A masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free-market economics Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt's bestselling Economics in One Lesson has popularized the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can't explain why they often fail so badly-or what we should do when they stumble. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, "When someone preaches 'Economics in one lesson,' I advise: Go back for the second lesson." In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free markets. Economics in Two Lessons explains why market prices often fail to reflect the full cost of our choices to society as a whole. For example, every time we drive a car, fly in a plane, or flick a light switch, we contribute to global warming. But, in the absence of a price on carbon emissions, the costs of our actions are borne by everyone else. In such cases, government action is needed to achieve better outcomes. Two-lesson economics means giving up the dogmatism of laissez-faire as well as the reflexive assumption that any economic problem can be solved by government action, since the right answer often involves a mixture of market forces and government policy. But the payoff is huge: understanding how markets actually work-and what to do when they don't. Brilliantly accessible, Economics in Two Lessons unlocks the essential issues at the heart of any economic question.

In 2012, Australia took the major step of introducing a carbon price, involving the creation of a system of emissions permits initially issued at a fixed price. Carbon Pricing brings together experts instrumental in the development, and operation, of Australia's carbon policy who have played a significant role in the broader debate over climate change policy. Together they have achieved an in-depth analysis of Australia's policy stance on pricing carbon and its implications for the wider economy. While the future of carbon pricing is itself unclear in Australia, the experiences, insights and conclusions outlined herein will prove invaluable to a global audience. The assessment of the initial operation of the carbon price provides a wide range of insights into the problems of mitigating climate change, and the prospects for the future. The critical analysis will provide a valuable resource to inform wider international debates concerning alternative mechanisms for internalising the carbon externality, tax reform, climate scepticism and carbon farming initiatives. With its interdisciplinary approach, Carbon Pricing, will appeal to scholars and researchers of economics in general and climate change, natural resources and energy policy in particular. Those organisations and policymakers involved in similar experiments and processes in other countries will find the experiences and analysis invaluable.

In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land.

The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many--members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In "Zombie Economics," John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us--and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future.

"Zombie Economics" takes the reader through the origins, consequences, and implosion of a system of ideas whose time has come and gone. These beliefs--that deregulation had conquered the financial cycle, that markets were always the best judge of value, that policies designed to benefit the rich made everyone better off--brought us to the brink of disaster once before, and their persistent hold on many threatens to do so again. Because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, "Zombie Economics" also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to traditional Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough--either to kill dead ideas, or prevent future crises.

In a new chapter, Quiggin brings the book up to date with a discussion of the re-emergence of pre-Keynesian ideas about austerity and balanced budgets as a response to recession.

In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land. The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism - the theory that markets always know best, regardless of the problem. For decades, its advocates had dominated economics, helping to create an unthinking faith in markets, in which speculative investments were seen as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to kill off such ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many - members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explains how dead ideas still walk among us, in Australia and abroad - and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger crisis in the future. And because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, Zombie Economics also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough - either to kill dead ideas, or to prevent future crises. This local edition includes a new chapter on the Australian scene. Praise for Zombie Economics 'A writer of great verve who marshals some powerful evidence.' Financial Times 'I recommend it highly.' Ross Gittins, Sydney Morning Herald 'An elegant critical introduction and analysis of some of the key ideas of modern economic thought.' Satyajit Das 'Killing vampires and werewolves is easy enough. But how does one slay economic zombies - ideas that should have died long ago but still shamble forward? Armed with nothing but the truth, John Quiggin sets about dispatching these dead ideas once and for all in this engaging book.' Brad Delong, University of California 'As Quiggin explains with elegance, lucidity and deadpan humour, the undead ideas here are interconnected- killing one causes it to knock over another in a sort of zombie-dominoes effect.' Guardian 'A terrific book ...quite a page-turner.' Andrew Leigh MP, former Professor of Economics, Australian National University

