Résultats de recherche de titre
Articles 61 à 80 sur 3235
Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the New Media Age
Par Matthew A. Baum. 2003
The American public has consistently declared itself less concerned with foreign affairs in the post-Cold War era, even after 9/11,…
than at any time since World War II. How can it be, then, that public attentiveness to U.S. foreign policy crises has increased? This book represents the first systematic attempt to explain this apparent paradox. Matthew Baum argues that the answer lies in changes to television's presentation of political information. In so doing he develops a compelling "byproduct" theory of information consumption. The information revolution has fundamentally changed the way the mass media, especially television, covers foreign policy. Traditional news has been repackaged into numerous entertainment-oriented news programs and talk shows. By transforming political issues involving scandal or violence (especially attacks against America) into entertainment, the "soft news" media have actually captured more viewers who will now follow news about foreign crises, due to its entertainment value, even if they remain uninterested in foreign policy. Baum rigorously tests his theory through content analyses of traditional and soft news media coverage of various post-WWII U.S. foreign crises and statistical analyses of public opinion surveys. The results hold key implications for the future of American politics and foreign policy. For instance, watching soft news reinforces isolationism among many inattentive Americans. Scholars, political analysts, and even politicians have tended to ignore the soft news media and politically disengaged citizens. But, as this well-written book cogently demonstrates, soft news viewers represent a largely untapped reservoir of unusually persuadable voters.The Handbook of Organizational Economics
Par Robert Gibbons, John Roberts. 2013
The definitive introduction to organizational economics, with contributions by leaders in the fieldIn even the most market-oriented economies, most economic…
transactions occur not in markets but inside managed organizations, particularly business firms. Organizational economics seeks to understand the nature and workings of such organizations and their impact on economic performance. This landmark book assembles the leading figures in organizational economics to present the first comprehensive view of both the current state of research in this fast-emerging field and where it might be headed.The Handbook of Organizational Economics surveys the major theories, evidence, and methods used in the field. It displays the breadth of topics in organizational economics, including the roles of individuals and groups in organizations, organizational structures and processes, the boundaries of the firm, contracts between and within firms, and more.The defining book on the subject, The Handbook of Organizational Economics is essential reading for researchers and students looking to understand this emerging field in economics.Presents the first comprehensive treatment of organizational economicsFeatures contributions by leaders in the fieldUnifies and extends existing literaturesDescribes theoretical and empirical methods used todayThe Theory of Taxation and Public Economics
Par Louis Kaplow. 2008
The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics presents a unified conceptual framework for analyzing taxation--the first to be systematically developed…
in several decades. An original treatment of the subject rather than a textbook synthesis, the book contains new analysis that generates novel results, including some that overturn long-standing conventional wisdom. This fresh approach should change thinking, research, and teaching for decades to come. Building on the work of James Mirrlees, Anthony Atkinson and Joseph Stiglitz, and subsequent researchers, and in the spirit of classics by A. C. Pigou, William Vickrey, and Richard Musgrave, this book steps back from particular lines of inquiry to consider the field as a whole, including the relationships among different fiscal instruments. Louis Kaplow puts forward a framework that makes it possible to rigorously examine both distributive and distortionary effects of particular policies despite their complex interactions with others. To do so, various reforms--ranging from commodity or estate and gift taxation to regulation and public goods provision--are combined with a distributively offsetting adjustment to the income tax. The resulting distribution-neutral reform package holds much constant while leaving in play the distinctive effects of the policy instrument under consideration. By applying this common methodology to disparate subjects, The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics produces significant cross-fertilization and yields solutions to previously intractable problems.Real Analysis with Economic Applications
Par Efe A. Ok. 2007
There are many mathematics textbooks on real analysis, but they focus on topics not readily helpful for studying economic theory…
or they are inaccessible to most graduate students of economics. Real Analysis with Economic Applications aims to fill this gap by providing an ideal textbook and reference on real analysis tailored specifically to the concerns of such students. The emphasis throughout is on topics directly relevant to economic theory. In addition to addressing the usual topics of real analysis, this book discusses the elements of order theory, convex analysis, optimization, correspondences, linear and nonlinear functional analysis, fixed-point theory, dynamic programming, and calculus of variations. Efe Ok complements the mathematical development with applications that provide concise introductions to various topics from economic theory, including individual decision theory and games, welfare economics, information theory, general equilibrium and finance, and intertemporal economics. Moreover, apart from direct applications to economic theory, his book includes numerous fixed point theorems and applications to functional equations and optimization theory. The book is rigorous, but accessible to those who are relatively new to the ways of real analysis. The formal exposition is accompanied by discussions that describe the basic ideas in relatively heuristic terms, and by more than 1,000 exercises of varying difficulty. This book will be an indispensable resource in courses on mathematics for economists and as a reference for graduate students working on economic theory.Securing Prosperity: The American Labor Market: How It Has Changed and What to Do about It
