Why the free-market system encourages so much trickery even as it creates so much goodEver since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand.
With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works.
Brazil is the world's sixth-largest economy, and for the first three-quarters of the twentieth century was one of the fastest-growing countries in the world.
How to harness capitalism's dynamism to create an economy that promotes well-being and rewards creationThe recent economic crisis was a dramatic reminder that capitalism can both produce and destroy.
We create organizations because we need to get a job done-something we couldn't do alone-and join them because we're inspired by their missions (and our paycheck).
New perspectives on the history of famine-and the possibility of a famine-free worldFamines are becoming smaller and rarer, but optimism about the possibility of a famine-free future must be tempered by the threat of global warming.
Financial market behavior and key trading strategies-illuminated by interviews with top hedge fund expertsEfficiently Inefficient describes the key trading strategies used by hedge funds and demystifies the secret world of active investing.
How trade imbalances spurred on the global financial crisis and why we aren't out of trouble yetChina's economic growth is sputtering, the Euro is under threat, and the United States is combating serious trade disadvantages.
Justin Yifu Lin's groundbreaking account of how developing countries can help themselves-now fully updatedHow can developing countries grow their economies?
How radical free-market ideas achieved mainstream dominance in postwar America and BritainBased on archival research and interviews with leading participants in the movement, Masters of the Universe traces the ascendancy of neoliberalism from the academy of interwar Europe to supremacy under Reagan and Thatcher and in the decades since.
The story of GDP and why we need a better measurement of growthIn one lifetime, GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, has ballooned from a narrow economic tool into a global article of faith.
Game theory is central to understanding human behavior and relevant to all of the behavioral sciences-from biology and economics, to anthropology and political science.
Why our banking system is broken-and what we must do to fix itAs memories of the Global Financial Crisis have faded, it has been tempting to believe that the banking system is now safe and that we will never again have to choose between havoc and massive bailouts.
The first book to use the world's most popular sport to test economic theories and document novel human behaviorA wealth of research in recent decades has seen the economic approach to human behavior extended over many areas previously considered to belong to sociology, political science, law, and other fields.
The hidden role of philanthropy in enriching America's prosperity-and the world'sPhilanthropy has long been a distinctive feature of American culture, but its crucial role in the economic well-being of the nation-and the world-has remained largely unexplored.
A new way to understand financial crises-and a blueprint for tomorrow's recoveryThe Leaderless Economy reveals why international financial cooperation is the only solution to today's global economic crisis.
How the United States became an imperial power by bowing to pressure to defend its citizens' overseas investmentsThroughout the twentieth century, the U.
A sweeping history of the drama, intrigue, and rivalry behind the creation of the postwar economic orderWhen turmoil strikes world monetary and financial markets, leaders invariably call for 'a new Bretton Woods' to prevent catastrophic economic disorder and defuse political conflict.
Power to the People examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and economic development in Europe over the last five centuries.
Why India's problems won't be solved by rapid economic growth aloneWhen India became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial rule, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights.
A comprehensive guide to running randomized impact evaluations of social programs in developing countriesThis book provides a comprehensive yet accessible guide to running randomized impact evaluations of social programs.
What the loans and defaults of a sixteenth-century Spanish king can tell us about sovereign debt todayWhy do lenders time and again loan money to sovereign borrowers who promptly go bankrupt?
A guide to the economic modeling of household preferences, from two leaders in the fieldA common set of mathematical tools underlies dynamic optimization, dynamic estimation, and filtering.
A Nobel Prize-winning economist tells the remarkable story of how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal over the past two and half centuriesThe world is a better place than it used to be.
Friedman and Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, published in 1963, stands as one of the most influential economics books of the twentieth century.
A gripping history of the pioneers who sought to use science to predict financial marketsThe period leading up to the Great Depression witnessed the rise of the economic forecasters, pioneers who sought to use the tools of science to predict the future, with the aim of profiting from their forecasts.
A revolutionary approach to the study of cooperation that unites evolutionary biology and the social sciencesFrom the family to the workplace to the marketplace, every facet of our lives is shaped by cooperative interactions.
The definitive introduction to organizational economics, with contributions by leaders in the fieldIn even the most market-oriented economies, most economic transactions occur not in markets but inside managed organizations, particularly business firms.
Preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) play an increasingly prominent role in the global political economy, two notable examples being the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
How the Jewish people went from farmers to merchantsIn 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia.
How our stone-age brains made modern society, and why it matters for relationships between men and womenAs countless love songs, movies, and self-help books attest, men and women have long sought different things.
We've been assured that the recession is over, but the country and the economy continue to feel the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, and people are still searching for answers about what caused it, what it has wrought, and how we can recover.
Game theory, the formalized study of strategy, began in the 1940s by asking how emotionless geniuses should play games, but ignored until recently how average people with emotions and limited foresight actually play games.
"e;We are the 99%"e; has quickly become the slogan of our political era as growing numbers of Americans express concern about the disappearing middle class and the ever-widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else.
Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood.