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The classics heavily influenced many aspects of European modern culture, yet it is not easy to trace their intellectual power on any author. In this volume, Gloria Vivenza takes on the impressive task of examining how philosophy, history, literature, politics, and ethics all played a part in shaping Adam Smith's thought as a scholar, philosopher, and economist.This book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the history of economic thought, the history of philosophy, moral philosophy, political theory, and the Enlightenment.

Globalization: A Key Idea for Business and Society analyzes today's process of global integration. Globalization is seen as a complex phenomenon, the drivers of which are of a technological, institutional, cultural and, not least, political nature.The book includes a historical analysis of the rise, and fall, of the “first globalization” wave which took place between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Great War. The chapters focus on the measurement of the global integration process, on the in-depth analysis of the above mentioned “drivers”, and on some of the actors playing a relevant role in the process itself – multinational companies and governments as owners of global companies. The conclusion of the book provides a perspective on the current “globalization backlash”, its determinants and possible future alternative scenarios.This book is an ideal resource for students and practitioners interested in past, present and future globalization.

Tracing the evolution of economic ideas in the context of the economic history and economic policy issues in Greece, this book examines the history of modern Greek economic thought from the War of Independence from Ottoman rule in 1821 until the present.The book explores how native, religious-oriented economic thought was secularized and merged with different economic discourses during successive historical periods. It traces how the dissemination of French and German economic thought in the 19th century was followed by British and US influences in the 20th century. The institutionalization of economics as a discipline in the 1920s and its internationalization after 1971, with their effects on the emergence of modern mainstream and heterodox thought, are also discussed. Finally, reference is made to contemporary Greek economic thought in the frame of European Union economic thinking.This book will be of interest to readers in the history of economic thought, economic history, intellectual history, Greek history, and modern European history more broadly.

Traditionally, there has been a long and sustained interest in studying the history of economic ideas in France. Interest appeared to wane after World War II, but in recent decades, there has been a marked renaissance of interest and research in the contributions of French-speaking authors. Drawing on the flow of recent research, this book presents a new assessment of the history of political economy in France incorporating both novel presentations of some traditional subjects and topics that are not usually studied.This first volume deals with the history of political economy in France in the Age of Enlightenment. After presenting a kind of “review of the troops” and some main developments inherited from preceding centuries, the chapters are devoted to P. de Boisguilbert's foundation of liberal political economy; J. Law's monetary theory and policy; the many strands of “commerce politique”; the theoretical developments of F. Quesnay and the physiocratic movement; and A.-R.-J. Turgot's, J.-J.-L. Graslin's and M.-J.-A.-N. Caritat de Condorcet's sensationist political economy. The volume then examines some political critiques of liberal political economy and goes on with a study of the first attempts to quantify economic variables and to formalise the economic discourse. It concludes with a chapter on the importance of translations into French of books published abroad, and with the main institutional and theoretical developments which happened during the French Revolution.A History of Economic Thought in France will be invaluable reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, intellectual history and French history.

Traditionally, there has been a long and sustained interest in studying the history of economic ideas in France. Interest appeared to wane after World War II, but in recent decades, there has been a marked renaissance of interest and research in the contributions of French-speaking authors. Drawing on the flow of recent research, this book presents a new assessment of the history of political economy in France incorporating both novel presentations of some traditional subjects and topics that are not usually studied.This second volume analyses the evolution of political economy during the long nineteenth century, combining an assessment of both liberals and their opponents. Its first part covers the most outstanding contributions to political economy in the age of industry, from the founding fathers (L.-C.-C. Destutt de Tracy and J. –B. Say) until the pre-World War I period, including that of A.-A. Cournot, J. Dupuit, the French liberal economists, and L. Walras. The volume then outlines the critiques of liberal political economy, focusing on the analyses of J.-C.L.S. de Sismondi, C.-H. de Saint-Simon and his followers, and the successive generations of socialist and associationist authors, not forgetting the sociological critique. A substantial postlude concludes the volume with a survey of recent developments of French economic thought up to the present day.A History of Economic Thought in France will be invaluable reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, intellectual history and French history.

Accounting for the Holocaust: Enabling the Final Solution reveals how accounting practices allowed the attempted annihilation of Jews by the German Nazis and the Italian Fascists to be carried out with machine-like efficiency and devoid of any moral considerations.This largely hidden aspect of the Holocaust will allow a wide range of readers, both academic and across many sectors of the general population, to understand how the systematic murder of more than six million Jews was expedited by accounting practices and the information that these produced by allowing the humanity of those killed to be denied when they became mere numbers in a process. Readers will gain a new understanding of how the enactment of the scale of the Holocaust was made possible by the way in which accounting practices as “technologies of death” were used to reduce Jews to a life without value. The numerical calculations, techniques, and reports that constitute accounting practices allowed the systematic murder of Jews to be drained of any considerations that would imply that the numbers and costings were related to prescient human beings. These technologies of death also allowed those who managed and organised the murder of Jews to absolve themselves of the actual killings.

In this case study book we present authentic case studies of selected mid-sized companies from Europe with market leading positions in a transformational context for management. Alle case studies have been elaborated on the basis of the integrated case method (ICM) in intense cooperation with the companies and the respective top management. This novel approach to case research and teaching has been developed throughout the EU funded ERASMUS+ project ECASA (European CAse Study Alliance). Case study learning and teaching offers students and lecturers a great opportunity for class discussions on prevailing topics. Case studies can be used for individual and group work. The structure of the cases allows lecturers to use it in different contexts regarding exercises and educational objectives. Case teaching provides an interactive and challenging environment, involving diverse perspectives and complex interdependencies that trigger thoughts and discussions about practical business challenges.

This book considers a central issue of our time: the relationship between the macroeconomic objectives of political parties in democratic countries and the legal framework of market economies. The impressive panel of contributors examines social-democratic policies on cartels, market concentration and competition in different European countries, spanning a hundred-year period (specifically the interwar period, the initial postwar period, the 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s and 1990s, and the 2000s).This thought-provoking volume challenges the dominant belief that the EU's economic system and competition policy were mainly influenced by neoliberal economic thinking, instead showing that Keynesian and social-democratic positions played a major role in the emergence of this system.It will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policymakers interested in modern economic history, industrial organization, political economy, European legal history and political science.

