Same-sex marriage is now legal in twenty-nine countries and the subject of continued debate around the world. The Political Economy of Same-Sex Marriage: A Feminist Critique considers this debate from a political economy perspective. Rather than engaging directly in the now well-rehearsed social-movement and academic for-and-against debates, this book focuses on processes of institutionalization of same-sex marriage and so-called "rainbow families" within (neo)liberal capitalist democracies. It examines how states and markets appropriate same-sex marriage and family to enhance their own political and symbolic capital, consolidating power and profit within existing systems of gendered and raced socioeconomic stratification. Taking a radical feminist, heterodox, qualitative and intersectional approach, this book investigates the political economy of same-sex marriage across three axes: same-sex marriage as institution; same-sex marriage and the market; and the political economy of the "rainbow family". The examination of case studies from different countries and regions enables a comparative analysis that foregrounds cultural, political and economic path dependencies while at the same time highlighting a number of striking commonalities. In all the countries discussed in this book and in most respects, same-sex marriage has been integrated almost seamlessly into a mainstream/malestream political economy of marriage and family and its translation into added market and productive value. The Political Economy of Same-Sex Marriage: A Feminist Critique will be of use to researchers and students alike, and indeed to all those who are curious about the mainstreaming of homosexuality within twenty-first-century capitalist democracies.

In this carefully articulated investigation of the Walrasian general equilibrium model, the author sets forth one perception or explanation of how the microeconomy might operate. The focus is primarily on the behavior of individual consumers, firms and markets under perfectly competitive conditions and on the simultaneous interactions that occur among them. Central to his argument is that all of these elements fit together to form a unified whole for a complete, consistent, and cohesive picture of the perfectly competitive microeconomy. The book provides substantial discussion of the model's methodological background; returns to scale; the transformation surface and the fixed-factor-supply economy; existence, uniqueness, and stability of equilibria; the dynamics of market adjustments; methodological individualism and the theory of price determination; imperfectly competitive markets; welfare economics; and the role of money capital in the operation of the firm. The author suggests that the abandonment of general equilibrium theory by microeconomists is a mistake, and that it is too soon to give up on the possibility of constructing an adequate analysis of uniqueness, global stability, and price determination. Students and scholars of economics will find much of interest in this thorough exploration of the operation of the microeconomy.

In recent years the understanding of the cognitive foundations of economic behavior has become increasingly important. This volume contains contributions from such leading scholars as Adam Brandenburger, Michael Bacharach and Patrick Suppes. It will be of great interest to academics and researchers involved in the field of economics and psychology as well as those interested in political economy more generally.

First published in 1986, this title argues that the successful development of a new microeconomics requires a deeper understanding of methodological individualism and its role in stability analysis. Lawrence Boland expounds a critique of neoclassical models, which, he contends, often fail to include an explicit stability analysis. He demonstrates that much of the sophisticated theoretical literature over the past thirty years can be understood as ad hoc attempts to overcome the deficiencies of such models in the absence of cogent stability analyses. In conclusion, he explains the need to update the theory taught at universities, and to develop a truly individualist version of microeconomics that is consistent with the methodological principles of major neoclassical models. An important contribution to economic methodology, this work is a highly valuable resource for all students and teachers of economics at the undergraduate level.

Important and celebrated economist Leland Yeager is one of the architects of the 'Virginia School' of political economy that has produced two Nobel laureates (James Buchanan and Ronald Coase) and the Public Choice movement. A number of top class contributors have here been brought together to produce a festschrift in Yeager's honor - edited by Roger Koppl, and including the aforementioned Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, David Colander, Deirdre McCloskey and Roger Garrison.

First published in 1998, this collection of essays by eminent microfinance practitioners provides a range of perspectives on contemporary issues in the field. Different approaches are proposed for achieving improved access by the poor to financial services. The common denominator in these essays is financial sustainability for the service provider. Issues addressed include: is savings mobilization integral to microfinance and, if so, how should it be incorporated in new programs? Are borrower groups a necessary element of successful microfinance programs? Are NGOs the right institutional vehicle for sustainable microfinance interventions? Is standardized and generalizable microfinance credit rating system feasible? While there is considerable diversity in the approaches recommended in these essays, the importance of cost efficiency and cost recovery forms the basis for most of the discussions.

