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- Micromotives and Macrobehavior
- The Golden Rule and Self-Restraint
- The big picture relevance of details
- 1970s Freakonomics
- Great reading and very varied
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Micromotives and Macrobehavior (Fels Lectures on Public Policy Analysis)
Thomas C. Schelling
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
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The Strategy of Conflict
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Prisoner's Dilemma
ASIN: 0393090094 |
Customer Reviews:
Micromotives and Macrobehavior.......2007-08-09
This is one of the best books I have ever read. I have read it at least three times and learn something new each time. Schelling is not only a great economist but a great writer. He has a knack for making arcane concepts accessible. I highly recommend it. This book uses economic methodology to tackle "non-economic" concepts, such as segregation, sorting and mixing and cooperation.
The Golden Rule and Self-Restraint.......2006-11-23
Schelling's book covertly drafts a model of economic support for the Golden Rule. While many of his examples may be repetitive, ultimately, we learn that by restraining ourselves in various enterprises, such as energy conservation, we are able to produce overall benefits for society. However, the hitch is that without critical mass or some basis for keeping rebels in line, no one adheres to the collective system and therefore no one benefits. Thus, the author intelligently posits an argument that in properly regulated environments, cooperation and selflessness produce stability and will lead to long-term success.
What is more interesting are Schelling's numerous examples and asides about human behavior that, once examined carefully, yield a greater understanding about everyday phenomena. For example, he writes, "Most people think that inflation reduces purchasing power without stopping to notice that their own pay increases are somebody else's inflation, and at least some of it must cancel out." This book is filled with such astute and not easily apparent statements. He also carries economic theory into social theory, showing that if all men married women four years younger than them where population is growing at three percent annually, eventually women of marrying age may outnumber men by more than 12%. The book has several of these nuggets, but leaves out an obvious and one of my favorite lessons about education: when a student goes to school, s/he not only "loses" the money s/he spends on tuition, but also her/his earning power during the years spent studying. For this reason, one could argue that it seems more sensical to attend school when there is a recession and to work when unemployment is low.
The glaring gap in this book is the problem of freeloaders--what do we do, for example, about the neighbor who waters his lawn excessively during a water shortage, thereby creating less incentive for others to conserve water? The author most likely believes that education will assist this problem, but this may be an idealistic notion at best. Still, Schelling manages to prove that cooperation rather than competition in some cases may produce better results, leading to viable arguments against selfish behavior.
The big picture relevance of details.......2006-03-25
I enjoyed this book for it's stimulating arguments and everyday examples of big picture, "big topics" issues. As a novice to any type of economic analysis I've found the book informative and interesting. I recommend this book to anybody wishing to increase their awareness of the relevance of everyday events and experience to bigger, more intellectual topics.
1970s Freakonomics.......2006-03-23
Game theory has been criticized for being able to explain anything, yet having little predictive capability. Whatever the case, Thomas Schelling's book is a gem. He takes everyday life phenomena and applies some systematic analysis as to why these things happen. It's a quick read and when you are done you too will keep viewing any issues coming your way as if they were seeking an equilibrium. With the varied topics and colorful examples it's the 1970s equivalent of "Freakonomics".
Great reading and very varied.......2005-11-18
This is probably Schelling's best book and is up against tough competition. But his mind is razor-sharp, his examples always fascinating and he is quite simply the best writer of economics around. This is not an introductory economics book - it's too original for that - but it is perfectly accessible to the general reader. Find out why neighbourhoods are segregated, why nobody sits in the front row of a lecture hall, and best of all, the economics of christmas card lists. A joy.
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The Tolerability of Risk: A New Framework for Risk Management (Earthscan Risk and Society Series)
Manufacturer: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
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ASIN: 184407398X |
Book Description
The book provides a historical and topical perspective on the alternative concept of Tolerability of Risk and its concrete regulatory applications. In the UK, Tolerability of Risk has been developed into a sophisticated framework particularly within the health and safety sectors. It is expected to guide decisionmakers when applying their legal obligation of keeping risks as low as practically reasonable. Could Tolerability of Risk become a wider source of inspiration across the full scope of risk analysis and management?
Written by leading academics and risk practitioners from industry and government, the book presents a summary of theoretical perspectives on risk approaches, provides a detailed elicitation of the methods and approaches used to build the Tolerability of Risk framework and looks at the prospect for universal application of the framework across a wide area of risk. From nuclear power to air and environmental pollutants to climate change to drug testing, this strategy may offer a workable, pragmatic solution for balancing risks against the costs involved in controlling them as well as in developing the institutional capacity to make effective decisions in all jurisdictions worldwide.
