In this challenging book, John King makes a sustained and comprehensive attack on the dogma that macroeconomic theory must have 'rigorous microfoundations'. He draws on both the philosophy of science and the history of economic thought to demonstrate the dangers of foundational metaphors and the defects of micro-reduction as a methodological principle. Strong criticism of the microfoundations dogma is documented in great detail, from some mainstream and many heterodox economists and also from economic methodologists, social theorists and evolutionary biologists. The author argues for the relative autonomy of macroeconomics as a distinct 'special science', cooperating with but most definitely not reducible to microeconomics. The Microfoundations Delusion will prove a stimulating and thought-provoking read for scholars, students and researchers in the fields of economics, heterodox economics and history of economic thought.

This book is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive overview of happiness in Economics. Although it is comparatively unusual to put happiness and economics together, the association appears increasingly exciting and fruitful. A number of studies have been produced following Richard Easterlins and Tibor Scitovskys pioneering works throughout the 1970s. The essays collected in this book provide an authoritative and comprehensive assessment both theoretical, applied and partly experimental of the whole field moving from the so-called paradoxes of happiness in Economics. The book breaks new ground, particularly on the more recent directions of research on happiness, well-being, interpersonal relations and reciprocity. The meaning of happiness is thoroughly explored and the tension between a hedonic-subjective idea of happiness and a eudaimonic-objective one is discussed. This volume opens with Richard Easterlins own assessment of the main issues. Other authors include Robert H. Frank, Robert Sugden, Bruno S. Frey, Alois Stutzer, Richard Layard, Martha C. Nussbaum, Matt Matravers, Bernard M.S, van Praag, Oded Stark, You Q. Wang, Ruut Veenhoven, Charlotte Phelps, Stefano Zamagni, and Luigi Pasinetti.

How can we effectively aggregate disparate pieces of information that are spread among many different individuals? In other words, how does one best access the 'wisdom of the crowd'? Prediction markets, which are essentially speculative markets created for the purpose of aggregating information and making predictions, offer the answer to this question. The effective use of these markets has the potential not only to help forecast future events on a national and international level, but also to assist companies in providing, for example, improved estimates of the potential market size for a new product idea or the launch date of new products and services. The markets have already been used to forecast uncertain outcomes ranging from influenza outbreaks to the spread of other infectious diseases, to the demand for hospital services, to the box office success of movies, climate change, vote shares and election outcomes, to the probability of meeting project deadlines. The insights gained also have many potentially valuable applications for public policy more generally. These markets offer substantial promise as a tool of information aggregation as well as forecasting, whether alone or as a supplement to other mechanisms like surveys, group deliberations, and expert opinion. Moreover, they can be applied at a macroeconomic and microeconomic level to yield information that is valuable for government and commercial policy-makers and which can be used for a number of social purposes. This volume of original readings, contributed by many of the leading experts in the field, marks a significant addition to the base of knowledge about this fascinating subject area. The book should appeal to all those with an interest in economics, forecasting or public policy, and in particular those with an interest in the study of money, investment and risk.

The aim of the book is to highlight the law and economics issues confronting civil law countries. The following questions are addressed in this volume: to what extent have the existing codes in civil law countries been designed to incorporate economic considerations? Can the modifications made to codified rules over time be explained by a will to react to new economic constraints? Which economic problems are at the root of the revision of codes? And, given that the code is not the only source of law in civil law countries, the volume also explores the relationship between law and economics in the context of both the legislature and the courts.

This book is about the relationship between firm dynamics, innovation and globalization, the processes that are essential for long term economic growth and welfare creation. This volume deals with these three issues in three sections titled respectively: entrepreneurship, new firm formation and growth; productivity-innovation-growthnexus; globalization, multinational firms and producers' dynamics. The book presents new studies written by distinguished researchers in the field, who use state-of-the-art methodologies and extensive sources of firm- and plant-level longitudinal data to analyze and understand these major economic issues facing modern economies. In the first section, the book proposes two comprehensive introductory surveys which explore in detail the underpinnings of entrepreneurship, new firm formation and growth in advanced and developing countries. The second fundamental issue, productivity-innovation and firm dynamics, is approached by examining key drivers of selection mechanisms such as size, scale elasticity, innovative efforts, financial fragility of the firms, barriers to entry and exit, capital and financial market distortions, institutional inefficiencies and other market imperfections which affect the ability of firms to expand or enter. The third section examines differences, linkages and intertwined evolution of foreign and domestic firms in their dynamics of survival and growth in different institutional contexts and periods. Each chapter includes a detailed discussion of the implications of the respective analyses for enterprise policy. In a concluding chapter the overall implications for enterprise policy of the analyses presented in the different chapters are drawn by the Editors. This approach ensures that the book is integrated around a coherent central theme in comprehensive framework. The book responds to a growing concern among scholars, professionals, and policy makers over the recent decades about firm ability to survive and compete in a context of increasing globalization and international competition. The approach adopted is both theoretical and empirical with consideration of paradigmatic case studies in Europe, Africa and Asia, providing new evidence on developed, developing and transition economies in a comparative perspective. The cases selected represent different levels of development, different firms strategies and paths, with distinct outcomes. The book is an essential reading for scholars and students concerned with industry development, public policy and globalization, as well as to all those involved professionally in such issues.

Questions of the social implications of biotechnology and biological exchange (the extraction of human tissues such as blood, skin and organs for testing, storage and/or distribution for therapeutic or research purposes) have recently been brought strongly to the analytical fore across the social sciences. This book focuses on the variegated biopolitical milieus of this kind of exchange specifically in South Asia. It ranges widely - theoretically, thematically, and regionally - in examining South Asian variants of and engagements with diverse modes of biological exchange: caste, gender, and blood donation in Pakistan, DNA testing amongst a former Untouchable community in south India and amongst diasporic Indians in Houston, Texas, body (cadaveric) donation in India, the use of fake blood in Bangladeshi cinema, the mobilisation of blood, hearts, and ketones to protest the Indian government's failure to provide redress or care to victims of the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster, and blood-based political portraits and petitions in south India. In considering this complex of issues, this book extends the parameters of classic accounts of the role of substance transactions in the production of South Asian personhood into investigations of the biopolitics and economies of substance that shape people and communities in diverse parts of the subcontinent, describing findings that illuminate how local responses to the implementation of various kinds of tissue economy both reflect and also transform socio-cultural values in South Asia. This book was published as a special issue of Contemporary South Asia.

A complete guide to testing, analyzing, verifying, and monitoring real-time systems

More and more of our modern-day systems and devices–from toasters and climate-control systems to airplanes and space shuttles–contain embedded systems to control their functions and ensure that their responses are both timely and correct. With safety a requisite factor, performance validation is a critical aspect of real-time systems. Answering the needs of professionals and students alike, Real-Time Systems: Scheduling, Analysis, and Verification provides a substantial, up-to-date overview of the verification and validation process. It describes several approaches to the problem, and examines the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Designed to be both an introductory text and a handy reference for the practitioner, the book discusses:

• Symbolic logic, automata, and languages in non-real-time systems
• Real-time scheduling and schedulability analysis
• Verification using timed automata and timed petri nets
• Process algebra
• The design and analysis of propositional-logic rule-based systems
• Timing analysis of predicate-logic rule-based systems
• Optimization of rule-based systems
• Model checking, real-time logic, and statecharts

With ample illustrations and examples of a variety of industrial and toy applications, Real-Time Systems: Scheduling, Analysis, and Verification serves as a key resource for every professional who works with real-time systems.

On the Foundations of Monopolistic Competition and Economic Geography presents important work by B. Curtis Eaton and Richard G. Lipsey on product differentiation, including studies of spatial differentiation and the industrial structures that give rise to this phenomenon. The book opens with an introductory overview essay and explains why the authors reject the neoclassical, competitive vision of the economy. The essays included cover issues such as: the theory of multinational plant location, product differentiation, monopoly, models of value theory, capital with special reference to entry and exit barriers and entry equilibrium, the existence of pure profit and the theory of market pre-emption. This volume will be welcomed by academics and researchers interested in the microeconomic issues of competition, monopoly, firm behaviour and markets.

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The book conducts a comparative study on the form of enterprise, focusing on broadly defined cooperative firms in comparison with conventional capitalist firms. It explores the essential advantages and disadvantages of the different types of firms and attempts to answer why capitalist firms are so prevalent in our economy. The book attempts to explain these questions from the viewpoint of "market failure" in the framework of standard microeconomic theory. In this analytical framework, it proposes an alternative system of business organization based upon consumer cooperatives and the market for their memberships, which can coexist consistently with the system of capitalist firms and the stock market within a single market economy. The existing studies of the cooperative sector have been rather ideological. The analytical framework that is presented in this book helps promote scientific exploration of cooperative and other types of firms, which are indispensable and potentially promising constituents of our society.

First Published in 1972. The London Discount Market is unique, and its existence has contributed more than any other single factor to the elaboration of what may legitimately be called the Anglo-Saxon tradition in Central Banking technique. The bill of exchange has existed for centuries in its classical late Victorian form by many decades. This book assesses how in no other country in the world did the same relationships evolve between the Central institution and the Money Market.

Contemporary cities in the Iberian Peninsula have gone through a period of dramatic changes during the last decade. A period of upward economic indicators and massive urbanization was followed by a tremendous financial crash in 2007 that sank Spanish and Portuguese societies into a profound crisis. That period of massive urbanization has been explained by several factors: the availability of financial capital that was speculatively invested in real-estate, a rather sympathetic land use regulation, and the real or perceived social mobility by most social groups which included housing acquisition enabled by unusual credit facilities. In this book we aim to show several different aspects of this process both in Portugal and Spanish cities, problematizing the economic and social consequences of such a model of urban and economic growth and also presenting some policy and governance outcomes that took place along the last decade. This book was published as a special issue of Urban Research and Practice.

Japan's economy is invariably seen as a prime example of a capitalist system, and a consideration of the elements upon which the Japanese economy is founded seems to lead inexorably to the conclusion that Japan is an established member of the group of highly developed capitalist nations. Yet a country's internal mechanisms can differ markedly from the system as perceived externally. Although not yet widely recognized, a new kind of economic system has developed in Japan, a system that differs greatly from traditional capitalism. The author of this book has observed Japanese industry from the inside. He provides detailed explanations of the unique features of the new corporate system and how it differs from the system of orthodox capitalistic corporations.

The book studies the trends that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, as well as the unfolding of the crisis, in order to provide policy recommendations to improve financial stability. The book starts with changes in monetary policy and income distribution from the 1970s. These changes profoundly modified the foundations of economic growth in the US by destroying the commitment banking model and by decreasing the earning power of households whose consumption has been at the core of the growth process.

The main themes of the book are the changes in the financial structure and income distribution, the collapse of the Ponzi process in 2007, and actual and prospective policy responses. The objective is to show that Minskya (TM)s approach can be used to understand the making and unfolding of the crisis and to draw some policy implications to improve financial stability.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book draws together the key contributions to the major areas of microeconomic theory from the last few decades. It is intended to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with an essential guide to the current state of the discipline. The articles have been carefully selected not only for the role they have played in the progress of microeconomics, but also for their usefulness and potential to inspire future research. The main themes covered include consumer theory, the theory of the firm, the theory of markets, pricing theory, and labor compensation theory, with the common threads of transaction costs, strategic decisions, and information imperfections. Unlike similar anthologies, this Reader also draws attention to methodological issues and heterodox approaches to microeconomics. Amongst those whose works appear here are Gary Becker, George Stigler, Harvey Leibenstein, Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, George Akerlof, Joseph Stiglitz, Avinash Dixit and Paul Klemperer. This Reader will be an invaluable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in economics, as well as casual readers interested in an "insider's view" of the discipline. It serves not only to collect in a single place the most significant papers in economics that have been published in recent decades but also, with several introduction chapters, to give the literature a coherent structure.

Modern evolutionary economics is now nearly two decades old and in this excellent book, a distinguished group of evolutionary economists identify the most important developments and discuss the direction of future research. By moving away from traditional concerns with the operation of selection mechanisms towards a preoccupation with the manner in which the novelty and variety provide fuel for such mechanisms, the authors identify a key development in the field. Evolutionary economists have been drawn into the modern complexity science literature which attempts to provide an understanding of how and why 'complex adaptive systems' engage in processes of self-organization. The goal is to provide an integrated analysis of both selection and self-organization that is uniquely economic in orientation. After a brief overview of the many key achievements and continuing challenges, the first part of the book deals with theoretical perspectives, discussing institutional change, social constructions, complexity, selection and self-selection and the usefulness of theory. Part two deals with empirical perspectives and includes discussion of replicator dynamics, the measurement of heterogeneity and complexity, and modelling organizations as complex adaptive systems. This unique book will appeal to evolutionary and industrial economists and policymakers involved with issues of innovation and management scientists.

This book introduces the main concepts of microeconomics to upper division undergraduate students or first year graduate students who have undergone at least one elementary calculus course. The book fully integrates graphical and mathematical concepts and offers over 150 analytical examples demonstrating numerical solutions.

The book has a strong theoretical basis but shows how microeconomics can be brought to bear on the real world. New Features for this edition include:

• an incorporation of the theory of stock externalities associated with greenhouse gases
• development of the section on insurance with particular reference to the new US healthcare program
• greater integration of game theoretic concepts throughout the book.

The book s style is accessible, but also rigorous. Mathematical examples are provided throughout the book, in particular for key concepts and the result is a balanced approach in terms of prose, graphics, and mathematics.

Why Delegate? moves beyond the standard economic accounts of delegation to offer a fresh take on a wide variety of issues and shows how essential the act of delegating is to our society. From mundane tasks like choosing a plumber to weightier ones like running a country, the world turns on delegation. We delegate particular tasks to people we believe have more expertise than we do. When it is successful, delegation improves efficiency, expands the range of responsible actors, and even increases happiness. When delegation fails, though, it brings conflict, corruption, and an absence of accountability. In Why Delegate?, Neil J. Mitchell investigates the incentives to delegate and the risks we take in doing so. He demonstrates how a new, modified understanding of the simple structure of the delegation relationship-the principal-agent relationship, as economists have described it-simplifies a myriad of important and seemingly disparate problems in private and public life. Using real-world case studies including child abuse in the Catholic Church, the Volkswagen pollution scandal, and FIFA corruption, Mitchell illustrates the broad functionality of delegation logic and the wide range of incentives at work in these relationships. Diverse examples reveal the opportunism of both the leaders and the led and show how accepted accounts of the principal-agent relationship are incomplete. By drawing on multidisciplinary research to address complex questions of motivation, control, responsibility, and accountability, the book builds a broader, more useful logic of delegation. Why Delegate? moves beyond the standard economic accounts of delegation to offer a fresh take on a wide variety of issues and shows how essential the act of delegating is to our society. Mitchell's comprehensive account of the contexts, causes, and effects of delegation develops a new way to understand both the theory and practice of this critical relationship.

Organization theory is a fast-developing field of microeconomics. Organizational approaches are now used in a wide range of topics in business studies. They are based on information economics, contract theory, and mechanism design. This book introduces such organizational approaches and how to adopt them as business applications. The book presents the theory in the first two chapters and proceeds to cover the applications of the theory in the three chapters that follow. The theory lays the foundation and the applications illustrate how the theory can be used in a wide range of business problems. The book covers many concepts and ideas in organization theory, including complete contracts, incomplete contracts, allocation of control rights, option contracts, convertibles, and joint ventures, concisely. It will be of use to third-year undergraduates and above, as well as Master's- and Ph.D-level students in business schools.

This stimulating research review analyses how the theory of the firm evolved from several core concepts and building blocks that underpin this important area of economics. It discusses a variety of perspectives from leading scholars in the field, including the basic elements of: risk and uncertainty; information and knowledge; bounded rationality and decision making; motives and incentives; resources and capabilities; and transactions. The review goes on to examine how the various elements are integrated into the modern Theory of the Firm with the notion of organization coming increasingly to the fore. It focuses on norms; rules and routines; the entrepreneur; governance; hierarchies; co-operation, teams and networks; innovation and appropriability. This comprehensive review will be an invaluable reference tool for all researchers and students with an interest in the modern theory of the firm, highlighting how it needs to evolve further to address the important management and policy issues of our time.

When Harold Fried, et al. published The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications with OUP in 1993, the book received a great deal of professional interest for its accessible treatment of the rapidly growing field of efficiency and productivity analysis. The first several chapters, providing the background, motivation, and theoretical foundations for this topic, were the most widely recognized. In this tight, direct update, these same editors have compiled over ten years of the most recent research in this changing field, and expanded on those seminal chapters. The book will guide readers from the basic models to the latest, cutting-edge extensions, and will be reinforced by references to classic and current theoretical and applied research. It is intended for professors and graduate students in a variety of fields, ranging from economics to agricultural economics, business administration, management science, and public administration. It should also appeal to public servants and policy makers engaged in business performance analysis or regulation.

Restructuring Eastern Europe brings together a distinguished group of scholars and experts who discuss the transition process in Eastern Europe at the microeconomic level. The restructuring and privatization of enterprises has not kept pace with the macroeconomic success that has been achieved in some formerly centrally planned countries. The contributors discuss the ideological, institutional, socio-political and financial problems resulting from the transition process. New insights into complex microeconomic issues such as the dispersion of foreign direct investment, privatization and company management, entrepreneurship and supply-chain development are also discussed. Special attention is paid to the roles of corporate governance, technological integration, the role of environmental and regional policies and the reform of the banking system. This innovative book presents a comprehensive overview of the varying levels of success of the policies of different countries. It will prove invaluable to research scholars, postgraduate students and officials in government agencies concerned with restructuring the economies of Eastern Europe.