Product Description
This marketing leading text focuses on comparisons between the three major types of economic systems in the world today - capitalism, socialism, and the economies of the LDC’s and developing countries. Several variants of capitalism are represented by exploring the U.S., Germany, and Japan.Also discussed are the problems involved in the transformation of the former communist countries of Russia and Eastern Europe into capitalist countries (Poland, The Czech Republic and Hungary).Developing economy coverage includes comparisons between China and India, and coverage of the Latin American countries of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, as well as comparisons between African nations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Book buying review
Book arrived as scheduled and in proper condition.Would buy from this buyer again.

The author should learn elementary arithmetic before writing
I am appalled at the author and the editorial board of the publisher.

Look at tables 1-1 and 1-2 for example.According to the author, the population of the U.S.A. in 1990 was 76.391 billion (=76,391 billion!!!!).And the GDP was 312.8666 Trilluion dollars (=$312,866 billion dollars!!!).Same blunders about other countries in the table 1-1.Table 1-2 has similar BLUNDERS!!!!I have not had the time to go beyond chapter 1.The author did the greatest disservice to students and other teachers by writing this book, because some teachers will "accidentally adopt it, before they and their students discover that this book is simply a puiece of garbage! ... Read more

Product Description

Persistent problems with poverty, rapid population growth and malnutrition in many developing countries are among the most serious issues facing the world today. This book examines the causes, severity and effects of these problems, as well as potential solutions.

The authors consider the implications of globalization of goods, services and capital for agriculture, poverty and the environment; and identify linkages in the world food system, stressing how agricultural and economic situations in poor countries affect industrialized nations and vice versa.

Focusing on the role that agriculture can play in improving economic and nutritional wellbeing and how that role might be enhanced, this book is essential reading.

Customer Reviews (1)

Great
Bought the book at a cheap, competitive price and it's practically brand new. Very happy ... Read more

Product Description

The definitive text in its field since 1975, the Seventh Edition continues the timely examination of different economic systems—both in theory and in practice. Gregory and Stuart have revamped the text to mirror major changes within the global economy of the 21st century. In addition to a new title, the book now features more emphasis on transition, the acceleration of globalization, present trading agreements, and recent exchange rate regimes.

Parts I–III lay the groundwork for later comparisons by outlining traditional systems (plan and market) as well as a broad spectrum of system variants. Also, these parts cover the impact of globalization and the emergence of important regional clusters. Parts IV–VI primarily address the era of transition dating from the late 1980s through the 21st century.

• New! An increased emphasis on transition reflects fundamental changes around the world.
• New! The authors have incorporated the latest ideas on privatization, the changing role of the state, and developments in corporate governance.
• New! The discussion of key regional clusters covers Asia, as well as Western and Eastern Europe—giving students a wide variety of case studies for comparison.
• New! The HM ClassPrep with HM Testing 6.0 CD-ROM offers instructors a comprehensive list of support tools, such as PowerPoint slides, lecture outlines, and a customizable test bank.

Customer Reviews (3)

EXCELLENT
The extremelely quick service was very appreciated.Exceptional customer service is top notch.I will happily buy books from here again!!!!!!!!!!

Great start to IPE theory
For those interested in this subsection of IPE this is a great introductory textbook. It highlights the various systems under use and the last third focuses on very interesting phenomena that has been occurring recently, privatization.It is very clearly written and you do not need much background in economics to get a lot out of this book.

Economics Student, Rutgers University
This is what every economics textbook should aspire to be: detailed, clear and compelling to read. Perhaps the greatest resource is the notes and extensive suggested readings after each chapter (grouped by topic).
There is however one downside. Since this is such an extraordinary text you may not find too many used editions to purchase. This one's a keeper! ... Read more

Product Description
The first systematic presentation of electricity market design—from the basics to the cutting edge. Unique in its breadth and depth. Using examples and focusing on fundamentals, it clarifies long misunderstood issues—such as why todays markets are inherently unstable. The book reveals for the first time how uncoordinated regulatory and engineering policies cause boom-bust investment swings and provides guidance and tools for fixing broken markets. It also takes a provocative look at the operation of pools and power exchanges.

• Part 1 introduces key economic, engineering and market design concepts.
• Part 2 links short-run reliability policies with long-run investment problems.
• Part 3 examines classic designs for day-ahead and real-time markets.
• Part 4 covers market power, and
• Part 5 covers locational pricing, transmission right and pricing losses.

About the Author
Steven Stoft has a Ph.D. in economics (U.C. Berkeley) as well as a background in physics, math, engineering, and astronomy. He spent a year inside FERC and now consults for PJM, California and private generators. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Lacks of good examples
This book really disappointed me. It does not provide in-depth explanation s on concepts nor good examples.

A disappointing book for economists...
... or those wishing to see what economists really have to offer regarding power systems.Stoft's technical discussion of power markets, or locational pricing, mechanisms is just fine.But he offers nothing about the economics of electricity transmission, without which spatially diverse power markets are merely a theory.As such, his book is of no particular use to those looking to understand the economic issues that bedevil large power markets, like those in the US, where persistent transmission constraints can impair the functioning of the best "market architecture."
"Economics" is a loosely-used term in electricity market circles.Those wishing to understand the economic princiles behind power markets, as opposed to the mechanics of power systems, will have to look elsewhere.

Economics, not engineering for a change
This book is about good economics. It is not about the usual collection of market anecdotes, nor is it about engineering power systems. Power System Economics reviews all the key design elements of modern electricity wholesale markets, and puts them in their economic context. You will not find another book on the subject that is as comprehensive and well-researched.

Solid coherent text
Stoft's book provides a coherent and logical framework for understanding power system economics. It discusses the key controversies (or "fallacies") in power markets in a clear and easily-understandable way. There is a lot of confusion on these topics these days, not only in the press, but in a lot of the literature. Lots of commentators have vested interests, which colours their analysis and comment. Stoft's book helps bring the debates back to first principles. A textbook like this can never anticipate every question or issue that arises in every power market in the world, but the book provides a good framework for understanding the fundamentals, which the reader can then apply and extend to issues of his/her own interest. A good read.

Good introduction to electric power economics, engineering
Stoft has provided an excellent introduction to the new world of electric power, providing a helpful guide that speaks to the engineering and the economics. ... Read more

Product Description
Economics in a Competitive Environment DANIEL S KIRSCHEN and GORAN STRBAC, both of UMIST, UK Interest in power systems economics is gaining momentum with the recent power supply shortages in America and the rising cost of fossil fuels. The involvement of independent power generators, brokers and distributors has changed the way in which power systems operate. Kirschen and Strbac use a combination of traditional engineering techniques and fundamental economics to address the long-term problems of power system development in a competitive environment. Power system engineers, operators, planners and policy makers working in the deregulated environment will value this practical guide, also of great interest to postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students in electrical and power engineering.
* Outlines the principles of competitive electricity markets alongside the operation and development of the supporting transmission and distribution networks
* Applies basic economic principles to power system operating and planning
* A solutions manual will be available to accompany the problems provided at the end of each chapter
* No significant competition currently available, the majority are contributed books contain collections of opinions rather than a coherent approach and do not address recent changes to the industry
* Written by recognised experts in the field ... Read more

Product Description
This innovative book illustrates the value of appeals to a governing, natural law and attendant principles such as the common good, subsidiarity, hierarchy, spiritual welfare, the reciprocity of freedom and authority, and the cultivation of personal moral and intellectual virtue. Natural Law is sure to appeal to all scholars, professionals, and all those interested in the cultivation of personal moral and intellectual virtue. ... Read more

Product Description
The book presents the basic economic and political ideas of Karl Marx. Freedman shows that Marx had a love/hate relationship with capitalism, explicates the Marxist theory of social change - historical materialism - and discusses the Marxist ideal of communism. He finds that Marx's contemporary popularity results more from the distrust of capitalist civilization, its inequities and insecurities, than from the achievement of the so-called Marxist societies. ... Read more

