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Offers an introduction to elementary economics. This book covers topics such as: the theory of markets, labor markets, market processes when influenced by the availability of information, and social, ethical and political considerations. It also discusses commodity, credit and asset markets, contracts, and dynamics of labor markets

In 1989 it was triumphantly announced that the world had arrived at the "End of History" with neoliberal economics and political democracy the clear victors. This paper revisits and reconsiders this famous assertion through an examination of several perspectives on the relationship between neoliberal economic policies and ethnic conflict. It concludes that these phenomena may be causally related, with the former contributing materially to the latter. JEL Codes: N40, O10, P16

[Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]

It is argued that when the world's economic and military hegemon pursues a foreign economic policy of liberalism, there are tendencies for that nation to acquire an empire. These arguments are illustrated with examples from the British Empire of the nineteenth century. The article concludes with some speculations on the current situation, with the United States now in the role of the world's hegemon.

John Bates Clark (1847–1938) holds a secure position in the history of American economic thought. Specifically, he is remembered for developing the marginal product theory of distribution, which was presented in its most complete form inThe Distribution of Wealth(1899). However, Clark's primary intellectual commitment has been largely overlooked. This was his search for the rules and institutions that would create a prosperous economy featuring a just distribution while maintaining the essential structures of competitive capitalism.

The ideal of Political Economy is not unrestricted competition, but competition that is truly free, because controlled by justice and by law. The distinction between freedom and license needs to be preserved in this department of political philosophy. With that distinction clearly maintained, we may still retain, in economics as in politics, our beautiful watchword, liberty (John Bates Clark 1879, p. 167).John Bates Clark has had a formidable impact on the development of economic theory and the theory of income distribution. In addition, Clark's marginal product theory of distribution has often played an instrumental role in the defense oflaissez-fairepolicies. His theory has been used to criticize a wide variety of market interventions, including minimum wage legislation. As a result it is not surprising that Clark's theory of income distribution, and Clark himself, have drawn more than a few critics.

Several recent studies, such as that by David Card and Alan Krueger (1995), have led the economics profession to reconsider the theoretical and empirical arguments for and against minimum wage legislation. Most noteworthy was the fact that two respected members of the mainstream economics profession claimed to have found that an increased minimum wage did not lead to increases in unemployment. Moreover, their result was derived from the market for unskilled labor.