Arthur Spiethoff (1873–1957), an economist of the German Historical School of Economics, is best known for his theory of the business cycle. Despite Spiethoff calling for a unified reading of his work, his epistemological thinking has received less attention. This book addresses that gap by analysing Spiethoff's theory of the business cycle in the light of his epistemological views. Putting Spiethoff's work in context, the book also investigates the most significant features of the evolution of the “research programme” of the German Historical School of Economics, with particular reference to the relationships between Schmoller, Sombart, Weber and Spiethoff. In addition, Spiethoff's work is compared with some of the scientific orientations of the current debates: on the epistemological side, the book examines the relationship between Spiethoff's views and some contemporary thinking on scientific realism, as well as methodological pluralism in social sciences. And, more broadly, it emphasises the analytical relevance of the historical approach in explaining the economic imbalances of contemporary capitalism, questioning the idea, widespread in the neoclassical approach, that taking historical specificities into account makes it hard to achieve a theoretically effective attitude. This book is a significant addition to the literature on the German Historical School of Economics and the history of economic thought, business cycle theory and macroeconomics more broadly.

Microeconomic Principles and Problems offers a comprehensive introduction to all major perspectives in modern microeconomics, including mainstream and heterodox approaches. By providing multiple views of markets and how they work, readers will be better able to understand and analyze the complex behaviors of consumers, firms, and government officials, as well as the likely impact of a variety of economic events and policies.Most principles textbooks cover only mainstream economics and neglect the rich contextual analysis of heterodox economists. Heterodox material is presented as complementary to mainstream economics: understanding both approaches yields the deepest level of understanding. The book covers standard models, and includes substantial coverage of existing economic realities, featuring case studies and descriptive data. The book includes some coverage of all major heterodox schools of thought. This second edition incorporates new and expanded material on international trade (including disintegration and Brexit), climate issues and perspectives including degrowth, inter-temporal exchanges and games, non-market exchanges, trends in job opportunities, the rising cost of education, the gig economy, social media as an industry, and updated examples and cases. The book's suite of digital resources has also been revised to ensure examples and activities are relevant to each part of the book.Written in an engaging style focused on real-world examples, this groundbreaking book brings economics to life. It offers the most contemporary and complete package for any pluralist microeconomics class.

Questo volume raccoglie i saggi che Carlo M. Cipolla ha via via pubblicato tra il 1945 e il 1985, e trae il suo titolo dal saggio che – come è chiarito dallo stesso autore – meglio rappresenta il suo modo di intendere e vedere lo sviluppo dell'Europa occidentale dal X al XIX secolo (con riferimento alla rivoluzione comunale, a quella industriale e a quella scientifica). I tanti temi affrontati – tra i quali il declino dell'Italia e degli imperi, le professioni, le epidemie, la moneta, lo sviluppo demografico, le fluttuazioni economiche – inducono il lettore a riflettere sul processo che portò l'Europa al centro del mondo. Comune a tutti questi lavori è il gusto della chiarezza dell'esposizione e il rigore del ragionamento oltre alla sensibilità per il lato umano della storia economica.

With the rise of modern behavioural economics and increasing interest in subjective well-being research, the question of the relationship between economics and psychology has again been brought to the fore. Drawing on the history of economic thought, this book explores the historical relationship between the two disciplines. The book opens with a description of the primary philosophical foundations for early arguments supporting the interplay between economics and psychology. Both classical economists and other prominent pre-marginalists writers are examined in this context. The ensuing discussion explores the marginalist revolution and how well-known economists like Jevons and Edgeworth, influenced by pre-marginalist writers, incorporated ideas and findings from psychology. The book then describes how, following the so-called “Paretian turn”, early neoclassical economists attempted to expel psychological concepts from economic analysis. Combined with the increasing formalization, the influence of the classical physics scientific ideal, and the impact of positivism, this methodological stance became dominant in modern mainstream economics. In contrast, non-mainstream traditions continued to acknowledge the significance of psychology in their economic analysis. This tradition includes inter alia the so-called old behavioural economics, mainly of Herbert Simon and George Katona. The revival of psychology in economics came mainly with the emergence and development of new behavioural economics as a distinct branch during the last few decades. The trend was further assisted by the emergence of the economics of subjective well-being. Finally, the book briefly explores the state of the current debate concerning the relationship between economics and psychology. This book will be invaluable reading to anyone interested in the history of the study of economics and psychology, as well as of great interest to students and scholars of history of economic thought, psychological economics, behavioural economics and the history and philosophy of social sciences.

Economists measure the effects of immigration through the yardstick of income. This book offers a broad survey of the conventional approach but in addition, also considers better measures of welfare or well-being and provides a detailed description and evaluation of policies - rules, regulations and implementation. The book offers a long, historical perspective on the development of population density in the Netherlands. It begins with the history of the Netherlands: geological and cultural formation of the land - and water - and population development. The Netherlands is unique in that much of the land is man-made, in particular the western part, which is, economically speaking, the most developed area. It is also special for its very high population growth rate that took off during the 19th century. The key argument of the book is that population size is irrelevant for income per capita, that land is a binding constraint in the Netherlands and that negative external effects of increasing population size lead to welfare losses from further population growth, whether by natural growth or by immigration. At present, the battle for scarce land is intense and bitter, with a strong clash between developers who want to build houses, farmers who do not want to give up farming and conservationists who increasingly find support in the courts for insufficiently caring for the natural environment. The book combines a general analysis of population density, both theoretical and empirical, with an in-depth presentation of actual policies in a country with intense pressure on available land.

One may have various reasons for compiling a volume of papers devoted to and inspired by Walras and Pareto. Pareto succeeded Walras in 1893 on the chair of Political Economy at the University of Lausanne. The relation between the two was not always without tensions, although Pareto, on the occasion of his 25 years jubilee celebration, at least in part, transferred the honours offered to him to Walras. Indeed, one may say that to a substantial extent important parts of the works of Pareto would not have been possible without the insights of Walras. Both eminent scientists also have in common that the image of their inheritance professed to the common university trained economic scholars ('cutes') is a highly restricted caricature of the fullnes of their essential insights and contributions, and students of sociology or politicology may even finish their academic studies without ever having heard the name of Pareto. What cutes'know'about Walras amounts to the following caricature. Walras developed the general economic equilibrium model, but did not care about uniqueness and stability of an equilibrium. It is a model with exchange and production only and it assumes an auctioneer who announces price vectors to establish the equilibrium. The model presupposes perfect information and is static and certainly not dynamic. Walras had a bias towards free competition and laisser faire and neglected monopoly and taxation. Pareto is known by the cutes as the founding father of welfare economics. At best one is informed the notions of Pareto-optimality conditions and the first and second welfare theorems. But welfare economics is in general disappearing from the university research and teaching programs, replaced as it is by consumer and producer surpluses in the nowadays flourishing partial industrial economics programs. In this thought-provoking collection, ten international scholars offer reflections and new interpretations of Walras'andPareto's unique contributions to topics as broad as the over-arching important of the social sciences, the development of modern microeconomics and (in particular) econometrics, political economy and public choice, and political sociology. Their insights will be of particular interest to researchers and scholars of economic history, political sociology, and the social sciences.