The deflationary Japanese economy is a spurious observation and a precarious political propaganda, which tacitly connects with the fanatic diagnosis urging an inflation-prompting macroeconomic policy. This book provides an overview of the prolonged stagnation of the current Japanese economy. It also examines the politico-economic implications concerning the precarious conversion of Japanese monetary policy and focuses on the vulnerability of the price-sustaining policy concerning the public debt. The book also analyzes and suggests against the acceleration of inflation under the current Japanese foreign exchange system and also suggests that the surge of foreign direct investment towards East Asia is the acute cause of Japanese economy stagnation. The book concludes that to rebuild the economic potential of the Japanese economy, education and fostering the youths are the keys. This book will definitely interest those who are keen to learn more about the relationship between Bank of Japan and the Japanese political parties.

Microeconomics for Business and Marketing is an innovative new text for intermediate-level students of microeconomics which offers a series of alternative approaches to economic analysis."And now for something completely different". So starts the preface to Peter Earl's new book. And he is right. He has put together a superbly interesting, intellectually challenging book. It is a book that covers not only the basics of intermediate microeconomics, but also relates microeconomics both to real world business decisions and to the literature wherein the ideas developed. An intermediate micro student who masters this book will be a well trained student. Earl's book will be useful not only to intermediate students, but, perhaps even more so, to graduate students and to faculty teaching intermediate micro and managerial economics. It gives microeconomics both an intellectual context and institutional context for microeconomics. It also contains a wealth of real world examples and discussions of how microeconomic reasoning applies to business. The wealth of essays and problems in the book will be challenging to everyone. This textbook is especially relevant to students of business and commerce since it emphasises practical problem solving and helps readers develop skills in choosing appropriate theoretical 'tools' to deal with particular types of 'real world' problems. While other microeconomics texts focus on mainstream technical set pieces, this book explores, compares and contrasts the tools of both mainstream microeconomic analysis and the behavioural/new institutionalist approaches associated with recent Nobel Laureates Herbert Simon and Ronald Coase. This wider theoretical coverage enables a broader range of practical topics to be addressed, including policy implications of consumer decision processes, and the economics of corporate strategy. Key features of this book include: Worked essays and case study questions within the chapters, as well as post-mortem' reports on examination questions that have been set to classes using this material. Overview chapters on theories of decision-making and consumer choice and theories of business behaviour. Extensive coverage of the economics of uncertainty, including scenario planning, bargaining and competitive games. Emphasizes and analyses on the significance of technological change, and the variety of methods used to organize modern business activities, such as franchising, joint ventures and multinational enterprises. Microeconomics for Business and Marketing is a wide-ranging, innovative textbook which will stimulate students and teachers alike. It will be of particular relevance to students of marketing, commerce and business strategy. Specifically designed with today's larger class sizes in mind, the book encourages students to question and to develop both analytical and written skills, as well as to use economics as a tool for problem solving.

A typical consumer underestimates the benefits of future energy savings and underinvests in energy efficiency, relative to a description of the socially optimal level of energy efficiency. To alleviate this energy-efficiency gap problem, various programs have been implemented. In recent years, many governments have started providing consumers with subsidies on the purchases of eco-friendly products such as hybrid cars and energy efficient appliances. This book conducts a comprehensive analysis of the environmental subsidy programs conducted in Japan and examines their impacts on consumer product selection, consumer product use, and environmental outcome. The book also proposes recommendations for future environmental and industrial policies. The book's empirical findings will be of interest to those who are researching on and policymakers of environmental and industrial policies.

* Includes many mathematical examples and problems for students to work directly with both standard and nonstandard models of behaviour to develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills which are more valuable to students than memorizing content which will quickly be forgotten. * The applications explored in the text emphasise issues of inequality, social mobility, culture and poverty to demonstrate the impact of behavioral economics in areas which students are most passionate about. * The text has a standardized structure (6 parts, 3 chapters in each) which provides a clear and consistent roadmap for students taking the course.

This volume gathers together key new contributions on the subject of the relationship, both empirical and theoretical, between economic oscillations, growth and structural change. Employing a sophisticated level of mathematical modelling, the collection contains articles from, amongst others, William Baumol, Katsuhito Iwai and William Brock.

Carl Menger, Friedrich Wieser and Eugen Bohm-Bawerk are acknowledged as pioneers in the development of neoclassical economics, as well as being recognized as the founders of the Austrian School of Economics. Neoclassical Microeconomic Theory examines their contribution and compares it with the other branches of neoclassical economics that emerged between the 1870's and 1930's. The author begins by exploring the initial stimulus provided by Carl Menger's work, and then demonstrates how the views of Menger, Weiser and Bohm-Bawerk complement one another and the tensions exhibited between them: the scope and method of economics; theories of choice; price theory; competition; entrepreneurship; and capital formation and distribution.

This text chronicles a change in epistolary persuasion in the 1230's, crystallized at the imperial chancery of Frederick II, Emperor from 1220-1250. There, traditional appeals, premised on authority and harmony, were challenged by letters in which historical circumstances functioned as an integral part of the strategy of persuasion. Based on the close reading of "Artes Dictandi", as well as a series of letters issued from the papal and imperial chanceries, this book explores the theory and practice of medieval letter-writing. Letters are evaluated as verbal acts intended to persuade, with the public as the ultimate arbiter of success. The author argues that the form, proportion and style of letters were contoured by ideology.

Microcredit has been seen in recent decades as having great potential for aiding development in poor developing countries, with Bangladesh being one of the countries which has pioneered microcredit and implemented it most widely. This book, based on extensive original research, explores how microcredit works in practice, and assesses its effectiveness. It discusses how microcredit, usually channelled through women, is often passed to the men of the family, a practice disapproved of by some, but regarded as acceptable by borrowers who have a communal approach to debt, rather than viewing debt as something held by single individuals. The book demonstrates how the rules around microcredit are often seem as irksome by the borrowers, how lenders often charge high rates of interest and work primarily to preserve their institutions, thereby going against the spirit of the microcredit movement, and how borrowers often end up on a downward spiral, deeper and deeper in debt. Overall, the book argues that although microcredit does much good, it also has many drawbacks.

Essentials of Microeconomics is an excellent introduction to microeconomics. It presents the basic tools of microeconomics clearly and concisely. The book presents a vigorous treatment of all relevant introductory microeconomic concepts. The book also emphasizes on modern economics - game theory and imperfect markets. Each chapter is self-contained and includes the required key mathematical skills at the start. This book is ideal not only for introductory microeconomics course, but its level of analysis also makes the book appropriate for introductory level economics taught at postgraduate level. With the emphasis on strategy, this text is also well suited for use in business economics course.

**Please note this is an unedited paperback reprint of the hardback, originally published in 2003** The British system of universal development control celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997. Remarkably, the system has survived more or less intact but the experience of the 1980s has left large questions unanswered about the relevance and effectiveness of the system. This book traces the history of the development control system in Britain from early modern times to the present day.

Using statistical analysis, this volume, originally published in 1925, examines the sociological aspects of the business cycle. It discusses which areas of social activity are influenced by the business cycle and measures the relative degree of this influence in each of the areas which are covered. Bringing together the work of economists and criminologists, this volume discusses topics such as births, deaths, poverty, crime, emigration and marriage in relation to business cycles.

This book presents several pieces of empirical work which disentangle why the standard measure of productivity growth used in macroeconomics turn out to be procyclical for American manufacturing industries. Procyclical productivity is an essential feature of business cycles because of its important implications for macroeconomic modelling. The author explains why traditional Keynesian theories of the business cycle do not explain satisfactorily why productivity is procyclical, and argues that the force of technology for generating economic cycles is much more important than that of the management or mismanagement of monetary or fiscal policies. This book is aimed at those working in empirical macroeconomics but also industrial economics.

