Richard Layard is one of Britain's foremost applied economists. His work has had a profound impact on the policy debate in Britain and abroad. This book contains his most influential articles on education, equality and income distribution and on the lessons of economic transition in Eastern Europe. It is published along with a companion volume. "Educational Inequality" argues that lifetime inequality is the basic inequality we should worry about. In this context education is a powerful instrument of redistribution, as well as a national investment. Cash redistribution has efficiency costs which can be calculated, but it may also serve to discourage inefficient over-work arising from each person's efforts to earn more than his neighbor. A final series of essays is based on Layard's recent work on reform strategies in Russia and Poland. The book opens with Richard Layard's personal credo "Why I became an economist."

The book provides conceptual and empirical insights into the complex relationship between knowledge flows and regional growth in the EU. The author critically scrutinizes and enhances the RIS (Regional Innovation System) approach, discussing innovation as a technological, institutional and evolutionary process. Moreover, she advances the ongoing discourse on the role of space and technological proximity in the process of innovation and technological externalities. The book closes with an investigation of the role of technological change and knowledge spillovers in the dynamic growth and catching-up of EU regions. "

To follow.

In modern economies a substantial proportion of resources is increasingly allocated to transaction costs. An improvement in the definition of transaction costs to include both the information role and efficiency role requires an integration of the approaches of positive economics and normative economics. In The Economics of Transaction Costs P.K. Rao provides a comprehensive analytical treatment of the subject and suggests a few directions for formal economic models.

Competition and efficiency is at the core of economic theory. This volume collects papers of leading scholars, which extend the conventional general equilibrium model in important ways: Efficiency and price regulation are studied when markets are incomplete and existence of equilibria in such settings is proven under very general preference assumptions. The model is extended to include geographical location choice, a commodity space incorporating manufacturing imprecision and preferences for club-membership, schools and firms. Inefficiencies arising from household externalities or group membership are evaluated. Core equivalence is shown for bargaining economies. The theory of risk aversion is extended and the relation between risk taking and wealth is experimentally investigated. Other topics include determinacy in OLG with cash-in-advance constraints, income distribution and democracy in OLG, learning in OLG and in games, optimal pricing of derivative securities, the impact of heterogeneity at the individual level for aggregate consumption, and adaptive contracting in view of uncertainty.

Despite Keynes' achievement in developing his theory of monetary economy, he failed to integrate some important real effects investment into his analysis. Specifically, he neglected the role of replacement investment, although his anticipations of the q-theory laid the groundwork for a theory of replacement investment.;This book integrates Keynes' observations about the q-theory into a coherent theory of replacement investment. It demonstrates why, in the absence of a significant post-war depression, business was relieved of the need to replace obsolete capital goods, thereby leading the economy into a period of prolonged stagnation.;Michael Perelman is the author of several books including "Karl Marx's Crisis Theory - Labor, Scarcity and Fictitious Capital".

The theory of capitalism and of the economic order is the central topic of the German economic tradition in the 20th century. Capitalism has not only been the topic for Marxist economics and for the Frankfurt School but also for the Historical School and for the postmarxist theory of capitalism in Ordo- and Neo-Liberalism as well as in Solidarism. The question of the foundations of the economic order of the market economy and of capitalism as well as the problem whether a third path between capitalism and social ism is possible occupied this tradition from the Historical School to Ordo Liberalism and the theory of the social market economy. The theory of capitalism and of the social market economy as well as the critique and reform developed in this theoretical tradition is important for the theory of economic systems as well as for today's problems of the eco nomic order. Its relevance for the present world economy is visible in the discussions whether there exist different models of capitalism and whether they can be described as the Anglo-American and as the Rhenish model of capitalism influenced by the thought of the German economic tradition. Michel Albert, the author of this classification, gave the key-word in his book Capitalism against Capitalism. The papers of this book can help to clarify this debate by giving a first hand introduction to some of the main economic thinkers of capitalism."

In Debt, Innovations, and Deflation, the authors analyze the deflation theories of Thorstein Veblen, Irving Fisher, Joseph A. Schumpeter, and Hyman Minsky. In so doing, they develop a paradigm for understanding the phenomenon of deflation. They explain how technological, organizational, and financial innovations, combined with developments related to the creation and use of debt, give rise to conditions in which both deflation and inflation can be present in the modern economy. The past several years have ushered in a new era in economic policy issues. After decades of concern over inflation, a series of studies brought to light the potentially greater danger of deflation. In response, the authors provide a critical re-examination of the literature and theories of deflation. A driving question behind the research is whether post-World War II capitalist economies rely on economic policies and institutional reforms to keep an inherent tendency toward deflation in check? And can the theories of Veblen, Fisher, Schumpeter and Minsky shed light on how the creation and use of debt can create a modern economy affected simultaneously by deflation and inflation? Scholars and students of economic history and finance will enjoy this insightful examination of the subject.