The Tolerability of Risk is essential, cutting-edge reading for all academics, researchers, professionals and decisions makers working in the treacherous landscape of risk analysis, cost-benefit calculations, and risk reduction, management, and regulation.
Book Description
In Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Marcel Fafchamps synthesizes the results of recent surveys of indigenous market institutions in twelve countries, including Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, and presents findings about economics exchange in Africa that have implications both for future research and current policy. Employing empirical data as well as theoretical models that clarify the data, Fafchamps takes as his unifying principle the difficulties of contract enforcement. Arguing that in an unpredictable world contracts are not always likely to be respected, he shows that contract agreements in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by the absence of large hierarchies (both corporate and governmental) and as a result must depend to a greater degree than in more developed economies on social networks and personal trust. Fafchamps considers policy recommendations as they apply to countries in three different stages of development: countries with undeveloped market institutions, like Ghana; countries at an intermediate stage, like Kenya; and countries with developed market institutions, like Zimbabwe.
Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa caps ten years of personal research by the author. Fafchamps, in collaboration with such institutions as the Africa Division of the World Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute, participated in the surveys of manufacturing firms and agricultural traders that provide the empirical basis for the book. The result is a work that makes a significant contribution to research on the continuing economic stagnation of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and is also largely accessible to researchers in other fields and policy professionals.
Book Description
This book shows, from start to finish, how microeconomics can and should be used in the analysis of public policy problems. It is an exciting new way to learn microeconomics, motivated by its application to important, real-world issues. Lee Friedman's modern replacement for his influential 1984 work not only brings the issues addressed into the present but develops all intermediate microeconomic theory to make this book accessible to a much wider audience.
Friedman offers the microeconomic tools necessary to understand policy analysis of a wide range of matters of public concern--including the recent California electricity crisis, welfare reform, public school finance, global warming, health insurance, day care, tax policies, college loans, and mass transit pricing. These issues are scrutinized through microeconomic models that identify policy strengths, weaknesses, and ideas for improvements. Each chapter begins with explanations of several fundamental microeconomic principles and then develops models that use and probe them in analyzing specific public policies.
The book has two primary and complementary goals. One is to develop skills of economic policy analysis: to design, predict the effects of, and evaluate public policies. The other is to develop a deep understanding of microeconomics as an analytic tool for application--its strengths and extensions into such advanced techniques as general equilibrium models and pricing methods for natural monopolies and its weaknesses, such as behavioral inconsistencies with utility-maximization models and its limits in comparing institutional alternatives. The result is an invaluable professional and academic reference, one whose clear explanation of principles and analytic techniques, and wealth of constructive applications, will ensure it a prominent place not only on the bookshelves but also on the desks of students and professionals alike.
Professors: A supplementary Solutions Manual is available for this book. It is restricted to teachers using the text in courses. For information on how to obtain a copy, refer to: http://pup.princeton.edu/solutions.html
Customer Reviews:
For students: Avoid Reading it if you can.......2007-10-02
It is very unfortunate that this item is assigned in public policy classes as the teaching tool. The only thing that it successfully does is to confuse public policy students and drive them away from the study of economics, which is one of the most useful tools in policy analysis. Even economics professors admit that the book is confusing but are forced to assign it for classes only because there is no other comprehensive microeconomics book with a policy analysis focus. Academics please help. We do need an alternative solution!
Brilliant Analysis? But Fails in Pedagogy!!.......2007-06-11
I agree with everything of the previous comment except the rating, in my opinion, is far too generous. This book is so dull and written at such a high level that, although it might actually contain brilliant analysis, it spectacularly fails in the teaching department. Good luck if this text is assigned for your class!
Economics -- sound. Writing -- not the best........2007-02-20
I bought this book for an economics course (surprise!), the first part of which was taught by the author.
The book is comprehensive and insightful and essential for policy students/policy analysts, but the writing makes it difficult to slog through. You can read the same paage four times and still not be sure you understand. I am not sure why academics think it's better to have their textbooks written in their own little code, but this one falls into the "if it isn't impossible to decipher, it's not 'academic' enough" trap.
However, if you can translate the academic-speak into English, you'll learn a ton and start thinking about policy problems differently.
