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Hardbound. ... Read more

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Schaum’s Easy Outline Series

When you are looking for a quick nuts-and-bolts overview, there’s no series that does it better. Schaum's Easy Outline of Introduction to Mathematical Economics is a pared-down, simplified, and tightly focused version of its predecessor.

Customer Reviews (3)

Typos mar a version with too little detail
You can strip things down too far. This book takes too much out, and the edition I read (the first half of, anyway) had too many typos to be useful for the intended audience -- people who really don't know the material yet, or haven't looked at it in a long time.This is an embarrassment to the Schaum series, which otherwise I like very much.

excellent revision and reference book
This book is simply great: it is highly affordable and covers everything you basically need in mathematical economics.

This book is a decomposed version of the original Schaum's OutlineIntroduction to Mathematical Economics, also by Dowling.

I have probably used it more than any other math-book I have owned, it is perfect for both revision and reference.To be perfectly honest I even prefer this smaller version than the larger version above. What is brilliant about this book is that all the formulas are explained both generally and with examples, and includes solved-problems.

It covers everything you basically need in mathematical economics, everything else is based on what this book covers. If you know the methods in this book you can work everything else out. All this power and knowledge in a small pocketbook.

This book is best used by those who know some calculus already: basic differentiation and matrix algebra.

Opinion of a panamanian senior economist
I am a senior economist who finished his Ph.D in the mid eighties in Moscow at the Plejanow Institute and wanted a book that could gave me a whole picture (at once) of the current advances in mathematics for economists. This is an excelent book for that porpouse. I don't think this is a book for begginers. There are some tipographical errors (that I hope will be corrected for the next edition)that deteriorates in some way the overall quality of the book. Nontheless if you have some background in mathematics for economistas it will help you reinforcing your knowledge. I think this book could be named the pocket Bible of mathematics for economists. This is an excelent book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book, which comprises eight chapters, presents a comprehensive critical survey of the results and methods of laboratory experiments in economics. The first chapter provides an introduction to experimental economics as a whole, with the remaining chapters providing surveys by leading practitioners in areas of economics that have seen a concentration of experiments: public goods, coordination problems, bargaining, industrial organization, asset markets, auctions, and individual decision making.

The work aims both to help specialists set an agenda for future research and to provide nonspecialists with a critical review of work completed to date. Its focus is on elucidating the role of experimental studies as a progressive research tool so that wherever possible, emphasis is on series of experiments that build on one another. The contributors to the volume--Colin Camerer, Charles A. Holt, John H. Kagel, John O. Ledyard, Jack Ochs, Alvin E. Roth, and Shyam Sunder--adopt a particular methodological point of view: the way to learn how to design and conduct experiments is to consider how good experiments grow organically out of the issues and hypotheses they are designed to investigate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

all you need to know about lab experiments in econ
if you are considering doing a lab experiment in econ, or would like to be more versed on the subject, this is a must read!
it also provides historical accounts for certain experiments conducted already by experimental psychologists, contrasting the methods and results with the ones done by economists.
(when i bought it, this was the newest handbook you could find, now i guess you should buy the newest version since a lot has happened in this area in the past decade).

Good review/ Introduction
The Handbook is a good introduction to some of the key research lines in experimental economics. It is a great place to get started with the literature.

extremely comprehensive yet succinct
Who wants to know how experimental economics has evolved, what experimental economists cover and do?Anyone who has ever thought why people make seemingly irrational decisions can read this book and find out how the research has been evolving in that regard!Find interesting differences from economists' view, compared with psychologists' view. The book is a must for any experimental economists, and all researchers interested in judgment and decision making.This is a great book for any experimental economics course... and the website maintained by Alvin Roth is a treasure for further research. ... Read more

Product Description
Revised following the 2004 presidential election, a graphic portrait of the growing gap between the rich and everyone else in America.

• In 1968, African Americans earned 55 cents for every dollar of white income. At the current pace, it would take 581 years for African Americans to achieve income parity.
• States including Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia tax food and basic needs at a higher rate than income from investments.
• Welfare for very low income people totaled $193 billion in 2004. Aid to "dependent corporations" exceeded $800 billion.

This updated edition of the widely touted Economic Apartheid in America looks at the causes and manifestations of wealth disparities in the United States, including tax policy in light of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and recent corporate scandals.

Published with two leading organizations dedicated to addressing economic inequality, the book looks at recent changes in income and wealth distribution and examines the economic policies and shifts in power that have fueled the growing divide.

Praised by Sojurners as "a clear blueprint on how to combat growing inequality," Economic Apartheid in America provides "much-needed groundwork for more democratic discussion and participation in economic life" (Tikkun). With "a wealth of eye-opening data" (The Beacon) focusing on the decline of organized labor and civic institutions, the battle over global trade, and the growing inequality of income and wages, it argues that most Americans are shut out of the discussion of the rules governing their economic lives.