Hal Varian, in the course of a long and distinguished career, has made a seminal contribution to many branches of economics. His path-breaking work on the development of economic theory, finance, industrial organization and econometrics is represented in this important new collection of key articles published over the last twenty years. The book highlights Hal Varian's influence upon equity, dynamics, price discrimination, economic incentives, revealed preference, econometrics, public goods and economic methodology. Many of the papers are not easily accessible through other sources and so this book will be an invaluable point of reference for scholars and graduate students.

This is a book on the basics of mathematics and computation and their uses in economics for modern day students and practitioners. The reader is introduced to the basics of numerical analysis as well as the use of computer programs such as Matlab and Excel in carrying out involved computations. Sections are devoted to the use of Maple in mathematical analysis. Examples drawn from recent contributions to economic theory and econometrics as well as a variety of end of chapter exercises help to illustrate and apply the presented concepts.

This is a study of the need for an economics that addresses social provisioning in the context of power and culture. The author argues that such an approach is necessary to the development of an analysis that treats human wants and technology as endogenous variables, thereby avoiding the atavism inherent in conventional economics epistemology. Only in this way can the requisite re-viewing of the place of economy in society be brought to bear in an economic analysis capable of addressing the seemingly intractable problems of the democratic capitalist societies.

Amartya Sen "Equality," I spoke the word As if a wedding vow Ah, but I was so much older then, I am younger than that now. Thus sang Bob Dylan in 1964. Approbation of equality varies not only with our age (though it is not absolutely clear in which direction the values may shift over one's life time), but also with the spirit of the times. The 1960s were good years for singing in praise of equality. The spirit of the present times would probably be better reflected by melodies in admiration of the Federal Reserve System. And yet the technical literature on the evaluation and measurement of economic inequality has grown remarkably over the last three decades. Even as actual economic policies (especially in North America and Europe) have tended to move towards focusing on virtues other than the avoidance of economic inequality, the professional literature on assessing and gauging economic inequality has taken quite a jump forward. A great many different problems have been addressed and effectively sorted out, and new problems continue to be posed and analyzed. The Contents: A Review Jacques Silber has done a great service to the subject by producing this collection of admirablyhelpful and illuminating papers on different aspects of the measurement of income inequality. The reach of this collection is quite remarkable. Along with a thorough overview from the editor himself, the major areas in this complex field have been carefully examined and accessibly discussed.

The last two decades have seen a reshaping of the international economy together with a radical weakening in the conditions of the working class. New productive techniques and methods in the organization of labour have been implemented on a world-wide scale partly as a consequence of the financialization of capital. The geographical diffusion of market relations has continued and with it the dominance of capital in all realms of social reproduction. In charting this change, the book offers an alternative view of contemporary capitalism. It has been suggested that we are entering a new phase where the 'globalization' of economic activities is fully achieved, where 'post-Fordist' regulation has overcome the crisis of Keynesian capitalism, and where the dominant tendency is towards the 'end of work'. In contrast to this view, the authors of this book argue that current internationalization is not a structure, but a contradictory process and that new patterns in the division of labour while successful in increasing the pressure over workers have not been able to supersede Fordism entirely. They conclude that the slow growth of the economies, caused by neoliberal economic policies, is a crucial factor in explaining unemployment and the fragmentation of labour.

not gentle to the capitalists" (Schumpeter, 1991). Thus, by instead portraying the conflict between entreprenuerial activity and the sociology of the modern state, he came quite close to the analysis carried out by Thorstein Veblen some decades earlier, who emphasized the conflict between p- gressive technology and the institutions of a contemporary "predatory dynastic State of early modern times, superficially altered by a suffusion of democratic and parliamentary institutions" (Veblen, 1964, p. 398). Modern neo-Schumpeterian approaches have continued to build on this groundwork provided by their master. During recent years there has been a great upsurge of discussion on technology, innovations, technological regimes, etc. from the dynamic perspective provided by Schumpeter (Dosi, 1984, Rosegger, 1985; Dosi et al., 1988). Thus the search process for (t- poral) extra profits has been stressed and has been used for modelling attempts. The wider institutional framework for technological change and innovation activity has also been strongly developed more recently. Hence emphasis has grown in the study of technological and industrial regimes, path dependency, and the network approach, developed recently, that social relationships structure the opportunities and constraints that face firms and agents that, for example, carry out innovations (Snehota, 1990).

In recent years nonlinearities have gained increasing importance in economic and econometric research, particularly after the financial crisis and the economic downturn after 2007. This book contains theoretical, computational and empirical papers that incorporate nonlinearities in econometric models and apply them to real economic problems. It intends to serve as an inspiration for researchers to take potential nonlinearities in account. Researchers should be aware of applying linear model-types spuriously to problems which include non-linear features. It is indispensable to use the correct model type in order to avoid biased recommendations for economic policy.

This book sheds new light on the political economy of public management reform. It examines the new forms of economic decentralization and macroeconomic adjustment, and discusses their implications for policy design and regulation.The authors discuss leading-edge research on public management reform, privatization and decentralization in both industrialized and aid-dependent countries, concentrating on the meso-level of institutional response. Combining theory, case studies and institutional analysis, they focus on issues including public/private partnerships, public finance and aid allocation. The authors also present new ideas on the design of a regulatory framework. This book will be welcomed by academics and researchers working in the fields of development studies, development economics, political economy and international public management as well as policymakers working for government agencies and NGOs in developing countries.

Keynes's personality was fixed by the clash between Moorean values - other-worldliness, idealism, pacifism - and Keynes's own nature which craved and attained worldly success, wealth and social influence and approbation. The result was an 'existential' outlook that caused him to become particularly sensitive to the human condition, to human suffering and to real concern. Accordingly, Keynes came to see the world through human, down-to-earth, social nd psychological categories, which were opposed to the 'devine' Platonism of classical economics. This book is thus opposed to the recent probability-based interpretations of Keynes's mature work.

This book focuses on various aspects of dynamic game theory, presenting state-of-the-art research and serving as a guide to the vitality and growth of the field. A valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in dynamic game theory, it covers a broad range of topics and applications, including repeated and stochastic games, differential dynamic games, optimal stopping games, and numerical methods and algorithms for solving dynamic games. The diverse topics included will also benefit researchers and graduate students in applied mathematics, economics, engineering, systems and control, and environmental science.

The growing turbulence of today's economic life requires innovative approaches to economics. There have been recent dissident works examining both micro- and macroeconomics which call into question orthodox indicators of economic performance--such as profit and gross national product. The present work adds to such innovative economic thought by offering an indeterministic conceptualization of different levels of an economy and by elaborating a variety of stages of economic development, each with its respective measure of performance.

The main conclusions arrived at in this unique work suggest that the fundamental tenets of present-day economic thought must be re-examined. * The overall scheme of measuring changes in economics based on constant prices for some base year must be redesigned in order to avoid measuring development under the guise of measuring growth; * The market price of a business has to be set on the basis of the value of its potential. * It is advisable to measure the firM's current economic performance based on the criterion which designates the gap between the firM's potential and a properly defined ideal state; * Methods of teaching business should be distinguished depending on students' expected right-brain or left-brain orientation; * It is important to realize that the subjective elements of decision-making by the leaders of an economic system or subsystem are intrinsic to indeterministic development of the economy.

Free Money for All makes the case for a basic income guarantee of $10,000 per adult US citizen. The book shows that a basic income guarantee will increase gross national happiness and gross national freedom, while helping to mitigate some of the worst consequences of rising technological unemployment.

The book assesses the most exciting experiment in modern economic history - the German currency union of 1990 - on three levels. Firstly the international consequences are analysed utilising different paradigms of monetary theory. These controversial results lead to a closer look at the relationship between monetary policy and production in Germany, and thirdly, the book concludes with a reconsideration of the old economic question, whether money matters, applied to the German case.

An examination of the future of economic policy in the next millennium, assessing the reasons for the shift to a more sceptical view of the role of government given the power of the financial markets and the impact of globalization. These contributions from within the political economy tradition emphasise the important lessons from the past about the varieties of forms of capitalism, the importance of public institutions and public policy and the limitations of the rival laissez-faire approach. The dangers of an unregulated and powerful financial sector for the real side of the economy are a particular focus of attention. Proposals to rectify the shortcomings of financial markets and shift the focus of policy to a greater concern for the poor and excluded are put forward. The message to the economic policy-makers of the future is that markets perform valuable economic and social functions, but perform these better when appropriately regulated and controlled.

Basic income is an innovative, powerful egalitarian response to widening global inequalities and poverty experiences in society, one that runs counter to the neoliberal transformations of modern welfare states, social security, and labor market programs. This book is the first collective volume of its kind to ask whether a basic income offers a viable solution to the income support systems in Australia and New Zealand. Though often neglected in discussions of basic income, both countries are advanced liberal democracies dominated by neoliberal transformations of the welfare state, and therefore have great potential to advance debates on the topic. The contributors' essays and case studies explore the historical basis on which a basic income program might stand in these two countries, the ideological nuances and complexities of implementing such a policy, and ideas for future development that might allow the program to be put into practice regionally and applied internationally.

