Product Description
This volume presents mathematical formulas and theorems commonly used in economics. It includes both formulas like Roy`s identity that are peculiar to economics and formulas like Leibniz's rule that are common to many areas of applied mathematics. The volume is meant to be a reference work, to be used by students in conjunction with a textbook and by researchers in need of exact statements of mathematical results. The volume is the first grouping of this material for a specifically economist audience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

All the formulae an economist needs
Economists' Mathematical Manual is a very good book. It gives in a very concise and clear way all an economist needs as far as maths and statistics are concerned. I would recommend the purchase!

Helpful but not complete
This book is very helpful for any economist, especially for students. It includes many formulas that are common in economics. I used the book a lot during my first-year phd course and it was very helpful because it is pretty compact. However, be careful as there are some minor errors in the book. Second, I cannot recommend it if you are interested mainly in econometric theory. You will find the basic distributions and a couple of other formulas, however there are still too few formulas about GMM or Filters etc. All in all I would recommend you the book.

Excellent reference and then some..
This book is great. It provides an outstanding reference tool for graduate, but also undergraduate students. Even if you're not entirely into studying economics, and only come up against it occasionally, you can get your money's worth with this title. I purchased this as a reference while finishing undergraduate work and I'm sure it will serve me well in graduate school as well. Don't miss this, and buy a copy while it's available.

Extremely Condensed and Extremely Useful!
Sydsaeter et al. have compiled what must be the most condensed reference book in the field, given its amazingly broad scope but small number of pages.Just a few of the multitude of topics covered in this book are set theory, dynamic optimization, vector spaces, convexity, determinants, risk aversion theory, and probability distributions.The presentational format is essentially that of an extensive list, with copious notes in the margins.

The brevity of Economists' Mathematical Manual is simultaneously its greatest strength and its greatest weakness.The strength obviously lies in its diverse scope.Few books could claim to be authoritative over such a wide spectrum of subfields of economics.

Yet the lack of exposition can also be perceived as a weakness.This book is extremely useful as a reference, but first-year Ph.D. students should be warned that it should be considered supplemental only.A textbook such as Simon and Blume's Mathematics for Economists or Chiang's Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics should be the reference of first recourse for anyone encountering mathematical economics for the first time.

handy little book
I got this little book when I was in college studying economics and kept it throughout grad school in econ.It's been surprisingly useful, mostly because it contains formulas and no extraneous text.A pocket version would be even better. ... Read more

Product Description
Since the end of World War II, economists have tried to figure out how poor countries in the tropics could attain standards of living approaching those of countries in Europe and North America. Attempted remedies have included providing foreign aid, investing in machines, fostering education, controlling population growth, and making aid loans as well as forgiving those loans on condition of reforms. None of these solutions has delivered as promised. The problem is not the failure of economics, William Easterly argues, but the failure to apply economic principles to practical policy work.In this book Easterly shows how these solutions all violate the basic principle of economics, that people--private individuals and businesses, government officials, even aid donors--respond to incentives. Easterly first discusses the importance of growth. He then analyzes the development solutions that have failed. Finally, he suggests alternative approaches to the problem. Written in an accessible, at times irreverent, style, Easterly’s book combines modern growth theory with anecdotes from his fieldwork for the World Bank. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (69)

Author has lied on many occasions.
The most prominent white lie is the case of India.

On page 164 of the book the author says that India was placed near the bottom of the list of 28 countries in 1820.

In reality, India was the World's 2nd largest economy in 1820. In fact the size of India's economy was three times the size of the next largest economy.

Shame on Easterly! How could you mislead people in this way? It is unimaginable that an author of your caliber can write such false things.

Simply great.
If you work for the World Bank, IMF or UN, please read it. Thank you.

A Guide for Growth in Developing Economies
The Elusive Quest for Growth, precisely lists the main reasons why slow or negative growth per capita has plagued emerging economies. Its thesis statement: people respond to incentives, brilliantly proves how many traditional ways of dealing with low growth economies is misapplied by bad government policies. The book is well structured and develops with great ease. The book is perfect for social entrepreneurs and economists.

Nathan Kirkland's Review of Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RN4QXC248QBRO Nathan Kirkland's review was made as part of a critical review assignment for the Fall 2008 Honors Colloquium on Creative Destruction at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, taught by Art Diamond.(The course syllabus stated that part of the critical review assignment consisted of the making of a video recording of the review, and the posting of the review to Amazon.)

And the Wizard explains Oz...
Easterly is a brilliant and talented writer, as one would expect from the World Bank.At times, though, the Bank is isolated from the benefits of being subjected to such talent.Individual efforts are certainly reviewed, but at the end of the day, Stiglitz and others have argued that the very points Easterly makes suggests that the Bank is far off the course set by its mandate.We are therefore left with yet another recommended "fine tuning" of WB programming without a serious reflection over whether the WB is the proper mechanism for fiddling with the intricate clockworks that are national economies.I sign off by asking the Americans, Britons, Australians, French, Swiss and others from "developed" countries what it would take to allow an autocratic, bureaucratic and politically un-accountable (and this series of adjectives in no way lessens the tremendous respect I have for nearly every WB staff member I've met) organization tip-toe into THEIR administrative systems.I argue that the problem with economic tinkering in the Pacific is that it is, and looks to remain, the product of bureaucratic meddling on a scale similar to Mao's China, which undermines both the development of governance systems that can curtail corruption (i.e. local acocuntability for performance based on available resources- NOT (!!!!!!) in any way similar to efforts to make local authorities better subsidiaries of the notably corrupt central governments as is currently being pushed in the Pacific and elsewhere) AND legitimate free market systems.This book is a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it be paired with Stiglitz's "Globalization..." and Jeffrey Sach's "End of Poverty..." for a very ponderous but enriching book club series. ... Read more

