The scholars invited to contribute the primary essays for this collection were given three mandates. The first was to survey the contemporary research in their assigned fields and to provide a bibliography that would give any interested scholar an entree into the literature. The second was to develop their own interpretive perspective on the economic literature of their assigned period. The third, and perhaps the most difficult, was to be very brief and concise. In a project of this type it would be difficult to extrapolate themes or evolutionary sequences that run through the literature over the two thousand years spanned by this survey. To some degree, the invited commentators provide a fund of suggestions that will stimulate interested readers to pursue this line of synthesis for themselves. The editor of this collection did not even entertain the idea of trying to coordinate the presentations and commentaries of this intellectually erudite and diverse group of scholars into agreed upon lines of interpretation. There is enough material, however, to provide a reference base for the interested scholar who desires to follow particular ideas from period to period.

A critical perspective on the foundations of economic theory showing the importance of ethical considerations and focusing in particular on altruism, cooperation and equity. Mainstream neoclassical economics is analysed and challenged from a moral and socio-economic perspective, emphasizing the relationship between economics, ethics and politics. Throughout the book the nature of homo economicus is contrasted with that of homo ethicus. Their different moral principles, behavioural rules and values are compared and the importance of this battle for a good and civilised society is emphasised.

In this volume, international scholars challenge neoliberalism on its assumptions, way of reasoning and empirical evidence. In particular, they discuss critically, from the standpoint of radical perspectives, the issues of limiting the state and privatization, inflation and unemployment, and the possibility of a socialist society. They also discuss the current project for the monetary and economic union (EMU) of Europe, considered as an application of neoliberalism. They assess and question the internal market, the common currency and central bank independence and investigate alternatives to the EMU project and the marketization agenda.

Essays in Economic Theory, first published in 1983, combines two essays on game theory and its applications in economics. The first, "Learning Behavior and the Noncooperative Equilibrium", considers whether an adaptive justification, like those commonly available for the optimization models frequently employed elsewhere in economics, can be found for the Nash noncooperative equilibrium. The second essay, "A Game of Fair Division", was motivated by the desire to find attractive methods for solving allocation problems and bargaining disputes that are simple enough to provide useful alternatives to existing methods. It studies in detail one such simple method: the classical "divide-and-choose" procedure. This book will be of interest to students of economics.

This book, first published in 1989, addresses an issue that stood at the centre of sociological concern - the changing character of industrial societies. The authors examine the nature of the industrialization process, in terms of its impact upon and development within both state socialist and capitalist societies. Is 'industrialism' a constant phenomenon within both kinds of society, or are distinctive differences apparent? In the 1960s, it did seem that economic growth and technological change were producing similarities in social structure between the different socio-political systems; it now appears however that the crisis that have developed during the 1980s how illustrated their contrasts. Through the analysis of this trend in the West, in Eastern Europe and in China the authors clarify central issues for the student of sociology: The changing character of national states, organized labour, stratification systems and class relationships Processes of social integration, cohesion and control The extent to which dominant groups are able to sustain social and economic privileges in different socio-economic systems The changing pattern of work and employment relationships The nature of class, gender and ethnicity as sources of socio-economic division

This authoritative collection assesses the scope and limitations of public choice theory for informing the choices of policy-makers. Theoretical contributions are combined with case studies of specific areas of economic policy, including the growth of budget deficits under Reagan and Thatcher; European economic integration; macroeconomic management; science and technology and housing policy.

One of the reasons which make the Keynesian controversy still so live, is the missing distinction between aspects concerning methodology and others pertaining to theory. Another cause of the ongoing debate is to be found in unsettled problems concerning methodology, in primis the concept the equilibrium. Nor could the situation have been different, given, on the one hand, Keynes's manifest disaffection with these matters (especially in The General Theory) and, on the other hand, their implications as regards Keynesian economic theory and policy. The aim of this volume ensues from this analysis; accordingly, a wide spectrum of questions of method are considered and different interpretations of Keynes's approach in this field are taken into consideration.

William Beveridge (1879-1963) was a key figure in the modernization of British economic and social policy who published widely on unemployment and social security. Among his most notable works and reprinted in this set are, Full Employment in a Free Society (1944), and Pillars of Security (1943). Beveridge's Report on social insurance was published in 1942. It proposed that all people of working age should pay a weekly national insurance contribution. In return, benefits would be paid to people who were sick, unemployed, retired or widowed. Beveridge included as one of three fundamental assumptions the fact that there would be a National Health Service of some sort. Beveridge's arguments were widely accepted. He argued that welfare institutions would increase the competitiveness of British industry in the post-war period, not only by shifting labour costs like healthcare and pensions onto the public account but also by producing healthier, wealthier and more productive workers. Beveridge saw full employment as the pivot of the social welfare programme he expressed in the 1942 report. As well as making available some of Beveridge's key, and in some case, lesser known works, this set includes as its final volume an indispensable overview of Beveridge and his prolific work.

