Almost all economists, whether classical, neoclassical or Marxist, have failed in their analyses of capitalism to consider the underpinning systems of accounting. This book draws attention to this lacuna, focusing specifically on the concept of capital: a major concept that dominates all teaching and practice in both economics and management. It is argued that while for the practitioners of capitalism - in accounting and business - the capital in their accounts is a debt to be repaid (or a thing to be kept), for economists, it has been considered a means (or even a resource or an asset) intended to be worn out. This category error has led to economists failing to comprehend the true nature of capitalism. On this basis, this book proposes a new definition of capitalism that brings about considerable changes in the attitude to be had towards this economic system, in particular, the means to bring about its replacement. This book will be of significant interest to readers of political economy, history of economic thought, critical accounting and heterodox economics.

The Western literature on the history of Chinese economic thought is sparse, and comparisons with the history of Western economic thought even more so. This pioneering book brings together Western and Chinese scholars to reflect on the historical evolution of economic thought in Europe and China. The international panel of contributors cover key topics such as currency, usury, land tenure, the granary system, welfare, and government, and special attention is given to monetary institutions and policies. The problem of "good government" emerges as the unifying thread of a complex analysis that includes both theoretical issues and applied economics. Chinese lines of evolution include the problem of the agency of the State, its ideological justification, the financing of public expenditure, the role played by the public administration, and the provision of credit. The early radical condemnation of usury in the Near East and in the West gives way to theoretical justifications of interest-taking in early capitalist Europe; they, in turn, lead to advances in mathematics and business administration and represent one of the origins of modern economic theory. Other uniting themes include the relationship between metallic and paper money in Chinese and European experiences and the cross-fertilization of economic practices and ideas in the course of their pluri-millennial interactions. Differences emerge; the approach to the organization of economic life was, and still is, more State-centred in China. The editors bring together these analytical threads in a final chapter, opening wider horizons for this new line of comparative economic research which is important for the understanding of modern ideological turns. This volume provides valuable reading for scholars in the history of economic thought, economic history and Chinese studies.

Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not provides a striking new answer to the classic question of why Europe industrialised from the late eighteenth century and Asia did not. Drawing significantly from the case of India, Prasannan Parthasarathi shows that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the advanced regions of Europe and Asia were more alike than different, both characterized by sophisticated and growing economies. Their subsequent divergence can be attributed to different competitive and ecological pressures that in turn produced varied state policies and economic outcomes. This account breaks with conventional views, which hold that divergence occurred because Europe possessed superior markets, rationality, science, or institutions. It offers instead a groundbreaking rereading of global economic development that ranges from India, Japan and China to Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire and from the textile and coal industries to the roles of science, technology, and the state.

This second volume on the political and social economy of financialization in the US focuses on the consequences of the rise of finance for the American macroeconomy, household inequality, and the management of nonfinancial business enterprises. A historical-institutional balance-sheet approach to long-term trends and recent change in the US reveals a series of anomalies and provisos for critical, heterodox, and mainstream economic approaches and provides new perspectives on debates about political economic change in advanced economies since the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on financialization and studies in social economics, household economics, the structure and management of nonfinancial business enterprises, and American political economy.

The strict conversation of financial capital allows accountants to preserve capitalism in its current form. Thus, building a more humane economy will require a new accounting model. Humanitarian Ecological Economics and Accounting: Capitalism, Ecology and Democracy argues for the adoption of a CARE model: comprehensive accounting in respect of ecology. This new model will take the traditional weapons of capitalist accounting and turn them against capitalism, with a goal to protect and conserve human and natural capital within the framework of a democratic society. The CARE model has been conceived as the potential basis of a new type of market economy and of a new type of governance of firms and nations. Additionally, this allows for a new conception of capital, cost and profit that helps with moves towards a society of the commons. The first part of the book explores the reconstruction of accounting and economics from the ground up, outlining the theoretical basis for the model. The second part of the book explores the transformation of the governance of firms and nations. Finally, an additional section is dedicated to the conception of a new model of national accounting. This book will be of significant interest to readers of ecological economics, critical accounting and heterodox economics.