Product Description
A well-trained theologian, a gifted and dedicated teacher of economics for over forty years, and the author of a highly regarded and widely used textbook, "The Economic Way of Thinking", Paul Heyne influenced generations of students of economics. Many of the essays in this volume are published here for the first time. The editors, Geoffrey Brennan and A M C Waterman, have divided Heyne's essays thematically to cover three general areas: the ethical foundations of free markets, the connection between those ethical foundations and Christian thought, and the teaching of economics - both method and substance.Heyne's writings are unique in that he takes the critics of the free market order seriously and addresses their arguments directly, showing how they are defective in their understanding of economics and in their ethical and theological underpinnings. The engaging style of Heyne's essays makes them accessible to students as well as to scholars. Even in discussions of topics well beyond the fundamental level, Heyne still succeeds in providing students with an appreciation of basic economic principles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Insights from one of the 20th century's most thoughtful and articulate economists
Heyne's perspective is especially important because of his unique background in both ethics and economics. He was an excellent economist, but his Ph.D. was from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and he continued to read widely in ethics, political economy, and theology throughout his lifetime. Thus, his writings are particularly effective in using his understanding to explain economics to ethicists, especially to Christian theologians.

Because Heyne believed that the positive-normative distinction that many economists make is false and that economics is profoundly normative at its very base, his essays can thoughtfully engage those who criticize the ethics of economics on their own grounds. Heyne draws a distinction between personal relationships and the impersonal workings of the market. He argues that most ethicists, with their focus on the actors' intentions, fail to understand the impersonal nature of markets and the positive outcomes that result when people pursue their own objectives with little knowledge of others' goals. The failure to understand the distinction between the personal and the impersonal keeps most ethicists from understanding how markets work and how a social-coordination system based on private-property rights and prices is both morally defensible and socially useful. In fact, in the world of impersonal market relationships, if everyone focused on the needs of others, the results would be disastrous: the system would "come to a halt, at enormous cost to all participants if they were to act consistently on the principle of advancing the welfare of the most needy or most worthy--rather than focusing on the accomplishment of their own personal goals" (p. 33).

Justice is nevertheless important, and Heyne developed a well-articulated standard of justice for the world of impersonal markets. Rule-coordinated behavior enables social cooperation to occur among people who do not know each other well, and the rules that work the best in this situation are "clearly defined and readily exchangeable property rights" (p. 178). Efforts to replace the rule of law with direct government intervention usually produce injustice. "The justice or injustice of a social system will not be found in the pattern of outcomes it yields--its end states--but in the procedures through which those outcomes emerge. This is simply the only kind of justice of which social systems are capable" (p.182)....

Although Heyne concentrated a great deal of his writing and speaking on the interplay of economics and ethics, he also made a substantial contribution to the teaching of economics. His text The Economic Way of Thinking (12th Edition) was first published in 1973 and went through nine editions in his lifetime, and after his death, Peter Boettke and David Prychitko became coauthors. Owing to his textbook, Heyne became internationally famous as an innovative teacher of economics, and several essays in the volume edited by Brennan and Waterman summarize his approach to the pedagogy of economics. He believed that the economic way of thinking is a powerful and useful tool for understanding the world, but that only a limited number of concepts need be communicated to students in an introductory course. Most of these concepts can be articulated and used without the use of formal models, technical proofs, and elaborate graphs, which often cause the trees to hide the forest. His focus on the fundamental social-coordination process of markets and private property rights has influenced many economists, including me, to rethink fundamentally how they teach introductory economics.

I recommend Brennan and Waterman's collection to anyone who is concerned with the ethical implications and the efficacy of different social-coordination mechanisms. Paul Heyne was one of the most thoughtful and articulate thinkers of our time, and we are fortunate to have access to his ideas in this collection of his essays.

--Excerpt from a review by Peter J. Hill (The Independent Review, Winter 2010)

Intriguing and enlightening the whole way through
What's the price of a human life? "Are Economists Basically Immoral? and Other Essays on Economics, Ethics, and Religion" is a look economics and the moral and social contract of the world. All too often economists must attach costs to things with high emotional value, such as human and animal life, and there is much scholarly discussion on this topic contained within the pages of this volume. "Are Economists Basically Immoral?" is quite the piece for discussion, as it is intriguing and enlightening the whole way through.
... Read more

Product Description
Since economies are dynamic processes driven by creativity, social norms, and emotions as well as rational calculation, why do economists largely study them using static equilibrium models and narrow rationalistic assumptions? Economic activity is as much a function of imagination and social sentiments as of the rational optimisation of given preferences and goods. Richard Bronk argues that economists can best model and explain these creative and social aspects of markets by using new structuring assumptions and metaphors derived from the poetry and philosophy of the Romantics. By bridging the divide between literature and science, and between Romanticism and narrow forms of Rationalism, economists can access grounding assumptions, models, and research methods suitable for comprehending the creativity and social dimensions of economic activity. This is a guide to how economists and other social scientists can broaden their analytical repertoire to encompass the vital role of sentiments, language, and imagination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

4.5 stars-Yes. The problem is that " modern " economics is just old Benthamite Utilitarianism in new mathematical garb
The author has,in general,put his finger on the fundamental problem facing economics today as it is taught to undergraduate/graduate students in the average college/university economics class.The problem is that economics is just the latest use of cribbed mathematical and statistical techniques shoehorned to fit the latest version of Benthamite Utilitarianism,which is what all variants of neoclassical and Austrian economics are.The author correctly points out that the " Romantics " rejected Benthamite Utilitarianism.He recommends their writings as a counter weight to Benthamite Utilitarianism.However,a more powerful antidote , in my opinion,would entail going back and digestingwhat was written in the Old and New Testament ,aswell as in the works of Aristotle,Plato,Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Adam Smith.Smith ,for instance completely rejected both libertarianism and Benthamite Utilitarianism in Part V of The Wealth of Nations (1776).Unfortunately, Part V of the Wealth of Nations is not taught /covered in any undergraduate/graduate level course at any college /university in the world .

