Markets are taken as the norm in economics and in much of political and media discourse. But if markets are superior why does the public sector remain so large? Avner Offer provides a distinctive new account of the effective temporal limits on private, public, and social activity. Understanding the Private–Public Divide accounts for the division of labour between business and the public sector, how it changes over time, where the boundaries ought to run, and the harm that follows if they a...

How the creation of the Nobel Prize in Economics changed the economics profession, Sweden, and the worldEconomic theory may be speculative, but its impact is powerful and real. Since the 1970s, it has been closely associated with a sweeping change around the world—the "market turn." This is what Avner Offer and Gabriel Söderberg call the rise of market liberalism, a movement that, seeking to replace social democracy, holds up buying and selling as the norm for huma...

Winner of the Richard A. Lester Award for the Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Princeton UniversityAn Economist Best Economics and Business Book of the YearA Financial Times Best Economics Book of the YearInequality is one of our most urgent social problems. Curbed in the decades after World War II, it has recently returned with a vengeance. We all know the scale of the...

Why are house prices in many advanced economies rising faster than incomes? Why isn't land and location taught or seen as important in modern economics? What is the relationship between the financial system and land?In this accessible but provocative guide to the economics of land and housing, the authors reveal how many of the key challenges facing modern economies - including housing crises, financial instability and growing inequalities - are intimately tied to the land economy....

Taxation is crucial to the functioning of the modern state. Tax revenues pay for public services - roads, the courts, defence, welfare assistance to the poor and elderly, and in many countries much of health care and education too. More than one third of national income in the industrialized (OECD) countries is on average taken in taxation. Taxes affect individuals in many ways. Taxes paid on income and spending directly reduce taxpayer disposable income, taxpayers face the hassle of tax r...

Keynesian Economics, Free Market Capitalism, Monetarism, Game Theory and the Invisible Hand. Sure, you know what they mean. That is, you've certainly heard of them. But do you know enough about these economic theories to join a dinner party debate or dazzle the bar with your financial knowledge?30 Second Economics takes the top 50 economic theories, and explains them to the general reader in half a minute, using nothing more than two pages, 300 words and one picture. Economics will...

'Free of jargon, obfuscation and interminable subordinate clauses, his prose is just the job' The TimesA fully updated and revised edition of the classic guide.The economy has never been so relevant to so many people as it is now. 'There's no such thing as a free lunch' is the one phrase everyone has heard from economics. But why not? What does economics tell us about the price of lunch - and everything else?Set out like a ...

The number one bestseller on the hardback list for more than six months, The State We're In is the most explosive analysis of British society to have been published for over thirty years. It is now updated for the paperback edition.

Countries with smaller governments grow faster.Tobacco taxes are the best way to cut smoking.Government regulation discourages entrepreneurshi****p.Award-winning investigative journalist Tom Bergin digs into eight mantras widely accepted by Western governments and, by talking to the people who promote those ideas and the workers, businesspeople and consumers who have felt their impacts, finds they often don't play out...

The welfare state is one of the crowning achievements of the twentieth century, giving citizens access to healthcare, pensions, disability and unemployment benefits. This unprecedented expansion of the state was a product of the postwar period of the late 1940s, when governments ramped up investment in this grand safety net. By the 1970s, half of all government spending went towards social-welfare programs, but today the welfare state stands at a crossroads, beset both by political opposit...

The 2008 financial crisis rippled across the globe and triggered a worldwide recession. Unlike the American banking system which experienced massive losses, takeovers, and taxpayer funded bailouts, Canada’s banking system withstood the crisis relatively well and maintained its liquidity and profitability. The divergence in the two banking systems can be traced to their distinct institutional and political histories.From Wall Street to Bay Street is the first book for a lay...

This book looks at how Ireland as a small open economy can prosper in the medium term. It contains recommendations from Irelands top economic and policy commentators for boosting and sustaining the post-crisis economy. The book is policy relevant accessible and written to stimulate public debate.