In an attempt to make sense of changes that have taken place in the workplace worldwide, especially since the last quarter of the twentieth century, the two concepts of Fordism and Post-Fordism are often invoked. These volumes perform a valuable service to social scientists in bringing together important previously published contributions which explore this field. In their selection of articles, the editors range from the Fordism of Henry Ford to its oft-touted modern management successors - Japanisation and Toyotaism, flexible specialisation, lean production and McDonaldisation. They also provide useful criticisms of each of these developments. The editors have written an authoritative introduction which offers an informative discussion of the issues.

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST ECONOMICS BOOK OF THE YEAR A THE ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Brilliantly conceived and enlightening at every turn' Lawrence Wright We have long been suspicious of corporations recklessly pursuing profit and amassing wealth and power. But the story of the corporation didn't have to be like this. For most of history, they were not amoral entities, but public institutions designed to promote the societies that granted them charter. Magnuson reveals how the corporation has evolved since its beginnings in the ancient world. What happens in this next chapter of the global economy depends on whether we can return to their public-minded spirit, or whether we have sunk irrevocably into the swamp of high profit at all costs. Epic and compelling in scope, For Profit illuminates the roles corporations played, for good and evil, in the making of the modern world.

Many know the Chicago School of Economics and its association with Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Ronald Coase and Gary Becker. But few know the School's history and the full scope of its scholarship. In this Companion, leading scholars examine its history and key figures, and provide surveys of the School's contributions to central aspects of economics, including: price theory, monetary theory, labor and economic history. The volume examines the School's traditions of applied welfare theory and law and economics while providing a glimpse into emerging research on Chicago's role in the development of neoliberalism.A companion in the true sense of the word, this volume surveys a wide body of Chicago economic studies and guides readers carefully through each. The Companion offers biographies of leading Chicago economists and evaluations of the School's connection to approaches to economics that draw from and complement the School, including the Virginia School and the work of Armen Alchian and Edward Lazear. Moreover, this book is a first in many respects as it analyzes the interconnections of the Chicago School's theory, methodology, and policy, and considers by what means and ideas the School's policy framework is driven. The breadth and depth of the insights presented here will appeal especially to students and scholars of economics and historians interested in economics, social science and applied public policy. Ross B. Emmett is Professor of Political Economy and Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy, and Co-Director of the Michigan Center for Innovation and Economic Prosperity at James Madison College, Michigan State University, USA.

Explores the importance of religious beliefs, objects, and practices to the development and evolution of markets and marketplaces in material, geographic, and ideological terms providing students and scholars with an accessible introduction to the latest research in the field to inform their studies. Truly global, the chapters cover Europe, South Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East allowing students to compare the role religion played in the development of the marketplace in the pre-modern world. This is an interdisciplinary volume, bringing together scholars of literature, history, archaeology, and sociology to investigate religion and the marketplace providing students with a fuller picture of the field.

Explores the importance of religious beliefs, objects, and practices to the development and evolution of markets and marketplaces in material, geographic, and ideological terms providing students and scholars with an accessible introduction to the latest research in the field to inform their studies. Truly global, the chapters cover Europe, South Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East allowing students to compare the role religion played in the development of the marketplace in the pre-modern world. This is an interdisciplinary volume, bringing together scholars of literature, history, archaeology, and sociology to investigate religion and the marketplace providing students with a fuller picture of the field.

China's rise as an economic power has posed some challenging questions: how did China achieve GDP growth that was even faster than the Four Asian Tigers? Is the "Chinese model" superior? Why hasn't the rapid economic growth lead to democracy in the country as many observers expected? And can China sustain its rapid economic growth with its existing social system? Institutions and Chinese Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Approach explores these questions by studying the historical relationship between institutions and economic development in China, drawing comparisons with England, Japan and other Asian economies as appropriate. The investigation focuses on several junctures in China's economic development: the starting point of the divergence between China and the West; the externally-provoked industrial development in the late 19th century; and the contemporary Chinese Miracle. The analysis foregrounds the role played by Chinese institutions and examines their effects on both the country's failure to industrialize in the past and its economic achievements in recent time. The book also asks whether, without reform to the existing state institutions, China might still be subject to the historical dynastic cycles today, despite its recent economic success. This work is of great interest to students and scholars of the Chinese economy, economic history and institutional economics, as well as comparative history and Chinese studies more broadly.