Why it is so difficult for liberal economic ideas to become generally accepted (that is socially 'embedded') in industrialising countries despite the universal support for liberal political ideas and a single global market system? Drawing on the results of a sustained and collaborative interdisciplinary research project, international scholars provide a perspective on previous shifts towards (and away from) economic liberalism within Latin America, on the interaction of internal and external drivers in this process, and on the international context of the evolution of economic ideas.

This book is a collection of academic lectures given on fintech, a topic that has been written about extensively but only from a business or technological point of view. In contrast to other publications on the subject, this book shows the reader how fintech should be understood in relation to economics, financial theory, policy, and law. It provides introductory explanations on fintech-related concepts and instruments such as blockchains, crypto assets, machine learning, high-frequency trading, and AI. The collected lectures also point to surrounding issues including start-ups, monetary policy, asset management, cyber and other security, and stability of financial systems. The authors include professors, a former central bank official, current officials at Japan's Financial Services Authority, a lawyer, the former dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute, and private sector professionals at the frontline of fintech. The book is most suitable for those both within and outside of academia who are beginning to learn about fintech and wish to successfully take part in the revolution that is certain to have wide-ranging effects on our economy and society.

Energy price rises have been amongst the biggest change that has taken place in our society over the last few decades. Their impact, particularly when this book was first published in 1983, had a growing importance in social policy, practice and research, and fuel was, and still is, a major public issue. This collection of essays describes how any why domestic fuel prices have been rising faster than other prices and incomes, what impacts this has on domestic budgets, and the extent of 'fuel poverty'. The resulting problems of debts, disconnections, cold conditions and hypothermia are discussed by specialists in these fields. This book is ideal for students of economics and social policy.

This book provides an intellectual portrait of Robert Heilbroner. It traces the development of his work and places it within the literature of economic thought. The book finds that Heilbroner is a writer of political economy in the classical sense. His work is more reminiscent of Smith or Marx than of contemporary economic theorists. Heilbroner's economics is built on a solid foundation of social psychology, evolutionary dynamics and human history. This holistic approach affords Heilbroner a wide latitude to define the economic process and the discipline that studies it.

Here, two highly experienced authors present an alternative approach to optimal stopping problems. The basic ideas and techniques of the approach can be explained much simpler than the standard methods in the literature on optimal stopping problems. The monograph will teach the reader to apply the technique to many problems in economics and finance, including new ones. From the technical point of view, the method can be characterized as option pricing via the Wiener-Hopf factorization.

In 1936 Keynes published the most provocative book written by any economist of his generation. Arguments about the book continued until his death in 1946 and still continue today. This new edition, published 70 years after the original, features a new introduction by Paul Krugman which discusses the significance and continued relevance of "The General Theory,"

This volume, and a subsequent one, contain several new papers on index number and aggregation theory, as well as some previously published papers, by W.E. Diewert and co-authors. The two volumes study aggregation problems in economics, primarily the aggregation over goods problem. However, some of the chapters also touch on aspects of the aggregation over agents problem. In the present volume the reader can find, according to his/her requirements, either a short course on index number theory; a more in-depth course; or chapters on specific topics such as the measurement of inequality, functional forms for social welfare functions, or the theory of choice under uncertainty. Students and researchers will appreciate having these papers easily accessible. The book will be valuable too for those in the government agencies around the world that produce price statistics, insuring an understanding of important properties of alternative indexes, and of how economists use and interpret price indexes.

Improved understanding of the key role of financial aspects in the growth and development of economic systems is an important aspect of economic analysis. This first textbook on development finance provides a comprehensive coverage of this new area of economics. The book integrates relevant theoretical approaches and their policy applications. A unique perspective combines transaction cost economics and neoclassical economics. The author also treats important policy issues of national and international relevance. The roles of public and private finance, domestic and external finance, short-term and long-term capital flows, sovereign debt management features, country risk and other determinants of foreign direct investments, multilateral official development assistance and development of financial institutions are some of the topics examined in this book.

Making the Environment Count brings together, in one accessible volume, an outstanding selection of Alan Randall's essays published over the past 30 years. It explores ideas on making the environment count from a conceptual perspective and addresses a range of topics pertinent to the study of environmental economics including: the limits of markets in reflecting environmental quality, and the implications of this for policy and institutional design cost-benefit analysis, with emphasis on its welfare-theoretic foundations, and its ability to reflect the public's demand for environmental quality conservation, biodiversity and sustainability developments in methodology the ethical foundations of public policy conceptual foundations of empirical methods of valuing the environment By improving access to Alan Randall's many important contributions, this volume makes a significant addition to the literature and will be welcomed by environmental economists.

These essays develop a Marxist response to and approach to aspects of the recent economic past in the United Kingdom. They reflect issues and controversies that have arisen within economic policy debate and the economic theory associated with the debate, highlighting the problematic nature of economic policy in the period since the mid-1970s. The book, first published in 1986, develops a line of argument organized around issues of 'calculation', thus challenging the orthodox Marxist framework and presenting a neo-Marxist analysis.

Joan Robinson is widely considered to be amongst the greatest economists of the 20th Century. This book provides a comprehensive study of her life and work, examining her role in the making of The General Theory, her critical interest in Marxian eocnomics, her contributions to Labour Party policy and her writings on development, especially China.

