Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. This Advanced Introduction presents a focused narrative about political decision-making based on the work that has defined public choice as a discipline. Randall G. Holcombe emphasizes the theoretical foundations of Public Choice, examining the way that voter preferences are aggregated through democratic decision-making, the way that political exchange leads to the production of public policy, and the way that the constitutional framework within which political activity takes place is designed. He provides a concise discussion of the main models of Public Choice in an engaging manner, giving readers a foundation for understanding the theoretical and empirical work in the field. Each chapter ends with a Notes section that discusses the research on which the chapter is based, with an emphasis on the pioneering work that has shaped the development of Public Choice. Undergraduate and graduate level students in economics, political science and public administration will find this introduction an essential resource for understanding political decision making. Instructors in those fields will find this book a useful and affordable text and an indispensable resource for teaching Public Choice.

In the past, economists have not always been able to agree on the idea that copyright is an efficient way of protecting cultural intellectual property. Indeed, many economists argue that copyright is not even necessary. In Copyright and Economic Theory a rigorously extensive yet simplified economic theory of copyright piracy is presented, and used to analyse important aspects of intellectual property transactions including the royalty contract, optimal copyright law, and copyright collectives. The author also analyses important areas of discussion in copyright, such as how can it be that a certain degree of piracy is beneficial, not only socially, but also for copyright holders and producers of originals? Are linear royalty contracts optimal? How many copyright collectives should a given economy have? Would a copyright collective prefer to act as a leader or a follower in a Stackelberg duopoly? The book analyses and contrasts existing theories concerning the economic theory of copyright, and presents a simple economic model in which copyright can be effectively studied, considering all principal areas of interest in copyright. This book will be fascinating reading for academics in economics, law and industrial organisation as well as for legal professionals including lawyers, copyright collectives and relevant governmental organisations.

The book analyzes the evolution of the concept of comparative advantage from the eighteenth century to the present day. It examines the origins of the concept of comparative advantage, its current status within economic thought and its validity in today's global economy.This comprehensive book outlines the theories of trade and the interpretations of comparative advantage associated with, among others, the Mercantilists, Smith, Ricardo, Torrens, Longfield, Mill, Marshall, Pareto, Haberler, Heckscher, Ohlin and Samuelson, as well as present day trade theorists. A chapter is devoted to Hamilton, Rae and List, who interpreted comparative advantage dynamically by advocating its creation. The book breaks new ground by reinterpreting the theories of trade associated with prominent economists such as Ricardo, and drawing attention to valuable but lesser known contributions. It considers the new trade theory from the past two decades as a legitimate successor to the dynamic views of comparative advantage of the classical economists. This book will be required reading for students and academics with an interest in the history of economic thought and the economics (or theory) of international trade.

These volumes gather together a selection of autobiographical essays written by significant economists whose work is generally recognized to be at the forefront of the discipline as we enter the twenty-first century. The essays are largely based on introductions to volumes in the Edward Elgar series Economists of the Twentieth Century (which collects together the key papers of these economists). This volume focuses on leading economists who were born, or have spent the greater part of their lives, in America. The main chapters are accompanied by an introduction in which the editors place the autobiographical essays in a wider context. Economists will be fascinated by: * the stories that lie behind familiar names * why economists approach problems the way they do * how careers develop * how economists view what they are doing. These are all points that are invisible to those who simply read the published output of economics, so readers will gain personal insights into the development of the field. The books will be a valuable resource for economists, particularly historians of economic thought, as well as sociologists concerned with the economics profession, and those interested in the creative process and the social and scientific development of economics.