All good citizens of intellectual persuasion should be interested in the philosophical basis of economic thinking
"The Romantic Economist" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Mr. Bronk's book interview ran here as cover feature on May 22, 2009. ... Read more

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Sukarno, Suharto, Kennedy, Johnson, and a Silent Scream
Simpson writes a detailed political history of 1960s US/Indonesia relations with an emphasis on Indonesian nationalism, Sukarno's rise and fall, the September 30 movement, the "New Order" regime of Suharto, "military modernization," and cold war realpolitik. Modernization theory eventually developed into "statist" policy stands, which had a long lasting impact in Indonesia and beyond. Indonesia, according to Simpson is the often-neglected counterpart to Vietnam, functioning as the model/playground for "economists with guns."

Simpson offers a reminder of Indonesia's critical importance to both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and this significant shift to US openly embracing third world authoritarian takeovers, i.e. military-led government. Similar to Chalmers Johnson (Blowback) and Naomi Klein (Shock Doctrine), Simpson argues for a re-imagining of Indonesian history, and offers a well-researched correction to the myth of "American benevolence" in "pro-democracy" foreign development aid. In fact, the US was instrumental in legitimating the military's role in economic and political development, which then led to an extermination campaign of some 500,000 (allegedly communist) people. Simpson details the U.S. role in funding the Indonesian army, the training of economic technocrats, and the building of an economy designed to serve foreign interests above Indonesian-style development, autonomy and democracy. Simpson uses recently newly declassified material from the US Government's National Security Archive. Revisionist history; postcolonial cold war ideological critique. Simpson's theoretical intervention includes looking at the deployment of modernization theory using Indonesia as case study to examine a crucial juncture in the histories of both countries. ... Read more

Product Description
Most economists are obsessed with financial and economic measures, but not Ross Gittins. In The Happy Economist he mounts a provocative and persuasive case for a different approach. He argues that happiness is our most important measure of economic success. Distilling the practical wisdom from all the recent scientific study of happiness by psychologists and economists, Ross claims that happiness isn't about maintaining a forced smile or a self-centred concern to maximise pleasure and minimise pain, but about living a satisfying life of endeavour, achievement and mutually rewarding relationships. Most of us are happy most of the time, but there is more we could do to increase our satisfaction. And a different approach by governments - with less emphasis on economic growth and efficiency, and more on preserving the planet and the social fabric - could add to 'national happiness'. The Happy Economist is a bold and insightful look at an area few economists dare to tread. It may even change your life. ... Read more

Product Description
Game Theory for Economists introduces economists to the game-theoretic approach of modelling economic behaviour and interaction, focusing on concepts and ideas from the vast field of game-theoretic models which find commonly used applications in economics.
This careful selection of topics allows the reader to concentrate on the parts of the game which are the most relevant for the economist who does not want to become a specialist.Written at a level appropriate for a student or researcher with a solid microeconomic background, the book should provide the reader with skills necessary to formalize economic games and to make them accessible for game theoretic analysis.

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* Is a concise introduction to game theory which provides economists with the techniques and results necessary to follow the literature in economic theory.
* Helps the reader formalize economic problems.
* Concentrates on equilibrium concepts that are most commonly used in economics.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Best intro book for game theory
I have read Martin Osborne and Gibbons' books as well as this book. I think this books is much clearer, understandable and easy to read. Lots of clear examples make the topic easier to understand. Osborne also has lots of examples but his language is not good. Being a native English speaker doesn't necessarly mean that you can write a good book even if you are one of the masters of the topic.
I recommend you to read this book before Fudenberg&Tirole and Osborne&Rubinstein's books which are the best books on game theory. ... Read more

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Experimental economics is a rapidly growing field of inquiry, and there currently exist several textbooks and surveys describing the results of laboratory experiments in economics.This primer, however, is the first hands-on guide to the physical aspects of actually conducting experiments in economics.It tells researchers, teachers and students in economics how to deal with human subjects, how to design meaningful laboratory environments, how to design experiments, how to conduct the experiments, and how to analyze and report the data.It also deals with methodological issues.It can be used to structure an undergraduate or graduate course in experimental economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Terrific Introduction to Game Theory Experiments
I recently used this book in an introductory course in experimental methods in political science, taught at Columbia University. (I used the book in a seminar for juniors but it would also be appropriate for first year graduate students.) The book was recommended to me by a leading experimentalist in political science, and its easy to see why. It is filled with practical suggestions, on everything from recruiting subjects, to writing instructions, to analyzing data. It's many references to the literature (as well as sample syllabi) are very helpful. It is also short and readable, and reasonably priced. One caveat: if you are more interested in the psychology tradition to laboratory experiments, there are more appropriate books. Also, it does not deal with field experiments. But if you are interested in the game theoretic/economic tradition of laboratory experiments, it is hard to beat as a practical introduction. In short, a terrific book. Charles Cameron Associate Professor of Political Science Columbia University ... Read more

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This updated, useful book on business strategy, with The Economist brand, shows today’s manager how to create and sustain a dynamic, profitable business with techniques to support effective decisions. Kourdi evaluates the tools, tactics, and techniques for making profit-boosting decisions. ... Read more

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A complete resource on managing brand names, the most powerful strategy in marketing. Brand names are now recognized as major corporate assets. Marketing managers must know the best strategies for promoting brand-name products, and under the new tax laws, financial managers will have to learn to put a monetary value on trade names. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An authoritative compendium on Brand Management
David Arnold has succeeded in bridging the hiatus existing between fact and fiction;theory and practice. I find the book quite refreshing and exciting. No doubt, students and Marketing practitioners will find it handyand extremely useful ... Read more

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What really happens when the World Bank imposes its policies on a country? This is an insider's view of one aid-made crisis. Peter Griffiths was at the interface between government and the Bank. In this day-by-day account of a mission he undertook in Sierra Leone in 1986, he tells the story of how the World Bank, obsessed with the free market, imposed a secret agreement on the government, banning all government food imports or subsidies. This is a rare and important portrait of the aid world which insiders will recognize, but of which the general public seldom gets a glimpse.
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Customer Reviews (5)

A real-world mystery story
The Economist's Tale is a slightly-fictionalized account of Griffiths' short-term consulting gig in Sierra Leone. The events in the story take place in 1986, so the information here isn't directly applicable to the present situation, but it will be of interest to (and accessible to) both economists and laymen all the same.

