Product Description
Completely updated and revised, the second edition of International Financial Economics: Corporate Decisions in Global Markets applies the principles of financial economics to explain how international corporate finance decisions are made in the real world.

Written from a practical, financial perspective versus one of pure economic theory, the text is divided into three sections. The first section provides a comprehensive discussion of exchange rates. The next section offers an in-depth look at a firm's foreign exchange exposure measurement and hedging. The material highlights the connection between foreign exchange exposure in profit and foreign exchange exposure in equity, as well as the impact of foreign currency debt and currency swaps. The third section examines overseas investment decisions in both countries integrated with the global financial market and those still segmented from it. Coverage emphasizes the cost of capital and accounting for overseas investments and hedging of foreign exchange risk.

International Financial Economics: Corporate Decisions in Global Markets is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in global financial management.

Features


·Employs a practical, financial perspective with real-world applications


·Includes expanded material on currency swaps to show their role in foreign exchange exposure management


·Offers a detailed description of economic foreign exchange exposure


·Provides additional material on overseas investment decisions when exchange rates are not correctly valued ... Read more

Product Description
The international community is increasingly confronted with global environmental problems, which lead to distributional conflicts, unresolved equity issues and asymmetric distribution of the costs and benefits of environmental policy. The complexity of such problems requires the development of an international institutional framework, capable of coping with the long-run international aspects of global environmental change.

This book analyses some of the difficulties in the construction of such a framework and offers suggestions on how they might be overcome. The contributions in The Economics of Global Environmental Change address international trade, land-use change, biodiversity preservation, the management of water resources and the composition of water-related conflicts, global warming and strategic aspects of international environmental agreements.

This book provides an in-depth insight to the current state-of-the-art for both economists and non-economists interested in global environmental change. It will also be of great interest to those wanting an introduction to the economic perspective of an increasingly relevant environmental core problem, as well as to students and researchers in political science.

Contributors include: M. Cogoy, J. Eyckmans, M. Finus, E. Fraser, B. Friedl, B. Gebetsroither, M. Getzner, K. Hubacek, T. Kluge, S.A. Mason, A. Muller, K.W. Steininger, C. Van Beers ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Will prove to be of immense and timely interest
The latest edition to the Edward Elgar Publishing series 'New Horizons In Environmental Economics', "The Economics Of Global Environment Change" is co-edited by Mario Cogoy (Professor of international Economics, University of Trieste, Italy) and Karl W. Steininger (Professor of Economics, Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz, Austria). Benefitting from the contributions of acknowledged experts in their fields, this informed and informed compendium of information is organized into three main sections beginning with an introduction and overview of the subject of global climate change and its economic implications. Four major papers comprise the section on 'The Economics Dimensions of Global Environmental Change"; three contributions comprise the third section addresses issues related to 'International Cooperation in Global Environmental Change'. The contributors address the issues of distributions conflicts, unresolved equity issues, asymmetric distribution of the coasts and benefits of environmental policy, the d4evelopment of an international institutional framework, long-run international aspects of global environmental change; international trade, land-use change, biodiversity preservation, management of water resources and conflicts, as well as global warming and strategic aspects of international environmental agreements. An impressive and seminal body of work in compliance with the highest standards of research and scholarship making it an essential addition to academic, corporate, governmental, and environmental organization reference collections, "The Economics Of Global Environment Change" will prove to be of immense and timely interest to economists, environmentalists, academicians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the economic impact of global warming. ... Read more

Product Description

Tropical rainforests are disappearing due to agricultural intensification and climate change, causing irreversible losses in biodiversity and associated ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem properties and human well-being are profoundly influenced by environmental change, which is often not considered during land use intensification. Understanding these processes needs an integrated scientific approach linking ecological, economic and social perspectives at different scales, from the household and village level to landscapes and regions. The chapters in this book cover a broad range of topical research areas, from sustainable agroforestry management, climate change effects on rainforests and agroforests to integrated concepts of land use in tropical landscapes.

Product Description
Global climate change cannot be understood without knowing the fundamental principles of science, economics, and politics that condition our policy choices. To that end, the contributors to this volume, experts in their respective fields, take a comprehensive look at the major issues involved.

