An engine, not a camera

how financial models shape markets

In "An Engine, Not a Camera", Donald MacKenzie argues that the emergence of modern economic theories of finance affected financial markets in fundamental ways. These new, Nobel Prize-winning theories, based on elegant mathematical models of markets, were not simply external analyses but intrinsic parts of ...

Money, interest, and policy

dynamic general equilibrium in a non-ricardian world

An important recent advancement in macroeconomics is the development of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) macromodels. The use of DSGE models to study monetary policy, however, has led to paradoxical and puzzling results on a number of central monetary issues including price determinancy and liquidity ...

Political theory and global climate change

Ed. Steve Vanderheiden; Foreword by John Barry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Climate change will shape the political, economic, and cultural landscape as surely as it shapes the natural landscape. It challenges our existing political institutions, ethical theories, and ways of conceptualizing the human relationship to the environment, it defies ...

Minimum wages

Minimum wages exist in more than one hundred countries, both industrialized and developing. The United States passed a federal minimum wage law in 1938 and has increased the minimum wage and its coverage at irregular intervals ever since; in addition, as of the beginning of ...

Deposit insurance around the World

issues of design and implementation

Eds. Asli Demirgüc- Kunt, Edward J. Kane, Luc Laeven. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Explicit deposit insurance (DI) is widely held to be a crucial element of modern financial safety nets. For this reason, establishing a DI system is frequently recommended by outside experts to countries undergoing reform. Predictably, DI ...

The development and testing of Heckscher-Ohlin trade models

No names are more closely associated with modern trade theory than Eli Heckscher and Bertil Ohlin. The basic Heckscher-Ohlin proposition, according to which a country exports factors in abundant supply and imports factors in scarce supply, is a key component of modern trade theory. In ...

The future of Europe

reform or decline

Unless Europe takes action soon, its further economic and political decline is almost inevitable, economists Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi write in this provocative book. Without comprehensive reform, continental Western Europe's overprotected, overregulated economies will continue to slow - and its political influence will become ...

The privacy advocates

resisting the spread of surveillance

Today, personal information is captured, processed, and disseminated in a bewildering variety of ways, and through increasingly sophisticated, miniaturized, and distributed technologies: identity cards, biometrics, video surveillance, the use of cookies and spyware by Web sites, data mining and profiling, and many others. In "The ...

Democracy as problem solving

civic capacity in communities across the globe

Complexity, division, mistrust, and "process paralysis" can thwart leaders and others when they tackle local challenges. In "Democracy as Problem Solving", Xavier de Souza Briggs shows how civic capacity - the capacity to create and sustain smart collective action - can be developed and used. In an ...

A climate of injustice

global inequality, north-south politics and climate policy

This work is an examination of the role that inequality plays in shaping post-Kyoto prospects for a North-South global climate pact; with statistical and theoretical analysis and case studies of recent climate- related disasters. The global debate over who should take action to address climate ...

Recent develoments in antitrust

theory and evidence

Specialists discuss current conceptual and empirical issues involved in the formulation and enforcement of antitrust policy. Antitrust policy in the United States and Europe relies increasingly on economic analysis. Economic theory and empirical analysis play a central role in antitrust decisions in the courts and ...

Change of State

information, policy and power

As the informational state replaces the bureaucratic welfare state, control over creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power. In Change of State Sandra Braman examines the theoretical and practical ramifications of this "change of state." She looks at the ...

Debt defaults and lessons from a decade of crises

This work provides detailed case studies of debt defaults by Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Ecuador, Moldova, and Uruguay, framed by a comprehensive discussion of the history, economic theory, legal issues, and policy lessons of sovereign debt crises. The debt crises in emerging market countries over the ...

Sustainability or collapse?

an integrated history and future of people on earth

Scholars from a range of disciplines develop an integrated human and environmental history over millennial, centennial, and decadal time scales and make projections for the future. Human history, as written traditionally, leaves out the important ecological and climate context of historical events. But the capability ...

Theorizing digital cultural heritage

a critical discourse

This book features theoretical and practical perspectives from a range of disciplines on the challenges of using digital media in interpretation and representation of cultural heritage. In "Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage", experts offer a critical and theoretical appraisal of the uses of digital media by ...

Inequality and growth

theory and policy implications

Leading international economists discuss how and why institutions influence growth; empirical and theoretical studies that provide an overview and contribute to the current research. Even minute increases in a country's growth rate can result in dramatic changes in living standards over just one generation ...

Economic theory and cognitive science

microexplanation

This work is an analysis of the relationship between economic theory and the theoretical foundations of the cognitive and behavioral sciences; a comprehensive new model of economic theory that recovers the core insights of neoclassical microeconomics while making them fully relevant in the context of ...

End-of-life decision making

a cross-national study

This examination of end-of-life decision making offers a broader perspective than that found in the extensive existing literature on this topic by offering a cross-national comparison. Experts from twelve countries analyze death-related issues and policies in their respective nations, discussing such topics as health care ...

The resilient enterprise

overcoming vulnerability for competitive advantage

Stories from Nokia, Dell, UPS, Toyota, and other companies show how firms can reduce their vulnerability to high-impact disruptions, from earthquakes to strikes, from SARS to terrorism, and use them for competitive advantage. What happens when fire strikes the manufacturing plant of the sole supplier ...

Making AID work

This title offers an encouraging account of the potential of foreign aid to reduce poverty and a challenge to all aid organizations to think harder about how they spend their money. With more than a billion people now living on less than a dollar a ...