Originally published in 1986, this is a business history of the first twenty-five years of nationalised railways in Britain. Commissioned by the British Railways Board and based on the Board's extensive archives, it fully analyses the dynamics of nationalised industry management and the complexities of the vital relationship with government. After exploring the origins of nationalisation, the book deals with the organisation, financial performance, investment and commercial policies of the British Transport Commission (1948 2), Railway Executive (1948 53) and British Railways Board (1963 73). Calculations of profit and loss, investment, and productivity are provided on a consistent basis for 1948 73. This business history thus represents a major contribution not only to the debate about the role of the railways in a modern economy but also to that concerning the nationalised industries, which have proved to be one of the most enduring problems of the British economy since the war.

Institutional economics is a sociocultural discipline and policy science which draws on the idea that economies are best understood through an appreciation of history, real-world institutions, and socioeconomic interrelations. This book brings together leading institutionalists to examine the tradition's most essential perspectives and methods. The contributors to the book draw on a broad range of institutional thought from the classic work of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, and Karl Polanyi, to the newer viewpoints of post-Keynesian institutionalism, feminist institutionalism, and environmental institutionalism. Methods range from frameworks used to analyze public policy and institutional change, to modes of analysis including myth busting, historically grounded narratives, and computer-based simulations. Each chapter surveys the origins, development, key features, applications, and frontiers of a particular viewpoint, framework, or mode of analysis. Due consideration is given to both strengths and weaknesses; and woven into the chapters is attention to core institutionalist concepts, including technology, institutions, culture, and complexity. The book provides economists with promising starting points for new research, students with contributions refreshingly in touch with the real world, and policymakers and social scientists with compelling reasons for engaging further with the institutionalist tradition.

This book provides a detailed picture of the institutionalist movement in American economics concentrating on the period between the two World Wars. The discussion brings a new emphasis on the leading role of Walton Hamilton in the formation of institutionalism, on the special importance of the ideals of science and social control embodied within the movement, on the large and close network of individuals involved, on the educational programs and research organizations created by institutionalists, and on the significant place of the movement within the mainstream of interwar American economics. In these ways the book focuses on the group most closely involved in the active promotion of the movement, on how they themselves constructed it, on its original intellectual appeal and promise, and on its institutional supports and sources of funding. The reasons for the movement's loss of appeal in the years around the end of World War II are also discussed, particularly in terms of the arrival of Keynesian economics, econometrics, and new definitions of science as applied to economics.

Institutional economics is a sociocultural discipline and policy science which draws on the idea that economies are best understood through an appreciation of history, real-world institutions, and socioeconomic interrelations. This book brings together leading institutionalists to examine the tradition's most essential perspectives and methods. The contributors to the book draw on a broad range of institutional thought from the classic work of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, and Karl Polanyi, to the newer viewpoints of post-Keynesian institutionalism, feminist institutionalism, and environmental institutionalism. Methods range from frameworks used to analyze public policy and institutional change, to modes of analysis including myth busting, historically grounded narratives, and computer-based simulations. Each chapter surveys the origins, development, key features, applications, and frontiers of a particular viewpoint, framework, or mode of analysis. Due consideration is given to both strengths and weaknesses; and woven into the chapters is attention to core institutionalist concepts, including technology, institutions, culture, and complexity. The book provides economists with promising starting points for new research, students with contributions refreshingly in touch with the real world, and policymakers and social scientists with compelling reasons for engaging further with the institutionalist tradition.

Philosophy of Economics: A Heterodox Introduction provides an introduction to the philosophy of economics through the prism of heterodoxy. Heterodox economics covers a range of approaches and schools of thought but what they have as a common denominator is the conviction that economic phenomena cannot be understood, and thus must not be studied, in isolation from their relevant context. Conversely, the current form of neoclassical economics emerged from the conviction that there is something like economic rationality sui generis which can be treated independently from all other aspects of our world, social or natural. Heterodox approaches challenge this conviction, from a variety of angles: the economic actor is not isolated, but lives in society which shapes him; market goods are only one kind of goods among others, constituting a larger set with ambiguous and shifting inner frontiers; production of goods takes place within nature, is subjected to physical laws and induces in most cases ecologically problematic fluxes of matter (e.g. waste); finally, the whole economic process in general is not in equilibrium, but shows secular trends through which it is connected to the historical world. This book demonstrates the vitality of these heterodox challenges from a philosophical point of view because not only do they formulate new hypotheses within economics, but they challenge economic theory on a much more fundamental level: how is the economy situated in the world, and which are the right methods for its investigation? This book is an ideal introduction for anyone seeking alternative or critical perspectives on the philosophy of economics and economic theory.

