At the time in which this book was first published in 1987, mass unemployment had emerged as the dominant, most visible, problem of the West European economies. The post-war experience of expansion was remarkable in that it experienced growth high enough to sustain a consensus on the possibility and desirability of full employment. This period declined into one of poor economic performance in the 1970s. Growth slowed and the subsequent years were characterised by painful adjustment and dis...

During the 1980s Britain became one of the world's most market-oriented economies, an approach which resulted in three severe recessions and a deepening degree of inequality. This book argues that a rebalancing of the economy will remain elusive until proactive policies are implemented at the corporate and industrial level.

Corporate governance is a complex idea that is often inappropriately simplified as a cookbook of recommended measures to improve financial performance. Meta studies of published research show that the supposed benign effects of these measures - independent directors or highly incentivised executives - are at best context-specific. There is thus a challenge to explain the meaning, purpose, and importance of corporate governance. This volume addresses these issues. The issues discussed centr...

Investment - in both facilities and know-how - is essential for growth. Economists try to understand the forces that determine investment, but investment behaviour is unruly; often the term animal spirits is used to explain the resulting volatility. This volume presents studies to explain international investment behaviour and assess its impact on growth and jobs. The authors also examine policy measures to reverse the climate of low investment that has characterised recent decades. The co...

Orthodox economics operates within a hypothesized world of perfect competition in which perfect consumers and firms act to bring about supposedly optimal outcomes. The discrepancies between this model and the reality it claims to address are then attributed to particular imperfections in reality itself. Most heterodox economists seize on this fact and insist that the world is characterized by imperfect competition. But this only ties them to the notion of perfect competition, which remains...

Capitalism has been an unprecedented engine of wealth creation for many centuries, leading to sustained productivity gains and long-term growth and lifting an increasing proportion of humanity out of poverty. But its effects, and hence its future, have come increasingly under question: Is capitalism still improving wealth and well-being for the many? Or, is long-term value creation being sacrificed to the pressures of short-termism, with potentially far-reaching consequences for society, t...

In the winter of 1933, the American financial and economic system collapsed. Since then economists, policy makers and financial analysts throughout the world have been haunted by the question of whether "It" can happen again. In 2008 "It" very nearly happened again as banks and mortgage lenders in the USA and beyond collapsed. The disaster sent economists, bankers and policy makers back to the ideas of Hyman Minsky – whose celebrated 'Financial Instability Hypothesis' is widely regarded as...

Numbers dominate global politics and, as a result, our everyday lives. Credit ratings steer financial markets and can make or break the future of entire nations. GDP drives our economies. Stock market indices flood our media and national debates. Statistical calculations define how we deal with climate change, poverty and sustainability. But what is behind these numbers?In How Numbers Rule the World, Lorenzo Fioramonti reveals the hidden agendas underpinning the use of statistics a...

The study of macroeconomics can seem a daunting project. The field is complex and sometimes poorly defined and there are a variety of competing approaches. It is easy for the senior bachelor and starting master student to get lost in the forest of macroeconomics and the mathematics it uses extensively. Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics is a guide book for the interested and ambitious student. Non-partisan in its approach, it deals with all the major topics, summarising the impo...

Offering a concise and critical comparison of EU competition law and US antitrust law from an economic perspective, this is the ideal textbook for international and interdisciplinary courses combining law and economic approaches.The book provides thorough coverage including the definition of market power, the use of horizontal and vertical restrictions, mergers and the unilateral conduct of dominant firms. It also includes discussion of problems relating to the enforcement of legal...

Trying to summarize the essentials of macroeconomic theory in the wake of the financial crisis that has shaken not only Western economies but also the macroeconomic profession is no easy task. In particular, the notion that markets are self-correcting and always in equilibrium appears to have taken a heavy blow. However, the jury is still out on which areas should be considered as failures and what which constitute the future of research.The overall aim of this text is to provide a...

This important textbook offers a comprehensive look into the two main traditions in contemporary macroeconomics –- New Classical and Keynesian –- and examines the work of economists who have drawn on principles from both traditions to form a new, integrated approach known as New Neoclassical Synthesis. Importantly, this provides the theoretical foundation for much of current mainstream economics and the work done by central banks around the world. With a dual focus on research methods and ...