First published in 1962. This volume is a collection of the papers from the Mercantile College that preserved as examples of the'accounts of many distinguished and eminent merchants deceased... who trod the Royal Exchange with supreme credit and dignity'. They bring together the commercial pride which was reached in the eighteenth century, before the challenge of industry and an economic interpretation based on its predominance brought its sobering influence to bear on'the great mercantile classes of England'.

This selection of readings demonstrates the use of both descriptive analysis and quantitative methods in the study of business records. The emphasis, however, is on the role of various quantitative approaches.Part I contains articles that consider a number of questions about the methods to be used and the aims of business history research. How is the subject to be defined? What types of analysis are most useful in research? In what ways can the findings of any research he used?Part II provides a number of examples of business history writing that demonstrate the results of a quantitative approach using both Primary and secondary source material. Some of the papers concentrate on the growth and performance of firms from various sectors of the economy. Some consider features of industrial structure. Others concentrate on techniques of marketing, personnel management and the assessment of profitability.Part III focuses on the techniques of manage meat that have been used to motivate or control the development of business activity. The studies include an analysis of the role of accounting data and other types of information, aids to forecasting, market analysis and the problems of risk and uncertainty in business decision making within various contexts.The editor has not only provided an introduction to the reprinted articles but he has also included, in Part IV, several special appendices useful for future research in business history. There is a section on allowing for changes in the unit of account. Another appendix deals with the merits and limitations of financial ratio analysis. An extensive bibliography is also provided. This authoritative text was first published in 1977.

This book of essays, which draws on the expertise of leading textile scholars in Britain and the United States, focuses on the problem of and responses to foreign competition in textiles from the late nineteenth century to the present day. A short introductory essay by the editor is followed by a survey of the debates surrounding the British cotton industry, foreign competition and competitive advantage. The other essays consider various aspects of that competition, including textile machine-making, Lancashire perceptions of the rise of Japan during the inter-war period and responses to foreign competition in the British cotton industry since 1945, whilst others deal with the decline and rise of merchanting in UK textiles and European competition in woollen yarn and cloth from 1870 to 1914. A recurring theme in a number of the essays is Japanese competitive advantage in textiles.The book is unique since although there are numerous books dealing with the problems of British staple industries, none focuses primarily on the issue of competition, its sources and responses, nor on textiles in general rather than a single industry. Moreover, since the scope is international rather than limited only to the UK, it follows recent trends in British busines history away from single company case studies towards a more thematic, comparative approach. In addition, the international authorship of these papers gives this book, first published in 1991, wide appeal.

This book presents a concise economic history of India from 1600 to the mobile economy of the twenty-first century. It examines political events, social history, and economic developments across the world through the years to showcase how India has navigated its economic past, present, and future, and shaped events that for years controlled the Indian economy.This volume covers a range of important themes, which include: Medieval fiscal systems, and the European surge in India The impact of the British Industrial Revolution on India; English interventionism and policies; the imperialistic economy and its impact Indian economy and nationalist movement in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century; the Great Depression and its global consequences Gandhiism and ‘mass nationalism'; Independence and Partition; the impact of the World Wars; the inter-war economy; the rise of the dollar, and other key global trends The Cold War and India Constitutional remedies, nation-building and industrial policies; food security, the Green Revolution, and the power politics of 1970s Liberalization, privatization, and globalization in the 1990s; and The economy of war and peace, India–China relations, and current trends in political economy The book offers a lucid and insightful narrative of how the economy unfolded in India. It will interest readers of Indian history, economic history, and South Asian history and other general readers.

Economista di formazione, Raffaele Mattioli resse dal 1933 al 1972 la Banca Commerciale Italiana, da lui salvata al tempo della Grande crisi e rilanciata verso una nuova espansione con criteri manageriali d'avanguardia. A partire da documenti, scritti e carteggi in gran parte inediti, Francesca Pino ne compone la biografia intellettuale, evidenziandone la grande capacità di stimolare lo sviluppo economico e civile dell'Italia, e di favorirne l'apertura internazionale. A emergere è il costante impegno sociale e culturale come un filo rosso che collega lo studente Raffaele Mattioli, attento a far propri gli insegnamenti di maestri quali Attilio Cabiati, Luigi Einaudi e Benedetto Croce, al convinto antifascista e promotore della vita economica e intellettuale del nostro paese.

This edited collection presents an economic history of Catalonia and its economic crises, from Roman times to the political difficulties of the present day. It considers how the strong identity of the Catalan people has been reinforced in critical episodes such as the commercial revolution of the Late Medieval Age, the 1640 rebellion, the Succession War of 1705-1714, the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the strong repression during early Francoism. The book also explores how historical parallels from Catalonia's past might shed light on the long-term consequences of the Great Recession of 2007-9 and recovery in the EU, showing how the typical Mediterranean approach of adjusting to crises by depreciating currencies and expanding public deficits has been less straightforward during the most recent financial crisis. A particularly deep slump has contributed to fostering the claim for independence of Catalonia in recent times, echoing larger dissatisfaction with EU monetary policy. With a comprehensive overview of major events in Catalonian economic history and their broader implications to European political economy and development, this book will be of interest to students and academics in economic history, social history, and monetary economics.

This book examines the development of social support systems in the Modern age in the rural areas of the city-states of Northern Italy. This investigation achieves two main purposes: first, it allows researchers to understand the role occupied concretely by welfare and micro-credit activities in the political and socio-economic panorama of rural Northern Italy; secondly, it verifies to what extent the formation of a more or less structured support system influenced the establishment of local identity and the rooting of individuals. The book brings together perspectives from different fields of research ranging from economic and political history to the study of the history of ecclesiastical institutions, as well as integrating recent research on the anthropological value of welfare actions and the use of multiple historical sources. It considers how the retreat of the welfare activity of the State, associated with a depopulation of the rural areas of the peninsula and a steady increase of poverty into social fringes that were previously not affected by economic problems, pushes us to investigate more carefully the dynamics that in the Ancien Régime gave shape to the support activities against indigence and poverty. This book will be of interest to academics and students working in economic history and social history.

This book offers a chronological account of the development of interest-bearing debt and how the issue of interest has been addressed throughout medieval and modern civilizations. It provides a review of the impact of these interest-bearing debt practices upon social relations and institutions, throughout the history of modern economics, observing the relative conditions of the time.The author asserts that the development of the concept of interest and debt can be traced through three historical periods. The first period covers measures from a more radical stance, as introduced by the Monotheistic religions, with the same foundations and principles at their core. The second period examines the arguments that justify interest-bearing debt and particularly how the stance of major religions has been translated into a basis of support for these transactions. And the final part offers a linear report of the development of interest-bearing debt and its disruptive impact throughout the history of economics from medieval times to the modern era. Initially, the book presents a conceptual framework of terms applicable to the discussions and then examines the consistency and reliability of the theological and philosophical arguments on the restrictions imposed upon the practice of interest and debt, including rigid prohibition. While the book is grounded in research that relies heavily on historical sources, it offers a contribution to the literature on economics as well, since the historical findings are analyzed in the context of economic terms and theories.An interdisciplinary effort, the book will attract the attention of those who have an interest in finance, economics, history, religion, and sociology.

The purpose of this book is three-fold. The first purpose is to posit that the fundamental substance of the universe is energy, and that energy is required (consumed) for any material transformation, or information transmission. The labor theory of value, articulated by the physiocrats and elaborated by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, J.B. Say and Karl Marx was a rough first approximation of the value creation process, in the 17th and 18th centuries, but is now obsolete. Labor is now (mostly) performed by machines, not by humans (or animals). The second aim of the book is to argue that the economy is a living (open) system -- an “island of order” –that exists far from both thermodynamic and economic equilibrium. Order is achieved by dissipating a flux of exergy. Economists frequently emphasize the equilibrium assumption, introduced originally by Leon Walras in 1854. But in reality, biological systems and human social systems are dissipative cycles, far from both thermodynamic equilibrium, and economic equilibrium, yet stable and capable of evolution, driven by the solar exergy flux. The third aim of the book is to re-emphasize, that – being open – the economic system cannot be regarded as a collection of individual competitive utility-maximizing transactions. There are, increasingly, important possibilities for cooperation instead of competition. Moreover third party effects, both “bads” (externalities) and the “public good” (happiness) – need to be incorporated into the socio-economic decision making process.

A modern reframing of Friedrich Hayek's most famous work for the 21st century. Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom was both an intellectual milestone and a source of political division, spurring fiery debates around capitalism and its discontents. In the ensuing discord, Hayek's true message was lost: liberalism is a thing to be protected above all else, and its alternatives are perilous. In Liberalism's Last Man, Vikash Yadav revives the core of Hayek's famed work to map today's primary political anxiety: the tenuous state of liberal meritocratic capitalism—particularly in North America, Europe, and Asia—in the face of strengthening political-capitalist powers like China, Vietnam, and Singapore. As open societies struggle to match the economic productivity of authoritarian-capitalist economies, the promises of a meritocracy fade; Yadav channels Hayek to articulate how liberalism's moral backbone is its greatest defense against repressive social structures.

An illuminating history of the Fed from its founding through the tumult of 2020. In The Federal Reserve: A New History, Robert L. Hetzel draws on more than forty years of experience as an economist in the central bank to trace the influences of the Fed on the American economy. Comparing periods in which the Fed stabilized the economy to those when it did the opposite, Hetzel tells the story of a century-long pursuit of monetary rules capable of providing for economic stability. Recast through this lens and enriched with archival materials, Hetzel's sweeping history offers a new understanding of the bank's watershed moments since 1913. This includes critical accounts of the Great Depression, the Great Inflation, and the Great Recession—including how these disastrous events could have been avoided. A critical volume for a critical moment in financial history, The Federal Reserve is an expert, sweeping account that promises to recast our understanding of the central bank in its second century.

This book contains detailed documentation of the CHINAGEM model - a large-scale dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China and its applications. Specifically, this book documents the theory and database behind the CHINAGEM model. This book explores the closure development for the four simulation modes of the model including historical, decomposition, forecast and policy simulations, the detailed explanation of how to analyze simulation results, and the extensions of CHINAGEM and their applications. These extensions include several innovative modules and case studies as examples of the application of CHINAGEM. This book provides an entry point for CGE modellers to develop their analytical skills. This book can also be used as a platform for research institutes to develop CGE models suitable for their research portfolio. The module developments included in this book are designed to capture the specific features of the Chinese economy. The applications of these modules chosen in the book cover hot policy issues in China, and the simulation results have valuable policy implications. This book identifies that the CHINAGEM model itself and all the extensions can be used for analysing many new topics and policy issues such as the effects of the USA–China trade war, the effects of Made in China 2025 Plan as well as China's commitment to the carbon neutrality before 2060 and its economic implications.

This book is the second of three volumes that uses the theory of Optimal Currency Areas (OCAs) and applied econometric techniques to provide the reader with a compact analysis of the Euro area, its evolution and future perspectives. Each volume of the series is dedicated to one of the three critical criteria for an OCA: 1) business cycle synchronization, 2) factor mobility and 3) the existence of a risk sharing system. This second volume deals with the criterion of factor mobility. The authors investigate and discuss whether there are signs of labor and capital mobility that have helped dampen economic shocks among the regions of the Euro during its short history. The book is of interest to a wide range of researchers in financial economics, macroeconomics and economic policy.

A fascinating and entertaining account of the lives of the most important economists of the past. Until the late nineteenth century, economics couldn't be studied at the university level; the field was the domain of well-educated figures whose radical curiosity drew them to a discipline that was little understood and often ridiculed. In the Long Run We're All Dead tells the story of one of those figures in each of its thirteen chapters. Each of these extraordinary lives is worthy of fiction, and the manner of their deaths, oddly, often illuminates their work. Björn Frank shows us how these economists developed the theories for which they became famous and explains those ideas—utilitarianism, social costs, the endowment effect, and others—with reference to the lives of their creators in an engaging, irreverent, even comic style. Frank also takes daring leaps into speculation, considering how the principles of these long-gone economists might be applied to problems of today and of the future.

