Macroeconomics

This is not a good text book. The troubles start on the back cover where the face of Ricky "Tricky" Van Der Ploeg stares at me. The exposition is cluttered and there is an obsession with the word intermezzo throughout.

While I was teaching a graduate level core macroeconomics course, I found that reference books are very limited. These include Blanchard & Fischer's book, Barro & Sala-i-Martin's book and Obstfeld & Rogoff's book. After I found a copy of this book, I immediately realized this book is very well written, and should be added to the above list. By reading this book, one can not only learn many insightful points and advanced technics, but also can have a good survey of literatrue in many areas. I suggest that anyone in the field of macroeconomics buy a copy (by the way, I believe David Romer's book is very badly written,I think Romer himself is technically weak).

Miles and Scott's explanation of some concepts is quite convoluted. Students new to economics will find this text difficult. I recommend the Gans, King, and Mankiw macroeconomics textbook, which is more readable, more colorful, and more enjoyable. I am also looking forward to my lecturer's new textbook.

A great insight into how world economics really works. It's easy to read with examples and diagrams that really help you understand why people behave economically the way they do. To add to this, Andrew Scott is one of the best lecturers to have worked at London Business School.

This text should be compulsory for all World Leaders!

This book deals with how to theorize the globalization or, as the author put it, global system. The author raises the question existing theories on global system like the theory of imperialism, modernization, neo-Marxism, dependency, world system or mode of production has tackled the phenomenon properly. His answer is 'no'. He calls attention to who is the main agent of globalizing or global system. TNC is the main agent but existing theories concentrated on nation-state as the unit of analysis. This is the wrong target. There should be another theory on what TNC has caused on global market. To tackle this mission the author divides the phenomenon into 3 spheres: economic, political, cultural-ideological. The example of each spheres is like this: International Labor Division, i.e., the labor market on global level, Transnational Capitalist Class, Consumerism or media hegemony. His taxonomy of global system is interesting especially his conceptualizing of consumerism. He argues that to be consumed, there should be desire to consume it. This should be achieved throu media. Globalized market needs this kind of cultural mechanism. But on the whole, his story is on the surface of phenomenon. It's not theory at all. He enumerates such empirical evidence. But I can't figure out what evidence is for. Personally I think recent theorizing of Arrigh on the theory of world system, is much more systemic and promising.

THIS WONDERFUL BOOK SHOULD BE READ BY ANYONE WITH EVEN A SLIGHT INTEREST IN SOCIOLOGY. I GARRANTEE THAT YOU WILL BE SO INFORMED BY THE end YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO WRITE A PHd ON THIS SUBJECT STRAIGHT AWAY!!!!

I bought this book to help me with my first year introductory course in economics. I found the book reasonably good. However, I must point out inconsistency in the examples and some mis-prints. These tended to put me off track. Examples are plenty but some are not completely explained. Also, the book is much too basic for a first year course in microeconomics.

This guide is full of "secrets" to understanding and acing microeconomics. Highly recommended!

Relationships between consumer culture and the economy seem central to understanding contemporary social life. To date the economics discipline has not been up to the task, focused as it is on things like financial markets and international trade, rather things like shopping and everyday life. Ben Fine's book is a good economic foray into consumption. It offers great diatribe against standard economic approaches to consumers and consumption. But it wanders around alot, lacks depth, and doesn't offer much in the way of new insights or perspectives. In short, while the subject of this book is important, one wishes it had been tackled more thoughtfully.

This superb book kept me intrigued from beginning to end, and is basically a critical examination of economic imperialism and globalization; the world of commodities; systems of provision and culture; the consumer society; and public consumption.

Well worth reading.

THis book is extremely dry and technical, and a background in economics and even mathematical concepts applied to economics is definitely recommended.

It is very much a book about macroeconomical aspects of the war: how it was financed, what did the decisions regarding manpower and other resource distribution imply, and so on. The wealth of information regarding these aspects of the Soviet war economy, make it worthwhile for anybody interested in wartime economics, despite the heavy reading.

This book provides the reader with more application of macroeconomics. A lot of times it is just theory, theory, theory. Not in this case.

This book was a big surprise to me. I did not know that in the late 1800s through the 1920s, the prevaling medical analysis of mental disorder was called neurasthenia. The (pre-)psychological world of the time believed that mental health derived from a balance of nervous energy in the body. Too much? Excitement, hysteria, insanity. Too little? Lethargy, melancholia, death. This non-empirical "science" was White, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant Gentry Male-centric. And the "American" variant of the disease was the worst because of our modern conveniences like trains and telegraphs. 1903 may stand as the epicenter of this medical marvel. Tom Lutz uses examples of 1903 events grouped as anecdotes about public figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Theodore Dressier. This device effectively demonstrates the ubiquity of neurasthenia in people's perceptions of private and public events.

