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  • Home
  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Society activities
      • Annual Conference
      • Annual Dinner
      • Rybczynski Prize
        • Winning essays (Reading~Room)
        • Rybczynski Prize Terms & Conditions
        • Recent winners
      • Statistics Community
    • President & Vice Presidents
    • Councillors
    • Data Protection and Privacy
  • What's on
    • Events
    • Past events
  • News
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    • Book reviews
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    • Winning Rybczynski Essays
    • Members' Polls
  • Podcasts & Speakers
    • Podcasts
    • Speaker Series
    • Conference reports
    • Annual Dinner reviews
  • Careers
    • Professional development
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  • Membership
    • Membership of SPE
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  • Reading Room
Reading Room
  • Book reviews
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  • Salary surveys
  • Winning Rybczynski Essays
  • Members' Polls

Book reviews

The Real Economy

History and Theory

Reviewer: Geoff Crocker, Author of “Rethinking Income and Money” (Palgrave, 2025)

A provocative new theory of "the economy," its history, and its politics that better unites history and economics

Return to Growth (Volume I & II)

How to Fix the Economy

Reviewer: Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director, A&M

In this arresting and powerful manifesto for economic change, Jon Moynihan analyses the UK's decades-long stagnant economy and looks at what can be done to resuscitate it.

The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Reviewer: Leath Al Obaidi

One of the most influential writers on economics, a reckoning with how and why the relationship between democracy and capitalism is coming undone.

A Modern Economic History of Japan

Reviewer: Ian Harwood

The modern economic history of Japan is an extraordinary tale. The country rose over the course of just a hundred and twenty odd years from outright backwardness to the elite tier of the most advanced economies.

The World Under Capitalism

Observations on Economics, Politics, History and Culture

Reviewer: Ian Bright

Providing an abundance of vital insights into evolution and dynamics of the world under capitalism.

Equality

What It Means and Why It Matters

Reviewer: Vicky Pryce

Two of the world's most influential thinkers reflect on the value of equality and debate what citizens and governments should do to narrow the gaps that separate us.

The Business of History

Tales and Lessons from Two Centuries of British Commerce

Reviewer: William A. Allen, National Institute of Economic and Social Research

This book explores how some British commercial icons started, evolved and then coped with an ever-more-complex economic environment.

Price Setting

Reviewer: Arno Hantzsche

The prices of some products fluctuate dramatically, while others remain more constant. What accounts for these extreme differences?

Atlas of Finance

Mapping the Global Story of Money

Reviewer: Kevin Gardiner, Rothschild & Co / Cardiff Capital Region

A unique illustrated exploration of the development of finance that combines data from every part of the world and covers five thousand years of history.

Status, States and Moral Sentiments

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell

Respect can be understood as a considerate that is expressed through the adequate acknowledgement of somebody's current status position.

Beyond Banks

Technology, Regulation and the Future of Money

Reviewer: Richard Urwin, Chair, Saranac Partners Investment Committee

How new technology is rapidly changing the nature of money and the way we pay

Our Dollar, Your Problem

An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead

Reviewer: Maximilian Magnacca

A leading economist explores the global rise of the US dollar and shows why its future stability is far from assured.

Environomics

How the Global Economy is Going Green

Reviewer: Neil Reeder

In this vibrant and eye-opening book, economist and broadcaster Dharshini David follows the course of an average day – from the moment we flick on the light in the morning – to reveal the green changes that are already taking place in every aspect of our world.

King Dollar

The Past and Future of the World’s Dominant Currency

Reviewer: Ian Harwood

An award-winning economic journalist on why the US dollar is positioned to maintain global primacy-and what that means for America and the World.

The Paradox of Debt

A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis

Reviewer: Ollie Clark

In the Paradox of Debt, Richard Vague shows that the real factor that drives both financial crises and spiralling inequality - but also, paradoxically, economic growth - is ever-rising private debt.

Euroshock

How the Largest Debt Restructuring in History Helped Save Greece and Preserve the Eurozone

Reviewer: Max Magnacca

The inside story of the unprecedented restructuring of Greece's debt in 2012-the largest restructuring in history.

No One Left

Why the World Needs More Children

Reviewer: Vicky Pryce

A population calamity is unfolding before our eyes. It started in parts of the developed world and is spreading to the four corners of the globe. There are just too few babies being born for humanity to replace itself.

The Corporation in the 21st Century

Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business is Wrong

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroeder's Business book of 2024

The Art of Uncertainty

How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck

Reviewer: Ian Bright

From the Uk's 'statistical national treasure', a clever and data-driven guide to how we can live with the risk of uncertainty.

The Data Economy

Tools and Applications

Reviewer: Lavan Mahadeva

Tools from macroeconomics and finance to incorporate the central role that data plays in the economy

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Articles reflect the authors’ views which are not necessarily shared by the Society or the Editor. The Editor welcomes comments, ideas and articles on a wide range of applied economics topics and related issues of more general interest.

For Books and Reviews contact:
Ian Harwood
Book Reviews Editor, The Society of Professional Economists
harwoodfive@btinternet.com

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