Book Description
John Levy's text presents microeconomic theory for use in analyzing and formulating public policy. It couples a direct and non-intimidating approach to essential theory with a presentation that is sophisticated at the policy level. It does not attempt to cover the entire body of economic theory, but rather presents those elements of theory most relevant to courses in public economics and public policy in such programs as public administration, policy analysis, health planning, environmental management, urban affairs, and urban planning. The text is divided into two parts. The first introduces basic concepts with an emphasis on their philosophical underpinnings and policy uses; the second consists of six essays on policy-related subjects, selected to make use of concepts presented in the first part. Among the unusual features of the book are the discussion of the tax expenditure concept, benefit cost analysis with numerical example, substantial discussions of the origins and philosophical implications of economic man as a behavioral model, and an entire chapter devoted to public choice.
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Applied Economics and Public Policy (Department of Applied Economics Occasional Papers)
Iain Begg , and
Brian Henry
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521624142 |
Book Description
This book contains a collection of specially commissioned papers in which leading economists explore the role of applied economics in informing public policy. The contributions cover macroeconomic modeling, the use of company data to assess economic performance, techniques for data gathering and policy analysis. The book covers a variety of research methods and shows how these have been used in practice to elucidate economic problems. Applied economics is both an art and a science, and this book demonstrates why.
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Auctioning Public Assets: Analysis and Alternatives
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Combinatorial Auctions
ASIN: 0521537576 |
Book Description
Governments are currently privatizing firms that were previously under public control in many countries. Providing an overview of the economic issues involved in this transfer of ownership of public assets, this book combines a theoretical framework with case studies. It asks which allocation mechanism a government can adopt and how the choice of allocation mechanism will affect future market outcomes. Contributions from international experts offer an accessible introduction to auction theory in this invaluable non-technical analysis.
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Economic Growth and Social Welfare, Volume 262: Operationalising Normative Social Choice Theory (Contributions to Economic Analysis)
M. Clarke , and
Sardar M.N. Islam
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
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ASIN: 0444515658 |
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This book studies the relationships between economic growth and social welfare and the policy implications of these relationships for development. Understanding the relationships between economic growth and social welfare is an enduring issue within contemporary development economics and welfare economics. These relationships are analysed in this book by operationalising normative social choice theory. Normative social choice theory is an appropriate approach as it explicitly incorporates society's preferences, values and choices in determining how social welfare should be defined and measured. Two approaches, aggregate and hierarchical, are developed and empirically applied to Thailand for a twenty-five year period 1975-1999. This book concludes
that in terms of social welfare, economic growth cannot always be assumed desirable. What is needed is social welfare enhancing economic growth. A review of the policy implications of this finding is also undertaken.
Book Description
With air transport becoming an increasingly vital part of the economy, the regulatory reform of this market has been a major development in European political economy. This book focuses on two market failures within the airline industry - market power and environmental externalities - and analyses how they have been affected by deregulation. The author employs economic models complemented by extensive empirical research, to demonstrate how the introduction of competition, brought about by liberalization, has resulted in considerable consumer benefits.
The author argues that these benefits, such as increased choice through the expansion of operations, must be off set against increased environmental costs including greater noise pollution and emissions, not to mention the reduction of profits that often accompany market liberalization. In the process the book tackles a number of important issues including the background and history of airline regulation in the EU, the basic policy trade-off between monopoly power and external costs, monetary valuation of externalities, and the relationship between airline scheduling and external costs. Perhaps surprisingly, the author concludes that even in the presence of environmental costs, the introduction of competition in airline markets has resulted in net welfare improvements.
Policymakers, as well as practitioners and researchers of environmental and transport economics, should draw great value from this original and pertinent volume.
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Hospital Cost Analysis (Developments in Health Economics and Public Policy)
J.R. Butler
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0792332474 |
Book Description
Hospital Cost Analysis provides an overview of theoretical developments in the economic analysis of production and costs in the multiproduct firm, and discusses these developments. Following a lucid explanation of the concepts of jointness, input/output separability and returns to scale, a detailed discussion of the concept measurement and classification of hospital output is provided. A fundamental dilemma confronting economists interested in estimating hospital cost functions is highlighted, viz. the trade-off between flexibility in functional form and homogeneity within hospital output categories. Empirical results on the effects of case mix, scale and utilisation, public/private ownership, and the centralised administration of hospital systems on hospital costs are presented. The implications of hospital cost analysis for public policy with respect to hospital payment schemes, including schemes based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), are also considered. This book brings together the literature on hospital cost analysis with theoretical developments in the analysis of the multiproduct cost functions. It will be of considerable interest to teachers and students of health economics and health policy advisers interested in the determinants of hospital costs and the design of hospital payment schemes.
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