El termino economia politica -como fue conocida nuestra ciencia por mas de dos siglos- se introdujo por primera ocasion en el ano 1615. Durante los siglos XVII y XVIII, gran cantidad de pensadores aportaron sus observaciones y fueron integrando un cuerpo de saberes que en 1776 Adam Smith conjuntaria en un cuerpo teorico del que naceria como ciencia la Economia. A partir de Smith y durante casi un siglo, de 1776 hasta la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, los economistas se referiran a la economia como economia politica. Cuando leemos la gran cantidad de obras maestras de este periodo que llevaban el titulo de Principios de Economia Politica encontramos que compartian una caracterisitica fundamental, su interes en el origen del valor, en la creacion de la renta y su distribucion entre los tres grandes grupos economicos: los trabajadores, los propietarios de la tierra y los capitalistas industriales. No fue sino hasta las dos ultimas decadas del siglo XIX que Alfred Marshall y los miembros de la escuela neoclasica dejarian de utilizar el termino politica para referirse a ella unicamente como Economia, abandonando el interes por el estudio de la creacion del valor y la distribucion del ingreso, estudio que llevaba irremediablemente a estudiar temas tan sensibles como el de la pobreza, la explotacion y la inequidad. A partir de ese momento la economia se divorcia de la sociologia y se ve incapacitada de llevar a cabo un analisis critico y objetivo que le permita aportar soluciones de fondo a los problemas de la humanidad. A partir de entonces los economistas pondran su mayor atencion en la economia matematica y en la econometria, llenando cientos de millares de paginas en revistas especializadas con investigaciones sin aplicabilidad y trascendencia en la mayoria de los casos: puro virtuosismo matematico. Nadie puede ocultar que la economia es una ciencia social que estudia los fenomenos economicos, buscando conocer sus leyes y poder predecir su comportamiento. Pero como economia politica busca, ademas, influir en el comportamiento economico de la sociedad aprovechando los conocimientos adquiridos por medio de la observacion y la investigacion cientifica. De alli viene el nombre del presente escrito y su intencion. Retornar a la economia politica implica volver a ocuparse de los problemas sociales fundamentales de nuestra ciencia que son los de nuestra humanidad, producir satisfactores sufientes para todos los seres humanos y distribuir el ingreso para garantizar su consumo. De que otra forma puede funcionar el mercado sino es con consumidores

This stimulating and authoritative book features original essays from leading scholars in the discipline - each of whom addresses the question: how should economists do economics? What emerges is a diverse, constructive commentary on how economics is done and how it should be done.Leading thinkers from a wide variety of perspectives and fields address issues such as the scope of economics, the corpus of theory and its stature, the process of theory construction, the place of mathematical formalism, the role of quantitative analysis, the place of institutions in economic analysis, and, inter alia, technical methods of research. Foundations of Research in Economics: How do Economists do Economics? brings together some of the leading figures from many different schools of thought. This volume ranges across all aspects of professional discourse, ensuring that it will be widely read by economists active in many different areas of research while being of particular interest to economic theorists, methodologists and historians of economics.

The globalisation of the world economy is one of the major concepts of our time and is likely to influence thinking and policy making well into the 21st century. Although officially welcomed as a major contribution to world welfare it is held by many to be responsible for low wages and mass unemployment. This book questions the seemingly inevitable progress of globalisation and the role of the state as a powerless institution in a globalised economy. Issues discussed include: * trade liberalisation and the role of the World Trade Organisation in providing global responses to global issues * the globalisation of finance; in particular the integration of capital markets * the role of EMU in limiting the social protection level in member states * the effect of globalisation on the structure of the modern nation-state * a challenge to the conventional image of globalisation, which is viewed as being far less widespread than we are led to believe This book will be of interest to scholars of the international economics, international political economy and international finance.

Socialist planning played an enormous role in the economic and political history of the twentieth century. Beginning in the USSR it spread round the world. It influenced economic institutions and economic policy in countries as varied as Bulgaria, USA, China, Japan, India, Poland and France. How did it work? What were its weaknesses and strengths? What is its legacy for the twenty-first century? Now in its third edition, this textbook is fully updated to cover the findings of the period since the collapse of the USSR. It provides an overview of socialist planning, explains the underlying theory and its limitations, looks at its implementation in various sectors of the economy, and places developments in their historical context. A new chapter analyses how planning worked in the defence-industrial complex. This book is an ideal text for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in comparative economic systems and twentieth-century economic history.

Economic Science and Practice seeks to bridge the gulf between economic theory and policy and overcome some of the problems created by the specialized nature of much economic research. A distinguished group of academic economists and experienced policymakers, from both Europe and the United States, sheds new light on the relation between theory and practice and reflects on the current state of economics. There is an ever present danger that modern economic theory is becoming too detached from the real world. In contrast to this concern there are those who argue that there is a risk of practitioners and policymakers relying on pre-scientific ideas or ideologies not tested against the latest scientific insights. This book will not only help to improve communication between scientists and policymakers, but will also show how it is possible to strengthen the scientific base of economic policy and improve the social relevance of economic research and education.

The number of economics professors now teaching at universities will decline substantially over the next couple of decades. This will happen for one main reason-the advent of distance learning, especially in the form of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which enable a single professor to lecture to tens of thousands of students. Other academic fields will undoubtedly encounter similar reductions in their numbers of professors. However, as this book argues at several levels, academic economics is the one profession that is most qualified to study and address the topic. In this sense it is the one profession that should best recognize the economic benefits of this transition, which this book describes, and take responsibility for leading the transition among all academic fields. Unfortunately, the position espoused by several academic economists has been against this inevitable transition-a position that politically upholds their employment and the status of their institutions. They have asserted that MOOCs lower the quality of education and threaten the financial viability of traditional universities. Based on extensive evidence and analysis, however, this book argues that their position untenable. Their position is hypocritical as well, given the fact that economics professors, more than anyone else, have upheld the idea that jobs should be lost, and new ones should be gained, in response to technological changes that promote economic efficiency. There is also irony in the fact that the high tuitions required to maintain traditional classrooms effectively deny a college education to those who cannot afford it. Thus, unsound arguments that traditional lectures are needed to preserve the quality of education actually do not improve the quality of education but have the only real effect of denying education to many people who would otherwise be able to receive it. To address this topic comprehensively, the book goes deep into fundamental questions about what economics professors really do with their time and energy, and what they should be doing in the best interests of their students and of society. These are areas that the profession has needed to address for a long time, but has failed to do so.

The evolutionary approach to economics can be traced back as far as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the work of Darwin, Smith and Malthus. These ideas have gradually developed since that time through Marx, Veblen and Marshall, and have recently experienced considerable attention. This book considers the development of evolutionary economics and its place in economic thought today. The book begins with a concise history of evolutionary economics which develops to examine the variety of approaches within the subject. The discussion continues with a rigorous analysis of why, in contrast to popular belief, evolutionary economics is not alien to neoclassical economics, arguing that it may even be considered to complement neoclassical economics. Continuing along this theme the firm is discussed from an evolutionary and neoclassical standpoint. Leading on from this is a discussion of modern model building in evolutionary economics and its relationship with Schumpeter's developmental work. Model building is examined further in relation to endogenous technological change and economic growth, and the effect that technological change and innovation can have on the spatial distribution of new industry. This book will be of special interest to evolutionary and post Keynesian economists and those interested in technological change and innovation.

This book gathers several important texts to offer an overview of the institutionalist approach to money developed in France since the 1980s. This material highlights the specificities of the French monetary approaches and their main contributions to the understanding of monetary phenomena - not just in developed market economies but in other societies as well. By bringing these works to an English-speaking audience for the first time, this book will provide a much needed and valuable direct insight into this subject area and contribute to related post-Keynesian, neo-chartalist and sociological approaches to money. This book highlights the need for a global vision of money and for a clearer grasp of the link between money and the political sphere. It will appeal to students and researchers across various disciplines including but not limited to economics, anthropology, sociology, history and philosophy.

This book critically explores past and present principles of central banking, and outlines a new framework for future stabilization policy. Through compact and concise chapters, it demonstrates why a constant long-term interest rate would be the most beneficial target for monetary policy to follow. A novel set of policy tools and institutional arrangements suitable to reliably meet this target are developed. It is argued that the proposed framework would be clearly superior to conventional policies in preventing financial market crises, maintaining high employment, and keeping the economy at or near potential. The merits and shortcomings of alternative theories such as Modern Monetary Theory are also discussed. This book will be relevant to researchers and policymakers as well as professional investors, analysts, and commentators of financial markets and the economy at large.

