in 1911 to gain recognition from the companies and a reduction in the excessive hours of labour and the scandalously high accident rate among railwaymen. Two chapters recall the decisive role of the union, through the Taff Vale and Osborne cases in shaping the modern labour movement. Founded through the merging of three unions in 1913, the NUR crossed swords with Lloyd George in the railway strike of 1919 and with Baldwin and Churchill in the general strike. It led the railwaymen through two world wars, helped shape the transport act of 1947 and, after 1951, thought for the re-establishment of an adequate system of public transport.

The book examines the evolution of the political, social and economic life of Cyprus from its conquest by Richard the Lionheart to the 1950 referendum on Enosis. Even with such a long period, around 900 years, the interest in controlling the island becomes clear given its particularly advantageous geographical position between Europe, Africa and Asia. Undoubtedly, Cyprus has always been an important centre for military and economic activity in the wider region. This book provides an interdisciplinary approach which combines history, political science, sociology, international relations and economics. It will be of interest to academics in Economic History, Middle-Eastern Studies, Mediterranean Studies and researchers in general, as well as anyone interested in political theory and the role of the state in particular.

This book proposes a new approach to economics, starting from the commons and based on the Economy of Francesco (EoF), a worldwide movement of young people who aim to change the current economic models and working towards a fair, sustainable, and inclusive economic system. EoF was convened by Pope Francis and is inspired by the example of St. Francis of Assisi, featuring Franciscan economic roots and institutions, as well as theories of the social sciences. The authors raise and answer several important questions throughout the volume, such as: What if the economic courses taught in the universities across the globe focused their attention on the topics of the commons rather than on private goods? What if social businesses, rather than being considered as a hybrid form of businesses, became the normal approach, and ethical and green finance ruled over the standard financial sector? Is it possible to move away from the primacy of the consumers to the preeminence of ethical consumers who express their preferences for an inclusive, sustainable, and workers-friendly economic system with their daily choices? Using a unique approach, the book includes the contributions of prominent scholars which are integrated and discussed by young international scholars, providing a fresh analysis with a glance of hope for the future. The book is a must-read for students, scholars, and researchers of economics and related disciplines interested in alternatives to the current economic mainstream in general, and the Economy of Francesco in particular.

Volume 39B of Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, includes a symposium marking the centenary of Carl Menger's death in 1921. The symposium, edited by Reinhard Schumacher and Scott Scheall, features contributions from Sandra J. Peart, Gunther Chaloupek, Erwin Dekker, and Sandye Gloria. The Volume also features general-research essays from Marina Uzunova and Alexander Linsbichler.

Historians have so far made few attempts to assess directly the costs and benefits of Britain's investment in empire. This book presents answers to some of the key questions about the economics of imperialism: how large was the flow of finance to the empire? How great were the profits on empire investment? What were the social costs of maintaining the empire? Who received the profits, and who bore the costs? The authors show that colonial finance did not dominate British capital markets; returns from empire investment were not high in comparison to earnings in the domestic and foreign sectors; there is no evidence of continued exploitative profits; and empire profits were earned at a substantial cost to the taxpayer. They depict British imperialism as a mechanism to effect an income transfer from the tax-paying middle class to the elites in which the ownership of imperial enterprise was heavily concentrated, with some slight net transfer to the colonies in the process.

This book is a textual criticism of modern ideas about the work of Adam Smith that offers a new perspective on many of his famous contributions to economic thought. Adam Smith is often hailed as a leading figure in the development of economic theories, but modern presentations of his works do not reflect Smith's actual ideas or influence during his lifetime. Gavin Kennedy believes that Smith's name and legacy were often appropriated or made into myths in the 19th and 20th centuries, with many misconceptions persisting today. Offering new analysis of works on rhetoric, moral sentiments, jurisprudence, the invisible hand, The Wealth of Nations, and Smith's very private views on religion, the book gives a new perspective on this important canonical thinker

This book examines Gunnar Myrdal's analysis of poverty in relation to Sweden, the United States, South Asia, and the international economy. The chapters investigate Mrydal's methodological development and his focus on the principle of circular and cummulative causation, dynamic economic analysis, institutional frameworks, value premises, and social engineering. The challenge of world poverty, the international dimension of poverty, and the legacy of The American Dilemma and Asian Drama are also discussed. This book aims to explore the development of Myrdal's analysis of poverty during his life. It will be relevant to students and academics interested in the history of economic thought, development economics, the political economy, and labor economics.

Using U.S. Current Population Survey data from 1947 to 1985, Maxwell presents the results of a comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of the upturn in income inequality that took place during this period. By examining the impact of changing industrial and occupational employment, population age structure, household structure, female labor force participation, and government spending on social insurance, she systematically estimates and compares the influences on the inequality upturn. The book's findings reveal that the predominant influence on increasing income inequality is the changing economy, which has resulted in increased income at the top of the distribution and reduced income at the bottom. More specifically, the book shows that economic and demographic factors influenced income inequality by (1) altering the composition of income-receiving units (in other words, the shift toward female-headed and unrelated individual units), (2) altering the income distribution within each income-receiving unit type or within each race, and (3) altering the relative income between income-receiving units and race.