Product Description
In this book, Quan Li and Rafael Reuveny combine the social scientific approach with a broad, interdisciplinary scope to address some of the most intriguing and important political, economic, and environmental issues of our times. Their book employs formal and statistical methods to study the interactions of economic globalization, democratic governance, income inequality, economic development, military violence, and environmental degradation. In doing so, Li and Reuveny cross multiple disciplinary boundaries, engage various academic debates, bring the insights from compartmentalized bodies of literature into direct dialogue, and uncover policy tradeoffs in a growingly interconnected political-economic-environmental system. They show that growing interconnectedness in the global system increases the demands on national leaders and their advisors; academicians and policy makers will need to cross disciplinary boundaries if they seek to better understand and address the policy tradeoffs of even more complex processes than the ones investigated here. ... Read more

Product Description

This work represents the current state of the most important economic applications of dynamical systems theory. The volume features not only a survey of modern analytical approaches and nonlinear models but also an anthology of the numerical and graphical methods (represented in 90 illustrations) that are essential to an understanding of dynamical behavior. The first chapters present accessible (though not elementary) introductions to local analysis and the linear approximation, deep issues regarding chaos and complexity, the ergodic approach and probabilistic properties of dynamical systems. The following chapters provide a unique collection of current nonlinear models in micro and macroeconomics, including those based on overlapping generations, heterogeneous agents, evolutionary financial markets, oligopolist and duopolist games.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

How to Become the World's Most Often Cited Economist
Andrei Shleifer, a Harvard University professor, became the most widely-cited economist in the world by exploiting an idea most people in the field think is wrong. The idea is that the origin of a country's legal system--the legal family to which it belongs--is a significant determinant of the effectiveness of its legal institutions. More specifically, countries belonging to the English common-law family are found to have a more business-friendly environment than countries belonging to the French and German civil-law families, with members of the Scandinavian civil-law family falling somewhere in between.

The idea that "common law does it better" is not new. Friedrich Hayek had already proposed it, and quite a number of American legal scholars have endorsed it as well. According to their line of reasoning, the common law trumps the civil law because courts are better suited than legislatures to continuously adapt rules to the needs of market participants. (On the other hand, Max Weber believed that courts and jurisprudence-based law created complexities and uncertainties that were conflicting with the ideal of a predictable, efficient legal system that he believe was a foundation for economic activity.)

What is different in Shleifer's and his coauthors' work is that they tried to put numbers on that idea. They first built an index of investor rights' protection, and then complemented it with other datasets reflecting many dimensions of doing business in a market economy: how to start a business, hire and fire workers, register property, enforce contracts, and so on. Running cross-country regressions, and after controlling for GDP per capita and other variables, they found that common-law countries did better on these measures than countries that had inherited their legal system from the French. Even when considering the quality of government, the effectiveness of courts, and the degree of corruption, countries belonging to the common-law family had better results than French civil-law countries.

Those empirical results took academia by storm, and Shleifer and his coauthors were catapulted to the top of the rankings measuring the number of citations in social science journals. The "law and finance" literature, as it is called in academia, soon became a cottage industry. But as legal scholars Milhaupt and Pistor note, their results contradict the real-world experience of law reformers, and they are not even confirmed by the data. Law simply doesn't work that way. One of the reasons is because these studies make no attempt to differentiate between countries that developed their legal system internally from those that received their law by way of legal transplantation. Once this "transplant effect" is introduced in the regressions, the results found by Shleifer and alii disappears. In other words, the process of legal development--how countries build their laws and institutions--matters for the effectiveness of the legal system. Exogeneously imposed law rarely fits conditions in the host country without considerable adaptation by the local law-making community.