From unemployment to Brexit to climate change, capitalism is in trouble and ill-prepared to cope with the challenges of the coming decades. How did we get here? While contemporary economists and policymakers tend to ignore the political and social dimensions of capitalism, some of the great economists of the past - Adam Smith, Friedrich List, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi and Albert Hirschman - did not make the same mistake. Leveraging their insights, sociologists John L. Campbell and John A. Hall trace the historical development of capitalism as a social, political, and economic system throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They draw comparisons across eras and around the globe to show that there is no inevitable logic of capitalism. Rather, capitalism's performance depends on the strength of nation-states, the social cohesion of capitalist societies, and the stability of the international system - three things that are in short supply today.

This authoritative volume traces the creation and development of the EEC as an institution and assesses its impact on the economic development of Europe and the policy areas under its control.The book includes a thorough discussion of the background and origins of the European Economic Community. In the early years of post-war Europe, the continuous search for a multilateral commercial agreement resulted in various plans for European commercial cooperation. These schemes were proposed less in a desire for European integration and supranational institutions, than in response to real economic problems and were the precursors to the formation of the EEC. The next section investigates the process of creating the EEC including the road to integration of the major founding members, and the attitude of the United States to European integration. Finally, it discusses the economic development of the EEC since 1957. It explores major themes including the impact of the Community on trade and agriculture and on competition and financial policy, as well as the effects of its own enlargement. The study ends with the steps towards closer union embodied in the Treaty of Maastricht, which signalled the transformation of the European Economic Community into the European Union.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they promised to build a vibrant consumer society. But they faced a dilemma. They recognized that consolidating support for the regime required providing Germans with the products they desired. At the same time, the Nazis worried about the degrading cultural effects of mass consumption and its association with 'Jewish' interests. This book examines how both the state and private companies sought to overcome this predicament. Drawing on a wide range of sources - advertisements, exhibition programs, films, consumer research and marketing publications - the book traces the ways National Socialists attempted to create their own distinctive world of buying and selling. At the same time, it shows how corporate leaders and everyday Germans navigated what S. Jonathan Wiesen calls 'the Nazi marketplace'. A groundbreaking work that combines cultural, intellectual and business history, Creating the Nazi Marketplace offers an innovative interpretation of commerce and ideology in the Third Reich.

Wide appeal to scholars in the field of medieval history / A collection of papers by one of the foremost historians of the social and economic structure of rural communities / Includes a substantial corpus of Iberian evidence to set beside Frankish, Italian, English and Scandinavian material

Individualism has been one of the driving forces in the rise of modern capitalism, and methodological individualism has been dominant in social science for many years. In this paradigm the economy is seen as a machine to routinize production and improve efficiency, and the discipline of economics has come to focus on control and automation. Recent innovations in natural and social sciences, however, indicate a shift in thinking away from individualism and towards interconnectedness. The End of Individualism and the Economy: Emerging Paradigms of Connection and Community traces the origins of "the individual" in history, philosophy, economics, and social science. Drawing from linguistic philosophy, there is increasing attention to language as a social substrate for all institutions, including money and the market. One irony is that the "individual" is a key term, related to distinct institutions and associated expertise; that is, "the individual" is social. The book explores the influence of individualism in the subversion of class consciousness, the view of impersonality as a virtue, and the rise of financialization. The founding assumption of economics, the rational autonomous individual with exogenous tastes, undercuts social solidarity and blocks awareness of interconnections and interdependencies. The text looks forward and embraces the new paradigms and alternative forms of governance, economics, and science which can be developed based on collectives and communities, with new values, frameworks, and world views. This work is suitable for academics, students, scholars, and researchers with an interest in economic and social collectives and methodological individualism, as well as those studying the connections between economics and other disciplines in the social and natural sciences.

