Collected Papers In Theoretical Economics Volume V Economic Policy And Its Theoretical Bases

Effective policymaking is based on economics which is a blend of empiricism as well as theory. It needs to be grounded not only in data, statistics, and the regularities observed therein, but also analytics, deductive reasoning, and logic, which are the constituents of theory. Published during 2009–16, the seven years that Basu spent as a policymaker—first as chief economic adviser to the Government of India and then as chief economist of the World Bank—this volume draws on the work done by empirical economists and is rooted in analytics, even while addressing practical, down-to-earth problems. The papers having a direct bearing on economic policymaking in this quintessential compilation range from topics such as financial regulation, global policy coordination, aspects of the Indian economy like fiscal and monetary policy design, inflation management, food-grain policy and, more generally, the influence of theory on government policymaking. The volume addresses some of the most compelling challenges of our times, from the global financial crisis and sub-prime mortgage breakdown to corruption control and the design of interventions to provide subsidized food to the disadvantaged segments of society.

This volume collects published papers and essays from widely scattered and inaccessible sources, some of which appeared for the first time when this book was originally published. In the first part of the book the subjects range from the theory of wages and recent trends in economic theory to economists’ criticism of capitalism and socialism, investment-policy in under-developed countries, and economic growth under the Soviet Five Year Plans. The second part includes papers on Lenin and Marx, a study of the economic ideas of Bernard Shaw, and an essay on historical materialism.

Rothbards great treatise and its complementary text are now combined into a single 4.5"x7" pocket edition. The full 1,500 page treatise in an easy to read and super convenient package. It might not seem possible but it is done and it works. It makes a great companion volume to Misess Human Action in pocket size, as well as the Bastiat Collection in pocket size. Murray N. Rothbards great treatise provides a sweeping presentation of Austrian economic theory, a reconstruction of many aspects of that theory, a rigorous criticism of alternative schools, and an inspiring look at a science of liberty that concerns nearly everything and should concern everyone. This edition takes this book out of the category of underground classic and raises it up to its proper status as one of the great economic treatises of all time, a book that is essential for anyone seeking a robust economic education. The captivating new introduction by Professor Joseph Salerno that frames up the Rothbardian contribution in a completely new way, and reassesses the place of this book in the history of economic thought. In Salernos view, Rothbard was not attempting to write a distinctively "Austrian" book but rather a comprehensive treatise on economics that eschewed the Keynesian and positivist corruptions. This is what accounts for its extraordinarily logical structure and depth. That it would later be called Austrian is only due to the long-lasting nature of the corruptions of economics that Rothbard tried to correct. Students have used this book for decades as the intellectual foil for what they have been required to learning from conventional economics classes. In many ways, it has built the Austrian school in the generation that followed Mises. It was Rothbard who polished the Austrian contribution to theory and wove it together with a full-scale philosophy of political ethics that inspired the generation of the Austrian revival, and continues to fuel its growth and development today. From Rothbard, we learn that economics is the science that deals with the rise and fall of civilization, the advancement and retrenchment of human development, the feeding and healing of the multitudes, and the question of whether human affairs are dominated by cooperation or violence. Economics in Rothbards wonderful book emerges as the beautiful logic of that underlies human action in a world of scarcity, the lens on how exchange makes it possible for people to cooperate toward their mutual betterment. We see how money facilitates this, and allows for calculation over time that permits capital to expand and investment to take place. We see how entrepreneurship, based on real judgments and risk taking, is the driving force of the market. Whats striking is how this remarkable book has lived in the shadows for so long. It began as a guide to Human Action, and it swelled into a treatise in its own right. Rothbard worked many years on the book, even as he was completing his PhD at Columbia University. He realized better than anyone else that Misess economic theories were so important that they needed restatement and interpretation. But he also knew that Misesian theory needed elaboration, expansion, and application in a variety of areas. The result was much more: a rigorous but accessible defense of the whole theory of the market economy, from its very foundations. But the publisher decided to cut the last part of the book, a part that appeared years later as Power and Market. This is the section that applies the theory presented in the first 1,000 pages to matters of government intervention. Issue by issue, the book refutes the case for taxation, the welfare state, regulation, economic planning, and all forms of socialism, large and small. It remains an incredibly fruitful assembly of vigorous argumentation and evidence. A major advantage of Man, Economy, and State, in addition to its systematic presentation, is that it is written in the clearest English you will find anywhere in the economics literature. The jargon is kept to a minimum. The prose is crystalline and vigorous. The examples are compelling. No one has explained the formation of prices, the damage of inflation, the process of production, the workings of interest rates, and a hundred of topics, with such energy and clarity. Over years, students have told us that this book is what made it possible for them to get through graduate school. Why? Because Rothbard takes on the mainstream in its own terms and provides a radical, logical, comprehensive answer. If you have read the book, you know the feeling that comes with reaching the last page: one walks away with the sense that one now fully understands economic theory and all its ramifications. It is a shame that the authentic edition of the classic that Rothbard wrote fully 40 years ago is only now coming into print. And yet the good news is that, at last, this remarkable work in the history of ideas, the book that makes such a technically competent, systematic, and sweeping case for the economics of liberty, is at last available. REVIEWS As the result of many years of sagacious and discerning meditation, [Rothbard] joins the ranks of the eminent economists by publishing a voluminous work, a systematic treatise on economics.... An epochal contribution to the general science of human action, praxeology, and its practically most important and up-to-now best elaborated part, economics. Henceforth all essential studies in in these branches of knowledge will have to take full account of the theories and criticisms expounded by Dr. Rothbard. Ludwig von Mises It is in fact the most important general treatise on economic principles since Ludwig von Misess Human Action in 1949. Henry Hazlitt Man, Economy, and State is Murray Rothbards main work in economic theory. It appeared in 1962, when Murray was only 36 years old. In it Murray develops the entire body of economic theory, in a step by step fashion, beginning with incontestable axioms and proceeding to the most intricate problems of business cycle theory and fundamental breakthroughs in monopoly theory. And along the way he presents a blistering refutation of all variants of mathematical economics. The book has in the meantime become a modern classic and ranks with Misess Human Action as one of the two towering achievements of the Austrian School of economics. In Power and Market, Murray analyzed the economic consequences of any conceivable form of government interference in markets. The Scholars Edition brings both books together to form a magnificent whole. Hans-Hermann Hoppe In 1972, this book was selling in hardback for $150 in current dollars. So the pocket edition, which includes Power and Market, a great index, plus improved layout, is about a fraction of the cost of the original, for a far better product.