This book shows the necessity of measuring the incidence-basis indirect economic effects of public investments. The essential argument can be traced back to H. Mohring versus J. Tinbergen, the conclusions of one contradicting those of the other. Their arguments are called, respectively, "transfer" and "existing theory" of the indirect economic effect of public investments such as highways. The author has first defined the categories of "generation-basis" and "incidence-basis" economic effects in addition to the categories of direct and indirect economic effects, and has shown that it is essential to measure the incidence-basis indirect economic effects for decision making about public investments. The second major point is that, in this sense, the measurement must rely on the general and dynamic spatial modeling simulation approach. The third essential point is that Tinbergen is correct as far as we have to cope with a real setting in which the Marshallian type of external economies exists. Another characteristic is that the monetary (pecuniary) external economies are dealt with systematically, for the superiority of public investment criteria depends greatly on whether they are taken hold of or not. This book lays emphasis on the process toward the equilibrium, not the equilibrium itself.

Steve Forbes, Nathan Lewis, and Elizabeth Ames reveal what is behind the inflationary storm that is wreaking havoc on American pocketbooks. "This important book should be read by the Federal Reserve and by all of us who care about our way of life." -Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) "A scintillating emergency manual for financial survival." -George Gilder Inflation: What It Is, Why It's Bad, and How to Fix It explains what's behind the worst inflationary storm in more than forty years-one that is dominating the headlines and shaking Americans by their pocketbooks. The cost-of-living explosion since the COVID pandemic has raised alarms about a possible return of a 1970's-style "Great Inflation." Some observers even fear a descent into the kind of Weimar-style hyperinflation that has torn apart so many nations. Is this true? If so, what should be done? How should we prepare for the future? Inflation answers these and other questions in an engaging discussion that draws on the singular expertise of Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, acclaimed for his insights on money and the economy; Nathan Lewis, internationally renowned expert on money and taxation; and author and journalist Elizabeth Ames. The authors say that today's problems can be solved by discarding longstanding beliefs that helped bring on the current crisis. They include the notion that central banks can create prosperity through artificially creating money "out of thin air," and also that economic "stability" requires "a little inflation." Such ideas for decades have been Holy Writ in official Washington. Inflation shows why they are misguided. The book also explains why the current rage for heedless money-printing advocated by left-wing advocates of so-called Modern Monetary Theory is likely to lead the nation-and the world-down the road to disaster. Packed with examples from the headlines and from history Inflation is a unique, real-world exploration of the subject that addresses everyday concerns of Americans under siege by rising prices, including steps you should take to protect your wealth. Inflation is essential reading for everyone seeking to navigate these tumultuous times.

In many parts of the world, weather and climate are one of the biggest production risks and uncertainty factors impacting on agricultural systems performance and management. Both structural and non-structural measures can be used to reduce the impacts of the variability (including extremes) of climate resources on crop production. While the structural measures include strategies such as irrigation, water harvesting, windbreaks etc., the non-structural measures include use of seasonal to interannual climate forecasts, improved application of medium-range weather forecasts and crop insurance. This book based on an International Workshop held in New Delhi, India should be of interest to all organizations and agencies interested in improved risk management in agriculture.

This book focuses on the analysis of liability rules of tort law from an efficiency perspective, presenting a comprehensive analysis of these rules in a self-contained and rigorous yet accessible manner. It establishes general results on the efficiency of liability rules, including complete characterizations of efficient liability rules and efficient incremental liability rules. The book also establishes that the untaken precaution approach and decoupled liability are incompatible with efficiency. The economic analysis of tort law has established that for efficiency it is necessary that each party to the interaction must be made to internalize the harm resulting from the interaction. The characterization and impossibility theorems presented in this book establish that, in addition to internalization of the harm by each party, there are two additional requirements for efficiency. Firstly, rules must be immune from strategic manipulation. Secondly, rules must entail closure with respect to the parties involved in the interaction giving rise to the negative externality, i.e., the liability must not be decoupled.

Rapid economic changes throughout the world economy offer new possibilities for economic development. Yet the multitude of people in an impoverished underclass often find the burst of economic development in their country continues to exclude them. As technologies and demographics reshape economies, the underclass finds its skills increasingly peripheral to the urban economy into which it is drawn. The daunting task before Mexico in raising the living standards of its people is carefully analyzed with the help of economic theory. The current focus on Mexico and Latin America since the passage of NAFTA makes this a particularly relevant book for economists and readers interested in labor, international topics, and in Mexico.

Written on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Piero Sraffa's "Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities," the papers selected and contained in "Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory" account for the work completed around the two central aspects of his contribution to economic analysis, namely the criticism of the neoclassical (or marginalist) theory of value and distribution, and the reconstruction of economic theory along the lines of the classical approach. Divided into three volumes, "Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory" debates the most fruitful routes for advancements in this field and their implications for applied and policy analysis.
This third volume collects papers concerning the evolution of Sraffa's ideas and the interpretation of his contribution in relation to other streams in economics, methodology and the history of economic thought.