Par Paul Osterman. 1999
We live in an age of economic paradox. The dynamism of America's economy is astounding--the country's industries are the most…
productive in the world and spin off new products and ideas at a bewildering pace. Yet Americans feel deeply uneasy about their economic future. The reason, Paul Osterman explains, is that our recent prosperity is built on the ruins of the once reassuring postwar labor market. Workers can no longer expect stable, full-time jobs and steadily rising incomes. Instead, they face stagnant wages, layoffs, rising inequality, and the increased likelihood of merely temporary work. In Securing Prosperity, Osterman explains in clear, accessible terms why these changes have occurred and lays out an innovative plan for new economic institutions that promises a more secure future. Osterman begins by sketching the rise and fall of the postwar labor market, showing that firms have been the driving force behind recent change. He draws on original surveys of nearly 1,000 corporations to demonstrate that firms have reorganized and downsized not just for the obvious reasons--technological advances and shifts in capital markets--but also to take advantage of new, team-oriented ways of working. We can't turn the clock back, Osterman writes, since that would strip firms of the ability to compete. But he also argues that we should not simply give ourselves up to the mercies of the market. Osterman argues that new policies must engage on two fronts: addressing both higher rates of mobility in the labor market and a major shift in the balance of power against employees. To deal with greater mobility, Osterman argues for portable benefits, a stronger Unemployment Insurance system, and new labor market intermediaries to help workers navigate the labor market. To redress the imbalance of power, Osterman assesses the possibilities of reforming corporate governance but concludes the best approach is to promote "countervailing power" through innovative unions and creative strategies for organizing employee voice in communities. Osterman gives life to these arguments with numerous examples of promising institutional experiments.The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life
Par David Stark. 2009
What counts? In work, as in other areas of life, it is not always clear what standards we are being…
judged by or how our worth is being determined. This can be disorienting and disconcerting. Because of this, many organizations devote considerable resources to limiting and clarifying the logics used for evaluating worth. But as David Stark argues, firms would often be better off, especially in managing change, if they allowed multiple logics of worth and did not necessarily discourage uncertainty. In fact, in many cases multiple orders of worth are unavoidable, so organizations and firms should learn to harness the benefits of such "heterarchy" rather than seeking to purge it. Stark makes this argument with ethnographic case studies of three companies attempting to cope with rapid change: a machine-tool company in late and postcommunist Hungary, a new-media startup in New York during and after the collapse of the Internet bubble, and a Wall Street investment bank whose trading room was destroyed on 9/11. In each case, the friction of competing criteria of worth promoted an organizational reflexivity that made it easier for the company to change and deal with market uncertainty. Drawing on John Dewey's notion that "perplexing situations" provide opportunities for innovative inquiry, Stark argues that the dissonance of diverse principles can lead to discovery.Value of Information for Healthcare Decision-Making (Chapman & Hall/CRC Biostatistics Series)
Par Anna Heath, Natalia Kunst, Christopher Jackson. 2024
Value of Information for Healthcare Decision-Making introduces the concept of Value of Information (VOI) use in health policy decision-making to…
determine the sensitivity of decisions to assumptions, and to prioritise and design future research. These methods, and their use in cost-effectiveness analysis, are increasingly acknowledged by health technology assessment authorities as vital. Key Features: Provides a comprehensive overview of VOI Simplifies VOI Showcases state-of-the-art techniques for computing VOI Includes R statistical software package Provides results when using VOI methods Uses realistic decision model to illustrate key concepts The primary audience for this book is health economic modellers and researchers, in industry, government, or academia, who wish to perform VOI analysis in health economic evaluations. It is relevant for postgraduate researchers and students in health economics or medical statistics who are required to learn the principles of VOI or undertake VOI analyses in their projects. The overall goal is to improve the understanding of these methods and make them easier to use.This book will help you learn the importance of organizations treating enterprise cyber risk management (ECRM) as a value creator,…
