In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas stalk the land. This title explains how these dead ideas walk among us - and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid ...an even bigger financial crisis in the future.
A masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free-market economics
Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt's bestsellingEconomics in One Lessonhas popularized the belief that ...economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can't explain why they often fail so badly-or what we should do when they stumble. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, "When someone preaches 'Economics in one lesson,' I advise: Go back for the second lesson." InEconomics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free markets.
Economics in Two Lessonsexplains why market prices often fail to reflect the full cost of our choices to society as a whole. For example, every time we drive a car, fly in a plane, or flick a light switch, we contribute to global warming. But, in the absence of a price on carbon emissions, the costs of our actions are borne by everyone else. In such cases, government action is needed to achieve better outcomes.
Two-lesson economics means giving up the dogmatism of laissez-faire as well as the reflexive assumption that any economic problem can be solved by government action, since the right answer often involves a mixture of market forces and government policy. But the payoff is huge: understanding how markets actually work-and what to do when they don't.
Brilliantly accessible,Economics in Two Lessonsunlocks the essential issues at the heart of any economic question.
Interest in the foundations of the theory of choice under uncertainty was stimulated by applications of expected utility theory such as the Sandmo model of production under uncertainty. The ...development of generalized expected utility models raised the question of whether such models could be used in the analysis of applied problems such as those involving production under uncertainty. Finally, the revival of the state-contingent approach led to the recognition of a fundamental duality between choice problems and production problems.
The coronavirus pandemic has been described as a 'once in a hundred years crisis', and, in a literal sense this is true. The last comparable disease outbreak was the influenza pandemic of 1919, ...commonly referred to as the 'Spanish flu' though it was actually spread among, and by, the armies of the Great War, first in trenches and field hospitals and then on their return home.
The coronavirus pandemic has been described as a 'once in a hundred years crisis', and, in a literal sense this is true. The last comparable disease outbreak was the influenza pandemic of 1919, ...commonly referred to as the 'Spanish flu' though it was actually spread among, and by, the armies of the Great War, first in trenches and field hospitals and then on their return home.
High population pressure and the rapid pace of human activity including urbanization, industrialization and other economic activities have led to a dwindling supply of arable land per capita and a ...process of agricultural intensification in South Asia. While this process has significantly increased food production to feed the growing population, it has also entailed considerable damage to the physical environment, including degradation and depletion of natural resources and unsustainable use of land and water resources. This paper employs the analytical tools of economic theory, environmental and ecological economics to model the impact of irrigation in South Asia. It underscores the need for an eclectic approach to policy responses stemming from private and common property rights theories, externality theory and sustainability theory with a view to environmentalizing agricultural development.
We develop a model of games with awareness that allows for differential levels of awareness. We show that, for the standard modal-logical interpretations of belief and awareness, a player cannot ...believe there exist propositions of which he is unaware. Nevertheless, we argue that a boundedly rational individual may regard the possibility that there exist propositions of which she is unaware as being supported by inductive reasoning, based on past experience and consideration of the limited awareness of others. In this paper, we provide a formal representation of inductive reasoning in the context of a dynamic game with differential awareness. We show that, given differential awareness over time and between players, individuals can derive inductive support for propositions expressing their own unawareness. We consider the ecological rationality of heuristics to guide decisions in problems involving differential awareness.
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