Hier legt einer der führenden englischsprachigen Wirtschaftshistoriker beredt und pointiert seine Antwort auf die Frage vor, ob bzw. wie weit Kultur die Wirtschaft bestimmt oder umgekehrt von dieser bestimmt wird. Anhand zahlreicher anschaulicher Beispiele aus fünf Erdteilen und verschiedensten Zeitaltern stellt Jones, der selbst Lehrerfahrungen auf drei Kontinenten hat, einseitig kulturelle Erklärungen sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Verhaltens in Frage und arbeitet die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Kultur und wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung heraus. Seine Analyse der viel und teilweise angstvoll kritisierten (aber keineswegs neuartigen) Globalisierung zeigt, daß jahrhundertelanger wirtschaftlicher Wettbewerb dazu geführt hat, dass Kulturen zu weniger und größeren Einheiten verschmolzen. Das hatte kulturelle Veränderungen zur Folge, die regelmäßig wichtige soziale Weichenstellungen bewirkt haben. Heute gehen diese Veränderungen vor allem mit Hilfe der neuesten Kommunikationstechniken vor sich, die stärker als je zuvor auch in weniger entwickelten Ländern einen individuellen Zugang zu kultureller wie ökonomischer Information erlauben. Kultur ist für wirtschaftliche Ergebnisse entscheidend, doch reagieren Kulturen ihrerseits ständig auf die Kräfte des Marktes, oft freilich um eine Generation zeitverzögert. Langfristig jedoch, wie der Historiker Jones zeigen kann, sind Kulturen bemerkenswert formbar und anpassungsfähig. Sie sind wandlungsfähiger, als Nichtökonomen behaupten, und doch einflußreicher, als Ökonomen gewöhnlich zugeben.

Das Buch ist eine systematische Untersuchung des amerikanischen Wohlfahrtsstaats von seinen Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart und eine Darlegung der Ursachen und Folgen, die mit dem Wachstum des Wohlfahrtsstaats in den USA einhergehen. Der Autor zeigt, wie groß der amerikanische Wohlfahrtsstaat ist und wie er im Vergleich zu Wohlfahrtsstaaten anderer moderner Industriegesellschaften abschneidet. Zu diesem Zweck greift er auf Daten von OECD, OMD (Office of Management and Budget) und BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) zurück. Anhand der generierten Tabellen zeigt er, dass der amerikanische Wohlfahrtsstaat seit dem New Deal kontinuierlich wächst, und dies ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass Demokraten und Republikaner sich mehrfach an der Spitze abgelöst haben. Anschließend erörtert er die mit dem Wachstum verbundenen Probleme und die Rolle, welche Demokraten und Konservative in dieser Entwicklung spielen.

Management and labor have been adversaries in American and Canadian workplaces since the time of colonial settlement. Labor lacked full legal legitimacy in Canada and the United States until the mid-1930s and the passage of laws that granted collective bargaining rights and protection from dismissal due to union activity. The US National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) became the model for labor laws in both countries. Organized labor began to decline in the United States in the late 1960s due to a variety of factors including electoral politics, internal social and cultural differences, and economic change. Canadian unions fared better in comparison to their American counterparts, but still engaged in significant struggles.This analysis focuses on management and labor interaction in the United States and Canada from the 1930s to the turn of the second decade of the twenty-first century. It also includes a short overview of employer and worker interaction from the time of European colonization to the 1920s. The book addresses two overall questions: In what forms did management and labor conflict occur and how was labor-management interaction different between the two countries? It pays particular attention to key events and practices where the United States and Canada diverged when it came to labor-management conflict including labor law, electoral politics, social and economic change, and unionization patterns in the public and private sectors.This book shows that there were key points of convergence and divergence in the past between the United States and Canada that explain current differences in labor-management conflict and interaction in the two countries. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of management and labor history, employment and labor relations, and industrial relations.

Departing from the category of'peripheral socialism', this book offers an economic history of the Cuban revolution between 1959 and 2019, with a focus on the period that ranges between 2008 and 2018. The core of the research is the administration of Raúl Castro and the economic and social reforms introduced by it under the concept of socialism update. The book describes Cuba's recent economic policies and analyses the structure and dynamics of Cuba's economic changes, offering a panoramic view which can serve as an introduction to further more detailed analyses. The book also offers an interpretation of Cuba's socialism in light of the Latin American political economy of underdevelopment, so as to interpret Cuba's structural economic performance.The analytical background will enable readers to understand the contemporary crises in Cuba, with a balanced look at the triumphs and limits of its peripheral socialism. It will find an audience among scholars and researchers of economic development and history, macroeconomics, Latin American and Cuban Studies, Socialism Studies, and related areas. It will also be of interest to economists, politicians, diplomats, journalists, and NGOs.

Ever since the quest for independence between 1810 and 1819, economic thought in Colombia has been shaped by policy debates and characterized by a pragmatic and eclectic approach. Economic thought in Colombia can only be revealed through the exploration of economists'practices and the role of economic arguments within broader public debate. This history of Colombian economic thought provides a detailed account of major issues that have marked the constant feedback between economic ideas and economic practice in Colombia during the 19th and 20th centuries. This volume is thus a history of the interaction between ideas and policy. Those involved in these debates – politicians, public officials, journalists, and, latterly, professional economists – established direct contact with what can be identified as the centers of production of economic theory (both in Europe and the US) and entered regional and local networks in economics, but were not just importers of ideas or theories. The way in which they read, discussed, transformed and applied economic theories in Colombia makes for a rich environment for the production and implementation of economic policies that drew, diverged and transformed the way economics was understood and used as a source of knowledge for practical concerns. This is why the history of Colombian economic thought does not fit into traditional typologies of economic schools and why it must be understood as part of a political debate and within a political, social and cultural context that demanded specific solutions to urgent social demands. Through the study of what was taught, when and how, at the beginnings of the republican era, and why and how professional economists came to lead public debate and economic policy making in the 20th century, this book explores the foundations of this permanent interaction between theory and practice. This book will be of significant interest to readers of history of economic thought, economic history and the history of Colombian and Latin American economic, political and social life more broadly.

The theory of interventionism of the Austrian School of Economics explains the successes and failures of the transformation processes in Central and Eastern European countries and offers a deep insight into contemporary economic phenomena. Three decades have passed since the collapse of communism that precipitated the economic transformation of these countries. This book describes the Austrian view of socialism and in such a context explains the transformational success of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, it shows that the theory of interventionism has not lost its relevance, and the theory itself—along with its modifications—may be used to explain current economic events.The book is divided into four sections. The first part presents the Austrian perspective on socialism; the second discusses a new approach to the Austrian theory of interventionism, suggesting that the theory should be revised and that its scope should be extended beyond the transformation of the 1990s into the realm of contemporary economic reality; the third part is oriented towards pragmatic considerations, whereby the authors employ the Austrian perspective to analyze specific factors that, according to their view, had an impact on the transformational success of post-communist countries; while the final part is ideological and philosophical in character. Here the authors search for certain principia that govern broadly understood social and economic transformations.The book is addressed to those interested in the Austrian School of Economics and the political transformation of the 1990s, as well as those who wish to understand contemporary economic trends.