a business enabler, and a mechanism to create a competitive advantage. Organizations began to see the real value of information and information technology in the mid-1980s. Forty years later, it’s time to leverage your ECRM program and cybersecurity strategy in the same way. The main topics covered include the case for action with specific coverage on the topic of cybersecurity as a value creator, including how the courts, legislators, and regulators are raising the bar for C-suite executives and board members. The book covers how the board’s three primary responsibilities (talent management, strategy, and risk management) intersect with their ECRM responsibilities.ECRM was once solely focused on managing the downside of risk by defending the organization from adversarial, accidental, structural, and environmental threat sources. Author Bob Chaput presents the view that we must focus equally on managing the upside of cyber strengths to increase customer trust and brand loyalty, improving social responsibility, driving revenue growth, lowering the cost of capital, attracting higher quality investments, creating competitive advantage, attracting and retaining talent, and facilitating M&A work. He focuses on the C-suite and board role in the first part and provides guidance on their roles and responsibilities, the most important decision about ECRM they must facilitate, and how to think differently about ECRM funding. You will learn how to the pivot from cost-center thinking to value-center thinking.Having built the case for action, in the second part, the book details the steps that organizations must take to develop and document their ECRM program and cybersecurity strategy. The book first covers how ECRM must be integrated into business strategy. The remainder of that part presents a sample table of contents for an ECRM Program and Cybersecurity Strategy document and works through each section to facilitate development of your own program and strategy. With all the content and ideas presented, you will be able to establish, implement, and mature your program and strategy.What You Will LearnRead new information and treat ECRM and cybersecurity as a value creatorReceive updates on legal cases, legislative actions, and regulations that are raising the stakes for organizations, their C-suites, and boardsThink differently about funding ECRM and cybersecurity initiativesUnderstand the most critical ECRM decision that boards must facilitate in their organizationsUse practical, tangible, actionable content to develop and document your ECRM program and cybersecurity strategy“This book should be mandatory reading for C-suite executives and board members. It shows you how to move from viewing cybersecurity as a risk to avoid, and a cost center that does not add value and is overhead, to seeing cybersecurity as an enabler and part of your core strategy to transform your business and earn customer and stakeholder trust.” —Paul Connelly, First CISO at the White House and HCA Healthcare Who This Book Is ForThe primary audience includes Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Risk Officers, and Chief Compliance Officers. The secondary audience includes C-suite executives and board members. The tertiary audience includes any stakeholder responsible for privacy, security, compliance, and cyber risk management or students of these topics.Homo Numericus: The coming 'civilization'
Par Daniel Cohen. 2024
From Amazon to Tinder, from Google to Deliveroo, there is no facet of human life which the digital revolution has…
not streamlined and dematerialised. Its objective was to reduce the cost of physical interactions by forgoing face-to-face interactions, a direct result of the free-market shock of the 1980s, which sought to seamlessly expand the marketplace in every possible dimension. Today, we can be algorithmically entertained, educated, cared for and courted in a way which was impossible in the old industrial society, where institutions structured the social world. Today, these institutions have been replaced by monetised virtual contact. As with the industrial revolution of the past, the digital revolution is creating a new economy and a new sensibility, bringing about a radical revaluation of society and its representations. While obsessed with the search for an efficient management of human relations, the new digital capitalism gives rise to an irrational and impulsive Homo numericus prone to an array of addictive behaviours. Far from producing a new agora, social media produce a radicalization of public debate in which hate-filled speech directed against adversaries becomes the norm. The good news is that these outcomes are not inevitable. Technologies have not taken control of our lives. The digital revolution also offers an alternative path: one that leads to a world in which every word deserves to be listened to, without a transcendent truth hanging over it. Are we able to seize the new opportunities opened up by the digital revolution without succumbing to its dark side?The Origins of Modern Banking in Spain: The Role of Monetary Plurality (ISSN)
Par Carles Sudrià, Yolanda Blasco-Martel. 2019
This book analyses the formation of the Spanish banking system. It provides a general overview of European financial systems in…
operation during the mid-nineteenth century, followed by a detailed analysis of the economic and institutional changes that gave rise to a new form of banking in Spain.The chapters analyse changes on banking regulation; study the social origin of banks’ promoters; investigate the economic results of banks; and evaluate the interaction between banks and the economy as a whole. Finally, the causes, extent and consequences of monetary plurality in Spain and its European context are discussed. As such, this book covers the gap that exists in the Spanish banking historiography. Until now only the Bank of Spain and its predecessors had been adequately examined. As the Bank of Spain acted mostly as the state’s financial agent, we know very little about private-sector financing. This text provides data and analysis for a more comprehensive view of early Spanish financial development in a comparative European framework. The Origins of Modern Banking in Spain should be considered essential reading for financial history students and scholars, as well as anybody interested in longview approaches to modern financial development.Nonparametric Econometrics: Theory and Practice (Advances In Econometrics Ser.)