This volume is written for policymakers and informed citizenry who want to understand at a general level the complexities of global climate change without becoming enmeshed in technical minutia. The introduction emphasizes the core fact that climate change issues cut across disciplines. William Schlesinger and Gerald North explain the carbon cycle and how increased greenhouse gases impact temperature. The economics papers deal with the applicability of benefit/cost analysis and then proceed to examine the benefits of avoiding temperature change versus the costs of the various CO2 abatement options. Finally, David Victor, a Stanford political scientist, asks which policies are feasible in a world where the incentives differ dramatically among countries. The book closes with open letters to the President of the United States.

Policymakers along with academics, students and any reader interested in a broad look at the important issues in the global climate change story will find this book indispensable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Economic Analysis of Global Climate Change
"Global Climate Change - The Science, Economics, and Politics", is a collection of ten separate articles covering different aspects of global warming.The book is very strong on the economics of global warming, less strong on the politics, and weak on the science.In many ways, the book reads like a balanced, academic discussion of the pros and cons of costs and benefits between business as usual, weak mitigation efforts, and strong mitigation efforts.This attempt at balance weakens the book's message considerably, in that it leaves the reader wondering what the author's personal opinions really are on the subject.

The book was published by the Bush School of Government and Public Service, in the "New Horizons In Environmental Economics" textbook series, which explains why it's basically an economics textbook (dry reading) focused on cost/benefit analysis.

Four stars given as an economics book, but as a general book on climate change, I'd probably give it only two stars because there are so many superior books out there already covering the science and potential effects of global warming. ... Read more

Product Description
Textbook describing and predicting production, trade and investment across countries, with a thorough description of the foundations of international trade and investment. Features more than 200 boxed examples illustrating the theory presented and an interactive companion Web site with analyses of current events, data sources and international economics links. ... Read more

Product Description
This new casebook presents a globalized approach to antitrust law and provides an understanding of the main antitrust regimes that apply throughout the world today. Whether in business, law, or government, we can no longer content ourselves with understanding only the antitrust and competition law of one nation. The authors present a truer picture of the overall regime of competition law that now faces multinational market players through a combination of laws from varying nations in actual application. The authors have structured the book to enhance a teacher's ability to take a modular approach. Thus, depending on the assignments the teacher wishes to make out of the book, the book can be used to either: (a) to replace the basic Antitrust course with a course fully covering the relevant US and EC laws that regulate global market conduct, (b) to teach a course that fully covers U.S. antitrust law and adds only readings on selected topics in EC competition law, or (c) to teach an advanced course in EC competition law. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Great Comparative Antitrust Textbook
I had great success using the galleys of Global Antitrust Law & Economics to teach Comparative Antitrust Law at the University of Haifa Law School during the summer of 2006, to both American and Israeli law students.

This textbook is the first and only one on the market that is extremely well suited for use in a comparative antitrust law class. When I taught comparative antitrust in Scotland a few years ago I had to put my own material together because there was no comparative textbook on the marketsuitable for classroom use.It is simply astonishing that, even though knowledge of European competition law has been important for a United States antitrust lawyer for more than a decade, until now there was no single volume that bridged these fields comprehensively. But at long last the market has filled this considerable gap - by producing Global Antitrust Law & Economics.

This is an extraordinarily teachable book that contains everything you might want to present in a comparative antitrust or comparative competition law class. It always contained exactly what I was looking for - the relevant background, and both the similarities and the areas of greatest contrasts between the United States and the European systems. Moreover, it contains so much of each type of material that the instructor gets the pleasure of picking and choosing which of their favorite topics to cover.

Both the law and the economics are extremely clearly and interestingly presented.I used it to teach a class of students who has never before taken a class in antitrust or competition law.We had to omit much of the book's more sophticated material.However, I have no doubt that anyone teaching an upper level class for students who already have taken a basic class in United States antitrust law or EU competition law would find this more advanced material extremely useful. Its mix of background material and state-of-the art material should make it similarly valuable for antitrust lawyers who have an international practice.

I believe I speak for comparative antitrust teachers everywhere when I say "thank you".Finally, the comparative antitrust law book we have been waiting for has arrived. Finally, the comparative antitrust field has a standard textbook to use. And what a wonderful standard it is.