Accessible and engaging and illustrated throughout with charts, graphs, and political cartoons, the book lays out a comprehensive plan for action. Charts, graphs, and black-and-white illustrations throughout. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Powerful and Poignant
Economic Apartheid explores the history of how we reached the current economic gap where a minority of American people hold a majority of the wealth while the majority of the population struggle to make ends meet. The book is written in a compelling language and uses cartoons to illustrate points and enliven the many graphs sprinkled throughout the text.It begins by establishing the problem and explaining some history and goes on to focus on opportunities to improve our economy for all Americans and shrink the economic divide. Economic Apartheid in America succeeds in educating the reader.It shocks and infuriates our sense of justice, inspires action and suggests avenues for engagement.I highly recommend this book.

More of a primer
This book isn't bad. But the content makes it difficult to be entertaining. I would compare it to a college freshmen economic textbook. But it's not just boring text. There are interesting graphs and charts. And even some lame cartoons. But it's done very well and has some excellent commentary. It's almost entertaining. But again, it's tough to sit down and actually read content about labor unions and minimum wage and stay excited. But as far as the books that I've seen or read that paint a big picture of our economy and it's current state . . . this is the best.

Informative, important, and easy to read
Co-authors Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel discuss the widening gap between America's rich and poor, and why it's in our interest to pay attention.

With clarity and conviction, Economic Apartheid In America details the reasons for this country's increasing disparity between the wealthiest and everyone else.It begins with a discussion of the societal risks economic inequality poses, including a decrease in family security, threats to our democratic institutions, and the decay of social cohesion.The book indicates that families in all but the highest earning brackets face declining real incomes, increasing personal debt, a virtual disappearance in both retirement and personal savings, and unavailable or unaffordable health care coverage.In addition, education and child care costs are on the rise and the federal minimum wage is so outdated it can no longer realistically keep a family of four above the poverty line.

The authors explain how high concentrations of wealth place excessive power in the hands of too few, primarily through political influence and corporate disenfranchisement of workers.This has resulted in an uneven playing field on which the wealthiest individuals and corporations enjoy higher income, numerous tax breaks, and greater returns on investment, while the poorest are expected to bear higher living costs, declining income, and an ever-increasing tax burden.The book also discusses the persistent disparities in earning power for minorities and women.

Collins and Yeskel point out that it wasn't always this way.In the post World War II era families in every income bracket enjoyed comparably sized increases in earnings, allowing a more even distribution of wealth and, with the notable exceptions of women and minorities, a greater level of overall prosperity.Now, in the post-Reagan era of globalization and the proliferation of "free-market capitalism," corporations have compromised wage-earner security through downsizing, outsourcing, and excessive executive compensation.

The book admonishes readers to effect change through the use of grassroots organizing efforts, the support of political leaders who favor limits on corporate welfare and an increase in the minimum wage, the reinvigoration of unionized labor, and the creation/adaptation of government social services that support working families.In addition, several strategies, from socially responsible investing to publicly funded elections, are offered as methods to close the economic divide.

Other notable topics discussed in the book include the Federal Reserve's over-aversion to inflation, the abuse of commonwealth resources, a cultural shift towards greed and consumerism, and the perpetuation of class divide via intergenerational retention of wealth.While at times the book suffers from a tone of activist desperation, overall it offers an informed summation and practical solutions for a critical issue facing society.
... Read more

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A classic in its field, this pathbreaking book humanized the scientific rhetoric of economics to reveal its literary soul. In this completely revised second edition, Deirdre N. McCloskey demonstrates how economic discourse employs metaphor, authority, symmetry, and other rhetorical means of persuasion. The Rhetoric of Economics shows economists to be human persuaders, poets of the marketplace, even in their most technical and mathematical moods.

Customer Reviews (8)

I know Deirdre as Donald...but I learned non the less
I must admit that when I read this book in collage I was very closed minded because Deirdre McCloskey was Donald McCloskey before a sex change operation. She makes the claim that economics needs to get serious about its rhetoric, and back to science but with an underlining agenda. Even though this book has an agenda it is a good read as long as you ignore it

Better than the average monkey
I first read this book as an undergrad economist, well over 10 years ago now. I discovered the book, in the course of writing about the evolution of the Phillips curve. What the Phillips curve offered, initially at least, was the embodiment of empirically-based economic theory, yet it metamorphosed, into the New Classical 'expectations-augmented' model, and the New Business School model with each, in turn, becoming accepted 'truth' by mainstream economics. What could account for this shift? Clearly it was not based on anything related to 'positive' economics or empiricism, since the theory behind the 'curve' (which was no longer a curve)had long since been wrung dry of any meaningful empirical content.