Par Qi Li, Jeffrey Scott Racine. 2007
A comprehensive, up-to-date textbook on nonparametric methods for students and researchersUntil now, students and researchers in nonparametric and semiparametric statistics…
and econometrics have had to turn to the latest journal articles to keep pace with these emerging methods of economic analysis. Nonparametric Econometrics fills a major gap by gathering together the most up-to-date theory and techniques and presenting them in a remarkably straightforward and accessible format. The empirical tests, data, and exercises included in this textbook help make it the ideal introduction for graduate students and an indispensable resource for researchers.Nonparametric and semiparametric methods have attracted a great deal of attention from statisticians in recent decades. While the majority of existing books on the subject operate from the presumption that the underlying data is strictly continuous in nature, more often than not social scientists deal with categorical data—nominal and ordinal—in applied settings. The conventional nonparametric approach to dealing with the presence of discrete variables is acknowledged to be unsatisfactory.This book is tailored to the needs of applied econometricians and social scientists. Qi Li and Jeffrey Racine emphasize nonparametric techniques suited to the rich array of data types—continuous, nominal, and ordinal—within one coherent framework. They also emphasize the properties of nonparametric estimators in the presence of potentially irrelevant variables.Nonparametric Econometrics covers all the material necessary to understand and apply nonparametric methods for real-world problems.Partnership and Profit in Medieval Islam
Par Abraham L. Udovitch. 1970
From the point of view of economic history, the ideal way to study any institution of commercial law would be…
to compare the information contained in legal codes and treatises with the material relating to its application in economic life as manifested by actual contracts, letters, and business records found in archives and other repositories. In the case of the early centuries of the Islamic period, available sources unfortunately preclude such a procedure. Theoretical legal texts exist in abundance, but any corresponding documentary material is for all practical purposes non-extant. In order to determine if the framework in which the trade and commerce of the early Islamic period was carried on--a trade known to have been active and important--we must of necessity rely on legal treatises for most of our information, which trying wherever possible to call upon whatever meager help other literary sources may provide.In the absence of documentary and similar sources, the possibility of investigating the quantitative aspects of trade is all but eliminated. However, in those areas of trade which have been described as qualitative, such as the variety of goods exchanged, the specialization of the merchant class, and the complexity of business methods, legal and other literary sources provide a great deal of valuable information. It is with the institutions of partnership and commenda in the early Islamic period, two of the qualitative components of trade, that Abraham L. Udovitch makes his primary focus in Partnership and Profit in Medieval Islam.After Adam Smith: A Century of Transformation in Politics and Political Economy
Par Murray Milgate, Shannon C. Stimson. 2009
How writers after Adam Smith helped shape our thinking about economics and politicsFew issues are more central to our present…
predicaments than the relationship between economics and politics. In the century after Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations the British economy was transformed. After Adam Smith looks at how politics and political economy were articulated and altered. It considers how grand ideas about the connections between individual liberty, free markets, and social and economic justice sometimes attributed to Smith are as much the product of gradual modifications and changes wrought by later writers.Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and other liberals, radicals, and reformers had a hand in conceptual transformations that culminated in the advent of neoclassical economics. The population problem, the declining importance of agriculture, the consequences of industrialization, the structural characteristics of civil society, the role of the state in economic affairs, and the possible limits to progress were questions that underwent significant readjustments as the thinkers who confronted them in different times and circumstances reworked the framework of ideas advanced by Smith—transforming the dialogue between politics and political economy. By the end of the nineteenth century an industrialized and globalized market economy had firmly established itself. By exploring how questions Smith had originally grappled with were recast as the economy and the principles of political economy altered during the nineteenth century, this book demonstrates that we are as much the heirs of later images of Smith as we are of Smith himself.Many writers helped shape different ways of thinking about economics and politics after Adam Smith. By ignoring their interventions we risk misreading our past—and also misusing it—when thinking about the choices at the interface of economics and politics that confront us today.Recursive Models of Dynamic Linear Economies (The Gorman Lectures in Economics #6)
