Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2016 -

Kedar-Levy's new book is a winner on several counts. What is normally a fairly arcane subject becomes a fascinating narrative. Many economists believe that markets, left to operate without any invasive policies, are likely to operate efficiently. However, Kedar-Levy pays close attention to the lack of market transparency, which allows operators to mislead the public, with the result that the whole system goes awry. Kedar-Levy pays particular attention to the accounting industry, which has a long history of producing fraudulent information that has the capacity to disrupt the economy in tragic ways. In the absence of transparency, many businesses are not immune to the temptation to siphon off funds, which leaves them vulnerable to even minor shocks. Kedar-Levy furthermore examines a widespread naivete that tempts many to get swept up in speculative bubbles, which make the economy even more vulnerable. Finally, despite Kedar-Levy's extensive use of much of the most important literature on this subject, his book is still extremely accessible. In short, this book deserves a very strong recommendation.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

"Capitalism"is a commonly used term that resists simple definition or straightforward history. Kocka (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin, Germany) adds lucidity and erudition in this excellent overview. After an opening conceptual chapter based on classic social science formulations, the author turns to a historical chapter on merchant capitalism during the medieval period through 1500 with Asian and Islamic as well as European coverage. He then proceeds to survey the expansion of capitalism during the early modern period through 1800 before a chapter on the capitalist era covering developments to the present day. His treatment is balanced, incorporating arguments of advocates as well as critics of capitalism; broad in its intellectual sweep, covering a range of social science disciplines; and well informed by the literature in both economic and social history. It is clearly written in language neophytes should be able to grasp. The volume also has insights and a breadth of learning to offer more specialist readers, even if they may differ on some points of emphasis. Kocka's book provides a paradigm of what a short history of an important concept should accomplish.Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.

Written by a renowned Austrian economist, this important book is a major contribution to the economics literature. Felber writes about creating an entirely new, more democratic capitalistic system, a system he calls "the economy of the common good." This economy would have a common good balance sheet in addition to a financial balance sheet. The balance sheet would evaluate organizations by their contribution to the common good: e.g., equitable distribution of income, equal rights for women, absence of discrimination, improvement of the environment, cooperation with other organizations, and humane working conditions. Although profits would be important, organizations would not be driven by profit maximization, competitive success, or financial return on investment. Felber explains how to create a common good balance sheet, how to measure an organization's contribution to the common good, how to reward contributions to the common good, and how this would result in more success for the organizations. Companies with the worst common good balance sheets would go bankrupt. This book is required reading for anyone interested in a stronger and more equitable economy.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

This reviewer has read about and researched foreign aid for years, but has yet to come across a book that delves as deeply into humanitarian aid as this one does. Scholars who have attempted to explore the humanitarian component of foreign aid usually give it a passing glance, largely due to lack of reference material and theoretical foundations. Carbonnier (the Graduate Institute, Geneva) has opened a new era in the study of economics. His book is pioneering. It gives readers a profound understanding of humanitarian economics from the perspective of a former practitioner. The book adopts a philosophical approach, which is uncommon to modern-day economics textbooks. That approach gives the book the ability to transcend beyond economics into other fields such as political science, international relations, international development, philosophy, and sociology. Thus, the book and its topic of inquiry--humanitarian economics--should be fully embraced by economics departments, because they will enable them to attract students from other disciplines. The analysis used in this book is complex. Therefore, it is more suitable to students in graduate school. At the undergraduate level, those in their fourth year of study.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

This is one of the most important books published this century. Every library should have a copy. Brennan and Jaworski brilliantly argue against the consensus view--accepted on all sides of the political spectrum, from cultural conservatives to left-wing liberals--that there are some goods (such as votes, sex, or kidneys) that should never be bought and sold in the marketplace. Instead, they argue that there should only be restrictions onhow things are bought and sold. Thus, for example, vote selling should not be prohibited; there should only be restrictions onhowvotes are bought and sold. Supporting their views with a wealth of data drawn from economics, anthropology, and sociology, Brennan and Jaworski show that the common view that some goods have an essential "social meaning" that precludes their commodification is false, that the market--and not queuing--is the best means for distributing any good, and that the market encourages, rather than undermines, virtues such as trust and honesty. Despite its theoretical sophisticationMarkets without Limits is witty, irreverent, and extremely engaging, and so is readily accessible to undergraduates.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Langevoort's multifaceted expertise with investments and securities regulation (US Securities and Exchange Commission, Georgetown Univ.) is evident because of his excellent writing style. The author provides an early warning about his frequent reliance on behavioral economics and economic sociology as analytical tools. These perspectives help deconstruct the origins of investor protection regulations in the US through the formation of the SEC and its current quirkiness. Many asymmetric dichotomies are discussed: investment bankers, stock analysts, brokers, corporations, regulators, and prosecutors as they tackle with and fine tune investor protection in the US. The author frequently discusses balancing acts between investors' desires for transparent playing fields and corporate goals to lower costs, surveillance controls, and regulatory oversight. The SEC's options are often hindered by executive, legislative, judicial, or budgetary concerns, yielding a wide variety of prosecutorial outcomes. Provides excellent insight into the historical and current state of investor protection in the US.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.

International trade law is a towering achievement of the global economic architecture that evolved after World War II. Economic systems cannot survive without rules that participants agree are in the general interest and convey tangible benefits of adherence--as well as workable adjudication mechanisms governing the inevitable disputes that arise. This notion formed the core of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT), with non-discrimination (most favored nation treatment) and reciprocity as the basis of trading rules that evolved over multiple rounds of negotiations over the decades and resolution of many trade disputes. But even as tariffs were successfully reduced, non-tariff barriers became more important and were much more difficult to liberalize. Meanwhile, regional trade agreements in Europe, North America, and elsewhere became more attractive and feasible vehicles for trade liberalization among members, affecting the importance of the GATT successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the abortive Doha Round of negotiations that was ultimately driven into the sand. This book is a definitive study of the GATT and will be invaluable for students of international trade policy, who can look forward to the author's volume 2, on the WTO, which promises to be equally authoritative.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.