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, policymakers as well as academicians have been seeking to fathom why subsequent recoveries remain tenuous. Other outstanding issues that they have been trying to understand include: why do some economies grow faster than others? How should the exchange rate volatility be understood and what factors make an economy more likely to fall into an exchange rate crisis? What policies need to be taken during tranquil periods, and how should they be changed once the crisis is triggered? As a partial effort to meet such interests, this book provides insights into these issues. This book examines growth and convergence (Part I), exchange rate volatility and the Asian crisis (Part II), and the global crisis (Part III). In addition, the book also draws lessons from South Korea's experiences - a country which has undergone three different crises and brisk recoveries (Part IV). The book also includes some practical and policy-oriented analysis. This is a truly comprehensive book bringing together varied topics and diversity under one common theme - economic growth and crisis.

Microeconomics for Business and Marketing is an innovative new text for intermediate-level students of microeconomics which offers a series of alternative approaches to economic analysis."And now for something completely different". So starts the preface to Peter Earl's new book. And he is right. He has put together a superbly interesting, intellectually challenging book. It is a book that covers not only the basics of intermediate microeconomics, but also relates microeconomics both to real world business decisions and to the literature wherein the ideas developed. An intermediate micro student who masters this book will be a well trained student. Earl's book will be useful not only to intermediate students, but, perhaps even more so, to graduate students and to faculty teaching intermediate micro and managerial economics. It gives microeconomics both an intellectual context and institutional context for microeconomics. It also contains a wealth of real world examples and discussions of how microeconomic reasoning applies to business. The wealth of essays and problems in the book will be challenging to everyone. This textbook is especially relevant to students of business and commerce since it emphasises practical problem solving and helps readers develop skills in choosing appropriate theoretical 'tools' to deal with particular types of 'real world' problems. While other microeconomics texts focus on mainstream technical set pieces, this book explores, compares and contrasts the tools of both mainstream microeconomic analysis and the behavioural/new institutionalist approaches associated with recent Nobel Laureates Herbert Simon and Ronald Coase. This wider theoretical coverage enables a broader range of practical topics to be addressed, including policy implications of consumer decision processes, and the economics of corporate strategy. Key features of this book include: Worked essays and case study questions within the chapters, as well as post-mortem' reports on examination questions that have been set to classes using this material. Overview chapters on theories of decision-making and consumer choice and theories of business behaviour. Extensive coverage of the economics of uncertainty, including scenario planning, bargaining and competitive games. Emphasizes and analyses on the significance of technological change, and the variety of methods used to organize modern business activities, such as franchising, joint ventures and multinational enterprises. Microeconomics for Business and Marketing is a wide-ranging, innovative textbook which will stimulate students and teachers alike. It will be of particular relevance to students of marketing, commerce and business strategy. Specifically designed with today's larger class sizes in mind, the book encourages students to question and to develop both analytical and written skills, as well as to use economics as a tool for problem solving.

This book seeks to explain the global financial crisis and its wider economic, political, and social repercussions, arguing that the 2007-9 meltdown was in fact a systemic crisis of the capitalist system. The volume makes these points through the exploration of several key questions: What kind of institutional political economy is appropriate to explain crisis periods and failures of crisis-management? Are different varieties of capitalism more or less crisis-prone, and can the global financial crisis can be attributed to one variety more than others? What is the interaction between the labour market and the financialization process? The book argues that each variety of capitalism has its own specific crisis tendencies, and that the uneven global character of the crisis is related to the current forms of integration of the world market. More specifically, the 2007-09 economic crisis is rooted in the uneven income distribution and inequality caused by the current financial-led model of growth. The book explains how the introduction of more flexibility in the labour markets and financial deregulation affected everything from wages to job security to trade union influence. Uneven income distribution and inequality weakened aggregate demand and brought about structural deficiencies in aggregate demand and supply. It is argued that the process of financialization has profoundly changed how capitalist economies operate. The volume posits that financial globalization has given rise to growing international imbalances, which have allowed two growth models to emerge: a debt-led consumption growth model and an export-led growth model. Both should be understood as reactions to the lack of effective demand due to the polarization of income distribution.

Industrial production and consumption patterns rely heavily on the intensive use of both renewable and non-renewable resources and the consequences for the environment can be serious. Following a long period of time where the profit incentives of firms have prevailed over preservation of the environment and the world's natural resources, a new consensus has emerged concerning the need to regulate firm behaviour, aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the economic system in the long run. This book offers an exhaustive overview of current economic debate about these topics, taking modern oligopoly theory as a benchmark. The first part of the book covers static models dealing with incentives for green research and development, Pigovian taxation, cartels, environmental quality and international trade, as well as the role of corporate social responsibility, public firms and consumer environmental awareness as endogenous regulatory instruments. Then, the author moves on to examine the role of time while drawing from optimal control and differential game theory. This opens the way to the discussion of fair discount rates to ensure the welfare of future generations, as well as the long run sustainability of production and consumption patterns.

This volume brings together papers inspired by the work of Duncan Foley, an extraordinarily productive economist who has made seminal contributions to a wide variety of areas. Foley's work cannot be easily classified, but one thread that runs through it is a critical examination (along both ethical and analytical lines) of conventional neoclassical economic theory, particularly involving general equilibrium theories of value and money. Foley was a pioneer of complexity economics as well, which adopts approaches to these questions drawn from natural sciences, so the collection therefore has an interdisciplinary quality that will interest a wide variety of readers. Some of the chapters are intellectual biographies that contextualize and identify Foley's contributions to Keynesian macroeconomics, Marxian value theory, and complexity theory in economics. The topics covered include the economics of complexity; the ethics of general equilibrium theory; the economics of climate change; applications of Keynesian, Marxian and Ricardian political economy; and money and financial crises. The collection should be useful to scholars who work in various economic traditions critical of the currently dominant free-market approach, but it also speaks to scholars of critical theory in various disciplines beyond economics such as the mathematicians, physicists, and other natural scientists who are interested in understanding the complexity of social processes using their analytical frameworks. This book should also appeal to graduate students in economics who are working in these traditions, as well as scholars (including current graduate students in orthodox programs) who are dissatisfied with the current state of economic theory and would like to satisfy their intellectual curiosity by sampling the contributions of critical theorists.

Traditional game theory requires at least two individuals. This book extends game theory to the inner workings of a single person. Using game theory to analyse single individuals makes sense if one thinks of individuals as consisting of two or more relatively autonomous partitions that might have conflicting motives. This is not to say that individuals are literally made up from multiple selves; it only suffices that we adopt a portrayal of the individual as a multilayered entity or of a dual nature, in a manner similar to Adam Smith's depiction of an "impartial spectator" existing within the individual, The notion that individuals may be considered as collections of distinct partitions or "sub-selves" has been challenging writers from diverse fields for many centuries. This book breaks new ground in combining psychological with evolutionary game theory, making for a highly promising way towards a better understanding of the individual and the development of their behaviour, along with the individual's own perceptions on it.

The substantial prosperity that characterizes market economies at the beginning of the twenty-first century is relatively recent in human history. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, economic progress was so slow that people would not have been able to recognize it in their lifetimes, whereas today, economic progress is so much a part of people's lives that they take it for granted. In this new volume, Randall G. Holcombe argues that economic analysis, as it developed through the twentieth century, relies heavily on concepts of economic equilibrium, and is not descriptive of the dynamic real-world economy that is characterized by economic progress. Even in dynamic settings, economic models focus on income growth, leaving out the entrepreneurial forces that generate economic progress, resulting in the introduction of new goods and services and new production processes. Economic analysis focuses on the forces that lead to an economic equilibrium, not the forces that produce prosperity. This characterization of economic analysis describes a substantial component of economics as it has developed over the past century. However, there are also economists who have analyzed the factors that lead to an entrepreneurial and innovative economy, generating progress rather than equilibrium. This volume does not question the value of past research, but argues that, looking ahead, economics should build on its past to focus on factors that create an entrepreneurial and innovative economy that is characterized by progress and prosperity. This would make economic analysis more consistent with the remarkable progress and prosperity that characterizes the modern economy. This volume lays out a framework for economic analysis that consistently incorporates the real-world factors that produce prosperity.