The surprising story of how declining marriage rates are driving many of the country's biggest economic problems. In The Two-Parent Privilege, Melissa S. Kearney makes a provocative, data-driven case for marriage by showing how the institution's decline has led to a host of economic woes—problems that have fractured American society and rendered vulnerable populations even more vulnerable. Eschewing the religious and values-based arguments that have long dominated this conversation, Kearney shows how the greatest impacts of marriage are, in fact, economic: when two adults marry, their economic and household lives improve, offering a host of benefits not only for the married adults but for their children. Studies show that these effects are today starker, and more unevenly distributed, than ever before. Kearney examines the underlying causes of the marriage decline in the US and draws lessons for how the US can reverse this trend to ensure the country's future prosperity. Based on more than a decade of economic research, including her original work, Kearney shows that a household that includes two married parents—holding steady among upper-class adults, increasingly rare among most everyone else—functions as an economic vehicle that advantages some children over others. As these trends of marriage and class continue, the compounding effects on inequality and opportunity grow increasingly dire. Their effects include not just children's behavioral and educational outcomes, but a surprisingly devastating effect on adult men, whose role in the workforce and society appears intractably damaged by the emerging economics of America's new social norms. For many, the two-parent home may be an old-fashioned symbol of the idyllic American dream. But The Two-Parent Privilege makes it clear that marriage, for all its challenges and faults, may be our best path to a more equitable future. By confronting the critical role that family makeup plays in shaping children's lives and futures, Kearney offers a critical assessment of what a decline in marriage means for an economy and a society—and what we must do to change course.

Dieser informative und unterhaltsame Parforceritt durch die Steuergeschichte zeigt, wie sehr Steuern und Zwangsabgaben seit jeher Geschichte mitschrieben: Oft waren Steuerproteste Keimzellen von Aufständen, Revolutionen und Staatsgründungen. Im 16. Jahrhundert erschütterten die Bauernkriege Europa, im 18. Jahrhundert führten freiheitsliebende Steuerrebellen mit der Bostoner Tea Party zur Unabhängigkeit der USA. Nicht zuletzt entsprang die Französische Revolution 1789 in weiten Teilen dem Hass gegen das Steuergebaren des Ancien Regime. Parallel hat sich das historisch gewachsene deutsche Steuerrecht bis heute zu einem'Dämon'entwickelt, den niemand mehr im Griff zu haben scheint. Es ist undurchschaubar, verwirrend, widersprüchlich und wird insbesondere vom sogenannten kleinen Mann als ungerecht, geradezu als Raubrittertum empfunden. Kein Wunder, denn bis zur Mitte eines jeden Jahres arbeitet der deutsche Arbeitnehmer allein für den Fiskus. Und greift daher oft zur Selbsthilfe: Steuerumgehung, Steuerflucht und Schattenwirtschaft, Steuerhinterziehung und Subventionsbetrug sind hierzulande geradezu zum Volkssport geworden. Als historisch motiviertes Plädoyer nimmt auch die 3., durchgesehene Auflage Anliegen und Schlachtruf der gebeutelten Steuerzahler wieder auf: Bürger, schlagt der vielköpfigen Hydra die Köpfe ab und engagiert euch für ein Steuerrecht, das „einfach, niedrig und gerecht“ ist!

La storia dell'industria aeronautica italiana ha un inizio precoce e un andamento discontinuo. La Prima guerra mondiale fu un'occasione di sviluppo e di emancipazione dalla dipendenza estera: senza i numerosi pionieri e visionari che si lanciarono con entusiasmo in questo settore, come Gianni Caproni, l'industria aeronautica italiana non avrebbe raggiunto gli incredibili risultati che ottenne; ma senza il costante sostegno dello stato sarebbe stata una storia di breve durata. Nel periodo delle due guerre, il Gruppo Caproni crebbe fino a diventare uno dei maggiori produttori italiani; tuttavia, all'indomani della Seconda guerra mondiale fallì insieme alla maggior parte delle industrie aeronautiche. Il divieto di costruire aeromobili previsto dal Trattato di pace, la preferenza per l'importazione di aerei alleati e la negazione dell'assistenza internazionale furono i costi politici ed economici della sconfitta. Dai primi dirigibili all'entrata in guerra, dalla crisi all'indomani del conflitto fino a Finmeccanica e alla nascita di Leonardo: una storia economica, sociale e politica ancora non conclusa.

Sonderwirtschaftszonen gelten als entwicklungsökonomisches Zauberinstrument. Als'Inseln der Moderne'sollen sie Arbeitsplätze schaffen, Wachstum generieren und Verwaltungsstrukturen revolutionieren. Insbesondere im Globalen Süden hat dieses Versprechen zu einer regelrechten Explosion der Zahl von Sonderwirtschaftszonen geführt. Maxim Bönnemann bettet den Siegeszug der Sonderwirtschaftszone in eine entwicklungsökonomische Diskursgeschichte ein und zeigt am Beispiel Indiens die zentrale Rolle des Rechts auf. Waren Indiens Zonen zunächst noch mit einem ebenso vagen wie allgemeinen Entwicklungsversprechen behaftet, so führte ihre sprunghafte Verbreitung schnell zu schwerwiegenden Verteilungs- und Institutionenkonflikten, in denen ganz unterschiedliche Visionen von Entwicklung miteinander kollidierten. Jene Konflikte sind durch Indiens ambivalenten Charakter als postkolonialer Verfassungsstaat sowohl befeuert als auch entschärft worden. Denn dem indischen Verfassungsstaat wohnt nicht nur der lange Schatten des Kolonialismus inne, sondern auch die Aussicht auf eine tiefgreifende demokratische und soziale Transformation. Die Arbeit wurde mit dem Promotionspreis 2022 (Öffentliches Recht) der Juristischen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin ausgezeichnet.

