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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Economic theory & philosophy
This second edition explores how money 'works' in the modern economy and synthesises the key principles of Modern Money Theory, exploring macro accounting, currency regimes and exchange rates in both the USA and developing nations.
Standard equilibrium economic models focus on interdependencies. In Out of Equilibrium, Amendola and Gaffard develop a theory also dealing with interdependencies, but based on disequilibria, which take the form of feedback mechanisms over time. The way in which these disequilibria interact sequentially determines the evolution path of an economy. As a result, different processes may be associated with any kind of original shock. Whereas in equilibrium models these processes are determined by the 'fundamentals' of the economy, here the outcome is heavily influenced by the processes themselves, the sequential decisions taken, and policies followed. The model proposed in this book is a heuristic tool that makes it possible to explore these `disequilibria'. By using it, economic phenomena and policy recommendations appear entirely different, and in most cases the interpretations made are diametrically opposite to those advocated by the dominant equilibrium theory, thus giving a new perspective on the recent past of the Western economies.
This monograph is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of business cycles and stabilization policies. The analysis is conducted in models of the AS-AD type, focusing on involuntary unemployment and capital accumulation. Major conclusions are the following. (1) Sectoral imbalances, once emphasized by such business-cycle theorists as K. Marx, A. Spiethoff, and F.A. Hayek, are rectified in finite time by competitive investment allocation, leaving aggregate variables as the main variables of business cycle dynamics. (2) The chronology of events during a cycle is established, which resolves the so-called real wage puzzle. (3) Owing to the crowding-out effect on investment, fiscal stabilization policies can destabilize the business cycle dynamics if implemented too intensively. (4) If coordinated properly, monetary stabilization policies can remove the destabilizing tendency of fiscal stabilization policies.
In the aftermath of the stock market crash, Irving Fisher pointed to the electrification of the U.S. industry as one of the underlying causes of the stock market boom. Earlier, in 1927, Brookings Institution economists had lamented the scant attention energy had received from economists. Today, some 60 years later, power remains the forgotten factor input. In this book, the author incorporates energy into the corpus of economic analysis. Unlike previous attempts, which were mostly theoretical, this work generates testable predictions. The result is a model of production based on the two universal factor inputs--broadly defined energy and broadly defined organization. Once the model of production is developed, the book then tests an empirical model with data from U.S., German, and Japanese manufacturing. The results are used to reexamine the role of energy in productivity slowdown. When the empirically and theoretically correct model of production is used, the Solow residual disappears: growth in manufacturing value added is fully accounted for by growth in energy, capital, and labor.
Although economic growth is amongst the oldest of debates in Economics, there has been little advancement in growth theory since the classic works of Solow. As such, clear-cut answers to the context-specific determinants of growth, especially for developing countries, are rare. Bridging the Gap Between Growth Theory and Policy in Asia: An Extension of the Solow Growth Model adds to the works of Solow by showing how his original model can be extended and used for policy, discussing issues in growth econometrics, including the theoretical underpinnings of growth models, and some of the important challenges in empirical studies on economic growth. This simpler manual will be highly useful for applied economists, policy makers, and graduate students.
Economics is today among the most influential of all professions.
Economists alter the course of economic affairs and deeply affect
the lives of current and future generations. Yet, virtually alone
among the major professions, economics lacks a body of professional
ethics to guide its practitioners. Over the past century the
profession consistently has refused to adopt or even explore
professional economic ethics. As a consequence, economists are
largely unprepared for the ethical challenges they face in their
work.
Economics Nobel laureates are the pioneers of the science of economics. They are the most brilliant products of the discipline and have made enormous original contributions to the field of economics, and oftentimes history, political science, business, and other subjects. Their works, struggles, successes and failures are fascinating, and readers are given a glimpse into each laureate's life, where and when they were born and raised, what schools they attended, and who influenced their intellectual development. Most importantly, each laureate's often complex corpus of work is described as succinctly as possible without losing the work's original flavor: what it contributed to the field, and how it was received by peers, and how it affected the world. A list of selected further readings concludes each entry, directing the reader to the primary and secondary works essential to understanding the works of these towering figures. Arranged chronologically by year of award, all 44 entries cogently explain the laureate's life's work in language even non-economists can follow. Economists interested in the intellectual history of their discipline, and professors and students of business will find Wahid's book a very useful resource when seeking out the basic outlines of the thoughts of the scholars who have shaped the fields of economic inquiry, practice, and research. Also, any student in the social sciences thumbing through this book will instantly recognize many currents of thought that have influenced the way scholars in their discipline approach their craft.
The issues discussed in this book are the building blocks needed for an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that will allow for value creation and reporting by the most important assets organizations have, its human capital.
This fascinating book considers one of the most important problems in economics: the inception of modern economic development. There is at present no satisfactory explanation of the inception of modern economic development; an excessive focus on either pure theory or on unique histories limits the explanatory power. This book realises the need to integrate the two approaches, moving beyond the proximate causes of economic theory to review the role in an analytic narrative of significant ultimate causes - geography, risk environments, human capital, and institutions. Colin White distils the conclusions of a vast literature, drawing from economics, economic history and business and management, exploring economic theory, demonstrating limitations and highlighting alternative approaches. Particular attention is paid to the appropriate role of innovative entrepreneurs and of government, and three case studies illustrate how to build an analytic narrative. Showing how far we can generalise about the determinants of economic development and in particular how to understand the specific determinants in individual countries, this book will prove a stimulating and thought provoking read to academics, students and researchers with an interest in economics and economic development.
Economics, Dominique reminds us, is a social science, with prescriptions that are statistical in character but inherently polemical. In contrast to the laws of the natural sciences, economic statements, meaningful as well as meaningless, can be transformed into a vehicle for the promotion of false consciousness, as when the polemical prescriptions of social sciences are used to promote unavowed interests. The axiomatization of economics in the early 1950s, though well-intended, has produced two negative consequences: the equation of science and mathematical formalism by some, and a total lack of concern for experimentation on the part of others. These translate into excessive abstraction, empirical irrelevance, and a total lack of social purpose. Dominique argues that excessive abstraction is causing economics to gradually lose its social usefulness. This state of affairs has, in turn, led the general public to accept at face value the prescriptions of an untested orthodoxy, such as unfettered globalization, as genuinely scientific. In the era of unfettered globalization, the top 20 percent of the world's income earners have become richer while the bottom 80 percent have become impoverished and environmental degradation has gone unabated. Dominique argues that, according to the scientific theory of economics, the top quintile must pay the costs and the bottom four quintiles ought not bear alone the brunt of globalization. To reverse this outcome, the bottom 80 percent must become pro-active in economic policy formulation. A challenge to contemporary development and economic policy that will be of interest to economists, public policy makers, the international business community, and social activists.
Multinationality, or the degree of internationalization, has favorable financial results and implications. Highly valued by the market as a hidden asset, multinationality is related to earnings management, systematic risk, capital structure, and growth opportunities as measured by the investment opportunity set. Riahi-Belkaoui examines the performance results of a multinational strategy and concludes that multinationality can be quantified and does play a significant role in keeping a firm healthy and growing. His book is a far-reaching examination of the data and a persuasive argument for why firms should make multinationality a critical part of their overall business strategy. Riahi-Belkaoui presents research results supporting multinationality. He confirms that the market reacts more favorably the larger (smaller) cash flows are (accruals), and he shows that the preference of cash flows over accruals will increase under conditions of high multinationality and high reputation. He argues that the level of multinationality affects net income and net worth and thereby, political costs and risk. Analyzing the association between multinationality and systematic risk as measured by the market model beta, he finds that systematic risk is positively related to the level of multinationality after controlling for corporate reputation and other factors. He examines the role of multinationality and profitability as determinants of the investment opportunity set and considers whether a firM's investment opportunity is associated with corporate financing. Finally, he investigates whether disclosure policy, level of economic risk, and the nature of the alignment of financial and tax accounting explain differences in financial analysts' forecast error internationally. The book concludes with a model of the determinants of the investment opportunity set of multinational firms.
The original contributions in this Handbook provide an introduction to the application of Austrian economics to law. The book begins with chapters on the methodology of law and economics before moving on to chapters which discuss key concepts in Austrian economics such as; dynamic competitive processes, spontaneous order, subjective value, entrepreneurship, and the limited nature of individual knowledge - as they relate to topics in evolutionary law and basic law. This book presents contributions from both economists and legal scholars on topics ranging from methodology of analysis and the evolution of contemporary legal practice, to the teachings of basic law. Taken as a whole, this Handbook provides a strong overview of contemporary research in the Austrian school of law and economics. It is an approach that reflects both the examination of how alternative legal arrangements impact economic performance, and how to use the tools of basic economic reasoning to study the operation of legal rules. Scholars working in the fields of law, jurisprudence, economics, and public policy will find this an important resource on the cutting edge of Austrian political economy in application to law and economics. Contributors include: B.L. Benson, P.J. Boettke, D.J. Boudreaux, H.N. Butler, E.R. Claeys, C.J. Coyne, M. DeBow, M.T. Henderson, S. Horwitz, P.G. Klein, M. Krause, T.A. Lambert, P.T. Leeson, J. Parker, G.J. Postema, S. Rajagopalan, D. Skarbek, E.P. Stringham, R.E. Wagner, T.J. Zywicki
This book addresses central issues in evolutionary and Schumpeterian accounts of industrial competition, learning, and innovation. It contains a collection of twelve papers which are oriented toward exploring methodological issues in evolutionary and related scholarship. Reflecting the diversity of work in evolutionary scholarship, a range of methodologies are employed in the papers, including simulation, experiments, and econometric analysis. Some of the papers use well established models to takle new questions and problems. Others introduce entirely new approaches, which the authors indicate are still in a state of infancy and await further development. The collection attempts to raise even more interest in evolutionary economics, to provide some suggestions for future research directions, and to initiate a lively discussion of the issues raised.
Originally published in June of 1850, this book which is now more than one-hundred fifty years old is still one of the most popular books published. The author, Frederic Bastiat was a statesman and French economost. At the time of this writing, French was quickly becoming a socialist state. This work by Mr. Bastiat studies, explains and critiques each socialist policy which he witnessed in his role in the French legislative assembly. This text is a valid read today as these socialistic beliefs are still used in the modern French government and the United States of America. This text should be a required reading for those who study political science, civics, government and law or those who are employed in government.
The connection between economics and ethics is as old as economics itself, and central to both disciplines. It is an issue that has recently attracted much interest from economists and philosophers. The connection is, in part, a result of the desire of economists to make policy prescriptions, which clearly require some normative criteria. More deeply, much economic theory is founded on the assumption of utility maximization, thereby creating an immediate connection between the foundations of economics and the philosophical literature on utilitarianism and reasons for action. In fact, some influential contemporary approaches to ethics advocate decision-theoretic or game-theoretic foundations of some sort for moral principles, while several economic theorists are now prepared to take into account the ethical dimensions of rational decisions. As a result, it appears that economics and ethics are somehow inextricably linked through theories of rational decision-making. This book, the outcome of a joint workshop of economists and philosophers, offers an overview of the current academic debate on the connections between economics and ethics, ranging through three main themes: the moral standing of utilitarianism, the notion of fairness and equity and its formal treatment, and the coherence and scope of the rationality postulate underlying standard models of economic behaviour. In particular, the essays included in the volume provide a detailed analysis of disclosed contradictions and possible convergences between the prescriptions of rationality and the requirements of moral 'rightness', as viewed from several different, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. While the book points mainly to theneed for a more rigorous appraisal of the moral underpinnings of economic discourse, it also highlights the open-ended nature of ethical reasoning. There is much that economists, and especially welfare economists, can learn from these papers - not least circumspection.
