A leading economist discusses the potential of happiness research (the quantification of well-being) to answer important questions that standard economics methods are unable to analyze.Revolutionary developments in economics are rare. The conservative bias of the field and its enshrined knowledge make it difficult to introduce new ideas not in line with received theory. Happiness research, however, has the potential to change economics substantially in the future. Its findings, which are gradually being taken into account in standard economics, can be considered revolutionary in three respects: the measurement of experienced utility using psychologists'' tools for measuring subjective well-being; new insights into how human beings value goods and services and social conditions that include consideration of such non-material values as autonomy and social relations; and policy consequences of these new insights that suggest different ways for government to affect individual well-being. In Happiness, emphasizing empirical evidence rather than theoretical conjectures, Bruno Frey substantiates these three revolutionary claims for happiness research. After tracing the major developments of happiness research in economics and demonstrating that we have gained important new insights into how income, unemployment, inflation, and income demonstration affect well-being, Frey examines such wide-ranging topics as democracy and federalism, self-employment and volunteer work, marriage, terrorism, and watching television from the new perspective of happiness research. Turning to policy implications, Frey describes how government can provide the conditions for people to achieve well-being, arguing that a crucial role is played by adequate political institutions and decentralized decision making. Happiness demonstrates the achievements of the economic happiness revolution and points the way to future research.
To harness the full power of computer technology, economists need to use a broad range of mathematical techniques. In this book, Kenneth Judd presents techniques from the numerical analysis and applied mathematics literatures and shows how to use them in economic analyses. The book is divided into five parts. Part I provides a general introduction. Part II presents basics from numerical analysis on R^n, including linear equations, iterative methods, optimization, nonlinear equations, approximation methods, numerical integration and differentiation, and Monte Carlo methods. Part III covers methods for dynamic problems, including finite difference methods, projection methods, and numerical dynamic programming. Part IV covers perturbation and asymptotic solution methods. Finally, Part V covers applications to dynamic equilibrium analysis, including solution methods for perfect foresight models and rational expectation models. A website contains supplementary material including programs and answers to exercises.
An innovative new anthology exploring how science fiction can motivate new approaches to economics.
From the libertarian economics of Ayn Rand to Aldous Huxley's consumerist dystopias, economics and science fiction have often orbited each other. In Economic Science Fictions, editor William Davies has deliberately merged the two worlds, asking how we might harness the power of the utopian imagination to revitalize economic thinking.
Rooted in the sense that our current economic reality is no longer credible or viable, this collection treats our economy as a series of fictions and science fiction as a means of anticipating different economic futures. It asks how science fiction can motivate new approaches to economics and provides surprising new syntheses, merging social science with fiction, design with politics, scholarship with experimental forms.
With an opening chapter from Ha-Joon Chang as well as theory, short stories, and reflections on design, this book from Goldsmiths Press challenges and changes the notion that economics and science fiction are worlds apart. The result is a wealth of fresh and unusual perspectives for anyone who believes the economy is too important to be left solely to economists.
Contributors.
AUDINT, Khairani Barokka, Carina Brand, Ha-Joon Chang, Miriam Cherry, William Davies, Mark Fisher, Dan Gavshon-Brady and James Pockson, Owen Hatherley, Laura Horn, Tim Jackson, Mark Johnson, Bastien Kerspern, Nora O Murchú, Tobias Revell et al., Judy Thorne, Sherryl Vint, Joseph Walton, Brian Willems.
A new edition of a book that details the system of transformation underlying the 14 Points for Management presented in Deming''s Out of the Crisis . It would be better if everyone would work together as a system, with the aim for everybody to win. What we need is cooperation and transformation to a new style of management." --from The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education In this book, W. Edwards Deming details the system of transformation that underlies the 14 Points for Management presented in Out of the Crisis . The Deming System of Profound Knowledge, as it is called, consists of four parts: appreciation for a system, knowledge about variation, theory of knowledge, and psychology. Describing the prevailing management style as a prison, Deming shows applying the System of Profound Knowledge increases productivity, quality, and people''s joy in work and joy in learning. Another outcome is short-term and long-term success in the market. Indicative of Deming''s philosophy is his advice to abolish performance reviews on the job, to look deeper than spreadsheets for opportunities, and even to rethink how we teach and manage our schools. Moreover, Deming''s method enables organizations to make accurate predictions, which is a valuable tool in today''s uncertain economic climate. This third edition features a new chapter (written by business consultant and Deming expert Kelly L. Allan) that explains the relevance of Deming''s management method, and case studies from organizations that have adopted Deming''s System of Profound Knowledge, and offers guidance on how organizations can effectively "do Deming."