Die Frage nach der Überlebensfähigkeit von Unternehmen in schwierigen Zeiten ist spätestens seit der Finanzkrise in den Jahren nach 2007 hochaktuell, doch trat dieses Problem auch in der Geschichte auf, wenn Zeiten bedeutender wirtschaftlicher, politischer und gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche neuartige Herausforderungen an Unternehmen stellten. Dies war während des Kommerzialisierungsprozesses im langen 16. Jahrhundert der Fall, als im Rahmen der Europäischen Expansion die quantitative Ausdehnung des Handels nach Wert, Produkten und Volumen einherging mit neuen logistischen und finanziellen Herausforderungen. Den daraus resultierenden Gefahren und Risiken, die die Vulnerabilität von Familienhandelsgesellschaften verstärken konnten, begegneten die Kaufmanns-Bankiers in vielen Fällen mit einem bewussten Resilienz-Management, d.h. mit strategischen organisatorischen und unternehmerischen Maßnahmen, die die Adaptationsfähigkeit ihrer Familienhandelsgesellschaften an sich verändernde Rahmenbedingungen verbesserten und dadurch deren Krisenfestigkeit erhöhten. Das Buch analysiert die dahinterstehenden Prozesse und Faktoren anhand ausgewählter Fallbeispiele aus der oberdeutschen Hochfinanz des 16. Jahrhunderts in ihrer Bedeutung für unternehmerischen Erfolg. Zugleich wird aber auch unternehmerisches Scheitern in den Blick genommen und als eine Folge von nicht oder nur mangelhaft erfolgtem Resilienz-Management interpretiert. Darüber hinaus werden wesentliche Grundlagen des innovativen Forschungsparadigmas ‚Resilienz‘ im Zusammenhang mit Vulnerabilität und Disruption aus historischer und ökonomischer Perspektive erörtert.

An urgent and galvanizing argument for an Economic Bill of Rights—and its potential to confer true freedom on all Americans. Since the Founding, Americans have debated the true meaning of freedom. For some, freedom meant the provision of life's necessities, those basic conditions for the “pursuit of happiness.” For others, freedom meant the civil and political rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights and unfettered access to the marketplace—nothing more. As Mark Paul explains, the latter interpretation—thanks in large part to a particularly influential cadre of economists—has all but won out among policymakers, with dire repercussions for American society: rampant inequality, endemic poverty, and an economy built to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In this book, Paul shows how economic rights—rights to necessities like housing, employment, and health care—have been a part of the American conversation since the Revolutionary War and were a cornerstone of both the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement. Their recuperation, he argues, would at long last make good on the promise of America's founding documents. By drawing on FDR's proposed Economic Bill of Rights, Paul outlines a comprehensive policy program to achieve a more capacious and enduring version of American freedom. Among the rights he enumerates are the right to a good job, the right to an education, the right to banking and financial services, and the right to a healthy environment. Replete with discussions of some of today's most influential policy ideas—from Medicare for All to a federal job guarantee to the Green New Deal—The Ends of Freedom is a timely and urgent call to reclaim the idea of freedom from its captors on the political right—to ground America's next era in the country's progressive history and carve a path toward a more economically dynamic and equitable nation.

Non soltanto in Ucraina: ovunque nel mondo si stanno riaccendendo conflitti sopiti, tutti segnali di un problema strutturale imputabile alla fase finale di un sistema economico e geopolitico costituitosi dopo il 1989. Oggi è in discussione il modello a guida statunitense. Lo scontro è tra l'asse occidentale diretto dagli USA, che vuole perseverare con l'attuale ordine mondiale, e il multilateralismo sostenuto da Cina e Russia. Il punto di rottura o d'incontro che determinerà il futuro delle relazioni internazionali è determinato proprio da queste due alternative: l'accettazione di un mondo multipolare da parte degli USA o l'intenzione di mantenere un ordine unipolare. Le guerre che si stanno riaccendendo in ogni quadrante sono un sintomo evidente di tale violenta contrapposizione. Papa Francesco ha definito tali conflitti diffusi “Terza guerra mondiale a pezzi”; preannunciano un'imminente resa dei conti che è indispensabile scongiurare.

While dating from post-Classical economists such as Thorstein Veblen and Joseph Schumpeter, the inception of the modern field of evolutionary economics is usually dated to the early 1980s. Broadly speaking, evolutionary economics sees the economy as undergoing continual, evolutionary change. Evolutionary change indicates that these changes were not planned, but rather were the result of innovations and selection processes. These often involved winners and losers, but most importantly, they resulted in actors learning what was and was not working.Evolutionary economics, in contrast to mainstream economics, emphasises the relevance of variables such as technology, institutions, decision rules, routines, or consumer preferences for explaining the complex evolutionary changes in the economy. In so doing, evolutionary economics significantly broadens the scope of economic analysis, and sheds new light on key concepts and issues of the discipline.This handbook draws on a stellar cast list of international contributors, ranging from the founders of the field to the newest voices. The volume explores the current state of the art in the field of evolutionary economics at the levels of the micro (e.g. firms and households), meso (e.g. industries and institutions), and macro (e.g. economic policy, structure, and growth).Overall, the Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics provides an excellent overview of current trends and issues in this rapidly developing field.

Der 1974 mit dem Nobelpreis ausgezeichnete Ökonom und Sozialphilosoph Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) gilt weithin als einer der bedeutendsten Denker des Liberalismus im 20. Jahrhundert. Von Beiträgen zur ökonomischen Theorie ausgehend wandte er sich später den Fragen nach der'Verfassung der Freiheit'und der evolutorischen Entstehung von Institutionen als Grundlage für eine freiheitliche Ordnung zu. Der vorliegende Band stellt diejenigen Arbeiten Hayeks in den Vordergrund, die seine liberalen Positionen zur Ordnung des Geldwesens und zur Frage der Vermeidbarkeit von Konjunkturen und Krisen begründen. Dieser Band enthält sowohl die zwei grundlegenden frühen Monographien Hayeks, Geldtheorie und Konjunkturtheorie (1929) und Preise und Produktion (1931), als auch spätere weiterführende Beiträge, in denen er sich mit Kritik auseinandersetzt und seine Analyse durch den sog.'Ricardo-Effekt'erweitert. Allen diesen Arbeiten gemeinsam ist die Identifikation von Inflation als der Ursache einer künstlichen Wirtschaftsbelebung, die unvermeidlich in die Krise führen muss, und daraus abgeleitet die weitgehende Ablehnung expansiver geld- und finanzpolitischer Maßnahmen zur Krisenbekämpfung. Von allem Anfang an sieht sich Hayek demgemäß als prononcierten Gegner des theoretischen Ansatzes einer'Makroökonomik'und insbesondere des Keynesianismus als wirtschaftspolitischem Programm.

Der 1974 mit dem Nobelpreis ausgezeichnete Ökonom und Sozialphilosoph Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) gilt weithin als einer der bedeutendsten Denker des Liberalismus im 20. Jahrhundert. Von Beiträgen zur ökonomischen Theorie ausgehend wandte er sich später den Fragen nach der'Verfassung der Freiheit'und der evolutorischen Entstehung von Institutionen als Grundlage für eine freiheitliche Ordnung zu. Der vorliegende Band befasst sich mit dem Ausgangspunkt dieser Entwicklung und zeigt Hayek auf dem Weg zur Herausarbeitung seiner liberalen Positionen. Der Band enthält (als erster von zwei diesem Themenbereich gewidmeten Bänden) die frühen und unveröffentlichten Schriften aus den 1920er und den frühen 1930er Jahren. Einen Schwerpunkt bildet die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der amerikanischen Geldpolitik nach 1918, in der Hayek bereits erste Keime jener künstlich hervorgebrachten Hochkonjunktur sah, die notwendig zur Krise führen müsse. Daneben stehen Beiträge zum Stellenwert der Konjunkturforschung und bereits auf seine spätere Keynesianismus-Kritik vorausweisend die Ablehnung einer Unterkonsumtionstheorie der Krise und der darauf basierenden Krisenpolitik durch Schaffung von Kaufkraft. Darüber hinaus werden auch zwei unvollendet gebliebene Buchmanuskripte erstmals abgedruckt, die ersten Kapitel der noch vor den geld- und konjunkturtheoretischen Hauptwerken entstandenen'Geldtheoretischen Untersuchungen'und die Abschnitte zur'Geschichte des Geldwesens'aus einem für den'Grundriß der Sozialökonomik'geplanten Band über Geld und Kredit.

A sweeping intellectual history of the welfare state's policy-in-waiting. The idea of a government paying its citizens to keep them out of poverty—now known as basic income—is hardly new. Often dated as far back as ancient Rome, basic income's modern conception truly emerged in the late nineteenth century. Yet as one of today's most controversial proposals, it draws supporters from across the political spectrum. In this eye-opening work, Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora Vargas trace basic income from its rise in American and British policy debates following periods of economic tumult to its modern relationship with technopopulist figures in Silicon Valley. They chronicle how the idea first arose in the United States and Europe as a market-friendly alternative to the postwar welfare state and how interest in the policy has grown in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis and COVID-19 crash. An incisive, comprehensive history, Welfare for Markets tells the story of how a fringe idea conceived in economics seminars went global, revealing the most significant shift in political culture since the end of the Cold War.

The University of Cambridge has produced more Nobel Prize-winning economists than the whole of France. This impressive book collects together largely unpublished correspondence from some of the twentieth century's key figures including Keynes, Robinson, Hayek and Sraffa.

Silicon Valley is the most salient example of high-tech industrial clusters. Public policymakersthroughouttheworldwouldliketolearnthesecretsofSiliconValley in order to build their own high-tech economies. The existing literature on ind- trial clusters, which traces back to Marshall (1920), focuses on the way in which?rms bene?t from locating in a cluster; it suggests that once a cluster comes into existence, it tends to reinforce itself by attracting more?rms. However, a more important question is how to reach this critical mass in the?rst place. In contrast to the literature, evidence suggests that entrepreneurs rarely move when they est- lish high-tech start-ups (Cooper and Folta, 2000). This contradicts the notion that location choice analyses lead entrepreneurs to a high-tech cluster. A high-tech industrial cluster such as Silicon Valley is characterized by c- centratedentrepreneurship. FollowingSchumpeter,weemphasizethefactthat“the appearance of one or a few entrepreneurs facilitates the appearance of others” (Schumpeter,1934). Weproposeanagent-basedcomputationalmodeltoshowhow high-tech industrial clusters could emerge in a landscape in which no?rms existed originally. The model is essentially a spatial version of the Nelson-Winter model: Boundedly rational agents are scattered over an explicitly de?ned landscape. Each agent is endowed with some technology, which determines his?rm's productivity (if he has one). During each period of time, an agent with no?rm would make a decision as to whether he wants to start one. This decision is mostly affected by the behavior of his social contacts, who are all his neighbors.

This book outlines the origins of Danish Capitalism and prosperity, from a poor and devastated minor state in the 19th century to a consolidated universal mixed economy welfare state at the end of the 20th century. The book argues that firm-based innovation drove Danish prosperity and redistributive capacity. It is a comprehensive but manageable examination of the institutions and choices that shaped a highly innovative and wealthy nation. The book relies on history and economic theory, presents commonly accepted narratives and theories, and contributes new explanations. Therefore, the book also traces both antecedents and the current state of 20th-century capitalism in Denmark and particular outcomes and critical institutions such as firm age, the labor market, and pension schemes. The book will be of interest to academics in business history and economic policy, as well as policymakers and all those interested in mixed economy studies.

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year'A must-read, with key lessons for the future.'—Thomas Piketty A groundbreaking examination of austerity's dark intellectual origins. For more than a century, governments facing financial crisis have resorted to the economic policies of austerity—cuts to wages, fiscal spending, and public benefits—as a path to solvency. While these policies have been successful in appeasing creditors, they've had devastating effects on social and economic welfare in countries all over the world. Today, as austerity remains a favored policy among troubled states, an important question remains: What if solvency was never really the goal? In The Capital Order, political economist Clara E. Mattei explores the intellectual origins of austerity to uncover its originating motives: the protection of capital—and indeed capitalism—in times of social upheaval from below. Mattei traces modern austerity to its origins in interwar Britain and Italy, revealing how the threat of working-class power in the years after World War I animated a set of top-down economic policies that elevated owners, smothered workers, and imposed a rigid economic hierarchy across their societies. Where these policies “succeeded,” relatively speaking, was in their enrichment of certain parties, including employers and foreign trade interests, who accumulated power and capital at the expense of labor. Here, Mattei argues, is where the true value of austerity can be observed: its insulation of entrenched privilege and its elimination of all alternatives to capitalism. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, much of it translated for the first time, The Capital Order offers a damning and essential new account of the rise of austerity—and of modern economics—at the levers of contemporary political power.

Una montagna pronta a crollare con inenarrabili danni: così molti immaginano il debito pubblico o meglio la sua eccessiva dimensione. Si tende a demonizzarlo, senza tener conto di altri aspetti. Per darne conto, il volume ricostruisce l'evoluzione del debito pubblico tra Medioevo ed Età Contemporanea. In questo quadro emerge come in realtà abbia svolto una funzione spesso propulsiva in vari settori della vita; in particolare ha consentito uno sviluppo capace di migliorare le condizioni materiali e di sicurezza della popolazione. Il denaro preso a prestito è servito a costruire infrastrutture viarie, industriali e sanitarie, a finanziare conflitti ma anche a garantire l'alimentazione e il sostegno di segmenti fragili della popolazione, ad ampliare il patrimonio artistico e a concedere qualche svago a chi non se lo sarebbe potuto permettere.