The Nature and Method of Economic Sciences: Evidence, Causality, and Ends argues that economic phenomena can be examined from five analytical levels: a statistical descriptive approach, a causal explanatory approach, a teleological explicative approach, a normative approach and, finally, the level of application. The above viewpoints are undertaken by different but related economic sciences, including statistics and economic history, positive economics, normative economics, and the 'art of political economy'. Typically, positive economics has analysed economic phenomena using the second approach, causally explaining and often trying to predict the future evolution of the economy. It has not been concerned with the ends selected by the individual or society, taking them as given. However, various new economic currents have emerged during the last 40 years, and some of these do assign a fundamental role to ends within economics. This book argues that the field of positive economics should adapt to deal with the issues that arise from this. The text attempts to discern the nature of economic phenomena, introducing the different approaches and corresponding economic sciences. It goes on to analyse the epistemological characteristics of these in the subsequent chapters, as well as their disciplinary interrelations. This book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of the social sciences, philosophy, and the philosophy of economics. It will also be of interest to those researching political economy and the development of economic thought.

The economist and historian Deirdre Nansen McCloskey has been best known recently for her Bourgeois Era trilogy, a vigorous defense, unrivaled in scope, of commercially tested betterment. Its massive volumes, The Bourgeois Virtues, Bourgeois Dignity, and Bourgeois Equality, solve Adam Smith's puzzle of the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, and of the moral sentiments of modernity. The world got rich, she argues, not chiefly by material causes but by an idea and a sentiment, a new admiration for the middle class and its egalitarian liberalism. For readers looking for a distillation of McCloskey's magisterial work, Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich is what you've been waiting for. In this lively volume, McCloskey and the economist and journalist Carden bring together the trilogy's key ideas and its most provocative arguments. The rise of the west, and now the rest, is the story of the rise of ordinary people to a dignity and liberty inspiring them to have a go. The outcome was an explosion of innovation after 1800, and a rise of real income by an astounding 3,000 percent. The Great Enrichment, well beyond the conventional Industrial Revolution, did not, McCloskey and Carden show, come from the usual suspects, capital accumulation or class struggle. It came from the idea of economic liberty in Holland and the Anglosphere, then Sweden and Japan, then Italy and Israel and China and India, an idea that bids fair in the next few generations to raise up the wretched of the earth. The original shift to liberalism arose 1517 to 1789 from theological and political revolutions in northwest Europe, upending ancient hierarchies. McCloskey and Carden contend further that liberalism and "innovism" made us better humans as well as richer ones. Not matter but ideas. Not corruption but improvement. Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich draws in entertaining fashion on history, economics, literature, philosophy, and popular culture, from growth theory to the Simpsons. It is the perfect introduction for a broad audience to McCloskey's influential explanation of how we got rich. At a time when confidence in the economic system is under challenge, the book mounts an optimistic and persuasive defense of liberal innovism, and of the modern world it has wrought.

Governments in developed and developing economies have increasingly turned to entrepreneurship and small businesses for economic growth, dynamism and economic and social inclusion. Policies seeking to encourage, support or otherwise influence these forms of economic activity are varied but virtually omnipresent, recommended by organisations such as the OECD and World Bank and implemented by governments of many political ideologies. With a range of activities across government labelled as enterprise policy, it is vital to unpick the different policies, initiatives and interventions and to understand their development in order to subject them to scrutiny and evaluate the actions taken in the name of enterprise. This book provides the first in-depth, historical analysis of enterprise policy in the United Kingdom. Successive UK governments have been particularly active, with the number of initiatives estimated recently at 3000 and expenditure reaching as high as GBP12bn, yet facing continuous criticisms for its use, value or relevance. This historical study of UK enterprise policy represents a case study of different forms of enterprise policy and how they have developed, or failed to develop, over time, contributing to understanding of government, small business and entrepreneurship. It will be of value to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students interested in the history of small business and entrepreneurship as well as standing as a history of a specific policy area and the ways in which policies involving many different areas of government develop over time.

China has experienced tremendous developmental success since its reform and opening-up policy in 1978. What has contributed to China's high-speed economic growth? What lessons can be learned from China's successful case? What might be the challenges that China would face on its path to becoming a high-income country? These are some critical questions this book addresses. Based on the facts and economic logic, this book briefly narrates the history of China's successful development in the past 40 years and explains why China's reform and opening-up has boosted the high-speed growth of its economy. Recognizing the change in the stage of economic development, the author reveals the emerging challenges facing China when transitioning from a middle-income country to a high-income country. He proposes that the country should transition from the demographic dividend to reform dividend to sustain the long-term development. With its scholarly analysis and plain language, this book would not only attract scholars and students in economics and China studies but also readers interested in the development of the Chinese economy.