Milhaupt and Pistor do prove the law and finance literature wrong by running cross-country regressions, but that's not the point. Focussing on indexes and statistical results makes the observer lose sight of the one-thousand pound panda bear in the china shop--namely, the People's Republic of China. China's GDP has grown at an annual rate of more than 9 percent for two decades, yet its legal system is highly underdeveloped, its corporate governance is problematic, and its capital market is small and inefficient. Chinese authorities use law reform in the economic sector as a signaling device: to ensure domestic actors and foreign players that the country is moving in the direction of market-based capitalism and legal governance. At the lawmakers' level, law is viewed primarily as a mean to control and coordinate the economy and society. China is pursuing rule by law as opposed to rule of law, especially if the later implies the use of law to control governmental action and protect the rights of the citizen.

As Milhaupt and Pistor note, the law and finance literature has also been highly influential in policy circles, with the World Bank playing a pivotal role in spreading its philosophy to real-world situations and translating its postulates into legal reforms. The transformation of formerly socialist regimes into market economies, the Asian financial crisis and the indictment of crony capitalism, the globalization of capital flows, and other developments associated with corporate scandals or broader macroeconomic problems, all had the effect of transforming domestic legal systems along a fairly standard menu of legal reforms. The provision of legal assistance became a booming industry. More often than not, the policy response, applied liberally from Seoul to Warsaw, has been to re-create features of the US legal system that are thought to account in some way for the comparative robustness of US economic institutions.

For Milhaupt and Pistor, a different approach is needed. The first step is to recognize the diversity of legal systems. Just as there are varieties of capitalism, there are varieties of legal support for capitalist activity. Different types of legal systems are conducive to economic success. Each has its own costs, benefits, and vulnerabilities. Among countries at roughly equivalent stages of advanced economic development such as the United States, Germany, and Japan, legal systems vary substantially in the process of lawmaking and law enforcement. The structure of the legal professions and their respective roles in the legal system vary significantly among the three countries as well.

The second basic recognition is that law is not an endowment like a fixed capital investment that, once in place, provides a firm foundation for economic development. Law, like capitalism, is constantly evolving. The vibrancy of a capitalist system hinges on creative destruction in the sphere of legal governance as well as the economic sphere. Law constantly needs to be fine-tuned, revised and adapted to changing economic, social and political circumstances. The consequence is that one cannot simply take a new law from a book, or import it from abroad, and insert it in the proper place. The performance of a legal transplant depends on the extent to which the changes are aligned with the conduct of lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats in applying and enforcing the new law.

The third pillar of the authors' approach is the acknowledgment that law performs a multiplicity of functions. The protection of property rights, which is the exclusive focus of the law and finance literature, is only one possible function of law. In addition, the authors insist on the coordinating function of law, as when the allocation of rights to various stakeholders induce them to cooperate and bargain over outcomes in the best interest of the corporation. Laws can also be used to provide important signals to market actors and to lend credibility to government policies, enhancing their effectiveness. It can be argued that much of the legal development that has taken place in China since the early 1980s falls into this signaling and credibility enhancement category.

The last building block is the role of the political economy in the supply and demand of legal systems. Making law is a political process through and through. Many actors, public and private, are involved in this process of creative destruction by which laws are created and revised, maintained and contested. A highly centralized legal system favors state-centered interest groups and actors. A decentralized legal system favors self-organized groups and individuals. In addition to the supply of formal law, the demand for law can vary over time and with changes in the constituencies who participate in market activity.

The diversity and fluidity of legal systems, the functions they perform, and their relation to the political economy, as well as the demand for law, provide a useful framework for thinking about legal change around the world. Rather than reasoning in the abstract or testing hypotheses through statistical regressions, Milhaupt and Pistor chose to practice what they call institutional autopsies: they identify a case of corporate scandal involving complex legal issues, and they analyze the way each of the major stakeholders responded to the crisis and reshaped the law accordingly. Their sample include the Enron scandal and the passing of Sarbanes-Oxley by the US Congress; the Mannesmann executive compensation trial in Germany; the Livedoor bid and hostile takeovers in Japan; the renationalization of Yukos and the control over national resources by the Russian state, and others cases in Korea, China, and Singapore.

