Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 -

This book is a must read for anyone interested in behavioral economics. The subtitle reveals the book's ultimate intention, but Ghisellini (Center for Monetary and Financial Studies, LUISS Univ., Rome) and Chang (economics, NYU) do a superb job of explaining how the discipline of behavioral economics got to where it is now. The authors contend that behavioral economics should not be considered a "subordinated" discipline to conventional economics, which is what happens when the conventional view is deemed rational, resulting in departures from it are therefore deemed irrational and, as such, erroneous. Ghisellini and Chang cite Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, who believed that behavior is rational in so far as it selects alternatives that will lead to the achievement of goals that have previously been selected. So context matters, and with context in consideration, much of what might be seen as "irrationality" disappears. Behavioral economics is then an approach to economic analysis that enriches the explanation of decision-making by applying psychological insights. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter are thoughtful, and the authors provide insightful "hints" to future work that needs to be done.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

This is a comprehensive, almost encyclopedic work about central banks in a number of countries. Ray Chaudhuri (Muhlenberg College) provides detailed accounts of the origins and evolution of central banking in the US, the UK, Russia, India, Japan, China, Brazil, and South Africa. The chapter on Germany and the European Central Bank is a particularly noteworthy treatment of the development in central banking over time in a changing context. The author does not stop short in the analyses, however, as the book includes current events such as India's demonetization. The final part of the work revisits the relationship between central bank independence and inflation, which brings the entire book together. Not everyone will enjoy the detail about such things as why the US has not redesigned the one-dollar bill (while other denominations have been changed) and the options for currency printing in Russia. But in this reviewer's view, Ray Chaudhuri manages this granularity without sounding pedantic. Meticulously researched and extremely well written, this is a must-have for any collection.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

In this pathbreaking book, Lusthaus (sociology, Nuffield College, Univ. of Oxford; director, Human Cybercriminal Project) summarizes the results of his seven-year study of the organizational dynamics underlying the complex, profit-oriented cybercrime business and its emergence and rapid evolution. The author bases his conclusions on 238 in-depth interviews with law enforcement agents, security experts, cybercriminals, and other insiders from 20 nations located on every inhabited continent. Writing in clear, jargon-free prose, the author identifies structural mechanisms and sophisticated tactics that allow globalized cooperation among substantial numbers of anonymous individuals. Trust among cybercriminals is established through such strategies as the use of recognizable nicknames, third-party verification of reliability, punishments for undependable behavior, and occasional offline activities that may involve legitimate organizations. Cybercriminals operate most easily in jurisdictions where law enforcement lacks resources and is poorly trained, indifferent, and/or corrupt. Lusthaus suggests that providing legitimate, well-compensated employment for computer-savvy individuals who live in economically depressed regions might undermine this illegal industry. In addition, criminal methods of building online teamwork might be exploited by setting up so-called honeypots that expose wrongdoers by pretending to offer valuable services, such as aid in laundering profits.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

This volume examines parenting--a topic of great interest to many--in conjunction with a key economic issue today, income inequality. Economists Doepke (Northwestern) and Zilibotti (Yale) examine how economic factors affect parenting styles, arguing that with low inequality, parents can be permissive when raising children because the costs of not succeeding are low--their children have only slightly lower incomes as adults. However, when inequality is high and relative position is not determined by status at birth, there are more authoritative "helicopter parents" due to the greater costs of children not succeeding in school. The authors use a broad array of data sets to provide empirical support for their hypothesis, as well as to draw out policy implications of their analysis. Following the tradition of Gary Becker, this book covers uncharted territory and crosses disciplinary borders by bringing economic analysis to a topic not traditionally regarded as within the purview of economics. Well written, researched, and argued, this work should interest a broad range of social scientists and students. Because it introduces a new avenue of research--an economic analysis of parenting--this work is a must acquisition for college and university libraries.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

The Great Depression sparked decades of analysis on why it happened; the Great Recession of 2007-09 seems likely to follow suit. Much of what has been published to date is case studies, but only a few scholars have developed a theme (beyond greed and criminality). Rose (history, Florida Atlantic Univ.) is among those few, and he has produced a great book. He examines six decades of political regulation of the financial services industry, showing how various changes, starting in 1960, eventually led to the Great Recession. He divides the seven chapters into three parts: the early chapters provide an overview of regulation from the 1960s to the 1990s, and the remaining chapters look at financial executives of major firms and at Obama's efforts to end the recession. Rose argues that US presidents want the US to have a prosperous economy, and they have relied on banks to provide that prosperity, and so have been influenced by what banks say they need to grow. The various backstories--for example of rivals protecting their own interests--make the book particularly compelling. Written with nonspecialists in mind, this is among the best books available on the Great Recession.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Audretsch (Indiana Univ.) and Link (Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro) use the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE) to examine the linkages between experience, sources of knowledge, and entrepreneurial behavior. They set out to answer the question of what factors ultimately drive individuals to pursue entrepreneurship. The authors base their empirical research on information provided by AEGIS (Advancing Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Economic Growth and Social Well-Being in Europe), a database that offers data from more than 4,000 entrepreneurial firms from ten countries in the European Union. Audretsch and Link's results are fascinating and well presented. The authors provide a well-grounded overview of the KSTE model, the importance of knowledge to entrepreneurship, and the implications for policy and practice. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial knowledge, behavior, and economics.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