A woman might be prescribed a month in bed drinking milk to combat an excess of nervous energy (ambition?), while her husband might go ride horses out West to lift him out of a professional rut. Sounds fair, right?

The polital conservative movement has roots in the period. "Conservatism" attempted to reuse excess nervous energy by spending excess business income on business expansion. This justified low wages in an early trickle-down mentality.

One caveat - Tom Lutz's writing is incisive and revealing but it's also erudite and scholastic at times. He carefully illuminates the influence of the most important social/medical theory of the time - keep your thinking hat on.

...I can't argue with thee diligence of the scholars who contributed to this volume.

Readers should be warned. If this is your first attempt at studying industrial history, it is difficult going. It is not really "economics" in the usual way. Nor is it history as you have usually read it.

It is a series of case studies about the industrial development of nations all over the world, aimed at supporting some very controversial theses about what does and what does not work toward that end.

The author had previously found that the Philadelphian economy had experienced lower growth in income inequality during the 1980s than the rest of the U.S. (Madden and Stull, 1991). Madden appears to have been spurned on by this earlier result and, in this clearly written book, she aims to identify whether there are any relationships between metropolitan characteristics and household income distributions within US metropolitan areas.

Madden's foci are on poverty rates, household income inequality and wage inequality within 'metropolitan statistical areas' across the U.S. between 1979 and 1989. Emphasis is on three factors that she argues are most likely to influence changes in inequalities within metropolitan areas: local labour markets, the geographic structure of the metropolitan region and changes in the labour force's demographics and skill composition. The strength of the book lies in the messages about recognising the importance of the demographic breakdown of the workforce and the study is a particularly welcome addition to the literature given that the geographical unit for analysis is not determined by political or administrative definitions, but instead by the degree of economic and social integration of counties which can be seen as representative of individual, local economic markets.

Contrary to some of the most up-to-date literature on the determinants of spatial inequalities, Madden places much of her attention on supply side factors and it is a shame that she does not fully exploit her data set of distinctive markets as the influence of trade (and the derived demand for labour), and not just the characteristics of the local labour supply, is also known to influence inequalities. I was disappointed by the lack of recognition of demand-sided issues associated with the importance of industrial composition of the local economy, and the different affects it they may have on inequalities of metropolitan statistical areas. In fact, she completely ignores the points made most succinctly by the likes of Haskel (1999) and Slaughter (1999) on the respective influences of trade and labour market affects on income inequalities (irrespective of the fact that Haskel and Slaughter focus on larger economies) associated with the inter-sectoral mobility of labour. There is also very little recognition of the possible effects that skill-biased technical change or sector-biased technical change can have on the evolution of earnings, household income and poverty. [If Madden feels that they are not relevant to metropolitan statistical areas I would like to have understood why this is the case].

As this is a supply-sided study that focuses on the characteristics of the labour force, it may not be surprising that her results point to a number of policy recommendations pertaining to antipoverty policies, and address issues such as job growth and creation, the types of jobs created, and anti-discrimination policies. I feel her emphasis on household formation is justified and well discussed even though Blank and Card (1993) found this to be unimportant. The book contains some good points on how the composition of the household strongly affects household inequalities and earnings inequalities making the reader aware that differences in household composition across local economic markets must be integrated into antipoverty policy formation should such policies be optimal and efficient.

Although the structure is clearly defined, with chapters focusing on, for example, the data set (Ch. 3), different measurements of inequality (Ch. 4) and the possible sources of household income inequality (Ch. 5), the layout of the chapter give the feeling that the book is mainly descriptive. A different structure would have been welcome that links the foci in a manner that provides and analytical base for further examination. Instead, Madden states several times that she cannot provide answers as to why, how or what caused these changes over time. Of course, an advantage of this clarity and admission is that the book points to directions for future research.

The book should be read by those individuals who are up-to-date with the demand sided arguments behind the evolution of inequalities as it could provide lines for future research that encompasses both demand- and supply-sided forces behind wage inequalities. It would also make a good case study for students of the economics of demography while the results would be useful policy makers and labour economists in general. Although this is an excellent supply-sided case study of income inequalities, I feel that the book often becomes too descriptive which make it relatively lack-lustre read. Nevertheless, it could be an important case study reference book for future studies on the micro-supply-sided-foundations of income inequalities.

Blank, R. and D. Card (1993) "Poverty, Income-Distribution and Growth: Are they still Connected?" Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 0(2), 285-339

Haskel, J. E. (2000) "Trade and labour approaches to wage inequality" Review of International Economics 8(3), 397-408

Slaughter, M. J. (1999) "Globalisation and wages: A tale of two perspectives", World Economy 22(5), 609-630