Robert H. Lande
Venable Professor of Law
University of Baltimore School of Law


... Read more

Product Description
This is a revision of the business of global banking. With the increased globalization of the world economy few sectors are the equal of banking and financial services in dynamism or structural change. Roy C. Smith and Ingo Walter assess this transformation-its causes, its course and its consequences. They begon by examining international commercial banking, including the issue of cross-border risk evaluation and exposure management, and the creation of a viable regulatory framework in a global competitive context. hey then undertake a parallel assessment of international investment banking, linking the two by means of a bridge chapter. Finally, they focus on the factors that determine winners and losers in these markets and explore the problems of strategic position and execution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

So, you want to be a Banking Expert? ALWAYS: Ingo Walter
I have met Ingo Walters in 1988 when he gave a brilliant talk to hundreds of CEOs form the Banking Industry in Europe. Everyone was amazed at how brilliant Ingo was. He is an authentic expert in European and US Banking. In his book "Global Banking" any serious student or better yet Strategic Management Consultant can learn Operations, Strategy, IT, Treasury, and Risk Management from different parts of the world. Highly recommended for Upper Management and CEOs of Regional Banks who need a pathway to easily transition into being a World Player. Learn through this book what the Managing-Directors at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc., would tell you for over 1 million dollars.

a so so book of the past from big name professors
a banking book covers subjects ok for yester-decade

Great Book on Global Banking
A great book. Exciting to read, clearly written and full of practical insights into global banking.Discusses tenable strategies for financial firms world-wide and contains insights that are difficult to find anywhereelse.The authors taught a course based on this book at INSEAD and thebook retains the liveliness and rigor of that excellent course.

A mustbuy for anyone connected with or interested in the structure and strategiesof global finance firms. ... Read more

Product Description
Meeting the short run challenges of reviving the worldwide economy need not mean sacrificing long run economic and environmental sustainability. A Global Green New Deal (GGND) is an economic policy strategy for ensuring a more economically and environmentally sustainable world economic recovery. Reviving growth and creating jobs should be essential objectives. But policies should also aim to reduce carbon dependency, protect ecosystems and water resources, and alleviate poverty. Otherwise, economic recovery today will do little to avoid future economic and environmental crises. Part One argues why a GGND strategy is essential to the sustainability of the global economy. Part Two provides an overview of the key national policies whilst Part Three focuses on the global actions necessary to allow national policies to work. Part Four summarizes the main recommendations for national and international action, and discusses the wider implications for restructuring the world economy towards "greener" development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Our last opportunity to put the world economy on a sustainable path
"A Global Green New Deal" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Barbier's book interview ran here as the cover feature on September 6, 2010. ... Read more

Product Description

This book is about the global cybercrime industry, which according to some estimates, is a US$1 trillion industry and is growing rapidly. It examines economic and institutional processes in the cybercrime industry, provides insights into the entrepreneurial aspect of firms engaged in cyber-criminal activities, takes a close look at cybercrime business models, explains the global variation in the pattern of cybercrimes and seeks to understand threats and countermeasures taken by key actors in this industry. This book’s distinguishing features include the newness, importance, controversiality and complexity of the topic; cross-disciplinary focus, orientation and scope; theory-based but practical and accessible to the wider audience; and illustration of various qualitative and quantitative aspects of the global cybercrime industry.

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Product Description
The contest to shape global governance is increasingly being conducted on a number of levels and among a diverse set of actors. This book argues that increasing engagement between international institutions and sectors of civil society is producing a new form of international organization. The authors study the relationship between the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organisation, and environmental, labor, and women's movements, providing a rich analysis of the institutional response to social movement pressure. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

a great book all should read
this book is especially important if we are to avoid another economic setback-- a so called "w" recovery.The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity.

Hopefully the leaders of the G-20 will read this and put off indefinitely their fear of government deficits that are needed to restore a prosperous economy Deficit hawks must be shown the error of their thoughts. Then we may start to restore prosperity for our children and grandchildren

Valuable Insights for Investors
This book is terrific.Like many investors, I am very wary of economic commentary because many commentators seem to be living in a parallel universe that has assumed away many of the practical realities that we see every day.Dr. Davidson's book not only discusses current economic issues in a pragmatic way, he also addresses the flaws and strained assumptions upon which policy makers have conducted economic policy.It takes someone who understands the flawed models of mainstream economics to illuminate these flaws for those of us who are merely observers.

Much more so than the Keynes solution itself, this book's greatest value comes from its insights into trade deficits, unemployment, the monetary system, and the realities of correcting trade imbalances.Many of the benefits of imports come at the cost of higher unemployment, and it is important to understand the real choices involved in addressing this situation.

Macroeconomic analysis can be frustratingly useless to investors.According to the famous investor Peter Lynch: "I've always said if you spend 13 minutes a year on economics, you've wasted 10 minutes."However, I sat down and read this book in one sitting, and I'd love to send it to Mr. Lynch, as it might just be the exception that proves his rule.