In medicine, an autopsy is an important strategy for learning about the functioning of the human body. Likewise, focusing on a moment of stress is highly revealing of the underlying dynamics of a complex system, permitting unique insights into its vulnerabilities and propensity for change. Like the human body, economic and legal institutions are complex arrangements that defy simple mechanical analysis. Milhaupt and Pistor's institutional autopsies differ markedly from the approach favored by the law and finance literature. Focusing on numbers, the economist keeps his hands clean and invisible. By contrast, the lawyer, like the surgeon, gets his hands dirty by plunging them into the bowels and arteries of the capitalist system. Milhaupt and Pistor's hands-on approach may not propel them to the top of academic citation charts. But it may provide them with more success in the classroom and more lasting influence in the real world than the ratiocinations of economists bent on proving Hayek right, and Weber wrong.

Publishing and Capitalism
NO ONE should be taken in by the grandiose title of this book.

Anything called "Law and Capitalism" can't help but evoke Marx or Weber.Expectations are immediately raised that two of our fundamental social institutions will be probed and dissected.Instead, this book is built around six short case studies of recent corporate crises (e.g., Enron) in six different countries.The cases are sandwiched between introductory and concluding chapters that wax social scientific and try to distill lessons for the field of law and development.

The cases are interesting, but it isn't always clear how they contribute to the central argument; one gets the feeling they were selected because they were well-reported.In fact, the whole exercise feels like it was stolen from a class on comparative corporate law.It probably was.

The authors' basic message is sensible, namely, that too many World Bank officials and development scholars, in their eagerness to find a legal "technology" to underpin economic growth, overlook messy realities about markets and the law.However, their own book is thin and ephemeral.Not recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Comparative Economic Systems: Culture, Wealth and Power in the 21st Century explains how culture, in various guises, modifies the standard rules of economic engagement, creating systems that differ markedly from those predicted by the theory of general market competition. This analysis is grounded in established principles, but also assumes that individual utility seeking may be culturally determined, that political goals may take precedence over public well being, and that business misconduct may be socially detrimental. The book clarifies conceptual misunderstandings about the comparative merit of free competition and perfect governance, showing in many cases how the same results are attainable using either mechanism, or by combining them. It illuminates why engineering variables like the quantity and quality of fixed and variable inputs, management, entrepreneurship, technological progress, and economic governance don't adequately explain disorders like the increasing poverty of the world's poorest nations.

End of chapter questions and an extensive glossary enhance the book's utility and enable readers to fully comprehend the key features of each chapter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

This is a really bad book
Making your way through this book is a difficult process that requires a great deal of patience and probably a dictionary. Unfortunately, the awards are few, made apparent when you realize the points that the author tries hard to obfuscate are superficial. Not only is the writing style nearly impossible to get through, the book lacks any deep analysis of culture or economics.The visual tools that the author uses to illustrate his theories are made up of huge oversimplifications of international economies.

One of the worst books I' ve ever read
This book is really one of the worst books on economics I've ever read. First, the conceptual approach of comparing economic systems is a joke - how useful is a dyadic system if ALL cases to be explored end up in one of the categories? Second, the book lacks any reference to the ongoing discussion about "new comparative economics" or neoinstitutionalism - both tools that could be very helpful to compare economic systems. The author either does not know these discourses or chose to ignore them. Third, the "analytical" results presented in this book are nothing more than the usual general prejudices about economic systems. The "overviews" over certain countries are a collection of platitudes which are really breathtaking in their oversimplification. Fourth, the style of writing is bad. Fifth, I have no idea why this mediocre book is so expensive. ... Read more

Product Description
This classic book offers a broad sweep of economic history from prehistoric times to the present and explores the disparity of wealth among nations. Now in its fourth edition, A Concise Economic History of the World has been updated to reflect the stunning changes in the world economy since 1989. Truly a definitive history of globalization, the new edition has been expanded to include coverage of the most recent developments in the European Union, East Asia, and, in general, transition economies. Comprehensive and global in scope, this concise text features ample illustrations and a fully updated annotated bibliography that guides readers to the relevant scholarly literature. Now available in eleven languages, including Spanish (second edition), French, German (two volumes), Polish, and Chinese, this unique work remains an invaluable, lively, and accessible text for both undergraduate and graduate students of European economic history, the history of globalization, and world development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Simple history lacking theory
This book is too elementary, in terms of economic history, for even an intro level undergraduate book on the subject. For a better introduction see Braudel's "Wheels of Commerce". In addition, it lacks any discussion of theory(ies) or presentations thereof as to what drives growth and why it has occured in some areas and not others. After all, is this not the purpose of studying economic history?