Par Lars Peter Hansen, Thomas J. Sargent. 2014
A guide to the economic modeling of household preferences, from two leaders in the fieldA common set of mathematical tools…
underlies dynamic optimization, dynamic estimation, and filtering. In Recursive Models of Dynamic Linear Economies, Lars Peter Hansen and Thomas Sargent use these tools to create a class of econometrically tractable models of prices and quantities. They present examples from microeconomics, macroeconomics, and asset pricing. The models are cast in terms of a representative consumer. While Hansen and Sargent demonstrate the analytical benefits acquired when an analysis with a representative consumer is possible, they also characterize the restrictiveness of assumptions under which a representative household justifies a purely aggregative analysis.Hansen and Sargent unite economic theory with a workable econometrics while going beyond and beneath demand and supply curves for dynamic economies. They construct and apply competitive equilibria for a class of linear-quadratic-Gaussian dynamic economies with complete markets. Their book, based on the 2012 Gorman lectures, stresses heterogeneity, aggregation, and how a common structure unites what superficially appear to be diverse applications. An appendix describes MATLAB programs that apply to the book's calculations.The classic introduction to the New Keynesian economic modelThis revised second edition of Monetary Policy, Inflation, and the Business Cycle…
provides a rigorous graduate-level introduction to the New Keynesian framework and its applications to monetary policy. The New Keynesian framework is the workhorse for the analysis of monetary policy and its implications for inflation, economic fluctuations, and welfare. A backbone of the new generation of medium-scale models under development at major central banks and international policy institutions, the framework provides the theoretical underpinnings for the price stability–oriented strategies adopted by most central banks in the industrialized world.Using a canonical version of the New Keynesian model as a reference, Jordi Galí explores various issues pertaining to monetary policy's design, including optimal monetary policy and the desirability of simple policy rules. He analyzes several extensions of the baseline model, allowing for cost-push shocks, nominal wage rigidities, and open economy factors. In each case, the effects on monetary policy are addressed, with emphasis on the desirability of inflation-targeting policies. New material includes the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates and an analysis of unemployment’s significance for monetary policy.The most up-to-date introduction to the New Keynesian framework availableA single benchmark model used throughoutNew materials and exercises includedAn ideal resource for graduate students, researchers, and market analystsHow Big Banks Fail and What to Do about It
Par Darrell Duffie. 2011
A leading finance expert explains how and why big banks fail—and what can be done to prevent itDealer banks—that is,…
large banks that deal in securities and derivatives, such as J. P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs—are of a size and complexity that sharply distinguish them from typical commercial banks. When they fail, as we saw in the global financial crisis, they pose significant risks to our financial system and the world economy. How Big Banks Fail and What to Do about It examines how these banks collapse and how we can prevent the need to bail them out.In sharp, clinical detail, Darrell Duffie walks readers step-by-step through the mechanics of large-bank failures. He identifies where the cracks first appear when a dealer bank is weakened by severe trading losses, and demonstrates how the bank's relationships with its customers and business partners abruptly change when its solvency is threatened. As others seek to reduce their exposure to the dealer bank, the bank is forced to signal its strength by using up its slim stock of remaining liquid capital. Duffie shows how the key mechanisms in a dealer bank's collapse—such as Lehman Brothers' failure in 2008—derive from special institutional frameworks and regulations that influence the flight of short-term secured creditors, hedge-fund clients, derivatives counterparties, and most devastatingly, the loss of clearing and settlement services.How Big Banks Fail and What to Do about It reveals why today's regulatory and institutional frameworks for mitigating large-bank failures don't address the special risks to our financial system that are posed by dealer banks, and outlines the improvements in regulations and market institutions that are needed to address these systemic risks.The Theory of Corporate Finance
Par Jean Tirole. 2006
The past twenty years have seen great theoretical and empirical advances in the field of corporate finance. Whereas once the…
subject addressed mainly the financing of corporations--equity, debt, and valuation--today it also embraces crucial issues of governance, liquidity, risk management, relationships between banks and corporations, and the macroeconomic impact of corporations. However, this progress has left in its wake a jumbled array of concepts and models that students are often hard put to make sense of. Here, one of the world's leading economists offers a lucid, unified, and comprehensive introduction to modern corporate finance theory. Jean Tirole builds his landmark book around a single model, using an incentive or contract theory approach. Filling a major gap in the field, The Theory of Corporate Finance is an indispensable resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students as well as researchers of corporate finance, industrial organization, political economy, development, and macroeconomics. Tirole conveys the organizing principles that structure the analysis of today's key management and public policy issues, such as the reform of corporate governance and auditing; the role of private equity, financial markets, and takeovers; the efficient determination of leverage, dividends, liquidity, and risk management; and the design of managerial incentive packages. He weaves empirical studies into the book's theoretical analysis. And he places the corporation in its broader environment, both microeconomic and macroeconomic, and examines the two-way interaction between the corporate environment and institutions. Setting a new milestone in the field, The Theory of Corporate Finance will be the authoritative text for years to come.Financial Crises, Liquidity, and the International Monetary System
Par Jean Tirole. 2002
Once upon a time, economists saw capital account liberalization--the free and unrestricted flow of capital in and out of countries--as…
unambiguously good. Good for debtor states, good for the world economy. No longer. Spectacular banking and currency crises in recent decades have shattered the consensus. In this remarkably clear and pithy volume, one of Europe's leading economists examines these crises, the reforms being undertaken to prevent them, and how global financial institutions might be restructured to this end. Jean Tirole first analyzes the current views on the crises and on the reform of the international financial architecture. Reform proposals often treat the symptoms rather than the fundamentals, he argues, and sometimes fail to reconcile the objectives of setting effective financing conditions while ensuring that a country "owns" its reform program. A proper identification of market failures is essential to reformulating the mission of an institution such as the IMF, he emphasizes. Next he adapts the basic principles of corporate governance, liquidity provision, and risk management of corporations to the particulars of country borrowing. Building on a "dual- and common-agency perspective," he revisits commonly advocated policies and considers how multilateral organizations can help debtor countries reap enhanced benefits while liberalizing their capital accounts. Based on the Paolo Baffi Lecture the author delivered at the Bank of Italy, this refreshingly accessible book is teeming with rich insights that researchers, policymakers, and students at all levels will find indispensable.Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics
Par Kaushik Basu. 2010
Why economics needs to focus on fairness and not just efficiencyOne of the central tenets of mainstream economics is Adam…
Smith's proposition that, given certain conditions, self-interested behavior by individuals leads them to the social good, almost as if orchestrated by an invisible hand. This deep insight has, over the past two centuries, been taken out of context, contorted, and used as the cornerstone of free-market orthodoxy. In Beyond the Invisible Hand, Kaushik Basu argues that mainstream economics and its conservative popularizers have misrepresented Smith's insight and hampered our understanding of how economies function, why some economies fail and some succeed, and what the nature and role of state intervention might be. Comparing this view of the invisible hand with the vision described by Kafka—in which individuals pursuing their atomistic interests, devoid of moral compunction, end up creating a world that is mean and miserable—Basu argues for collective action and the need to shift our focus from the efficient society to one that is also fair.Using analytic tools from mainstream economics, the book challenges some of the precepts and propositions of mainstream economics. It maintains that, by ignoring the role of culture and custom, traditional economics promotes the view that the current system is the only viable one, thereby serving the interests of those who do well by this system. Beyond the Invisible Hand challenges readers to fundamentally rethink the assumptions underlying modern economic thought and proves that a more equitable society is both possible and sustainable, and hence worth striving for.By scrutinizing Adam Smith's theory, this impassioned critique of contemporary mainstream economics debunks traditional beliefs regarding best economic practices, self-interest, and the social good.The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
Par Angus Deaton. 2013
A Nobel Prize–winning economist tells the remarkable story of how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal…
over the past two and half centuriesThe world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Nobel Prize–winning economist Angus Deaton—one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty—tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind.Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts—including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions—that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape.Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, The Great Escape is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations.