This volume deals with both a new theoretical framework and the capability of new economics to tackle a number of economic problems. It offers detailed analysis and informed comment on the type of new economics emerging in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the 'great recession'.
Thinking like an economist -- The power of economics -- Economics and life -- Specialization and exchange -- Supply and demand -- Markets -- Elasticity -- Efficiency -- Government intervention -- Microeconomics : thinking like a microeconomist -- Individual decisions -- Consumer behavior -- Behavioral economics : a closer look at decision making -- Game theory and strategic thinking -- Information -- Time and uncertainty -- Firm decisions -- The costs of production -- Perfect competition -- Monopoly -- Monopolistic competition and oligopoly -- The factors of production -- International trade -- Public economics -- Externalities -- Public goods and common resources -- Taxation and the public budget -- Poverty, inequality, and discrimination -- Political choices -- Public policy and choice architecture -- Macroeconomics : thinking like a macroeconomist -- The data of macroeconomics -- Measuring the wealth of nations -- The cost of living -- Economic growth and unemployment -- Economic growth -- Unemployment and the demand for labor -- The economy in the short and long run -- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply -- Fiscal policy -- The financial system and institutions -- The basics of finance -- Money and the monetary system -- Inflation -- Financial crisis -- International policy issues -- Open-market macroeconomics -- Development economics
"Religious faith is based on a different economic logic. It is a double space-economy: the worldly space of human life and God's space of heaven, the last one as a space for a second-life of the soul. Religious men have to reflect their lifes in behalf of their placement in heaven. But it is no decision of man to enter heaven after death, it belongs to God's grace. So we cannot easily transform this economy of religion into modern economics. It is a different gift-economy, but without any mode of reciprocity." (author's abstract)
I. Introduction -- 1. Law and Economics and the Economics of Legal Regulation -- II. Law and Economics -- 2. Efficiency, Equity and Inalienability -- 3. Negotiated Settlement -- 4. Economic Efficiency and the Common Law: A Critical Survey -- 5. Default Risk and the Optimal Pricing of Court Enforcement Services -- 6. Transaction Cost and Communication -- III. Economics of Legal Regulation -- 7. Regulatory Measures to Enforce Quality Production of Self- Employed Professionals — a theoretical study of a dynamic market process -- 8. Controlling Insider Trading in Europe and America: The Economics of the Politics -- 9. The Regulation of Shop Opening Hours in the United Kingdom -- 10. Belgian Pulbic Policy Towards the Retailing Trade -- 11. Assessing the Effectiveness of Economic Efficiency of an E.E.C. Pollution Control Directive: The Control of Discharges of Mercury to the Aquatic Environment -- Participants of the Conference on Law and Economics, Berlin.
The contribution examines concepts and the methodology of Michel Foucault from the standpoint of the French institutionalist approach of economics of convention (in short EC). EC is briefly introduced. Then, it is argued that Foucault should be regarded as an "ally" for EC, because his theory shares main positions with EC, but Foucault also provides concepts and methodological strategies, which could improve EC's capabilities to analyze practices and strategies of convention-based processes as critique, justification and the social construction of qualities and worth. Some representatives of EC have already adopted Foucaultian concepts. Foucault also pioneered the analysis in domains, highly relevant for EC, as in the field of law and neoliberalism, but these works are not well recognized so far. Moreover, Foucault began the study of individual's strategies of self-conduct and self-formation, which EC approached later on as well. The article claims that it is especially Foucault's notions of episteme and power as well as Foucaultian discourse analysis, which offer innovative theoretical and methodological perspectives for EC.
"Welcome to the 23rd edition of Economics, America's most innovative-and popular-economics textbook. The financial crisis and the subsequent slow recovery increased both student and faculty demand for principles-level content geared toward explaining directly and intuitively why markets and governments fail-sometimes spectacularly-in delivering optimal social outcomes. To satisfy that demand, our presentation of market failures, government failure, and public choice theory has been significantly restructured in Chapters 4 and 5 to allow students to quickly absorb the key lessons regarding externalities, public goods provision, voting paradoxes, the special interest effect, and other problems that hinder either markets or governments from achieving optimal social outcomes."