This book presents a set of original and innovative contributions on state, institutions and democracy in the field of political economy. Modern political economy has implied the interaction between politics and economics to understand political, electoral and public issues in different nations, and in this volume a group of leading political economists and political scientists from Europe, America and Asia provides theoretical advances, modelling and case studies on main topics in political economy. The analysis of the role and performance of politics and democracy in diverse nations implies the study of the organization of the state, lobbying, political participation, public policies, electoral politics, public administration and the provision of public services. This book provides advances in the research frontier of these topics and combines historical evidence, institutional analysis, mathematical models and empirical analysis in an interdisciplinary approach. Political and social scientists, economists and those interested in the performance of states, democracy and elections can find new research results in this volume.
This book examines how social cleavage lines shape issue voting and party competition. Based on a study of German elections between 1980 and 1994, it analyzes whether cleavage group members put more weight on policies that address their personal self-interest than voters who are not affected by the cleavage line. Furthermore, it analyzes the consequences of cleavage groups' deviating patterns of voting behavior for the formal game of party competition. More concretely, the author asks whether equilibrium positions of parties within the policy space are pulled away from the mean due to the more extreme policy demands of cleavage groups in the electorate.
James Tobin, 1981 Nobel laureate in economics, was the outstanding monetary economist among American Keynesian economists. This book, the first written about James Tobin, examines his leading role as a Keynesian macroeconomist and monetary economist, and considers the continuing relevance of his ideas.
This book integrates the fundamentals, methodology, and major application fields of noncooperative and cooperative games including conflict resolution. The topics addressed in the book are discrete and continuous games including games represented by finite trees; matrix and bimatrix games as well as oligopolies; cooperative solution concepts; games under uncertainty; dynamic games and conflict resolution. The methodology is illustrated by carefully chosen examples, applications and case studies which are selected from economics, social sciences, engineering, the military and homeland security. This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in the in-depth and up-to-date integration of the theory and ever-expanding application areas of game theory.
Economists are being asked to provide explanations and prescriptive policy for addressing the questions of chronic poverty and underdevelopment in the world. Answers are needed not only for the questions of how and why these problems arise, but also whether the problems can be prevented and how the problems can be approached. This book is an exposition to the student, the researcher, and the practitioner in the field of economic development giving an approach from the basic rudiments to the advanced level and bridging the gap between the neoclassical models of growth and development and the modern structuralist approaches to the study and analyses of economic development.
This challenging science-based book reviews today's global situation as well as our long evolution to humanness. It uncovers a crisis in policy and behavior impending since 1990--one stemming from earlier, but long-outmoded assumptions that now threaten future development in common. Feasible reforms, global and national, are outlined. Ranging widely through time, space, and subject-matter, and moving from earth and life history to economics and new vistas in brain science, Dilloway marshals analysis, ideas, and proposals to lay bare a climactic crisis that, since 1990 in particular, has been systematically concealed from view by the fresh force of a current conventional wisdom. Successive chapters review our global situation in its major demographic, environmental, economic, and human rights aspects. Our entire time perspective is then examined to throw new light on powerful human capacities and the way they are now being contradicted by assumptions--seemingly rational two centuries ago--that have become outmoded, yet still decisive, in the century now ending. Dilloway next looks at recent economic history to see how this now-obsolete philosophy has come to prevail and how massively it opposes the cooperative social basis of our entire human potential. After reviewing a many-sided United Nations push based on environmental conservation, development, and human rights, Dilloway arrives at feasible, yet far-reaching proposals for stronger international government and matching basic reforms at the level of the advanced nation-state.
This book presents the state-of-the-art in non-linear dynamics and sunspots. These two topics have been the core of an international conference on instability and public policies in a globalized world, organized at Aix-Marseille School of Economics and GREQAM in honor of Jean-Michel Grandmont. He has made significant contributions on general equilibrium theory, monetary theory, learning, aggregation, non-linear dynamics and sunspots. This book assembles contributions by Jean-Michel Grandmont's colleagues, students and friends that have been influenced by his works and that are at the frontier of research in this domain today.
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