This is not a book about economic theory. Nor is it about the World Bank, per se. Rather, it's about the way people respond to incentives, and how the unintended consequences of their actions can combine to create a disaster.

The story reads almost like a mystery, told as it is through diary entries that reveal the puzzle as Griffiths himself pieced it together. It's a bit self-congratulatory and defensive, but in a way that I found easy to forgive as I got caught up in the adventure. I'd recommend it to anyone.

A must-read
The Economist's Tale is a clunkily-written but still gripping story of corruption, dogmatism and a barely-averted famine in Sierra Leone in 1986. The author, working on food policy for the World Bank and seconded to the Sierra Leonian government, discovers that:

- The country lives mainly on rice (the backup crop, cassava, has all been eaten over the last two years).
- Nobody knows whether or not enough rice is being grown to feed the country (there are two different scientific studies of production that differ by 80%). Some rice is imported, but anything from 20-100% of it is smuggled out of the country again, and nobody knows how much.
- The currency, the leone, was held at an overvalued rate to the dollar. Imported rice was half the price of home-grown rice and the monopoly exporter was so inefficient that cocoa and coffee growers saw about 20% of the price they might have seen on the open market. So no-one's growing anything.
- Now the leone's been floated at the World Bank's insistence, it's collapsed in value by a factor of 10. But production is too low for native producers to take advantage: imports will go up in price long before the exchange comes into the country to buy them.

Then he works out by interviews and legwork that, in fact, the country depends on the imported rice to avoid a famine. And then the government signs a deal with the World Bank, his employer, to get an emergency loan of $5 million, in return for which they will stop all rice subsidies and slash their rice imports by almost 90%. And the private importers who might import enough rice to make up the difference won't, because they can't afford to sell it below the market rate and, being all Lebanese, they'd rather not get involved than risk starting a race riot by being seen as price-gouging. As the only person who knows all the facts, he has to persuade the government to break its deal with the World Bank without starting a turf war, making the decision take so long that a famine happens anyway, or destroying his own future career.

It's an excellent book. The lessons:
- Economics is all about incentives. No matter how ideal a market solution might be in theory, if the incentives aren't lined up right the market won't work.
- A currency whose liquidity is so small that its value is changed by importing a single expensive car probably shouldn't be floating.
- Corruption is everywhere, and corruption kills. The state electricity company is unreliable, so everyone uses personal, much more inefficient generators, so there isn't enough oil.
- Dogmatism also kills. You can't un-distort a market overnight. There's a lovely moment when a British Conservative starts explaining to the Americans how privatisation isn't really that great an idea.

Recommended to anyone who's interested in development economics, africa, politics, food, globalization, the World Bank, racism, colonialism, and any of the other ways that people end up treating people the way they do. And it has a happy ending!

Changed my understanding of third world poverty
This is an absolutely riveting book.I heard of it through a brief mention at Brad DeLong's website, and ordered it because of the comments by the previous reviewers.I can only agree with their comments -- this book should be required reading for anyone interested in globalization, poverty, and the real world constraints that often prevent idealistic anti-poverty efforts from succeeding.I can't recommend it highly enough.

Insighful and sad account
A good book, known by few, written by an even less well known author, to which I am grateful. As (probably) most of the other readers, I learned about this book from a (very positive) book review published on the "Economist".

This book tells a first person account of how bad economics, corruption, or "simple" incompetence almost caused a famine of immane proportion in Sierra Leone, in the 80s, with the important "contribution" of the World Bank. The author (at the time a consultant for the World Bank) tells us how he managed to avert the crisis, a deed that many did not appreciate, and that caused him professional troubles later on.

It is a mistery how this book can be so little known. It is well written, and above all quite deep. Mr Griffith clearly shows to be a skilled and informed economist. I found particularly compelling the pages that discuss how economic "data" should be often taken with a grain of salt, or two. Especially in poor countries, "data" are sometimes nothing else that guesses (sometimes educated, sometimes not), and this may lead to enormous policy mistakes. Unfortunately, people's lives may put at stake by such mistakes. One point that Mr Griffith powerfully makes is that economic policy is not simply boring material to be debated by politicians and discussed in the ivory towers of academia, but it is something REAL that has sometimes the potential of deciding about the fate of millions of people. Unfortunately, policy is the hands of men, and this book amply shows once more how little trust we should have in men.

Overall, this is quite a compelling reading, much more than the insipid "Globalization and its discontent" by Stiglitz, a world-class economist that has produced a little polemic book that could have been memorable, and instead has disappointed everyone, except uncritical anti-globalization protesters. If you are looking for a deeper account of the potential evil of economic policy and the World Bank, this book is highly recommended.

P.S. By the way, contrary to what some extremist may believe, the World Bank is not only made by evil individuals who only care about their career. The World Bank is a very complex institution, and I can assure you that committed, serious, and conscientious individuals abound in there. Whether they have a major role in how the World Bank actually works in Developing Countries is something I still have to find out...

Andybody Who Cares Should Read This
An excellent, excellent book in several ways. Anybody who cares - about society - conservative, moderate, or liberal should read this. All economists, political scientists, politicians, and students of these fields should read this book carefully. The Economist's Tale is a true morality play. It looks at the way economics plays out in real-life using the framework of food policy in Sierra Leone. The author is not against market forces - but as economic theory has recognized in the last few decades - markets work (or don't work) with many attendant frictions and imperfections. Unfortunately, in the tale told within this book, people die because of these frictions.