Adequate but roundly lacking work
If one looks to today's world he overarching political and economic structure is that of westernized globalization.It seems that most political movements are either for globalization who to varying degrees either against or promoting the slowing of its effects.How does this relate to the world we have seen previously in the world?

Cameron and Neal hope to give a complete history of the trends and stages of the world economy from the first humans to today's world (circa 2001) and cram it into fewer than 500 pages.In this fourth edition of their 1989 original, they have produced an adequate work.They take surprising stands on certain issues, like the Industrial Revolution while not accounting for some recent scholarship on effects of neo-liberal globalization.

Their thesis of the logistic (the S shaped growth curve of biology) to help explain periods of European growth may help to enlighten some trends in world economic history. The first logistic happens in the early fourteenth century; while the second takes place in the seventeenth century.After the logistic the "life for ordinary men and women were becoming increasingly difficult in the decelerating phases" (p. 17).Cameron and Neal place the third logistic in the first part of the nineteenth century.

As the nineteenth century is considered the beginning of "modern industry," the effects of the "industrial revolution" have become a major determinant of modern growth.Yet, Cameron and Neal call this a misnomer.The growth of population and agricultural efficiency in the period can help to explain the third logistic.Therefore for Cameron and Neal the Industrial Revolution was no revolution.One can look to Marx' description of what we think of as revolution: it is only the big bang at the end of real social revolution.Is it not possible that the industrial revolution was a revolution; just due to a dearth of ready capital there was no big bang but a steady growth of investment into the world of iron and coal?

The spend time discussing the revolutions of 1989 as the prelude to the more modern era of both economics and politics.The year 2001 is declared a watershed, as we will view the successes and failures of globalization.Here they follow neo-liberal party line.Let's quote Adam Smith about growth but ignore his portions of the Wealth of Nations regarding equality.

At no point in the work do I recall the terms "equality," "inequality," "Gini coefficient," or "Lorenz Curve;" and, none of these terms appear in the index.(Stolper-Samuelson and Hecksher-Ohlin are equally shirked). The fact is they turn blinders to the growing inequality found at stages of globalization of the economy, neither mentioning the scholarship nor even attempting to excuse the matter.

While the actual trends of inequality in today's globalization may not have been readily available in 2001, there were those who had not drank the neo-liberal Kool Aid and were already challenging some of the assumptions.Jefferey Williamson's 1997 paper "Globalization and Inequality, Past and Present" shows that while there was overall growth in the world economy's first major globalization from 1890-1914, the fruits were seldom shared by the working class.This is the dirty little secret of globalization, which is invariably ignored by Cameron and Neal.Perhaps they can use the excuse they only had 500 pages to tell the history of the economic world.

I am going to give this book two stars.I see no reason to read it if it were not assigned for a class.Yet, if it assigned it will be one of the easier economic textbooks to read which you'll ever be assigned.

Excellent Work
This is one of the best works by Neal.While yes it is heavy on Europe, the explanations of Egypt and China are exceptional.

A sure buy is you want to study the topic better.

Not Bad
The title of this book should read "An Economic History of Europe," because 90% of the material focuses on the economic development of Europe.This is understandable considering that the industrial revolution first occured in Europe, and pulsated outwards.However, the amount of time given towards explaining the economies of the middle east, Asia, Oceania, Australasia, Africa, Latin America, and even the USA are so minute that the title is decieving and for all intensive purposes incorrect.