In Technology Trap Frey (Technology and Employment Program, Univ. of Oxford, UK) provides an invaluable examination of automation, labor, and capital from the preindustrial period to the present. Key to the discussion is one question: When do workers embrace technology and when do they reject it? In the introduction Frey clarifies what labor-saving technologies are and how they impact workers: "The extent to which labor-saving technologies will cause dislocation depends on whether they are enabling or replacing. Replacing technologies render jobs and skills redundant. Enabling technologies, in contrast, make people more productive in existing tasks or create entirely new jobs." Through this lens, the author examines why workers have embraced or rejected workplace technologies over time; the political context behind why and how innovation flourished or did not; and what this all means in the face of current questions surrounding artificial intelligence. What could easily devolve into a polemical text never does; the author offers carefully considered arguments that demonstrate why workers embrace technologies, when they resist them, and how governments can productively shape these conversations. This thought-provoking study is required reading for students and scholars of history, economics, and technology.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

This is the third volume in the Yale University Press series "Basic Documents in World Politics." As with other volumes in the series, this book provides the foundational documents on the topic, in this case the Bretton Woods Agreements, and adds previously unpublished pieces by noted scholars on different aspects of the topic. The editors must be commended for their choice of works to be included and for the meticulously developed introduction that knits them all together. The stated goal of the volume is to make the key documents accessible, which seems odd in the context of the internet age, but the contribution is to point out works that a researcher might not have thought to seek out. This reviewer particularly valued the discussion of Australia's position at the Bretton Woods meetings; it doesn't often receive much attention. Also often overlooked is the discussion at the meetings regarding poverty and nutrition. Anyone following the stories of trade wars and the G7 meetings in the summer of 2019 will find that the works in this volume continue to inform (or should inform) current discussions. Well constructed and extremely well written, this is a must-have for any collection.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

What is the best way to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Summit (2015) goal of eliminating the extreme poverty of 800 million people on the planet? In this fascinating book, Kumar, co-founder and chief editor of Devex, the world's largest Bloomberg-style platform for the aid industry, provides a wealth of data and dozens of examples of highly innovative strategies for delivering effective aid. The paradigm shift from the methods of such standard aid institutions as UNICEF, USAID, and OXFAM to more recent projects, such as Give Directly, Global Giving, and Co-Impact, to name a few, is due to the advent of massive billionaire funding, a growing number of socially responsive corporations, and revolutionary start-ups in communication, finance, medicine, and agriculture. These organizations use technological innovations, human-centered design, systems thinking, and direct communication with recipients to deliver effective aid that includes carefully planned training and infrastructure support. The book is a mine of valuable information for anyone working, or planning to work, in the aid industry and anyone concerned about the desperate plight of so many people in a world economy wealthy enough to end extreme poverty.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

This massive tome will be invaluable for any serious student of the European Middle Ages or economics in general. Ogilvie (Univ. of Cambridge, UK) compiled an extensive database of primary documents concerning guilds from the 12th to the 19th century, across the entirety of Europe, and she used this formidable research tool to analyze the guild phenomenon and the real purpose and effect of guilds on the economy of the Continent. The author begins this comprehensive study with an outline of current thinking about the role of guilds and then looks at guilds' relationship to governments (both royal and civil), barriers to entry into guilds, market manipulation, guilds and women, innovation, economic growth and training, and quality control. Ogilvie arrives at the view that guilds impeded innovation and economic progress, and that their true purpose was to enrich their masters and the rulers who supported them at the expense of the general public and the guilds' own apprentices and journeymen. This monumental work will no doubt spur more debate on this subject and stimulate further research that will illuminate the origins of the modern economy.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Over the past few decades the evolution of the world economy--driven by globalized competitive markets--has far exceeded expectations. Not only have the basic premises of competitive advantage been reflected in the real world (albeit with plenty of flaws), but the speed of change has accelerated, producing plenty of winners and plenty of losers and challenges for the state--inequities that have often gone unaddressed and formed the roots of the political drift toward populism, with its simple answers to complex problems. Left in the dust, Rajan (business Univ. of Chicago) contends, is the "third pillar," i.e., the community in which people live and with which they associate, a community rooted in basic values and norms that anchor the social context of human existence. The first two pillars--the state and the markets--have put enormous pressure on the third, challenging uneasy equilibria in ways that are difficult to predict and ultimately threaten valuable social and political stability. What lies ahead? A global surveillance state? Widening of the urban-rural divide? Global spread of identity politics? Rajan argues for a renaissance of the third pillar of community cohesion, channeled through institutions that have a good shot at regaining control of where the system goes next. This is an original take on widely debated issues.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.