The Economist's Tale is also quite interesting and riveting as a read. It is also a quick read. One learns much about Sierra Leone among other non-economic subjects. It appears nobody else has rated this book yet - which tends to indicate that few people have read it - a sad state of affairs. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Good Book
as the seller described,

the condition is good and the content is interesting.

Simplfies and enlightens
I had two undergrad courses in Econ and one in accounting.This book is the one that finally made it all click.It gives you the rock solid pillars that will help you laugh at the folks on CNBC that think they understand, but really don't get it.

If you are in an econ course or if you earn a paycheck, you must read this book.It is the one book that I have built all of my econ understanding.This isn't just a simple list of principles or a "cliff's notes" for economics.This is the book that will give you the foundation to understand and employ economics in your daily life.It changed the way I see the world and how politics and money factor into every interaction.Outstanding book and an amazing value.

conceptual, without the math
I've never had an economics class, and don't have the patience to wade through a textbook.So, for me this book is perfect.Basic concepts are presented without any math. It explains how these concepts are related, and how changing one variable changes another. It gives me just enough knowledge to read a business journal, or discuss some topic at a party.I have to reread it sometimes, because I forget -- but I can do that in a couple of hours, with the clear and simple way it's written.It strikes me as simple, without sacrificing substance.

An Instant Choice
The Instant Economist manages to explain the basics of economics in simple language that enables you to retain much of the information you read.I strongly recommend it for people of all fields interested in the principles behind economics, which can at times seem complex and overly-technical.

Excellent non-technical refresher
This is a great re-introduction to micro- and macro-economics which avoids the math and jargon, but focuses on the underlying concepts. The Instant Economist would be an excellent refresher for an incoming MBA student because of its practical application of economics to business. ... Read more

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The Austrian tradition began formally with Carl Menger's 1871 work Principles of Economics. But its roots stretch back to the late-scholastic period, when philosophers first began to think systematically about the relationship between human choice and material resources.

This collection presents ideas from the full sweep of this intellectual history, highlighting 15 thinkers who made the greatest contribution to advancing the Austrian School of economics. These original essays are written by top Austrians who explain the Austrian view of property, markets, prices, competition, entrepreneurship, business cycles, and government policy.

Contributors include Murray Rothbard, Israel Kirzner, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, Jeffrey Herbener, Peter Klein, Mark Thornton, Jesus Huerta de Soto, Larry Sechrest, John Egger, Roger Garrison, Shawn Ritenour, Thomas DiLorenzo, and Jeffrey Tucker.

Economists covered are de Mariana, Cantillon, Turgot, Say, Bastiat, Menger, Wicksteed, Boehm-Bawerk, Fetter, Mises, Hazlitt, Hayek, Hutt, Roepke, and Rothbard

This book has been such a successful introductory text that it is the primary required reading for students attending the Mises University. It provides an opportunity to discover the main ideas of the School through the lives and works of its primary expositors.

ISBN 0-945466-04-8

258 pgs. ... Read more

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The Meaning of Greatness
The Austrian School of Economics had its beginning in 1871, when Carl Menger published his pioneering work on marginal utility theory.Since then, members of the Austrian School have been the most consistent advocates of free market thought, making unparalleled contributions in economic thought including business cycle theory, monetary thought, methodology, and a sustained critique of interventionist fallacies.

Yet there are a couple of things that have to be kept in mind.First, the Austrian school had certain antecedents, going back to Spanish Scholastic though and also French thinkers such as Turgot.Second, there are some thinkers who were broadly in the Austrian tradition (such as Hutt) who made important contributions to Austrian thought.So, one can discern an Austrian "tradition" in economics.

The essays collected here highlight 15 of the key thinkers in the Austrian tradition.Some thinkers - such as von Mises and Hayek - are well known.Others - such as Frank Fetter - are not (even though he was the key Austrian between Bohm-Bawerk and Mises.)

One of the most interesting essays is Jeff Tucker's on Henry Hazlitt.Before reading the essay I knew that he was a journalist and the other of important works such as ECONOMICS IN ONES LESSON. However, I had no idea of his fascinating life and his contribution in popularizing Austrian ideas.Hazlitt was one of the first to review THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, which led to the huge popularity of the book.Curiously, he was commissioned to write Bertrand Russell's biography (which he never completed, because Russell decided to write his own.)

Murray Rothbard (the subject of an excellent essay by Hoppe) wrote a history of economic thought from the Austrian point of view, which is in print.Unfortunately, he died before completing it. ... Read more

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Nobel Prize Winning Book
As a trained economist, I appreciated the insider's view of economic history that Stigler provides.His intimate recollection of the famous Chicago School of Economics, its professors, and ideas make this book well worth buying.An economic historian by trade and passion, Stigler has a knack for vividly recalling key events.He discusses his relationships with famous economists such as Friedman and Beck.He also provides detail of how certain ideas crept into the mainstream of economic theory.For example, Stigler warmly recalls the `eureka' moment when Ronald Coase convinced his colleagues at the Chicago School of the logic supporting the Coase Theorem.That alone makes this book well worth it.

A Witty Tour of The Chicago School
The dust jacket describes this book as "...at once the masterful intellectual autobiography of one of this century's most distinguished economists and a brilliant overview of the impact of economic ideas on policy since the mid-century." That description is right on target.

Stigler provides everything in this short, accessible book.The reader is treated to a detailed explanation of the evolution of Stigler's thinking on a wide variety of topics.These chapters, such as Chapter 6 ("Monopoly") and Chapter 7 ("Political Regulation of Economic Life") also provide a very good intellectual history of how the generally accepted view of these topics has changed over time.Not coincidentally, these chapters together with Chapter 10 ("The Chicago School") document the tremendous amount of influence the Chicago School of economics has had over the economics profession.