While I don't recall all of the details, this book, and McCloskey's other writings on the same theme, support the idea that, while Truth (to be differentiated from trivialities, things that are true 'by definition', for example), does exist, WE HAVE NO WAY OF COMING TO RECOGNISE IT - there are no objective criteria for doing so, that is distinguishing truth from falsity. It may come as a shock to some, but there is no dissenting from this point - if you know of any such criteria, let me know.

The slightly controversial, but logical, point that follows is, therefore, to disregard Truth as a 'useful' concept, with any explanatory power. The key to the acceptance of theory (as if it were the Truth), not just in economics, lies ultimately in its 'persuasiveness', something that is engendered through the use of 'mere rhetoric'. McCloskey is not arguing that this is how things 'should' be, but how they are - in grubby, messy reality.

If you doubt this to be so, try thinking about the recent Gulf War and arguments about WMD, as an illustration - it was Bush and Blair's ability to 'persuade' people, and politicians, that made the threat from Iraq real, or 'True'. That is, the threat might have existed independent of their pronouncements, but because we had no objective means of evaluating that, their pronouncements BECAME REALITY.

This is a text about the philosophy of economics that is extremely thought-provoking. It succeeds in challenging preconceptions of what is True and how we come to know it as such, that has implications far beyond economics. For anyone with an interest in philosophy, or economics, this is well worth reading, a real eye-opener.

Lord Chimp, the relativists will inherit the world, my friend. Like it or not, there is no black or white, only shades of grey, and neither is counterintuity synonymous with absurdity.

Deirdre is correct about the misuse of significance levels
McCloskey's book deserves to be read because of the original material in her book dealing with the misuse,misapplication and misinterpretation of both statistical significance and economic significance(see pp.112-138,189)in the vast majority of articles published in economics journals, that used statistical and econometric analysis,in the time period from 1935-2005.She was the researcher who was the first to point out ,in a detailed manner ,the massive amount of errors that were being published in economics articles.Unfortunately,she makes the generalization,based on this particular body of work,that all economic analysis essentially involves researchers who base their policy analysis(the rhetoric of economics)on the misuse of mathematical,logical,and statistical procedures chosen,used,and interpreted specifically to support the a priori beliefs of the researcher.Thus,all economics is basically rhetoric,with particular techniques chosen with the aim being, not scientific discovery but, persuasion.She particularly dislikes the theoretical perspective of Paul Samuelson.It is easy to give a counter example.On p.262 of chapter 19 of the General Theory(1936),Keynes gives his major result-the absence of involuntary unemployment requires that the mpc(marginal propensity to consume)=1.If the capital stock is not at an optimal level,then this condition becomes mpc+mpi=1(where mpi equals the marginal propensity to invest).In the appendix to chapter 19,Keynes points out that this equation is missing from the macroscopic analysis provided by A C Pigou in his 1933 book,The Theory of Unemployment.Keynes then derives the following optimality condition for both the labor market and the output market in chapter 20 and again in chapter 21.That condition is that w/p=mpl/(mpc+mpi),where w is the money wage,p is the price level,and mpl is the marginal product of labor in the aggregate derived from an aggregate neoclassical production function(GT,P.283;footnotes 1 and 2).It is obvious that the classical and neoclassical theories can only hold in the special case of mpc+mpi=1.Keynes's GT thus generalizes the classical and neoclassical theories.Unless mpc+mpi=1,involuntary unemployment will exist and it will be impossible for labor,in the aggregate,to reduce the unemployment rate by cutting their money wages.There is no rhetoric and/or attempt at persuasion going on here.There is only the pure force of a logical and mathematical exposition that is based on the microeconomic foundations of purely competitive firms and industries.

relativism reborn...yet again.
The "hermeneutics" of thinkers like McClosky, Rorty, and even some of those 'austrian' economists over at GMU is certainly not a new creed. It is the age-old song of the German historicist school and epistemological relativism. Okay, so it has a new coat of paint, updated with a few contemporary insights. McClosky targets economics with hermeneutic "propositions", seeking to unravel the modern methodological basis for the science (positivism/empiricism) and propose a new criterion to judging economic propositions (or any proposition whatsoever).

To McClosky, truth and falsehood are irrelevant categories -- what matters is only whether or not something is persuasive. Thus, rhetoric claims prime importance. Consider this telling excerpt from the book: "The very idea of Truth--with a capital T, something beyond what is merely persuasive to all concerned--is a fifth wheel. . . . If we decided that the qualitity theory of money or the marginal productivity theory of distribution is persuasive, interesting, useful, reasonable, appealing, acceptable, we do not need to know that it is True (p. 47)." Or, in comparing economic science to literary criticism, McClosky writes: "[Rhetoric] believes that science advances by healthy conversation, not adherenence to a methodology. . . . Life is not so easy that an economist can be made better at what he does merely by reading a book (p. 174)."