Nevertheless, the book is quite interesting, as it progresses from the dawn of human civilization with very concise and brief summaries well in to the twentieth century becoming more desciptive and detailed.If you are interested in how the world economy arrived to its current level, then I would suggest that this book is a good read and worth your while.Since this edition was published in 1997, it is excusable for the author to omit the economic consequences of the Euro, the rise of China and the rest of Asia, and the economic implications of Septemer 11.The author also refuses to offer his speculative view on the future of the world economies, thereby leaving the reader to do his or her on guess work.Although the introduction of the book, on the current inequality of world economies, is quite interesting, it is not elaborated upon towards the end of the book, and causes a lack of continuity.If you wish to understand better the world economy, you would be better off reading the encyclopedia, Lonely Planet travel guides, or perhaps even better, (what I have done) which is to travel and see these countries for yourself with your own eyes.

The total economic history of the world in laymans words
Rondo Cameron certainly explains the hold economic history of the world. Rondo takes you from the ages before Christ to the twenthieth century. Why did the Roman Empire went down?, Why Spain was not able to achievehigherlevels of economical well-being despite their big colonies overseas?:Questions like these are answered in Rondo's excellent book. If a man wantsto forsee the future, he has to go back and learn where he comes from.Economics and History were successfully married in the book, so historians,economists and financiers will find it helpfull. ... Read more

Product Description
By looking at a wide range of industrialized economies, including England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Argentina, the United States, and "late developers" such as Russia, this book aims to show how important the state was in the development of financial systems. It examines the various factors that contributed to the emergence of diverse financial systems, and through comparative historical analysis draws together general themes, such as the inter-country differences in the mix of public and private finance, to produce a book that makes an unique contribution to financial and economic history. ... Read more

Product Description
Complex behavior can occur in any system made up of large numbers of interacting constituents, be they atoms in a solid, cells in a living organism, or consumers in a national economy. Analysis of this behavior often involves making important assumptions and approximations, the exact nature of which vary from subject to subject. Foundations of Complex-system Theoriesbegins with a description of the general features of complexity and then examines a range of important concepts, such as theories of composite systems, collective phenomena, emergent properties, and stochastic processes. Each topic is discussed with reference to the fields of statistical physics, evolutionary biology, and economics, thereby highlighting recurrent themes in the study of complex systems. This detailed yet nontechnical book will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about complex systems and their behavior. It will also be of great interest to specialists studying complexity in the physical, biological, and social sciences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

4.5 Stars-The whole is not the sum of the parts;Excellent and scholarly
This is a very interesting book.The author demonstrates that she has command over a number of different fields.She exhibits awide ranging scholarship in this book.In a nutshell,one can categorize the major conclusions she arrives at as the whole is not the sum of the parts alone.Neither a strictly micro or macro approach to the different fields she investigates,using a complex systems framework, yields the idealized types of scientific discoveryand knowledge one finds postulatedin some philosophy of science discourses that emphasize deductive closure laws.I have one slight criticism of the book,which is why I have subtracted one half a star.The author has a deep general understanding of the Keynes-Knight distinction between risk and uncertainty in economics(and in social sciences).However,she lacks an understanding of the specifics of Keynes's approach in the A Treatise on Probability(1921;TP).She is unaware of Keynes's interval estimate approach to probability,his index,w,used to measure the completeness of the evidence ,ranging from ignorance through partial knowledge to a complete information set,and Keynes's conventional coefficient of weight and risk,which treats risk, based on the purely deductive laws of probability, as a special case.This would be a very minor criticism if she had integrated the work of D.Ellsberg(Ellsberg's 2001 book,Risk,Ambiguity,and Decision gives a modern,improved and updated version of the TP) and B.Mandelbrot into her discussions involving economics,risk,and uncertainty(Ellsberg's Ambiguity with his rho and alpha indexes and the wild versus mild risk of the cauchy distribution versus normal distribution as discussed by Mandelbrot).Unfortunately,Ellsberg's contributions are not discussed at all while Mandelbrot receives a single footnote that completely ignores his contributions to economics.She can certainly obtain a 5-star rating by bringing out a revised edition in which the original,technical, pioneering work of Keynes is covered followed by the modern and updated contributions of Ellsberg and Mandelbrot.

a fascinating book -- recommended to philosophers
Philosophers of science need to read this book:the hands-on
account of how three sciences work is a healthy
corrective to the usual practice of writing philosophy of science
without actually knowing how the science is done.

