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Taking Economics Seriously
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Book Synopsis Taking Economics Seriously by : Dean Baker
Download or read book Taking Economics Seriously written by Dean Baker and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-04-02 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading economist's exploration of what our economic arrangements might look like if we applied basic principles without ideological blinders. There is nothing wrong with economics, Dean Baker contends, but economists routinely ignore their own principles when it comes to economic policy. What would policy look like if we took basic principles of mainstream economics seriously and applied them consistently? In the debate over regulation, for example, Baker—one of the few economists who predicted the meltdown of fall 2008—points out that ideological blinders have obscured the fact there is no “free market” to protect. Modern markets are highly regulated, although intrusive regulations such as copyright and patents are rarely viewed as regulatory devices. If we admit the extent to which the economy is and will be regulated, we have many more options in designing policy and deciding who benefits from it. On health care reform, Baker complains that economists ignore another basic idea: marginal cost pricing. Unlike all other industries, medical services are priced extraordinarily high, far above the cost of production, yet that discrepancy is rarely addressed in the debate about health care reform. What if we applied marginal cost pricing—making doctors' wages competitive and charging less for prescription drugs and tests such as MRIs? Taking Economics Seriously offers an alternative Econ 101. It introduces economic principles and thinks through what we might gain if we free ourselves from ideological blinders and get back to basics in the most troubled parts of our economy.
Book Synopsis Taking New Zealand Seriously by : Tim Hazeldine
Download or read book Taking New Zealand Seriously written by Tim Hazeldine and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Economics Made Simple by : Madsen Pirie
Download or read book Economics Made Simple written by Madsen Pirie and published by Harriman House Limited. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do the banks work? Why do prices rise or fall? Is competition wasteful? Questions such as these arise whenever people seek to understand and discuss the economy. This book explains these and other questions through narrative and lucid explanation rooted in everyday experience and commonsense intuitions.
Book Synopsis What Every Economics Student Needs to Know and Doesn't Get in the Usual Principles Text by : John Komlos
Download or read book What Every Economics Student Needs to Know and Doesn't Get in the Usual Principles Text written by John Komlos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-17 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This short book explores a core group of 40 topics that tend to go unexplored in an Introductory Economics course. Though not a replacement for an introductory text, the work is intended as a supplement to provoke further thought and discussion by juxtaposing blackboard models of the economy with empirical observations. Each chapter starts with a short "refresher" of standard neoclassical economic modelling before getting into real world economic life. Komlos shows how misleading it can be to mechanically apply the perfect competition model in an oligopolistic environment where only an insignificant share of economic activity takes place in perfectly competitive conditions. Most economics texts introduce the notion of oligopoly and differentiate it from the perfect competition model with its focus on "price takers." Komlos contends that oligopolies are "price makers" like monopolies and cause consumers and economies nearly as much harm. Likewise, most textbook authors eschew any distortions of market pricing by government, but there is usually little discussion of the real impact of minimum wages, which Komlos corrects. The book is an affordable supplement for all basic economics courses or for anyone who wants to review the basic ideas of economics with clear eyes.
Download or read book Debunking Economics written by Steve Keen and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2001-07-28 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the score card for economics at the start of the new millennium? While there are many different schools of economic thought, it is the neo-classical school, with its alleged understanding and simplistic advocacy of the market, that has become equated in the public mind with economics. This book shows that virtually every aspect of conventional neo-classical economics' thinking is intellectually unsound. Steve Keen draws on an impressive array of advanced critical thinking. He constitutes a profound critique of the principle concepts, theories, and methodologies of the mainstream discipline. Keen raises grave doubts about economics' pretensions to established scientific status and its reliability as a guide to understanding the real world of economic life and its policy-making.
Book Synopsis The First Serious Optimist by : Ian Kumekawa
Download or read book The First Serious Optimist written by Ian Kumekawa and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking intellectual biography of one of the twentieth century's most influential economists The First Serious Optimist is an intellectual biography of the British economist A. C. Pigou (1877–1959), a founder of welfare economics and one of the twentieth century's most important and original thinkers. Though long overshadowed by his intellectual rival John Maynard Keynes, Pigou was instrumental in focusing economics on the public welfare. And his reputation is experiencing a renaissance today, in part because his idea of "externalities" or spillover costs is the basis of carbon taxes. Drawing from a wealth of archival sources, Ian Kumekawa tells how Pigou reshaped the way the public thinks about the economic role of government and the way economists think about the public good. Setting Pigou's ideas in their personal, political, social, and ethical context, the book follows him as he evolved from a liberal Edwardian bon vivant to a reserved but reform-minded economics professor. With World War I, Pigou entered government service, but soon became disenchanted with the state he encountered. As his ideas were challenged in the interwar period, he found himself increasingly alienated from his profession. But with the rise of the Labour Party following World War II, the elderly Pigou re-embraced a mind-set that inspired a colleague to describe him as "the first serious optimist." The story not just of Pigou but also of twentieth-century economics, The First Serious Optimist explores the biographical and historical origins of some of the most important economic ideas of the past hundred years. It is a timely reminder of the ethical roots of economics and the discipline's long history as an active intermediary between the state and the market.
Book Synopsis Taking Money Seriously and Other Essays by : David E. W. Laidler
Download or read book Taking Money Seriously and Other Essays written by David E. W. Laidler and published by Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Putting the matters back into money matters is David Laidler's intent in this collection of ten essays on the role of monetary institutions in the development of monetary theory and the implications of these ideas for policy. Together, the essays provide a coherent and accessible introduction to the power and range of thinking by one of the world's leading monetary economists. In Taking Money Seriously Laidler seeks to develop and sustain monetarist ideas of the 1960s in relationship to the new classical economics and to argue their continued policy relevance. Money matters, he points out, because monetary exchange rather than the Walrasian market coordinates economic activity in the real world. Laidler's discussion of the costs of inflation points up the importance of money's means-of-exchange role and is followed by an extended critique of new classical economics. He devotes several chapters to policy issues, in which he asserts that the monetary system is a public good whose organization and control present inherently political problems. David Laidler is Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario.
Book Synopsis Sack the Economists and Disband Their Departments by : Geoff Davies
Download or read book Sack the Economists and Disband Their Departments written by Geoff Davies and published by . This book was released on 2014-02 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mainstream economists completely failed to anticipate the financial market crash of 2007-8. They then called it an unforeseeable event. This is a clear admission that they don't understand how economies work. Yet many non-mainstream, marginalised economists gave clear warning of the approaching crash. This book shows how mainstream economics has not one but many fundamental flaws. It is not a science, it is pseudo-science. It lacks scholarly rigour and integrity. Once you understand this, it is not a mystery why the mainstreamers missed the approaching crash, nor why wealth is so unequally distributed, why we are so materialistic and unfulfilled, and why the planet is being destroyed. But modern knowledge and systems ideas reveal market economies to be self-organising systems, and they can be managed to support dignified livelihoods in equitable societies that can survive into the indefinite future, with nature thriving along with them. 'This book raises many interesting questions, most importantly, why does anyone take economists seriously when it comes to discussing the economy?' - Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington D.C. 'Geoff Davies has a very good idea. Economics has locked itself into an intellectual cul-desac.Even its failure to anticipate the global economic crisis was not enough to force it out. So let's sack the economists and let real scientists take over this vital but currently dangerous discipline.' - Steve Keen, Economist and author of the popular book Debunking Economics. 'With delightful wit and insightful analogies, geophysicist Geoff Davies dissects the inconsistencies - and the inanities - of mainstream economics.' - Sam Pizzigati, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C., and author of The Rich Don't Always Win.
Book Synopsis Good Economics for Hard Times by : Abhijit V. Banerjee
Download or read book Good Economics for Hard Times written by Abhijit V. Banerjee and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.
Book Synopsis The Spread of Economic Ideas by : David C. Colander
Download or read book The Spread of Economic Ideas written by David C. Colander and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-01-29 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1989, contains a spirited debate between eminent economists, journalists, and publishers about the spread of economic ideas. The examination of the flow of ideas among economists and from economists to the public is followed by a discussion of the public policy use and abuse of these concepts.
Book Synopsis The Craft of Economics by : Edward E. Leamer
Download or read book The Craft of Economics written by Edward E. Leamer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-01-06 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A review of the Heckscher–Ohlin framework prompts a noted economist to consider the methodology of economics. In this spirited and provocative book, Edward Leamer turns an examination of the Heckscher–Ohlin framework for global competition into an opportunity to consider the craft of economics: what economists do, what they should do, and what they shouldn't do. Claiming “a lifetime relationship with Heckscher–Ohlin,” Leamer argues that Bertil Ohlin's original idea offered something useful though vague and not necessarily valid; the economists who later translated his ideas into mathematical theorems offered something precise and valid but not necessarily useful. He argues further that the best economists keep formal and informal thinking in balance. An Ohlinesque mostly prose style can let in faulty thinking and fuzzy communication; a mostly math style allows misplaced emphasis and opaque communication. Leamer writes that today's model- and math-driven economics needs more prose and less math. Leamer shows that the Heckscher–Ohlin framework is still useful, and that there is still much work to be done with it. But he issues a caveat about economists: “What we do is not science, it's fiction and journalism.” Economic theory, he writes, is fiction (stories, loosely connected to the facts); data analysis is journalism (facts, loosely connected to the stories). Rather than titling the two sections of his book Theory and Evidence, he calls them Economic Fiction and Econometric Journalism, explaining, “If you find that startling, that's good. I am trying to keep you awake.”