This fully revised second edition of Bain and Howells' Monetary Economics provides an up-to-date examination of monetary policy as it is practised and the theory underlying it. The authors link the conduct of monetary policy to the IS/PC/MR model and extend this further through the addition of a simple model of the banking sector. They demonstrate why monetary policy is central to the management of a modern economy, showing how it might have lasting effects on real variables, and look at how the current economic crisis has weakened the ability of policymakers to influence aggregate demand through the structure of interest rates. The second edition: features a realistic account of the conduct of monetary policy when the money supply is endogenous provides a detailed and up-to-date account of the conduct of monetary policy and links this explicitly to a framework for teaching macroeconomics includes recent changes in money market operations and an examination of the problems posed for monetary policy by the recent financial crisis Monetary Economics is an ideal core textbook for advanced undergraduate modules in monetary economics and monetary theory and policy.

The Friedman-Lucas Transition in Macroeconomics: A Structuralist Approach considers how and to what extent monetarist and new classical theories of the business-cycle can be regarded as approximately true descriptions of a cycle's causal structure or whether they can be no more than useful predictive instruments. This book will be of interest to upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers and professionals concerned with practical, theoretical and historical aspects of macroeconomics and business-cycle modeling. Offers a wide selection of Robert Lucas's unpublished works Discusses the history of business-cycle theories in the context of methodological advancements Suggests effective arguments for emphasizing the key role of representative agents and their assumed properties in macro-modeling

A leading economist trains a lens on his own discipline to uncover when it fails and when it works.

This book aims to start a debate on the relationship between economic theory – and more precisely business cycle theory – and economic policy, emphasising the diversity of views on economic policy which characterised older periods, in contrast to the homogeneity of the analysis and diagnosis provided by current business cycles developments. Since the 1970s, economic theorists excluding any economic policy interventions and favouring strictly supply-side economic policies have gained a growing influence. The development of Equilibrium Business Cycles theories coincides with the collapse, at least in academic circles, of the Keynesian consensus favouring stabilization policies. The alternative approach which emerged was based on an a priori hypothesis about the stability of the economy – or at least on its remarkable ability to stabilize itself. The direct consequence of this approach is that any stabilization objective for economic policy is not only misguided but also inefficient. There are many reasons why Keynesian policies ceased to be dominant in theoretical circles, but the most helpful circumstances for the rapid propagation of a new revolutionary theory is certainly the existence of an established orthodoxy, clearly inconsistent with the most salient facts of reality. This book offers a sample of different theoretical approaches to business cycles, examining their respective views on economic policy with the objective of understanding business cycles that have been lost, and identifying those views which explain fluctuations and the way we conceive economic policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.

This volume offers an original perspective on the questions the great economists have asked and looks at their significance for todays world. Written in a provocative and accessible style, it examines how the diverse traditions of political economy have conceptualised economic issues, events and theory. Going beyond the orthodoxies of mainstream economics it shows the relevance of political economy to the debates on the economic meaning of our times. Reconstructing Political Economy is a timely and thought-provoking contribution to a political economy for our time. In this light it offers fresh insights into such issues as modern theories of growth, the historic relations between state and market and the significance of globalisation for modern societies.