As a companion piece, I'd suggest Warren Buffett's 2003 article in Fortune magazine that originates Buffett's proposal of Import Certificates as a way to correct trade imbalances.Taken together, there is plenty of food for thought.

Required reading
This is an excellent book and should be required reading for anyone who has even the faintest interest in economics and finance.It will give those who have not had the intellectual gumption to digest The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (which includes this reviewer and according to the author, Paul Samuelson)a reasonably clear picture of what Keynes was really trying to tell us. It also exposes some of the intellectual dishonesty that had pervaded economic theory in its quest to be considered a science. I will conclude this rant with the observation that this book is a fine counterpoise to all of the economic mumbo-jumbo we hear from most of our legislators as well as the majority of our CEOs

Disappointing
I found the book disappointing!

The book dismisses the "axioms" of the classical economics based on weak arguments and without discussing the theory and reasons behind them. For example it argues that Efficient Market Hypothesis is only valid when future is certain, or printing money by the central banks does not lead to inflation. The arguments of the book generally rely on the historical events rather then the science of Economics. The author frequently attacks economists like Alan Greenspan and Milton Friedman however he does not substantiate these attacks with enough evidence or theory. I event found the author's interpretation and representation of the Keynes ideas dubious and doubtful.

Comparison of two new Keynes books
The Keynes Solution by Paul Davidson and Keynes: The Return of the Master by Robert Skidelsky

These two new books re-introduce John Maynard Keynes to current policy makers dealing with the failure of de-regulated financial markets.They also introduce Keynes to a new generation and provide excellent background information on how Keynes' legacy is being re-applied in today's fiscal and monetary policies, stimulus plans and debates at the G-20 on how to reform global finance (see my own proposals at [...]).

Both Skidelsky and Davidson offer similar and excellent policy advice based on Keynes' concepts and proposals.Both authors call for a re-instating of an updated Glass-Steagall law to again separate "plain vanilla" retail banking still insured by FDIC to protect depositors and disallowing investment banks from participating in any government insured access to financial bailouts or subsidized credit from Treasury or the Federal Reserve.We at Ethical Markets have advocated this since 2008, along with the levying of a 1% financial transactions tax by G-20 agreement; a Financial Crisis Insurance Fund assed on all excessive risk-taking financial firms; a "too-big-to-bail" statute to allow for orderly break-up of oversized banks that pose systemic risk; banning credit default swaps not cleared on regulated exchanges, and other provisions to downsize overgrown financial sectors that have become predatory on the real economies of "Main Street."

Neither Skidelsky or Davidson go this far, although both cite the need to tame finance and its unregulated global casino unleashed on the world in the 1980s by US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.Neither author addresses the issues still outside most economic boxes: the devastation of the planet's ecosystems by 300 years of fossil-fueled extractive industrialization.The need is to internalize such devastation and social costs into prices, company balance sheets and national accounts.Nevertheless, both these books do shed light on the deficiencies of political reforms currently debated in Washington, London and other capitals of OECD and G-20 countries.Both authors offer ideas for restructuringand reforming global financial architecture but stop short of fundamental re-thinking of models of human development beyond economics and GDP-measured growth.Skidelsky is the deeper thinker and draws conclusions from Keynes' longer-term vision on how to break the hold of money-obsessed economic ideas of "progress."Skidelsky goes beyond Davidson's prescriptive policies and examines ethical and moral issues ignored by economics and calls for more inter-disciplinary approaches to social progress.Neither author touches on the pressing need to reform money-creation itself and the fractional reserve banking which turned money-creation over to private banks as backed only by debt on their loan books.The widespread movement to audit, reform and even fold the private US Federal Reserve System into the US Treasury are not mentioned by either author as proposed by the American Monetary Institute.Clearly, we must now move beyond Keynes, important as his reforms are, and re-integrate public policy using inter-disciplinary systems approaches that enfold, but go beyond economics - revealed again by both authors as a profession with few if any pretensions as science. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on research presented at The Harvard Business School’s first-ever conference on business approaches to poverty alleviation, Business Solutions for the Global Poor brings together perspectives from leading academics and corporate, non-profit and public sector managers. The contributors draw on practical and dynamic how-to insights from leading BOP ventures from more than twenty countries world-wide. This important volume reflects poverty’s multi-faceted nature and a broad range of actors—multinational and local businesses, entrepreneurs, civil society organizations and governments—that play a role in its alleviation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Tangible examples of success stories, challenges
This collection of articles comes from the 2005 "A Conference on Global Poverty: Business Solutions and Approaches" at the Harvard Business School. I've copied the Table of Contents below.

I was pleasantly surprised by several aspects of this collection. For one, the papers are relatively well written and easy to read, given the content area. Perhaps this comes from the business focus of the participants conference, where being succinct and clear is critical.

There is broad coverage of approaches by multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries. I don't see a lot of this in the writings on poverty alleviation--I see much more on microfinance--and so it was informative to see the various activities going on by MNCs. I have a sense that there's great potential for impact here because of the MNCs ability to scale and efficiently draw together resources.

I particularly like how several of these papers are based on case examples. In addition, I found the section on "Building the BOP Value Chain" to be especially insightful when thinking about how to scale social ventures for broader impact.

One more thing: several of the Powerpoint Presentations that go with articles in the book can be found online, if you search for this: hbs A Conference on Global Poverty: Business Solutions and Approaches.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: Just who are the poor?
1Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation Strategy for Women: Who Are the Customers?
2Understanding Consumers and Retailers at the Base of the Pyramid in Latin America
3Marketing Programs to Reach India's Underserved

PART 2: Meeting the Poor's Basic Needs
4Brcko and the Arizona Market
5Health Services for the Poor in Developing Countries: Private vs. Public vs. Private and Public
6Fighting AIDS, Fighting Poverty: Customer Centric Marketing in the Generic Antiretroviral Business
7Meeting Unmet Needs at the Base of the Pyramid: Mobile Healthcare for India's Poor
8Patrimonio Hoy: A Groundbreaking Corporate Program to Alleviate Mexico's Housing Crisis
9Energizing the Base of the Pyramid: Scaling-up Successful Business Models to Achieve Universal Electrification
10Utilities and the Poor: A Story from Colombia
11The Expansion of Public Services into Poor Areas: The Case of Piped Gas in Cuartel V - Moreno

PART 3: Building the BOP Value Chain
12MULTIAHORRO: Barrio Store
13Photography and the Low Income Classes in Brazil: A Case Study of Kodak
14The Complex Business of Serving the Poor: Insights from Unilever's Project Shakti in India
15Creating strong businesses by developing and leveraging the productive capacity of the poor
16ITC's e-Choupal: A Platform Strategy for Rural Transformation
17Nestlé's Milk District Model: Economic Development for a Value-Added Food Chain and Improved Nutrition

PART 4: BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP MODELS
18Building New Business Value Chains with Low Income Sectors in Latin America
19Developing Viable Business Models to Serve Low-Income Consumers: Lessons from the Philippines
20When Giants Discover the Disadvantaged: Managerial Challenges and Success Factors in Building Capacity to Serve Underserved Markets

Part 5: ROLE OF GOVT. AND CIVIL SOCIETY
21The Role of Financial Institutions in Revitalizing Low-Income Neighborhoods
22Houses for the Poor and New Business for Banks: The Creation of a Market for Affordable Housing
23The South African Financial Sector Charter: A Supplementary Market Framework to Achieve Affirmative Action
24How Social Entrepreneurs Enable Human, Social, and Economic Development
25Hybrid Value Chains: Social Innovations and the Development of the Small Farmer Irrigation Market in Mexico
26Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation in South Africa
27A Gentler Capitalism: Black Business Leadership in the New South Africa

PART 6: MEASURING SUCCESS
28Microfinance: Business, Profitability, and the Creation of Social Value
29Alleviating Global Poverty through Microfinance: Factors of Financial, Economic, and Social Performance
30Strong Double Bottom Line Banking
31H&R Block's Refund Anticipation Loans: Perilous Profits at the Bottom of the Pyramid?
32When is Doing Business with the Poor Good - for the Poor? A Household and National Income Accounting Approach

A collection with a story to tell
This work is a seamless compilation of information from the corners of the globe detailing innovative new approaches to the alleviation of global poverty through creative efforts in the private sector.Beyond useful and insightful facts and information, this book goes on to organize and present the knowledge in a framework that serves to effectively establish the context of global poverty and therefore the efforts to alleviate it.Because of this context-building framework, as a reference material, this volume is greater than the sum of its parts. ... Read more

Product Description
"The New Economic Diplomacy" explains how states conduct their external economic relations in the 21st century: how they make decisions domestically; how they negotiate internationally; and how these processes interact. It documents the transformation of economic diplomacy in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the end of the Cold War, the advance of globalisation and the growing influence of non-state actors like private business and civil society. Fully updated, the second edition reflects the impact of the campaign against terrorism, the war in Iraq and the rise of major developing countries like China and India.Based on the authors' own work in the field of international political economy, it is suitable for students interested in the decision making processes in foreign economic policy including those studying International Relations, Government, Politics and Economics but will also appeal to politicians, bureaucrats, business people, NGO activists, journalists and the informed public. ... Read more

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Why did the industrial revolution take place in eighteenth-century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? In this convincing new account Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows that in Britain wages were high and capital and energy cheap in comparison to other countries in Europe and Asia. As a result, the breakthrough technologies of the industrial revolution - the steam engine, the cotton mill, and the substitution of coal for wood in metal production - were uniquely profitable to invent and use in Britain. The high wage economy of pre-industrial Britain also fostered industrial development since more people could afford schooling and apprenticeships. It was only when British engineers made these new technologies more cost-effective during the nineteenth century that the industrial revolution would spread around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent, readable, and informative book
I picked up this book after reading a positive review of it in The Economist. They were completely right. The book was quite readable - with the exception of two chapters on the details of particular inventions - and altered my view of how the Industrial Revolution began. As an economics graduate, I wasn't daunted by some of the discussion, which did require some understanding of basic economic terms. For those who have no or little understanding of economics, if you had a handy dictionary (or google), the book is an easy ready.

For someone who had little formal study of the Industrial Revolution, it was an excellent book. I recommend it, despite that it can - as an economics book usually is - be dry.

good book
This book is a very nice look at why Britain had an industrial revolution.It is well-written and forcefully argued, although some points are sustained better than others.This is not an encyclopedic reference and Allen does not discuss other theories in enough depth to serve as an introductory textbook.If you know a fair bit about the IR then this is an interesting book advancing an interesting argument.

Fish or fowl?
The problem with Allen's latest production is that it is neither frankly a manual nor an academic work. If it is meant as the former, it is too argumentative, and if the latter it lacks proper supporting material.

Allen's argument is that the industrial revolution happened in Britain and could only happen there, because it had high wages and low energy costs, in the eighteenth century. The book models the labour savings of certain technological innovations to show that these were only worthwhile in Britain. Thus it says the spinning jenny could only make a positive return in Britain, not France or India. But as an example of its flawed assumptions, it supposes that the workers manning the jenny would only work part-time. Recalculating Allen's IRRs based on full-time work shows the jenny was just as worthwhile elsewhere. Indeed, the question is how Britain managed to flood France with cottons after signing the free-trade treaty of 1786, if French manual costs remained lower than British mechanised costs.

Allen also runs a regression-type model to explain the industrial revolution using different factors (government, energy costs, trade, enclosure) across different countries and sub-periods. But the factors are hand picked and the correlations certainly say nothing about causes. This all sounds rather futile. The last chapters are more interesting: on invention and the role of the Enlightenment, looking at a group of seventy major and less major inventors and their links with Enlightenment figures and institutions, as well as the role of broader cultural factors, such as interest in experimentation, belief in a Newtonian / mechanical world, and numeracy. If you have to read this book, I would advise checking the introduction and then skipping to that section.

Thoughtful; 4.5 Stars
This well written and well argued book is an analysis of why the Industrial Revolution began in Britain.Allen isolates 2 key factors; high labor costs and low energy costs.Compared to most other European countries, Holland excepted, and the rest of the world, Britain had relatively high wages.This provided a considerable incentive for investment in labor saving technologies.Britain was simultaneously well endowed with accessible coal and had developed a strong coal mining sector prior to the onset of the industrial revolution.Cheap energy allowed innovation in labor saving technologies that were crucial to the Industrial Revolution in steam power and iron production.In parallel and interacting was technological innovation in the first truly global industry - cotton textiles.These developments spurred the self-sustaining process of technological improvement and expansion that led to world-wide industrialization.This is essentially a theory of why Britain, among European countries, generated industrialization.Holland was another high wage economy but lacked coal deposits.Essentially all other European nations had lower wage regimes and relatively high energy costs. Allen argues that industrial innovation was seen in France but not in the key industries-technologies that led to the Industrial Revolution.Allen's arguments, buttressed by quite a bit of analysis of economic data, and even some modeling, are convincing.

Allen describes other features that were needed for industrialization.These include relatively high rates of literacy and numeracy, a scientific world view, significant agricultural innovation, and favorable political institutions.Largely implicit, and sometime explicit, in Allen's analysis is an explanation for why industrialization began in Europe as opposed to China or other parts of the world.Briefly, only Western Europe (Britain and Holland, actually) had high wage economies, only Europe had undergone the Scientific Revolution, and only Britain had a substantial coal industry.While not the primary focus of this book, Allen has some interesting analysis of how Western Europe developed the potential for industrialization.This is a highly contingent (path dependent in economic terminology) process with roots in the aftermath of the Black Death.Mercantilism and successful imperial expansion, large volume inter-european and international trade, the latter a produce of mercantilist-imperialist policies, the rationalist-scientific revolution, and unusually high literacy-numeracy rates, the last promoted in part by phenomena like the spread of Protestantism, all helped prepare the ground for industrialization.Allen's comment about Britain are particularly interesting.He tracks some aspects of the British industrialization all the way back to economic and demographic changes that followed the Black Death.Allen also looks at some of the other proposed explanations for the Industrial Revolution, such as some forms of "institutionalist" model and a libertarian model, and finds them lacking crucial support.

A good part of the book is a narrative and analysis of the development of crucial technological innovations likesteam engines, use of coke for iron production, and textile manufacture.He uses a useful analytical framework of macro-invention followed by continuous improvement.These are case studies to support his thesis and are interesting in their own right.Allen's discussion of why and how the Industrial Revolution spread outside of Britain is particularly interesting.He argues that the initial technologies were initially only economic in the high wage-cheap energy environment of Britain, and hence not easily transferable to other countries.In the early decades of the 19th century, however, continuous improvement of key technologies eventually made steam engines, iron ore production, etc., inexpensive enough to be economically viable in many nations.

There is one point where I think Allen may be incorrect.Allen disputes the conclusions of historians like Joel Mokyr and Margaret Jacob that differential dissemination of Newtonian ideas and attitudes was a key factor in British industrialization.Allen believes that the Scientific Revolution was a key precursor of the Industrial Revolution but that this was a pan-European phenomenon that doesn't explain why Britain led the way.He has an interesting discussion of linkages between industrial innovation and formal science in the 18th century.The key comparison with with the other high wage European nation,Holland.I'm not sure that Allen really rebuts Jacob's claim that Newtonian-modern scientific attitudes were more widely disseminated in Britain than Holland.If Jacob is correct, then Britain was doubly distinctive among European nations, underscoring the highly contingent sequence of events that led to industrialization.

The conclusion that the Industrial Revolution resulted from an unusually fortunate conjunction of events has interesting implications.It suggests that the norm for human civilizations is some form of durable Malthusian fluctuations, which is the way quite a few people view Chinese history.

Perspective from an engineer
Very interesting theme. Innovation flourishes when there is a societal need. But the competitive advantages disappear with subsequent technological improvements (interesting what this would mean for the 21st century). On the whole, the book is well worked out but it suffers from too many and sometimes too low quality graphs, to say nothing about the seventies style "computer programs".
The technology of the steam engines etcetera might have obtained some more attention. ... Read more

Product Description
Stay up to date with the current global financial crisis with a special revised edition of PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS, 6E, the popular text by accomplished economic expert John B. Taylor and co-author Akila Weerapana.As former Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and one of the most respected voices in economics, Taylor provides unique insights into today's issues. Updated graphs, figures, and popular learning features present the latest issues and data, including coverage of the Obama Administration.This clearly written text continues to offer concise yet thorough coverage of current economic theories with refreshing examples, engaging applications, and Aplia, the leading homework solution. Ensure your understanding of economic developments as they happen with PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS, 6E: GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS EDITION. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great for class.
As a student I find this book easy to read. It is clear, informative and does not use a plethora of examples to describe key points (something I find distracting), but rather highlights one example and uses it to describe multiple parts of economics. ... Read more

Product Description

This collection analyzes the potentials of the North East Indian economy, discussing ways in which it can be reconnected to the mainstream economic activities of India. Gauging through the historical factors responsible for the economic failure of the North East Region (NER)-the partition in 1947, weak infrastructure, lack of technological know-how, and poor access to marketing networks-it assesses the region’s production scenario at present.