Surely, to anyone except those with a Ph.D. in philosophy, this must strike one as totally counterintuitive and absurd. Are we really ready to concede that there is no objective truth? All right -- let us do so, for the sake of argument.

But then we must of course inquire into the status of McClosky's own propositions. It is simply contradictory to make validity-claiming proposition averring that validity-claiming propositions cannot exist. Furthermore, such a claim implies a performative contradiction, as any argument presupposes the proponent's understanding of the meaning of truth and falsehood simply in order to say "I propose such and such, and you can either agree or prove me wrong." A proposition gains axiomatic status if it must be presupposed in the course of refutation. Argumentation has such axiomatic status. It is nothing but nonsense to argue that you cannot argue.

In fact, McClosky and other hermeneuticians are _so_ wrong that they can only say what they say _because_ it is wrong. For to them, there is no objective truth criterion for any proposition whatsoever. And yet, the use of language itself is a form of action, and surely there is a difference between McClosky's pronouncements and, say, the clacking of buttons on the keyboard as he writes it out (well, she was a he when this book was originally written and published, back when i read it -- i really don't know what pronoun to use). The most elementary tools of logic, like junctors and quantors, and the Laws of Identity and Contradiction, have their roots in action. these laws could never be undone by anyone, for in order to deny that they are in fact laws of reality, one would have to presuppose their validity. Accounting for the structure of elementary logical propositions (like "Hamburgers are a food") is the fact that in each and every action, a person must identify a situation and categorize it one way or another if choice is to be possible. Thus, while one could certainly say "and" means something other than "and", one could not deny its realist praxeological-ontological meaning, rooted in reality and action, without stumbling headlong into contradiction. Thus, at the _very least_, the existence of language presupposes the existence of truth categories and this could never be denied by anyone using language. Evidently, then, some common ground exists for people. McClosky's entire position is full of hot air.

Of course, McClosky levels many challenges to scientific orthodoxy of empiricism in the social sciences. All well and good -- empiricism is an empty doctrine, completely inadequate as a methodological basis for economics. But McClosky has simply chosen the wrong target. Empiricism claims that all a priori knowledge is merely analytic (in fact, it is doubted if analytical propositions qualify as knowledge at all). All facts of reality must be observable, and all truth-claims must be verifiable (or are least falsifiable) by experience. With this approach, an economist would be left willy-nilly unable to _know_ anything, since they must concede that experience could have yielded a different result. But if McClosky's purpose was to attack the foundations of objective truth in economic science, why choose empiricism? would it not have been more prudent to target the extremist-rationalist thinkers such as Ludwig von Mises or Murray Rothbard? Such proponents of economics as a realistic science of a priori laws whose validity is not contingent on experience, would seem to be the antithesis of the hermeneutics position. The irony of it all is that McClosky's own methodological position is impotent to take down empiricism, much less rationalism which goes essentially unchallenged.

The refutation of hermeneutics vindicates rationalism, leaving us with no choice but to regard hermeneutics at a vacuous doctrine. This is a book of less-than-zero scientific value. If you are looking for good writings on rationalist economic science, see Ludwig von Mises, _Human Action_; idem, _Epistemological Problems of Economics_; Murray Rothbard, _Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market_; Hans-Hermann Hoppe, _Economic Science and the Austrian Method_. This book should not be taken seriously, but laughed and ridiculed as contradictory garbage.

The Deirdre is in the Details
Deirdre McCloskey hangs out with the "wrong" crowd.She is immersed in the work of a varied group of thinkers, the likes of Paul Feyerabend, Stanley Fish and Richard Rorty - collectively often referred to as Postmodernists, although Deidre McCloskey refers to the "movement" as "Anti-Modernism" (p. 183).The common thread that unites all these thinkers is opposition to rationality - or is it to science?Or maybe just a skepticism about naïve-modernism?

Because McCloskey is an economist (and a brilliant and eccentric writer), she's not prone to adopt the radicalism of Postmodernism - her take on those ideas is opposition to naïve Modernism, but without repudiating either science, rationalism or empiricism.

Basically, McCloskey attacks Modernism, or Positivism, a simplistic view of the world according to which science is a unique channel to truth, one in which things are "proven" rather then argued, in which, if you can't count it you don't know it, where mathematics is god and a mere argument - one not backed by "the facts" - is worthless, "mere" rhetoric.McCloskey offers "Ten Commandments of Modernism" in science (pp. 143-144), including such dictates as "Prediction and control is the point of science" (the first commandment), and "Only the observable implications (or predictions) of a theory matter to its truth" (the second commandment).

My problem is, I doubt anyone has ever been a "naïve Modernist" in McCloskey's sense.I only believe in two of McCloskey's commandments, and even those with misgivings.The strongest opponents of the Postmodernists, scientists like Paul Gross and Norman Levitt, historians like Richard Evans, philosophers like Daniel Dennett - certainly are no naïve Modernists.Even according to McCloskey herself, Milton Friedman's essay "The Methodology of Positive Economics", despite being "the central document of modernism in economics" (McCloskey's phrase), is "more postmodernist than you might suppose", and even Karl Popper is a "transitional figure"(pp. 144-145).So what's all the fuss about?Who is McCloskey after? When it comes to an example, McCloskey parades a research paper (by economists Richard Roll and Stephen Ross), stating:

"One should not reject the conclusions derived from firm profit maximization on the basis of sample surveys in which managers claim that they trade off profits for social good" (quoted on p. 146)

Is that so unreasonable?

Compare McCloskey's three chapters against methodology and for rhetoric with chapter four of 'Intellectual Impostures' by the bete noir of Postmodernists, Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont.Their prose and argument is more lucid; the ideas are very similar.And as a critic of Modernist prose and scientism (and McCloskey's charge about those point is substantial), it is strange that she marshals with apparent approval the writing of someone like Stanley Fish, who writes: 'All utterances are... produced and understood within the assumption of some socially conceived and understood dimension of assessment... all facts are discourse specific... and therefore no one can claim for any language a special relationship to the facts as they "simple are".' (Quoted on p.108).

If the central argument of McCloskey's book is not all that surprising, the book is nonetheless worth reading for McCloskey's almost incidental insights.Her attack on the insignificance of statistical significance (chapter 8), is more developed here than in her "Secret Sins of Economics", and it is rather disturbing that so many economists have fallen into the trap of thinking that an arbitrary statistical test necessarily has real life meanings (chapter 8).Her discussion of the justifications for the existence of a downward sloping demand curve must make anyone interested in economics think twice: "Some economists have tried to subject the law to a few experimental tests" she writes "After a good deal of throat-clearing they have found it to be true for clearheaded rats and false for confused humans" (p. 25).

McCloskey's insight into and analysis of actual rhetoric is also fun, for example, on a classic paper by Ronald Coase:

"When claiming the ethos of the Scientist the young Coase was especially fond of "tend to", the phrase becoming virtual anaphora on p. 46 (Coase 1937), repeated in all six of the complete sentences on the page and once in the footnotes. (p. 89)

McCloskey also does some popularization of economics, almost in the matter of course.She makes the ideas of economists comprehensible for neophytes like me; Her summery of Robert Fogel's thesis about American railroad is masterly, and she actually translates the main points of a breakthrough article by John Muth from economistic into English (pp. 54-58).

McCloskey does all these things as after thoughts - but it's there that her genius really comes through. ... Read more

Product Description

The globalization of goods, services and capital for agriculture is fundamental to the future of developing countries and has major implications for the fight against poverty and sustainability of the environment. In recent years, agriculture has once again returned to a position of centre stage as food price volatility has led countries to re-examine their development strategies.

This new edition of the essential textbook in the field builds on the 2006 original and reflects the following developments:

• the increased impact of climate change
• issues affecting agricultural markets such as bio-fuels, the rise in farm prices and energy costs
• the move to higher valued agricultural products

The book contains a wealth of real world case studies and is now accompanied by a website that includes powerpoint lectures, a photo bank and a large set of discussion and exam questions.

Product Description
The mobile telecommunications industry is one of the most rapidly growing sectors around the world. This book offers a comprehensive economic analysis of the main determinants of growth in the industry. Harald Gruber demonstrates the importance of competitive entry and the setting of technological standards, both of which play a central role in their contribution to the fast diffusion of technology. Detailed country studies provide empirical evidence for the development of the main themes: the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services, the pricing policies in network industries, the role of entry barriers such as radio spectrum and spectrum allocation procedures. This research-based survey will appeal to a wide range of applied industrial economists within universities, government and the industry itself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good!
An excellent book. I do not rate it five stars because of its price, it is too expensive.
The material is very good and useful for someone who plans investments in the mobile industry. ... Read more

Product Description
This newly updated and expanded edition of The Economics of Health and Medical Care strikes the necessary balance of population-based health economics and the more traditional, market-oriented approach to health care economics. The Fifth Edition provides the necessary tools to develop a systematic and disciplined approach for solving economic problems in a health care context while learning the importance of being able to identify, define, measure, explain, and predict certain economic phenomena and evaluate the relevance of end results. Fundamental, yet comprehensive in coverage, the focus is on how to think about economic problems in a systematic way--using the three major tasks of economics--Descriptive Economics, Explanatory Economics, and Evaluative Economics ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Economics of Health
The book arrived weeks ahead of the schedule delivery date, in excellant condition and a lower price than what the campus bookstore was asking. ... Read more

Product Description

This book finds the right balance between mathematics and economic examples, providing a text that is demanding in level and broad ranging in content, whilst remaining accessible and interesting to its target audience.

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant
This book has essentially every mathematical tool an aspiring economist needs.They go through basic single and multivariable calculus, integral calculus, differential and difference equations, optimal control, dynamic programming, and some additional topics in analysis and topology.The book is more detailed than Simon and Blume and is more rigorous than Chiang, Klein, or SandB.Additionally, the authors provide an extensive solution manual in the back of the book, as well as, a more answers on the website.Bravo. ... Read more

Product Description
The purpose of this study is to investigate interrelations between planning mechanisms and disequilibria in a case where the planning decisions are centralized and are exogenously given to enterprises. The first introductory chapter is intended to provide an understanding of Poland's economic situation during the period under research. In the next five chapters the basic model, describing the households-planners relations in terms of consumption, labour, money and plans are derived, estimated, used for calculation of excess demands, for simulation of some monetary policies, and, finally, for providing optimal control experiments in which consumption excess demand is minimized on a reasonable level of the consumption volume. In the next two chapters the basic model is gradually extended, and the last chapter summarizes the results by formulating a more effective macroeconomic policy. ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents a detailed overview of the economics of technological diffusion in all its various dimensions. Topics covered include:

• Game-theoretic approaches to the modelling of technological change


• Finance and technological change


• Technological change in international trade.

Product Description
Law can be viewed as a body of rules and legal sanctions that channel behavior in socially desirable directions - for example, by encouraging individuals to take proper precautions to prevent accidents or by discouraging competitors from colluding to raise prices. The incentives created by the legal system are thus a natural subject of study by economists. Moreover, given the importance of law to the welfare of societies, the economic analysis of law merits prominent treatment as a subdiscipline of economics. This two volume Handbook is intended to foster the study of the legal system by economists.

*The two volumes form a comprehensive and accessible survey of the current state of the field.
*Chapters prepared by leading specialists of the area.
*Summarizes received results as well as new developments. ... Read more

Product Description
Antitrust law regulates economic activity but differs in its operation from what is traditionally considered "regulation." Where regulation is often industry-specific and involves the direct setting of prices, product characteristics, or entry, antitrust law focuses more broadly on maintaining certain basic rules of competition. In these lectures Michael Whinston offers an accessible and lucid account of the economics behind antitrust law, looking at some of the most recent developments in antitrust economics and highlighting areas that require further research. He focuses on three areas: price fixing, in which competitors agree to restrict output or raise price; horizontal mergers, in which competitors agree to merge their operations; and exclusionary vertical contracts, in which a competitor seeks to exclude a rival.

Antitrust commentators widely regard the prohibition on price fixing as the most settled and economically sound area of antitrust. Whinston's discussion seeks to unsettle this view, suggesting that some fundamental issues in this area are, in fact, not well understood. In his discussion of horizontal mergers, Whinston describes the substantial advances in recent theoretical and empirical work and suggests fruitful directions for further research. The complex area of exclusionary vertical contracts is perhaps the most controversial in antitrust. The influential "Chicago School" cast doubt on arguments that vertical contracts could be profitably used to exclude rivals. Recent theoretical work, to which Whinston has made important contributions, instead shows that such contracts can be profitable tools for exclusion. Whinston's discussion sheds light on the controversy in this area and the nature of those recent theoretical contributions.

Sponsored by the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book
Very helpful introduction to the economics of antitrust. I also really enjoy the writing style: clear and precise. I wish it is a larger volume though. I want to read more! ... Read more

Product Description
  The best-selling Modern Labor Economics providesa clear, comprehensive introduction to labor-market behavior. Inaddition to presenting core theory, Ehrenberg and Smith provideempirical evidence for or against each hypothesis, explore theusefulness of various theories for public policy analysis, and includedetailed policy examples in each chapter.

Introduction; Overview of the Labor Market; The Demand for Labor; LaborDemand Elasticities; Frictions in the Labor Market; Supply of Labor tothe Economy: The Decision to Work; Labor Supply: Household Production,the Family, and the Life Cycle; Compensating Wage Differentials andLabor Markets; Investments in Human Capital: Education and Training;Worker Mobility: Migration, Immigration, and Turnover; Pay andProductivity: Wage Determination Within the Firm; Gender, Race, andEthnicity in the Labor Market; Unions and the Labor Market;Unemployment; Inequality in Earnings; The Labor Market Effects ofInternational Trade and Production Sharing.

For all readers interested in labor economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

this seller didnt ship the book.
the book was suppose to arrive within a week. i have been waiting for the seller to ship the book, i contacted the seller and demanded a refund but i heard nothing back. Dont waste your time and Money buy form someone else.

Honest about the product.
Be honest about the posting of the product. Be specific about highlight, missing pages or any kind of damages to the product.

Nice book
almost the same as the newer addition , has all the things you ned to know about labor economics

Decent Study Guide
This study guide was pretty good.The questions have a good mix of difficulty, and the samples and explanations really helped with a couple of the concepts that were pretty unclear in the book.

A very interesting textbook about labor economics
I was a teaching assistant in a labor economics undergraduate course in Northwestern University that used this book. I found it very interesting and full of real-world examples and discussions. The mathematical level is simple and therefore the book is accessible also to students with only little background in mathematics or economics. The exposition is clear. About half of the problems and the review questions are solved at the end of the book, making it possible for the reader to practice and test her understanding of the material. I believe that most students can understand most of the material in the book even without taking a formal course in labor economics, and therefore I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the functioning of labor markets. ... Read more

Product Description
The Economics of Sports explores economic concepts and theory—industrial organization, public finance, and labor economics—in the context of applications and examples from American and international sports.

Economics and Sports; Review of the Economist’s Arsenal; Sports Franchises as Profit-Maximizing Firms; Monopoly and Antitrust; Competitive Balance; The Public Finance of Sports: The Market for Teams; The Costs and Benefits of a Franchise to a City; An Introduction to Labor Markets in Professional Sports; Labor Market Imperfections; Discrimination; The Economics of Amateurism and College Sports
 
For all readers interested in sports economics.
  ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Economics of Sports textbook
Good communication in terms of shipping/tracking confirmation.Book arrived in reasonable time span.No problem with purchase.

On the ball...
This summer I am teaching for the first time an economics course at the local community college.The reputation of this course is such that many people dread it - some take it multiple times, and find it difficult to relate to the subject.Business A making X number of widgets has to respond to Community B exhibiting a demand curve that goes like this... There's not a lot for people to grab on to for interest in that, even if they are pursuing business degrees.It is all too theoretical.

Enter this book.I found `The Economics of Sports', by Michael Leeds and Peter von Allmen while taking a topics class in economics at the graduate level.It presents much of the basic theory that one would cover in an economics course, but puts it all in the context of sports.This is sure to get the attention of many (albeit, alas, not all) of the students in the class much more so than widgets and `Business A'.

This book has a decidedly North American slant to it - the primary examples come from Major League Baseball (MLB, and the attendant minor leagues), the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA).Within the context of these, topics such as wages and salaries, productivity, internal and external negativities, private vs. public funding, training costs, profit margins, along with simple ideas of supply and demand are covered.The ideas of how a monopoly might work, how reduced competition or restricted trade affects sports and their communities, and what happens with regard to college and amateur athletics (Olympics, among other things) get involved, are covered.

Organised in five broad topics, the book covers:
Economic concepts (a brief overview)
The Industrial Organisation of Sports
Public Finance and Sports
The Labor Economics of Sports
Sports in the Not-for-Profit Sector
Each of these areas is subdivided into smaller chapters.Each chapter ends with a biographical sketch, of someone important not only in sports, but in the development of sports as an ongoing business and institution.

This text does draw in some international angles, particularly in sports that have a broader appeal (soccer, professional golf, etc.).It also allows for various departures - for example, The Economist magazine recently had an article on the attempt in the Caribbean for hosting a World Cup of Cricket, and the problems that arose with that:oversupply of tickets, hotel rooms and other tourist amenities, a large public expenditure in stadium facilities and marketing efforts, a drop in demand when key teams failed to advance in the finals (India, Pakistan, and England, for three), and a host of other issues that relate very directly to the topics in the text.

As the book indicates at the start, sports and sports-related concerns are big business, not only in monetary terms, but also in community terms.Most major newspapers and local newspapers around the world have a sports section, and a good number of the articles in these sections address economic issues, from player salaries to facilities building, and are themselves tapping into the economics of sports by selling papers and advertising space.Indeed, as Leeds and von Allmen indicate, sport is the only major business with its own dedicated newspaper space (and often, broadcast news category) of all the various businesses in the world.That makes it worth exploring in more detail.

This is a textbook rather than a general interest book.Stephen Hawking made the observation that his publishers felt that for every equation in a book, it cut the readership in half.This book is filled with equations, charts and graphs that relate to the economics topics.However, while these are important, they are not crucial to the reader being able to understand the broad strokes of the economics of sports.There are appendices with more complicated ideas (utility functions, indifference curves, regression analysis, game theory, competitive balance, the time value of money, etc.) for the more advanced reader or student, but as the authors indicate in their preface, `to make the text accessible, we have written it assuming that students have had one semester of microeconomic principles.'

This text, in the dry world of economics texts (it isn't called `the dismal science' for nothing), is a very welcome one.
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Product Description
This book examines the long term economic growth that has raised the West's material living standards to levels undreamed of by counterparts in any previous time or place. The authors argue that this growth has been driven by technological revolutions that have periodically transformed the West's economic, social and political landscape over the last 10,000 years and allowed the West to become, until recently, the world's only dominant technological force.

Unique in the diversity of the analytical techniques used, the book begins with a discussion of the causes and consequences of economic growth and technological change. The authors argue that long term economic growth is largely driven by pervasive technologies now known as General Purpose (GPTs). They establish an alternative to the standard growth models that use an aggregate production function and then introduce the concept of GPTs, complete with a study of how these technologies have transformed the West since the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution. Early modern science is given more importance than in most other treatments and the 19th century demographic revolution is studied with a combination of formal models of population dynamics and historical analysis.

The authors argue that once sustained growth was established in the West, formal models can shed much light on its subsequent behavior. They build non-conventional, dynamic, non-stationary equilibrium models of GPT-driven growth that incorporate a range of phenomena that their historical studies show to be important but which are excluded from other GPT models in the interests of analytical tractability. The book concludes with a study of the policy implications that follow from their unique approach. ... Read more

Product Description
Economics: A Tool for Critically Understanding Society, 9/e,  offers a clear, simple introduction to economic analysis in a style that is ideal for a one-semester introductory course. The authors take a historical perspective, presenting economic theories and their connections to a wide variety of schools of thought. The goal is to help students use economic concepts to analyze today’s issues, to think about everyday decisions, and to examine their preconceived ideas and beliefs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Equally as Boring as Its Predecessor
Maybe I'm a little biased since I didn't quite enjoy the introduction course to Macroeconomics, but I decided to buy the newer edition hoping that the updated information on the new policies such as the Obama Stimulus Package and TARP would be an interesting read. However, as expected from most of these textbook publishers the change from edition to edition was very minute.

The book includes both micro and macro, but we only used the second half of the book. Reading each chapter was a bit of a pain since the book drags on and complicates some simple concepts. Ultimately the book itself, besides using it to reference it a few times for definitions and charts/graphs was not very useful or stimulating. I'm sure most people who do get this book are forced to for a course though. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the mathematical foundations of economics, from basic set theory to fixed point theorems and constrained optimization. Rather than simply offer a collection of problem-solving techniques, the book emphasizes the unifying mathematical principles that underlie economics. Features include an extended presentation of separation theorems and their applications, an account of constraint qualification in constrained optimization, and an introduction to monotone comparative statics. These topics are developed by way of more than 800 exercises. The book is designed to be used as a graduate text, a resource for self-study, and a reference for the professional economist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Simply the best
Over the years in my efforts at self-education I've accumulated a sizeable library of math econ books. Carter's is simply the best, at least for my purpose.It takes its time to build up each topic.The first chapter on "Sets and Spaces" alone takes 145 pages, for example, to move systematically through Sets, Ordered Sets, Metric Spaces, Linear Spaces, Normed Linear Spaces and Preference Relations. It also pulls off the trick of being at once deep and applied.Every concept is illustrated with many examples and exercises (answers available from the website)from mathematics and economics.On virtually every page you have "Aha!" moments of illumination and new understanding.Highly recommended.

A so good combination with Simon & Blume
It is excellent to study this book along with Simon&Blume. The problem sets in this book is tougher than that of S&B but it is closer to what you have to deal with in advanced economics theory.

Comprehensive but difficult
A comprehensive book deals with the mathematical tools needed in studtying advanced economics. But I suggested that it should include a review of basic calculus and linear algebra. ... Read more

Product Description
This landmark graduate-level text combines depth and breadth of coverage with recent, cutting-edge work in all the major areas of modern labor economics. Labor Economics is the only textbook available for advanced graduate students in the field, and it will be widely used; because of its command of the literature and the freshness of the material included, it will also prove to be a valuable resource for practicing labor economists.The book moves back and forth between factual data and theoretical reasoning. The space devoted to theory reflects the profound theoretical restructuring in the field that has taken place in the last thirty years; the authors present these developments within a unified pedagogic framework. The teaching methods are based on mathematical models, with the mathematical analyses laid out clearly, and the derivation of most results given in five mathematical appendixes that provide a toolkit for understanding the models.The book is divided into four parts: "Supply and Demand Behaviors" examines the determinants of labor supply and demand; "Wage Formation" discusses wage determinants, including the influences of the wage policies of firms and collective bargaining; "Unemployment and Inequality" considers these problems in a macroeconomic setting; and "Institutions and Economic Policy" treats labor market policies and the impact of institutions on labor market performance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must have
If you work in the field, you will need this book.You can use this as a reference or you can read it straight through.Either way, your time will not be wasted.

The quality of the writing is superb, considering that it is a translation. ... Read more