This book pays tribute to the late Irving Fisher by discussing a range of issues on which he worked throughout his life. It serves as an excellent introduction to the contributions of one of the great economists spanning the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The book begins with an overview of Irving Fisher's life including his contribution to the economics profession as well as details of his personal interests and beliefs. The contributors then go on to examine, from a modern perspective, some of the major topics Irving Fisher worked on including: * macroeconomics and the quantity theory * the management of monetary policy and reform of the monetary system * debt-deflation and the Great Depression * statistics, econometrics and index numbers * capital, income and the rate of interest * value, prices and financial assets * policy advice to government This book will be of interest to those working in the fields of the history of economic thought, monetary economics and economics and statistics.

The main theme of this book is the methodological problem of rationality in economic thought. The author investigates the different interpretations of this problem advanced by major figures in the history of economic thought.The book examines the history and rationality of the 'theory of value' from Adam Smith to Alfred Marshall and attempts to understand these arguments and criticisms within a general methodological vein. It goes on to provide a complete historical account of the ideas and arguments on value propounded by Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Jevons, Walras and Marshall as well as by more recent scholars such as Sraffa and Debreu and interprets their methodological differences. The author proposes a novel 'pragmatic-pluralist' methodological interpretation which borrows and creatively synthesizes ideas from many sources, including Wittgenstein (language-games), Searle (performatives), Habermas (communicative reason), hermeneutics, Marx and the pragmatic tradition. Rationality in Economic Thought will be of interest to students and scholars of the history of economic thought, economic methodology and the philosophy of the social sciences.

In the fast-changing policy arena of a country as diverse as India, gauging regional implications of policy shifts is critical but challenging. E3-India is a policy evaluation tool based on the internationally recognized E3ME global model, that allows for iterative quantification of multiple policy options within an integrated economy-energy-environment framework to support wellinformed progressive policy choices at the regional level. This book provides comprehensive coverage of creating and using E3 modeling framework for regional policy analysis, which is available in public domain for the first time in India, addressing existing flagship Government of India policies, including but not limited to the Make in India initiative, Digital India initiative, Automotive Mission Plan, Nationally Determined Commitments under the Paris agreement, and the Atmanirbhar Bharat relief package. These studies have been designed to provide in-depth and lucid insights regarding choices for resource allocation by policymakers, thereby serving as a comprehensive guide for evidence-based policymaking in India.

A Historiography of the Modern Social Sciences includes essays on the ways in which the histories of psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, history and political science have been written since the Second World War. Bringing together chapters written by the leading historians of each discipline, the book establishes significant parallels and contrasts and makes the case for a comparative interdisciplinary historiography. This comparative approach helps explain historiographical developments on the basis of factors specific to individual disciplines and the social, political, and intellectual developments that go beyond individual disciplines. All historians, including historians of the different social sciences, encounter literatures with which they are not familiar. This book will provide a broader understanding of the different ways in which the history of the social sciences, and by extension intellectual history, is written.

This collection is a tribute to a most faithful, true Keynesian, who read, thought, dreamt and promoted Keynes: Lorie Tarshis (1911-1993). This volume is focused on the important role of Lorie Tarshis's brand of Keynesianism on the effect of the Keynesian revolution on economic thought in America. Tarshis was among the first to form part of Keynes's select 'circus', not only witnessing, but actually participating in the making of The General Theory. This memorial includes new reflections on the impact of Keynesianism in the making by many of the eminent early generations of American post-war economists, Galbraith, Goodwin, Kindleberger, Samuelson, Salant, Tobin and Perlman. While their contributions shed more light on how the participants in the process, Tarshis included, effected early Keynesianism, the volume also contains contributions by those such as Moggridge and McQueen who reflect on aspects of the process from greater distance. Holzman and Reder recount Lorie Tarshis's subtle contribution and its direct impact and reverberations are reflected upon in the balance of the chapters by Colander, Dimand, Dow, Grimard, McCann and Perlman, and Parker. This book will be of great interest to scholars interested in the history of economic thought and Keynesian economics.

The epic successor to one of the most important books of the century: at once a retelling of global history, a scathing critique of contemporary politics, and a bold proposal for a new and fairer economic system.

Thomas Piketty’s bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century galvanized global debate about inequality. In this audacious follow-up, Piketty challenges us to revolutionize how we think about politics, ideology, and history. He exposes the ideas that have sustained inequality for the past millennium, reveals why the shallow politics of right and left are failing us today, and outlines the structure of a fairer economic system.

Our economy, Piketty observes, is not a natural fact. Markets, profits, and capital are all historical constructs that depend on choices. Piketty explores the material and ideological interactions of conflicting social groups that have given us slavery, serfdom, colonialism, communism, and hypercapitalism, shaping the lives of billions. He concludes that the great driver of human progress over the centuries has been the struggle for equality and education and not, as often argued, the assertion of property rights or the pursuit of stability. The new era of extreme inequality that has derailed that progress since the 1980s, he shows, is partly a reaction against communism, but it is also the fruit of ignorance, intellectual specialization, and our drift toward the dead-end politics of identity.

Once we understand this, we can begin to envision a more balanced approach to economics and politics. Piketty argues for a new “participatory” socialism, a system founded on an ideology of equality, social property, education, and the sharing of knowledge and power. Capital and Ideology is destined to be one of the indispensable books of our time, a work that will not only help us understand the world, but that will change it.

This textbook provides a short introduction to auction theory through exercises with detailed answer keys. Focusing on practical examples, this textbook offers over 80 exercises that predict bidders' equilibrium behaviour in different auction formats, along with the seller's strategic incentives to organize one auction format over the other. The book emphasizes game-theoretic tools, so students can apply similar tools to other auction formats. Also included are several exercises based on published articles, with the model reduced to its main elements and the question divided into several easy-to-answer parts. Little mathematical background in algebra and calculus is assumed, and most algebraic steps and simplifications are provided, making the text ideal for upper undergraduate and graduate students. The book begins with a discussion of second-price auctions, which can be studied without using calculus, and works through progressively more complicated auction scenarios: first-price auctions, all-pay auctions, third-price auctions, the Revenue Equivalence principle, common-value auctions, multi-unit auctions, and procurement auctions. Exercises in each chapter are ranked according to their difficulty, with a letter (A-C) next to the exercise title, which allows students to pace their studies accordingly. The authors also offer a list of suggested exercises for each chapter, for instructors teaching at varying levels: undergraduate, Masters, Ph.D. Providing a practical, customizable approach to auction theory, this textbook is appropriate for students of economics, finance, and business administration. This book may also be used for related classes such as game theory, market design, economics of information, contract theory, or topics in microeconomics.

In AN AGORIST PRIMER, Samuel Edward Konkin III -- the creator and premier activist and theoretician of Agorism -- introduces the most powerful means to free yourself, protect and increase your wealth, and liberate the whole of human society in the process Agorism is applied Counter-Economics -- the philosophy of engaging in free-market activities in defiance of government control. An evolution of libertarianism, Agorism embraces all non-coercive human action and opposes all force- or fraud-based attempts to stifle innovation, trade, thought, and wealth. If you have ever suspected that government, academia, and other entities are trying to pull the wool over your eyes in order to control your money, your morality, and your life, you'll find answers and remedies in AN AGORIST PRIMER. In one concise volume, Samuel Edward Konkin III explains the theory, principles, and -- most important of all -- the practice of Agorism. If you think that consistency between means and ends matters, this is the book for you From the preface: "Agorism is a way of thinking about the world around you, a method of understanding why things work the way they do, how they do, and how they can be dealt with - how you can deal with them. "Agorism was meant to improve the lot of everyone, not a chosen elite or unwashed underclass. Hence an introductory work that presents ideas without going through the long intellectual history and conflict of competing ideas that produced them. "As the creator of agorism, it is most incumbent on me first to attempt to reduce it to basic intelligibility." Samuel Edward Konkin III is the author of the seminal work on libertarianism and Agorism, New Libertarian Manifesto. Over the course of thirty years, he wrote, edited, and published newsletters and magazines such as Laissez Faire, New Libertarian Notes, and 101 issues of the longest-running publication of its kind, New Libertarian Weekly. Known to his friends as SEK3, Mr. Konkin graduated cum laude from the University of Alberta, serving as head of the Young Social Credit League there. He received his Masters in Theoretical Chemistry at New York University, but left NYU without submitting his Ph.D. dissertation in Quantum Mechanics to pursue his lifelong efforts to promote Counter-Economics and Agorism. He founded the New Libertarian Alliance, the Movement of the Libertarian Left and the outreach organization The Agorist Institute. His body of work is available from KoPubCo. PRAISE FOR SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III "Konkin's writings are to be welcomed. Because we need a lot more polycentrism in the movement. Because he shakes up Partyarchs who tend to fall into unthinking complacency. And especially because he cares deeply about liberty and can read and write, qualities which seem to be going out of style in the libertarian movement." --Murray N. Rothbard, Ph.D.

The 1990s have witnessed a vast growth of research on the topics of trust and learning. This can be explained by the profound technological and organizational changes that have made both inter-and intra-firm trust indispensable for sustaining the forms of learning that underlie successful competitive performance.Trust and Economic Learning brings together innovative research by an internationally recognized group of scholars from Europe and the United States. The distinction between trust and a variety of related concepts, including reputation, implicit contracts and confidence is examined. The links between learning and trust are then explored using a number of original empirical contributions and theoretical approaches including an adaptation of game theory, Marengo's computational model of organizational learning and the 'step by step' rule developed by Lazaric and Lorenz. In addition, Bayesian learning models are compared with evolutionary approaches based on tools of artificial intelligence to evaluate the preconditions for establishing trust. This unique volume will be a highly useful companion to traditional graduate-level texts in industrial organization. It constitutes a valuable source of knowledge for practitioners and policymakers alike. It will also be of interest to scholars interested in evolutionary and institutional economics, technology and innovation and international business.

We live in an age of economics. We are encouraged not only to think of our work but also of our lives in economic terms. In many of our practices, we are told that we are consumers and entrepreneurs. What has come to be called neoliberalism is not only a theory of market relations; it is a theory of human relations. Friendship in an Age of Economics both describes and confronts this new reality. It confronts it on some familiar terrain: that of friendship. Friendship, particularly close or deep friendship, resists categorization into economic terms. In a sustained investigation of friendship, this book shows how friendship offers an alternative to neoliberal relationships and can help lay the groundwork for resistance to it.

This book contains international perspectives that unifies the themes of strategic management, decision theory, and data science. It contains thought-provoking presentations of case studies backed by adequate analysis adding significance to the discussions. Most of the decision-making models in use do take due advantage of collection and processing of relevant data using appropriate analytics oriented to provide inputs into effective decision-making. The book showcases applications in diverse fields including banking and insurance, portfolio management, inventory analysis, performance assessment of comparable economic agents, managing utilities in a health-care facility, reducing traffic snarls on highways, monitoring achievement of some of the sustainable development goals in a country or state, and similar other areas that showcase policy implications. It holds immense value for researchers as well as professionals responsible for organizational decisions.

This important new book is the first specific study on the classical theory of wages to appear for more than 50 years and as such fills an important gap in the literature. Antonella Stirati argues that the wage-fund theory played no part in the theory of wages expounded by Ricardo and his predecessors. Classical wage theory is shown to be analytically consistent but very different from contemporary theory, particularly as it did not envisage an inverse relationship between employment and the real wage level, and hence a spontaneous tendency to full employment of labour. The author bases her approach not only on a reinterpretation of Smith and Ricardo, but also on the writings of Turgot, Necker, Steuart, Hume, Cantillon and other pre-classical economists. Historians of economic thought as well as other economists will welcome Dr Stirati's careful analysis of classical writings on economics which includes simple but rigorous explanations of phenomena, central to current economic debate, such as the occurrence of persistent unemployment.