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Recently, evolutionary theories of economic and technological change have attracted a considerable amount of attention which reflects the problems encountered by mainstream analysis of dynamic phenomena and quantitative change. This book, originally published in 1991, develops the debate and draws on the concepts of evolutionary biology, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, systems and organization theory. While recognizing that new technology is not the cause of quantitative change, the editors claim it should play a more central role in economic theory and policy. At the same time, the ground is laid for a more generalized concept of innovation and experimentation and their relation to routine activities. The book is intended for economists.

Contemporary Curaçao is a collection of 26 articles that covers topics ranging from history, economics, law, gender issues, and sustainability to art and culture.It presents a compact but thorough introduction to the island of Curaçao. All articles have been written by local academic experts.The book is an excellent tool for those who are in need of an overview of the island's historic and current issues.

PAPERsJOF THE WORLD TRADE CONFERENCE 1985 HELD IN AMSTERDAM ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AMSTERDAM ON 4,5, AND 6 SEPTEMBER 1985 Between the covers of this book the reader will find the papers presented at the World Trade Conference 1985, held on 4,5 and 6 September 1985. This conference was organized by the World Trade Center Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam and the Free University of Amsterdam on the occasion of the opening of the World Trade Center Amsterdam. The aim was to bring together businessmen, academics and policy makers in order to study pro blems of international trade and finance from a variety of viewpoints, sc. of those who are engaged in the cut and thrust of trade and finance, those who analyse it without being themselves involved, and those who regulate it. Hopefully this resulted in some useful cross­ fertilisation. The conference covered not only the whole globe, including the Japanese threat, the problems of the dollar, East-West trade, the Pacific Basin, barter trade etcetera, but also spanned a long historical period. The present and the future were examined, but also the past. The articles provide a round-up of what's going on in the field of international trade and finance. They cover a wide field, not remaining within the traditional boundaries of international economics. At the same time, the organizers strove to avoid shallowness.

For as long as one can remember, the edifice of the neoclassical economic syn­ thesis has been under attack. Critiques have focused on the extreme unreality of the assumptions that underpin the Arrow-Debreu theorems of welfare economics. They have queried the excessive formalism of the edifice, and the lack of practical significance of many of the results.They have castigated the neoclassical synthesis for its internal incoherence (lacking an independent theory of capital, for example, one of the favorite topics of the Cambridge school), its lack of a dynamic element, its non-evolutionary character, its lack of any conception of'market process'­ and so the list could be continued (Blaug, 1997). Through all this, the neoclassi­ cal synthesis remains as strong as ever, impervious it seems to these or any other attacks. In this paper a different tack is taken. The neoclassical edifice is left alone, standing as a representation of what goes on in a certain kind ofeconomy- namely the economy wheregoods and services are producedand exchanged. The paper then introduces another kind of economy, namely an economy of productive entities ­ called'resources'- that are needed to produce the economyofgoods and services.

Krisen und Konkurse sind Begleiterscheinungen der Wirtschaftsgeschichte - mit zum Teil weitreichenden Konsequenzen für Unternehmer, Mitarbeiter und die Volkswirtschaft. Ursachen und Folgen eines solchen ökonomischen Scheiterns werden hier aus wirtschafts-, sozial- und kulturhistorischer Perspektive in den Blick genommen. Dabei zeigt sich, wie falsche Marktausrichtung, Mängel in der Organisation oder individuelle Fehlleistungen zum Niedergang von Unternehmen, aber auch zum persönlichen Scheitern von Unternehmern führten. Dennoch ist das Scheitern nicht nur negativ zu sehen, etwa wenn eine Firma nach der Insolvenz von einem neuen Besitzer erfolgreich fortgeführt wird. Auch können persönliche Netzwerke den Absturz eines Unternehmens auffangen. Die Auseinandersetzung mit den Schattenseiten und dem fortwährenden Risiko wirtschaftlichen Handelns ermöglicht also ein umfassenderes Verständnis für ökonomische Prozesse und unternehmerisches Wirken.

Building on Richard Sennett's recent work this books tries to clarify the ethical significance of craftsmanship. According to Sennett, ‘learning to work well'is a deep source of personal meaning and of fruitful cooperation. Moreover provides the foundation of citizenship. Learning to master a craft is learning to be curious and patient, to focus on relationships and learn the skills of anticipation and revision, in a continual dialogue with material that resists ‘quick fixes'and turns the craftsman ‘outward'. In the contemporary search for practically relevant perspectives that point beyond the moral poverty of a market driven society, ‘the ethics of craftsmanship'thus offers an intriguing and fruitful perspective, worth of in depth exploration.

This book challenges the static, ahistorical models on which Economics continues to rely. These models presume that markets operate on a'frictionless'plane where abstract forces play out independent of their institutional and spatial contexts, and of the influences of the past. In reality, at any point in time exogenous factors are themselves outcomes of complex historical processes. They are shaped by institutional and spatial contexts, which are'carriers of history,'including past economic dynamics and market outcomes. To examine the connections between gradual, evolutionary change and more dramatic, revolutionary shifts the text takes on a wide array of historically salient economic questions—ranging from how formative, European encounters reconfigured the political economies of indigenous populations in Africa, the Americas, and Australia to how the rise and fall of the New Deal order reconfigured labor market institutions and outcomes in the twentieth century United States. These explorations are joined by a common focus on formative institutions, spatial structures, and market processes. Through historically informed economic analyses, contributors recognize the myriad interdependencies among these three frames, as well as their distinct logics and temporal rhythms.

Combining theoretical work with careful historical description and analysis of new data sources, History Matters makes a strong case for a more historical approach to economics, both by argument and by example. Seventeen original essays, written by distinguished economists and economic historians, use economic theory and historical cases to explore how and why'history matters.'The chapters, which range in subject matter from the economic theory of irreversible investment to the nineteenth-century decline in U.S. rural fertility to the English poor law reform, are unified by three themes. The first explores the significance, causes, and consequences of path dependence in the evolution of technology and institutions. The second relates to the ways in which economic and political behavior are profoundly shaped and constrained by the cultural and political context inherited from history at a particular point in time. The final theme demonstrates the importance of integrating economic theory into historical research in the gathering and interpretation of data.

Wirtschaftsbeziehungen sind Tauschbeziehungen und beruhen auf kulturell geprägten Regeln, die durch Werte oder Emotionen Verbindlichkeit gewinnen - etwa dadurch, dass die Partner sich vertrauen. Umso erstaunlicher, dass Wirtschafts- und Kulturgeschichte einander kaum zur Kenntnis nehmen. In diesem Band werden klassische Themen der Wirtschaftsgeschichte aus kulturgeschichtlicher Perspektive behandelt. Die Autorinnen und Autoren gehen davon aus, dass die Wirtschaft (von ökonomischen Theorien bis hin zur Managementkultur) von der Kultur beeinflusst wird. Zugleich wirkt die Ökonomie bis in das Alltagsleben der Menschen hinein. Die Ergebnisse des Bandes reichen von der Erkenntnis, wie wichtig etwa Vertrauen in der Wirtschaft ist, bis zur Entdeckung nationaler bzw. religiöser'Wirtschaftskulturen'und spezifischer Ausprägungen der Konsumgesellschaft. Beiträge u. a. von Christoph Conrad, Sebastian Conrad, Georg Elwert, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Martina Heßler, Dirk van Laak, Birger Priddat, Jakob Tanner, Adam Tooze, Frank Trentmann und Thomas Welskopp.

This book explores key economic problems and new policies for the global economy of the 21st century. The contributors discuss to what extent past policy errors were due to the incompetence of policymakers, and highlight problems including: international payments imbalances and currency crises, volatile security markets, inflation, achieving full employment, income distribution and alleviating individuals and nations of poverty. In particular, topics explored include: the development problem experienced by Brazil during the past two decades the desire of most developing nations to achieve an export-led growth strategythe constraint of balance-of-payments on Mexico's long-term economic growththe relationship between group division and levels of economic developmentdecreasing economic growth in the United Statesthe consideration of effective demand, and structural and technological changethe relationship between unemployment and profitability.The book presents a challenging set of arguments, and illustrates the many problems faced by decision makers in their attempt at policy making in the new global economy. It will be of special interest to academic economists, central bankers, government policymakers and those involved in financial markets.

In this book, based on the 1995 Ohlin Lectures, Deepak Lal provides an accessible, interdisciplinary account of the role of culture in shaping economic performance. Topics addressed include a possible future'clash of civilizations,'the role of Asian values in the East Asian economic miracle, the cultural versus economic causes of social decay in the West, and whether modernization leads to Westernization. Lal makes an important distinction between material and cosmological beliefs, showing how both were initially shaped by factor endowments and how they have evolved in response to changing historical pressures in different civilizations. Lal's first major theme is the interaction of factor endowments, culture, and politics in explaining modern intensive growth in the West. The other major theme is the role of individualism—an inadvertent legacy of the medieval Catholic Church—in promoting this growth, and the strange metamorphoses this has caused in both the West's cosmological beliefs and the interaction between'the West and the rest.'Lal takes account of the relevant literature in history, anthropology, social psychology, evolutionary biology, neurology, and sociology, and the economic history of the regions and cultures that form Eurasia. An appendix shows how the stories Lal tells can be described by four formal economic models.

Neo-classical economics is frequently criticised for paying inadequate attention to historical processes. However, it has proved easier to make broad claims that `history matters'than to theorise with any depth about the appropriate role for history in economic analysis. Historical Analysis in Economics considers what history can contribute to the science of economics: how would it matter if `history mattered?'

In the quarter century since Wallerstein first developed world systems theory (WST), scholars in a variety of disciplines have adopted the approach to explain intersocietal interaction on a grand scale. These essays bring to light archaeological data and analysis to show that many historic and prehistoric states lacked the mechanisms to dominate the distant (and in some cases, nearby) societies with which they interacted. Core/periphery exploitation needs to be demonstrated, not simply assumed, as the interdisciplinary dialogue which occurs in this volume demonstrates. World-Systems Theory in Practice will appeal to individuals with an interest in the application of WST in both the Old World and the New World. The papers in this volume reflect the vitality of the debate concerning the use of such generalizing theories and will be of interest to archeologists, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and those involved in the study of civilizations.

This volume provides a critical evaluation of Anna J. Schwartz's work and probes various facets of the immense contribution of her scholarship—How well has it stood the test of time? What critiques have been leveled against it? How has monetary research developed over the years, and how has her influence been manifested? Bordo has collected five conference papers presented by leading monetary scholars, discussants'comments, and closing remarks by Milton Friedman and Karl Brunner. Each of these insightful surveys extends Schwartz's work and makes its own contribution to the fields of monetary history, theory, and policy. The volume also contains a foreword by Martin Feldstein and a selected bibliography of publications by Anna Schwartz.