At a minimum, the book is worth the purchase price because of it's witty treatment of the "inside baseball" of academic life and frank description of the intellectual atmosphere at the University of Chicago. As an example, the letter exchange between Frank Knight and Paul Douglas reprinted beginning on page 183 should not be missed (no synopsis here can do it justice). Nor should the reader miss the description detailed in Chapter 5 ("Eureka") of how Ronald Coase, in one evening, turned the entire Chicago economics department from critics to supporters of what is now called the "Coase Theorem."

EASY TO READ, INTERESTING HISTORY OF RECENT ECONOMIC THOUGHT
Stigler won the Nobel Prize in 1982 for his work on antitrust and the role of information in the economy.He was one of the founders of the renowned Chicago School of economic thought, whose most famous member was Milton Friedman.Stigler traces the origins of the Chicago School in this easy to read, non academic memoir.He also tells a bit of personal history, but his main focus is on the analysis of thought evolution in economics.

Overall, I thought this was a nice concise book.With only about 200 pages, the author surely measured his words.This is not a book about economics (though there is a little bit in it), but mainly a book on economic thought.

Fascinating, accessible style, humorous--a must read for all
Nobel prize-winning author George Stigler provides insight into the working of a great mind and the notorious "Chicago School" of economics.Worthwhile for its presentation of the human side of the "dismal science" as well as its clear explanation of basic concepts of Stigler's economic theory. Stigler holds nothing back and delivers a frank and modest account of his life and dealings with other prominent economists ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is a collection of sixteen essays on three general topics: the methodology of economics, the applicability of economic reasoning to political science and other social sciences, and the relevance of economics as moral philosophy. Several essays are published here for the first time, including: Professor Alchian on Economic Method; Natural and Artifactual Man, and; Public Choice and Ideology. This book provides relatively easy access to a wide range of work by a moral and legal philosopher, a welfare economist who has consistently defended the primacy of the contractarian ethic, a public finance theorist, and a founder of the burgeoning subdiscipline of public choice. Buchanan's work has spawned a methodological revolution in the way economists and other scholars think about government and government activity. As a measure of recognition for his significant contribution, Dr Buchanan was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Big ideas in a little book
What Should Economists Do is a little book with some big ideas. It deals with many complicated subjects. It examines the relation of economics to other academic disciplines. It examines what economists can learn from and teach to other academics. It examines the scientific method in economics. It examines the use of a-priori axioms and the empirical testing of hypotheses. It examines subjectivism in economics. It examines human nature. It looks at the human desire for self-improvement. It delves into political economy. It examines Public Choice theory and the conflict between public financed education and academic freedom. Above all it examines the nature of human choice and argues against deterministic notions of "scientific choice" that preclude real choice.

What Should Economists do makes you think critically about modern Neoclassical economics. If choice is fully defined by utility functions, can there be real choice? How can the mathematical approach to social theory that economists favor be reconciled with the analysis of real people and real institutions?What can different disciplines learn from each other? This book is one of Buchanan's' best works. It is one of his most readable too. It should be read, not only by economists, but by anyone who is interested in social theory. ... Read more

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The road trip is a staple of modern American literature. But nowhere in American literature, until now, has a left-wing economist hit the road, observing and interpreting the extraordinary range and spectacle of U.S. life, bringing out its conflicts and contradictions with humor and insight.

Disillusioned with academic life after thirty-two years teaching economics, Michael D. Yates took early retirement in 2001, with a pension account that had doubled during the dot.com frenzy of the late 1990s. He and his wife Karen sold their house, got rid of their belongings, and have moved around the country since then, often spending months at a time on the road. Michael and Karen spent the summer of 2001 in Yellowstone National Park, where Michael worked as a hotel front-desk clerk. They moved to Manhattan for a year, where he worked for Monthly Review. From there they went to Portland, Oregon, to explore the Pacific Northwest. After five months of travel in Summer and Fall 2004, they settled in Miami Beach. Ahead of the 2005 hurricane season, they went back on the road, settling this time in Colorado.

Cheap Motels and a Hotplate is both an account of their adventures and a penetrating examination of work and inequality, race and class, alienation and environmental degradation in the small towns and big cities of the contemporary United States.

Customer Reviews (13)

boring
Boring
Need better editing. Good nuggets of writing buried in pompous blather.
Need more concise editing

Don't waste your time and money
I had to read this book for class and it was a complete waste of time. I don't understand why this guy is driving around the U.S. in a minivan if he calls himself an environmentalist and if he is so unhappy with the U.S., why don't he just move the Cuba. But besides the questions I have about this book, I still think it is not worth reading. He provides detailed descriptions of what he and his wife does on their trips like we should care. If you would like to know about a place's demographics, tourist attractions, culture, socioeconomic status, and so on, there is something free to everyone called the internet. Please do yourself a favor and forget about this book.

Interesting Reading
This book focuses on specific areas of the country, giving personal views of the beauty or ugliness of each place and of how income and lifestyle affect them.It gave some statistics to back up the author's perceptions.Reading his personal experiences in traveling through and living in the many places held my interest throughout the book.

HOT TRAVELOGUE AND A CHEAP CULTURE
Michael Yates has discovered America and its not the glossy, star-spangled, fantasy-culture blasted at you 24/7 by the corporate infotainment state.This is the America of cheap motels and low-wage service economy jobs, from Yellowstone National Park to Miami Beach to Portland to Pittsburgh. "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate" is literally an on the ground report from the front lines of America as actually seen and experienced by a working class son of the Sixties and former college economics professor, who knows a cheap con when he sees it.