Interest in intellectual property and other institutions that promote innovation exploded during the 1990s. Innovation and Incentives provides a clear and wide-ranging introduction to the economics of innovation, suitable for teaching at both the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels. It will also be useful to legal and economics professionals. Written by an expert on intellectual property and industrial organization, the book achieves a balanced mix of institutional details, examples, and theory. Analytical, empirical, or institutional factors can be given different emphases at different levels of study. Innovation and Incentives presents the historical, legal, and institutional contexts in which innovation takes place. After a historical overview of the institutions that support innovation, ranging from ancient history through today''s government funding and hybrid institutions, the book discusses knowledge as a public good, the economic design of intellectual property, different models of cumulative innovation, the relation of competition to licensing and joint ventures, patent and copyright enforcement and litigation, private/public funding relationships, patent values and the return on R&D investment, intellectual property issues arising from direct and indirect network externalities, and globalization. The text presents technical and abstract analysis and at the same time sheds light on current controversies and policy-relevant topics, including the difficulty of enforcing copyright in the digital age and international protection of intellectual property.
A systematic comparison of the three major economic theories, showing how they differ and why these differences matter in shaping economic theory and practice. Contending Economic Theories offers a unique comparative treatment of the three main theories in economics as it is taught today: neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian. Each is developed and discussed in its own chapter, yet also differentiated from and compared to the other two theories. The authors identify each theory''s starting point, its goals and foci, and its internal logic. They connect their comparative theory analysis to the larger policy issues that divide the rival camps of theorists around such central issues as the role government should play in the economy and the class structure of production, stressing the different analytical, policy, and social decisions that flow from each theory''s conceptualization of economics. The authors, building on their earlier book Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical , offer an expanded treatment of Keynesian economics and a comprehensive introduction to Marxian economics, including its class analysis of society. Beyond providing a systematic explanation of the logic and structure of standard neoclassical theory, they analyze recent extensions and developments of that theory around such topics as market imperfections, information economics, new theories of equilibrium, and behavioral economics, considering whether these advances represent new paradigms or merely adjustments to the standard theory. They also explain why economic reasoning has varied among these three approaches throughout the twentieth century, and why this variation continues today--as neoclassical views give way to new Keynesian approaches in the wake of the economic collapse of 2008.
An accessible and comprehensive overview of the economic theory and the realities of networks written by a pioneering economics researcher.
Networks are everywhere: the infrastructure that brings water into our homes, the social networks made up of our friends and families, the supply chains connecting cities, people, and goods. These interconnections contain economic trade-offs: for example, should an airline operate direct flights between cities or route all its flights through a hub? Viewing networks through an economics lens, this textbook considers the costs and benefits that govern their formation and functioning.;
Networks are central to an understanding of the production, consumption, and information that lie at the heart of economic activity. Sanjeev Goyal provides advanced undergraduate and graduate students with an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the economics research on networks of the past twenty-five years.;Each chapter introduces a theoretical model illustrated with the help of case studies and formal proofs. After introducing the theoretical concepts, Goyal examines economic networks, including infrastructure, security, market power, and financial networks. He then covers social networks, with chapters on coordinating activity, communication and learning, information networks, epidemics, and impersonal markets. Finally, Goyal locates social and economic networks in a broader context covering networked markets, economic development, trust, and group networks in their relation to markets and the state.
B>Charting the exploration of an unknown world--our own--with a new cartography of living things rather than space available for conquest or colonization./b>br>br>This book charts the exploration of an unknown world: our own. Just as Renaissance travelers set out to map the terra incognito of the New World, the mapmakers of;Terra Forma;have set out to rediscover the world that we think we know. They do this with a new kind of cartography that maps living things rather than space emptied of life and available to be conquered or colonized. The maps in;Terra Forma;lead us inward, not off into the distance, moving from the horizon line of conventional cartography to the thickness of the ground, from the global to the local.br>;br>Each map in;Terra Forma;is based on a specific territory or territories, and each tool, or model, creates a new focal point through which the territory is redrawn. The maps are living maps, always under construction, spaces where stories and situations unfold. They may map the Earths underside rather than its surface, suggest turning the layers of the Earth inside out, link the biological physiology of living inhabitants and the physiology of the land, or trace a journey oriented not by the Euclidean space of GPS but by points of life. These speculative visualizations can constitute the foundation for a new kind of atlas.