Book Synopsis City Economics by : Brendan O'Flaherty
Download or read book City Economics written by Brendan O'Flaherty and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-30 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introductory but innovative textbook on the economics of cities is aimed at students of urban and regional policy as well as of undergraduate economics. It deals with standard topics, including automobiles, mass transit, pollution, housing, and education but it also discusses non-standard topics such as segregation, water supply, sewers, garbage, fire prevention, housing codes, homelessness, crime, illicit drugs, and economic development. Its methods of analysis are primarily verbal, geometric, and arithmetic. The author achieves coherence by showing how the analysis of various topics reinforces one another. Thus, buses can tell us something about schools and optimal tolls about land prices. Brendan O'Flaherty looks at almost everything through the lens of Pareto optimality and potential Pareto optimality--how policies affect people and their well-being, not abstract entities such as cities or the economy or growth or the environment. Such traditionalism leads to radical questions, however: Should cities have police and fire departments? Should tax preferences for home ownership be repealed? Should public schools charge for their services? O'Flaherty also gives serious consideration to such heterodox policies as pay-at-the-pump auto insurance, curb rights for buses, land taxes, marginal cost water pricing, and sidewalk zoning.
Book Synopsis Economics in One Lesson by : Henry Hazlitt
Download or read book Economics in One Lesson written by Henry Hazlitt and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2010-08-11 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With over a million copies sold, Economics in One Lesson is an essential guide to the basics of economic theory. A fundamental influence on modern libertarianism, Hazlitt defends capitalism and the free market from economic myths that persist to this day. Considered among the leading economic thinkers of the “Austrian School,” which includes Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich (F.A.) Hayek, and others, Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993), was a libertarian philosopher, an economist, and a journalist. He was the founding vice-president of the Foundation for Economic Education and an early editor of The Freeman magazine, an influential libertarian publication. Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson, his seminal work, in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also deceptively prescient and far-reaching in its efforts to dissemble economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. Economic commentators across the political spectrum have credited Hazlitt with foreseeing the collapse of the global economy which occurred more than 50 years after the initial publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt’s focus on non-governmental solutions, strong — and strongly reasoned — anti-deficit position, and general emphasis on free markets, economic liberty of individuals, and the dangers of government intervention make Economics in One Lesson every bit as relevant and valuable today as it has been since publication.
Book Synopsis Experiments in Economics by : Ananish Chaudhuri
Download or read book Experiments in Economics written by Ananish Chaudhuri and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are humans fair by nature? Why do we often willingly trust strangers or cooperate with them even if those actions leave us vulnerable to exploitation? Does this natural inclination towards fairness or trust have implications in the market-place? Traditional economic theory would perhaps think not, perceiving human interaction as self-interested at heart. There is increasing evidence however that social norms and norm-driven behaviour such as a preference for fairness, generosity or trust have serious implications for economics. This book provides an easily accessible overview of economic experiments, specifically those that explore the role of fairness, generosity, trust and reciprocity in economic transactions. Ananish Chaudhuri approaches a variety of economic issues and problems including: Pricing by firms Writing labour contracts between parties Marking voluntary contributions to charity, Addressing issues of environmental pollution, Providing micro-credit to small entrepreneurs, Resolving problems of coordination failure in organizations. The book discusses how norm-driven behaviour can often lead to significantly different outcomes than those predicted by economic theories and these findings should in turn cause us to re-think how we approach economic analysis and policy. Assuming no prior knowledge of economics and containing a variety of examples, this reader friendly volume will be perfect reading for people from a wide range of backgrounds including students and policy-makers. The book should appeal to economics undergraduates studying experimental economics, microeconomics or game theory as well as students in social psychology, organizational behaviour, management and other business related disciplines.
Book Synopsis Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by : Richard H. Thaler
Download or read book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics written by Richard H. Thaler and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-05-11 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Get ready to change the way you think about economics. Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans—predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth—and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world. Traditional economics assumes rational actors. Early in his research, Thaler realized these Spock-like automatons were nothing like real people. Whether buying a clock radio, selling basketball tickets, or applying for a mortgage, we all succumb to biases and make decisions that deviate from the standards of rationality assumed by economists. In other words, we misbehave. More importantly, our misbehavior has serious consequences. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow, the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments. Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behavior, Thaler enlightens readers about how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly mystifying world. He reveals how behavioral economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything from household finance to assigning faculty offices in a new building, to TV game shows, the NFL draft, and businesses like Uber. Laced with antic stories of Thaler’s spirited battles with the bastions of traditional economic thinking, Misbehaving is a singular look into profound human foibles. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining. Shortlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
Book Synopsis Money and Government by : Robert Skidelsky
Download or read book Money and Government written by Robert Skidelsky and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical examination of economics' past and future, and how it needs to change, by one of the most eminent political economists of our time The dominant view in economics is that money and government should play only minor roles in economic life. Economic outcomes, it is claimed, are best left to the "invisible hand" of the market. Yet these claims remain staunchly unsettled. The view taken in this important new book is that the omnipresence of uncertainty makes money and government essential features of any market economy. Since Adam Smith, classical economics has espoused non-intervention in markets. The Great Depression brought Keynesian economics to the fore; but stagflation in the 1970s brought a return to small-state orthodoxy. The 2008 global financial crash should have brought a reevaluation of that stance; instead the response has been punishing austerity and anemic recovery. This book aims to reintroduce Keynes’s central insights to a new generation of economists, and embolden them to return money and government to the starring roles in the economic drama that they deserve.
Book Synopsis Man, Economy, and State by : Murray N. Rothbard
Download or read book Man, Economy, and State written by Murray N. Rothbard and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2006 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prose of Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard is as clear as a bell. But its sheer size (1441 pages!) is intimidating. After all, Rothbard systematically covers the whole of economic science. Fortunately, the young and brilliant economist Robert Murphy has come to the rescue! In writing the Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State, he had his students in mind. He wanted to design a great teaching tool, one that would reach students the same way a private tutor would. He wanted to help Rothbard's magnum opus have permanent impact on their thinking. He accomplished his goal! The guide provides a roadmap to this massive book, complete with summaries, technical notes, annotations of key contributions, and study questions. He puts it all into a manageable size, with 12 pages per chapter of the Scholar's Edition (which includes both Man, Economy, and State and Power and Market). To write a guide of this sort is harder than it looks. Murphy first had to master the material in every way, enough so that he could write short, 3-page summaries of the chapters. He then used his advanced training to discuss and elaborate some of the more technically difficult sections of the book. And because Rothbard does not often explain what is innovative in his own theories, Murphy draws attention to the unique contributions to economic science found herein. He tops it off with a series of thought-provoking questions that deal with the core lessons of each chapter. The study guide comes spiral bound for ease of use. Murphy spent more than a year writing and editing this guide. As you will see, he is an excellent teacher and he set out to do this in a way that appeals to students of all ages. One of the goals of the Mises Institute has long been to make this book accessible to everyone, particularly people who are studying economics, and especially those who are interested in Austrian economics. This powerful guide makes the text open up as never before. It is ideal for classroom use, and also for private study. Another use didn't occur to the author until after he finished it: he uses it to prepare lectures for class! He says now that he doesn't know how he taught without it before. Murphy sought to write a teaching guide but he ended up writing a manual to Man, Economy, and State that will quickly become a staple of the literature. Would that every book of this size had such a guide (and, yes, he has now completed one for Human Action too!), and would that every guide were as clear and useful as this one. Professor Murphy is an extraordinary talent with a great gift for helping students understand economics. Now he can be your teacher too. The chapters of this guide match the twelve of Man, Economy, and State and the seven of Power and Market; appendices are handled within each chapter. A typical chapter begins with a one-page summary, followed by a detailed outline, "contributions" or observations from the author, technical details, and finally, ten study guide questions. "I strongly urge all those who take Austrian economics seriously to read (at least large portions of) Rothbard’s treatise; I would go so far as to say that a modern academic cannot really call him or herself an Austrian economist without doing so. For those who may be intimidated or discouraged by the massive volume, I hope that this study guide will at least “chart the territory” and allow them to begin in those topics that most interest them. At that point, I suspect, Rothbard’s spell will overtake them and they will be compelled to read all 1,441 pages." -Robert Murphy, from the Introduction