Yates incisive American travelogue is a panoramic, coast to coast exploration of the scarred beauty and turbulent history of our once great nation.It's a searing economic expose of the relentless commercial onslaught of the last forty years on our people, our land and our democracy, resulting in a growing class inequality unprecedented in American history.If Michael Moore was a travel writer, this is the book he would have written.-- Ron O'Brien, Contributer, Free San Francisco: The Ultimate Free Fun Guide to the Bay Area

A highly enjoyable read from cover to cover.
Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist's Travelogue is the memoir of economics professor Michael D. Yates, who set off together on a journey across America. As they traveled, they observed sights and human efforts ranging from a program meant to reverse the privatization of national parks and forests to the political economy of California agriculture which relies heavily on migrant workers to pick food, to a savvy look at the job market in Portland. Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate is not a motel or eatery guide for vacationers per se, but rather an assembly of insights sure to intrigue and captivate armchair travelers. A highly enjoyable read from cover to cover. ... Read more

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This book captures much of the spirit of Paul A. Samuelson. Those who know Samuelson, one of the great economists of the twentieth century, only through his writings may have already sensed his wit, his intellect, his brilliance. This book brings these into focus, through details of his personal history and a wealth of anecdotes from colleagues and students.-Joseph A. Stiglitz (Foreword) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Review of the book

The forward by Stiglitz is not very astounding. It doesn't help us to recognize Samuelson as a person beyond what we know him through his numerous contributions. I have started reading the subsequent chapters and hope to have a better idea of the man..particulalry his thought process - conception, clarity of thinking though a problem and taking it to a solution...

A good read;however,Samuelson's position isn't clearly stated
I recommend that this book be purchased.It gives an above average to very good overview of the life and times of Paul Samuelson,starting from his days as an undergraduate majoring in economics at the University of Chicago.It does an admirable job in covering the importance of Samuelson's unmatched textbook,Economics,as well as the surrounding historical and political conditions and controversies that occurred during the writing of the book.However,Samuelson's consistent core position concerning the interface between macroeconomics,microeconomics and the economics of Keynes, as expressed by Keynes in the General Theory(1936),in general and,specifically, in section III of chapter 24,is not covered at all.The reader,who finishs this book,will come away without grasping exactly what it was that Samuelson took away from his reading of the GT.It certainly was not Keynes's mathematical model of chapters 19,20, and 21.Samuelson had been convinced by the misleading claims of Richard Kahn,Joan Robinson and Austin Robinson that,whileKeynes's new ideas and approach were fundamentally correct,he had made a technical mess of the formal,mathematical expression and exposition of his theory.Nevertheless,Samuelson did have a very deep understanding and appreciation for Keynes's approach,if not his technique.Samuelson viewed the study of economicsand macroeconomics as the study of an economy as a whole.An economy is made up of a private sector and a public sector.There are micro-theoretical underpinnings to the decision making calculus in both sectors.Both sectors are vital to realizing the goal of economic growth and prosperity at full employment,non inflationary levels of gross domestic product.Both public goods and private goods are absolutely necessary.The concept of a completely private economy,operating under conditions of laissez faire,is a myth that was completely rejected by the founding fathers of the United States of America in 1787.The standard reference is The Federalist Papers ,written by Hamilton,Madison,and Jay.The economic system,AS A WHOLE,can be made to function as if it were an ergodic system IF,AND ONLY IF, the following policies are followed.These policies will create a stable,full employment level of output.First,an activist and interventionist monetary and fiscal policy is implemented.Second,a progressive taxation system is implemented.Third, continuous government spending on investment on infrastructure projects,public goods,and public works is implemented.These three policies will counterbalance and negate the highly variable,unstable,volatile,insufficient,unpredictable private sector spending on investment in fixed ,durable capital goods(plants,factories,machinery,computer hardware and software,etc.)that occurs due to the uncertainty(D. Ellsberg's ambiguity)of the future in all capitalist economies.Fourth,money wages and prices are sticky.Sticky does not mean rigid or inflexible.Fifth,introduction of more interest,wage,and price flexibility,combined with policies 1,2 and 3,will result in attaining the goal of full employment.The expansion of government to include activist,interventionist monetary and fiscal policy,and increased public sector spending on public goods and infrastructure,necessary to counter the shortfalls in required private sector spending on investment ,will mean that"...if our central controls succeed in establishing an aggregate volume of output corresponding to full employment as nearly as is practicable,the classical theory comes into its own again from this point onwards."(Keynes,1936,p.378).Samuelson has digested this point.His detractors have not.The authors of this book only discuss the strange and incomprehensible objections made by the authors of a two volume book called the Anti-Samuelson(1977)and libertarian anarchists believers in Laissez Faire,like Murray Rothbard and Mark Skousen ,who assume that there is no difference between consumption goods and investment goods or between fixed capital and circulating capital(inventories).Supposedly,investment is a completely stable,predictable function of the long run real rate of interest only.All of the empirical evidence shows that long run investment is not a stable,predictable or nonvolatile function of the real rate of interest.Another strange critic of Samuelson,not mentioned in this book, is Paul Davidson,one of the founders of the Post Keynesian School of economics.Davidson makes the unsupportable charge that Samuelson is not a Keynesian of any type.The reader of this review will discover that Davidson never cites or mentions Keynes's analysis in section III of chapter 24 of the GT whenever he criticizes Samuelson for not being a "true" Keynesian.In fact ,nowhere in the corpus of Davidson's published work ,going back to 1960 ,has Davidson ever dealt with this section of the GT except indismissive one liners.Finally,none of the other schools of economic thought,such as rational expectations,monetarist,austrian,supply side,or real business cycles,have a clue to the fundamental problem of capitalism.Samuelson,following Keynes,realized that it is the shortfall in investment spending that is the crucial problem in introducing involuntary unemployment into a capitalist economy.Samuelson said it best:"When it comes to investment,the laissez faire system has no good thermostat".No good thermostat means that such an economic system is not self regulating or correcting.The Laissez Faire approach does not lead to full employment unless "we're lucky" .No economist has ever demonstrated theoretically or empirically that the laissez faire system has a good thermostat.