A Professional work
This is an amazing work. Sunny Auyang has written an easily comprehenedible book on applications of complexity theories to economics, biology and physics.It is a professional writing to professionals indifferent fields.One needs college level maths and some physics to fullygrasp it but she has made minimum use of mathematical symbols. Her writingflows, the examples are clear, some illuminate important issues in theapplied fields, some are just homey bits that convey an idea insightfully.A lot of depth in her philosophical explorations of the complexity ideas. I consider this to be a must for any person studying or instructing insystem thinking. ... Read more

Product Description
This undergraduate/graduate course compares the economic systems of regions on the spectrum from free market to communism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the movement toward capitalism in the remaining communist countries, this field of study has changed dramatically. This book concentrates on these movements and their implications and for the first time expands its scope to include more coverage of developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Thoroughly revised in response to the dramatic changes in the former-Soviet Union, this text has been reorganised along geographical lines rather than ideological ones and now covers more of the world's economic systems including Asia and Africa.Features: * Most up-to-date coverage of world economic systems now available. * Special emphasis on the issues facing the former-Soviet republics. * Unique coverage of Latin America and Africa. * Each chapter concludes with a list of current internet resources available on that topic. * Additional web support available at a site maintained by the author.New to this edition: * New geographical organization. * Complete revision of chapters on the formerly-planned economies.* New chapters on Asia and Africa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An insightful analysis of the World's economic systems.
This book explores and compares the different economic systems throughout the world in an easy, almost non-academic manner (it's used in several universities as a textbook.) Mr. Gardner writes in an entertaining and easy-to-understand style, and his explanations are precise and informative. Having been written in 1988, the book still dedicates a good portion of its content to the Soviet communist economic system, which is now a "distant" memory.Still, it's a good reminder of how divided the world was economically and philosophically for almost the entire 20th Century. All in all, a must read for people who want to learn the basics (and a lot of nuances) of the main economic systems of the world ... Read more

Product Description

The continuous-time portfolio problem consists of finding the optimal investment strategy of an investor. In the classical Merton problem the investor can allocate his funds to a riskless savings account and risky assets. However, to get explicit results, it is assumed that the interest rates are deterministic and that the assets are default free. In this monograph both assumptions are weakened: The author analyzes and solves portfolio problems with stochastic interest rates and with defaultable assets. Besides, he briefly discusses how portfolio problems with foreign assets can be handled. The focus of the monograph is twofold: On the one hand, the economical problems are carefully explained, on the other hand their formal solution is rigorously presented. For this reason the text should be of interest to researchers with a Finance background as well as to researchers with a more formal background who would like to see how mathematics is applied to portfolio theory.

Product Description
Economics of Agricultural Development examines the causes, severity, and effects of persistent poverty, rapid population growth and malnutrition in developing countries. It discusses potential solutions to these problems, and considers the implications of globalization for agriculture, poverty, and the environment. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A Libertarian Intellectual Plea for Returning to Political Patronage
Based on a surprisingly thorough review of the available literature, Johnson and Libecap make a plea for a return to political patronage as the primary means of insuring the "loyalty" of federal civil servants to elected officials. They observe however, that patronagemaybe effective only for managing small governmental units. "...the problems of managing a large patronage labor force are too great, relative to any political benefits that might be obtained from abandoning a merit system."So, they don't say it, but the only way to implement their goal would be to break up the U.S. into small feudal fiefdoms where personal government could again be practiced.

However, this large order has proved no obstacle to the current (2005) Administration, which is busy corrupting the professional civil service in any way possible.Read the Washington Post daily, and the newsletters of PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (www.peer.org). ... Read more