Economic analysis of choice under uncertainty has been dominated by the expected utility (EU) model, yet the EU model has never been without critics. Psychologists accumulated evidence that individual choices under uncertainty were inconsistent with the predictions of the EU model. Applied work in areas such as finance was dominated by the simpler mean-variance analysis. In the 1980s this skepticism was dispelled as a number of generalizations of EU were proposed, most of which were capable of explaining evidence inconsistent with EU, while preserving transitivity and dominance. Generalized expected utility is now a flourishing subfield of economics, with dozens of competing models and considerable literature exploring their theoretical properties and comparing their empirical performance. But the EU model remains the principal tool for the analysis of choice under uncertainty. There is a view that generalized models are too difficult to handle or incapable of generating sharp results. This creates a need to show that the new models can be used in the kinds of economic analysis for which EU has been used, and that they can yield new and interesting results. This book meets this need by describing one of the most popular generalized models -- the rank-dependent expected utility model (RDEU), also known as anticipated utility, EU with rank-dependent preferences, the dual theory of choice under uncertainty, and simply as rank-dependent utility. As the many names indicate, the model has been approached in many ways by many scientists and for this reason, consideration of a single model sheds light on many of the concerns that have motivated the development of generalized utility models. The popularity of the RDEU model rests on its simplicity and tractability. The standard tools of analysis developed for EU theory may be applied to the RDEU model, but since RDEU admits behavior inconsistent with EU, the field of potential applications is widened. As such, the RDEU model is not as much a competitor to EU as an extension based on less restrictive assumptions.

This book demonstrates that the state-contingent approach provides the best way to think about all problems in the economics of uncertainty, including problems of consumer choice, the theory of the firm, and principal agent relationships. The authors demonstrate that dual methods apply under uncertainty and that the dual representations can be developed for stochastic technologies. Moreover, proper exploitation of the properties of alternative primal and dual representations of preferences allows analysts to generalize and extend the results of the existing literature on preferences under uncertainty, thus making expected-utility theory largely superfluous for many decisions.

This book demonstrates that the state-contingent approach provides the best way to think about all problems in the economics of uncertainty, including problems of consumer choice, the theory of the firm, and principal agent relationships. The authors demonstrate that dual methods apply under uncertainty and that the dual representations can be developed for stochastic technologies. Moreover, proper exploitation of the properties of alternative primal and dual representations of preferences allows analysts to generalize and extend the results of the existing literature on preferences under uncertainty, thus making expected-utility theory largely superfluous for many decisions.

Economic analysis of choice under uncertainty has been dominated by the expected utility (EU) model, yet the EU model has never been without critics. Psychologists accumulated evidence that individual choices under uncertainty were inconsistent with the predictions of the EU model. Applied work in areas such as finance was dominated by the simpler mean-variance analysis. In the 1980s this skepticism was dispelled as a number of generalizations of EU were proposed, most of which were capable of explaining evidence inconsistent with EU, while preserving transitivity and dominance. Generalized expected utility is now a flourishing subfield of economics, with dozens of competing models and considerable literature exploring their theoretical properties and comparing their empirical performance. But the EU model remains the principal tool for the analysis of choice under uncertainty. There is a view that generalized models are too difficult to handle or incapable of generating sharp results. This creates a need to show that the new models can be used in the kinds of economic analysis for which EU has been used, and that they can yield new and interesting results. This book meets this need by describing one of the most popular generalized models -- the rank-dependent expected utility model (RDEU), also known as anticipated utility, EU with rank-dependent preferences, the dual theory of choice under uncertainty, and simply as rank-dependent utility. As the many names indicate, the model has been approached in many ways by many scientists and for this reason, consideration of a single model sheds light on many of the concerns that have motivated the development of generalized utility models. The popularity of the RDEU model rests on its simplicity and tractability. The standard tools of analysis developed for EU theory may be applied to the RDEU model, but since RDEU admits behavior inconsistent with EU, the field of potential applications is widened. As such, the RDEU model is not as much a competitor to EU as an extension based on less restrictive assumptions.

Taxation is perhaps the longest-running subject for debate in Australian politics. In this book John Quiggin argues that a GST on its own will not restore the credibility of the tax system.

The 1980s and '90s have been a period of unprecedented microeconomic reform in Australia, in a bid to make the nation s enterprise environment more competitive. With the full implementation of the National Competition Policy, the pace of that reform is set to explode. In this timely work, John Quiggin critically examines the assumptions, the practice and the future of microeconomic reform and its place in the Australian economy. Is it unambiguously true that competition within the infrastructure benefits business and consumers as well as the infrastructure industry concerned? What are the assumptions upon which such great expectations have been placed, and have they held true in the experience of reform? Great Expectations places the prospect of microeconomic reform in its theoretical and historical context. It examines and evaluates: - transport deregulation - government business enterprises - financial deregulation - contracting out - tariffs and industry policy - privatisation - communications deregulation - private infrastructure At a time when Australia s economic basis and future conti