Primer in Economics through the life an economist
This is an engaging and readable encomium to Samuelson, a selective history of economic theory and an introduction to economics. Quite an accomplishment in 160 pages!
I particularly enjoyed its informal conversational style and use of personal anecdotes. These really brought the reader to feel privy to important people and events. The text also successfully conveyed the Stiglitz' love of Samuelson- hisexcellence as a human being, over and above his accomplishments as a theoretician.
Chapters 2 and 3 were quite informative to me, successful introductions to key aspects of the science of economics. In just a couple of pages Stiglitz succeeds in conveying the changes from feudalism to mercantilism to free market in a way which showed why a new understanding of economics was needed. He then goes on to show shortcomings in classical theory which called for Samuelson's contributions. The author's presentation of Samuelson's incorporation of mathematical modeling in economics and the revolution that brought was also clear and interesting.
The sections at the end of each chapter "Additional Notes and Sources" are
very helpful to this reader who is not a professional in economics.

Great Read
Paul A. Samuelson: "On Being an Economist" offers the ability for a reader to embark on the life chronicles of PAS with bifocals; a broad view is offered of the influences contributing to Samuelson's master of prose, wit and thrilling ability to connect with an audience while powerfully maintaining focus on the extraordinaire responsible for the revitalization of economics as a discipline.The work projects a well supported analytical approach to the achievements of PAS while successfully encrypted with celebratory views of a legendary career.Furthermore, the narrative's current personifies a conversation with a broad audience of sophisticated, yet non-economist spectators fruitfully ignited by the importance of economic deliberation throughout the 20th Century. Without doubt, this work is a tribute to Samuelson; Praise is offered through an anthological retelling of education, achievement and tribulations ultimately filtering through to the doctrinaire contributing immensely to the study of economics.However, without avail, the style holds constant the ability to flicker economic theory and undoubted utile function in a comprehensible fashion avoiding the typical stray to technical and mathematical models for evidentiary purposes.The meat of the storyline is functionally outlined through Chapters 2 through 4 carrying the reader from Samuelson's philosophy, extrapolating the "mathematical language" of his methodology, and through to the kaleidoscope of Samuelson's celebrity (presenting both praise and criticism). A well captured account of the history behind the history made by Paul A. Samuelson.

A MUST READ!!
Paul Samuelson has personified mainstream economics and is undeniably a great economist. In the book Paul A. Samuelson: On Being an Economist, I find very relevant parallels between his theories in microeconomics and the financial industry today. For someone like me who holds an advanced degree in Economics and then having branched out to a MBA in Finance and now working in the hedge fund industry, Samuelson's works have been a constant factor all through my educational and professional life. This book is a magnificent tribute to his contribution in the field. To have a book dedicated to the guru of Economics and authored by Joseph Stiglitz another leading authority in Economics, is a very rare and dynamic combination. I would recommend this book to all professionals in Wall Street today who deal with finance & economics as well as to individuals who have an interest in the field to expand their horizons. Once again... A MUST READ!

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Product Description
For anyone who wants a better understanding of this far-from-dismal science, here is a clear and illuminating guide written by the chief business writer for The Economist. In A–Z format—think “absolute advantage” to “zero-sum game”—this useful and exceptionally well written guide provides an understanding of economics that will help anyone in business, in politics and public service, and even in their private lives make decisions that will help produce the results they are hoping to achieve.  

The Essential A–Z Guides are lively, practical resources for business and investment professionals, as well as politicians, public servants, and students. Each book contains hundreds of entries that concisely explain the subject’s concept in a handy reference that complements any business library.   The complete series includes these four titles:

Essential Economics
Essential Investment
Essential Negotiation
Essentials for Board Directors ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good reference guide
I don't know a lot about economics, and was preparing for an exam that promised to have at least a few questions about macroeconomic terms and US economic policy, so I bought this book. It was not a broad introduction to these areas of interest, so I got a different one that fit the bill. After I read the other title, I picked this one up again. I went through from A to Z, and read in detail only the terms that applied to my concerns. In this, I found the book extremely helpful. I view it as a good reference book to be turned to when I might need a definition or a refresher of my memory. ... Read more

Product Description
With organizations driven to deliver on performance targets, such as shareholder value or level of service, managers are expected to make decisions fully understanding their financial consequences. Few nonfinancial specialists are prepared for the responsibilities of dealing with management reports, budgets, and capital proposals. Many find themselves confused by jargon and embarrassed by their lack of understanding.

Guide to Financial Management is a practical resource for understanding and managing these financial responsibilities. It is structured by task, such as “how to assemble a budget” or “how to construct a proposal to invest in new equipment.”

John Tennent—who has worked with such major companies as Kraft, Thomson, British Airways, Unilever, and Universal Music—helps the reader understand financial jargon, financial statements, performance measures, budgeting, costing, pricing, decision making, and investment appraisals—all of which are key to being a successful manager. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Highly recommended!
This is the second book of the Economist serias bookswhich I've decided to purcahse. This book in particular offerspractical and updated models and understandig of finnancial considerations.I certainly would add this bbok to my recommended bibiliographic list!
As proven, 1 gram of practiceis better than 1 tonne of theory... Hillel Avihai (Ph.D.)

One of the Best Practical insights into the Field of Financial Management
This book presents a very straight forward and a practical approach in explaining complicated financial concepts. One salient difference of this book, when compared to other Corporate Finance books is that, the author draws very good practical examples at various stages when explaining the actual use of financial concepts.

My motivation for buying this book was two fold.

Firstly I wanted to refresh the subject matter I learned under Financial Management of the MBA program I followed sometime back. Although at the moment I am not very much involved in Finance related activities, in future it is likely that my job scope will involve Finance to a greater extent. The simplicity of explanations and the practical insights suggest that you do NOT need to have followed an MBA to understand the concepts.

Secondly the decision to buy this book was fairly swift. This is because I was already reading one of the books co-authored by the same author John Tennent which is "Guide to Financial Modeling" which is yet another down right practical guide to financial modeling.

This book strikes a very rare balance between Simplicity (In Explaining), Practicality and Comprehensiveness of the subject matter covered. In my opinion this book fills up a much needed void in the field of Financial Management.
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