Taiwan, the Republic of China, has been striving to reform its financial system, and in the process, become a financial power, both regionally within the Pacific Rim of Asia, and, globally, given the rapidly increasing economic and financial significance of this area. In a unique book written from an interdisciplinary and well-balanced legal, financial and economics perspective that is both theoretical and practical, Semkow comprehensively analyzes and discusses the scope and direction financial and capital market reform has taken in Taiwan, and its implications for existing and newly emerging financial institutions in Taiwan and elsewhere.

Having introduced the problems underlying and the significance of Taiwanese financial reform, the author provides a thorough overview of the entire spectrum of existing and newly-emerging domestic and international financial institutions within Taiwan, and the various financial regulators, including the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of China, and the regulatory framework through which both financial institutions and regulators operate. The author examines in detail the various financial markets, including the financial, money, offshore banking, foreign exchange and securities (equity, debt and derivative) markets, and the major recent and imminent legislative and regulatory initiatives undertaken to reform these markets and elevate Taiwan's status as a regional, and by implication, a global financial center. This book will provide both foreign and Taiwanese financial, legal, business, and public policy and academic communities interested in Asian and Taiwanese business and finance an invaluable legal and financial guide to the rapidly emerging and increasing significance of Taiwanese banking and finance in this decade and into the next century.

This thoroughly revised and updated second edition provides a comprehensive guide to Post Keynesian methodology, theory and policy prescriptions. The Companion reflects the challenges posed by the global financial crisis that began in 2008 and by the consolidation of the New Neoclassical Synthesis in macroeconomic theory. There are 41 entirely new entries, marking the emergence of a new generation of Post Keynesian scholars. The central issues that were dealt with in the first edition remain at the core of the book, but much more attention is paid in this second edition to financial markets, to Post Keynesian economics outside its traditional Anglo-American heartland and to gender issues and environmental policy. Including major theoretical, methodological and policy issues in Post Keynesian economics, this enriching Companion will strongly appeal to postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students in economics as well as related social science disciplines including international political economy, international relations, politics, public policy and sociology. Contributors: A. Altuzarra, P. Arestis, T. Asada, A. Barba, T. Baskoy, J. Bibow, S. Blankenburg, R.A. Blecker, H. Bloch, A. Brown, D. Bunting, F.J. Cardim de Carvalho, V. Chick, J. Cornwall, W. Cornwall, J. Courvisanos, C. Danby, F. Dantas, P. Davidson, L.F. De Paula, D. Dequech, S.C. Dow, P. Downward, S. Dullien, S.P. Dunn, A.K. Dutt, S. Fazzari, F. Ferrari-Filho, B. Fine, G. Fontana, M. Forstater, G. Fujii, R. Garnett, B. Gerrard, M. Glickman, G.C. Gu, G.C. Harcourt, J.T. Harvey, M. Hayes, E. Hein, J.F. Henry, G. Hewitson, M.C. Howard, P. Howells, T. Jefferson, J. Jespersen, T.-H. Jo, D.W. Katzner, S. Keen, S. Kelton, J.E. King, P. Kriesler, M. Lavoie, J. Leclaire, F.S. Lee, J. Lodewijks, M.C. Marcuzzo, J.S.L. McCombie, E.J. McKenna, A. Mearman, J. Melmies, W. Mitchell, G. Mongiovi, T. Mott, T. Mouakil, Y. Nersisyan, J.W. Nevile, T. Niechoj, R. O'Donnell, P.A. O'Hara, A. Pacella, T.I. Palley, G. Palma, C. Panico, S.D. Parsons, N. Perry, M. Pivetti, R. Pollin, S. Pressman, J. Priewe, A. Razmi, R. Realfonzo, C. Rider, L.-P. Rochon, C.J. Rodriguez-Fuentes, S. Rossi, C. Sardoni, M. Sawyer, R.H. Scott III, M. Setterfield, N. Shapiro, H.J. Sherman, P. Skott, J. Smithin, E. Stockhammer, R. Studart, P.R. Tcherneva, A.P. Thirlwall, Z. Todorova, J. Toporowski, G. Tortorella Esposito, A.B. Trigg, E. Tymoigne, L. Ussher, T. Van Treeck, A. Vercelli, M. Vernengo, M. Watts, E. Webster, A. Winnett, M.H. Wolfson, L.R. Wray, D.C. Zannoni