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Book reviews

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Misbehaving: How Economics Became Behavioural

Reviewer: Ian Bright

Why are we more likely to forgo the opportunity to sell a £100 bottle of wine rather than actually taking money out our wallet to pay for it, when ultimately the 'opportunity cost' of doing so is the same? Why would the 'endowment effect' mean that we value a free ticket worth hundreds of pounds more than the money we would get from selling it? In this new, ambitious work, Thaler presents his findings in behavioural economics and breaks down the biases and irrational tendancies in our thinking, showing us how to avoid making costly mistakes in life.

Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Climate Change

Reviewer: Ian Roderick, Director, The Schumacher Institute

The risks of climate change are potentially immense. The benefits of taking action are also clear: we can see that economic development, reduced emissions, and creative adaptation go hand in hand. In this book, Nicholas Stern explains why, notwithstanding the great attractions of a new path, it has been so difficult to tackle climate change effectively. He makes a compelling case for climate action now and sets out the forms that action should take.

The Business of Sharing: Making it in the New Sharing Economy

Reviewer: Helen Solomon, Lecturer in Economics, De Montfort University

Today, 'collaborative consumption' lets people earn over $15 billion a year by sharing what they already own: from cars and homes to money and time. And that's almost nothing. According to PwC, the sharing economy will grow into a $335 billion market by 2025. Written by one of the business leaders of the movement, The Business of Sharing is an insider's guide for anyone thinking of entering the sharing economy and looking to profit from the upheavals ahead.

Forging capitalism

Rogues, swindlers and the rise of modern finance

Reviewer: Bill Allen

In a story teeming with playboys and scoundrels and rich in colorful and amazing events, Klaus chronicles the evolution of trust through three distinct epochs: the age of values, the age of networks and reputations, and, ultimately, in a world of increased technology and wealth, the age of skepticism and verification. In today’s world, where the questionable dealings of large international financial institutions are continually in the spotlight, this extraordinary history has great relevance, offering essential lessons in both the importance and the limitations of trust.

Measuring Happiness: The Economics of Well‑Being

Reviewer: Tony Dolphin, Senior Economist, IPPR

The authors examine the evolution of happiness research, considering the famous "Easterlin Paradox," which found that people's average life satisfaction didn't seem to depend on their income. But they question whether happiness research can measure what needs to be measured. They argue that we should not assess people's well-being on a "happiness scale," because that necessarily obscures true social progress. Instead, rising income should be understood as increasing opportunities and alleviating scarcity.

Inequality: What can be done?

Reviewer: Dame Kate Barker, Chairman, Society of Business Economists

Inequality is one of our most urgent social problems. Curbed in the decades after World War II, it has recently returned with a vengeance. Anthony Atkinson has long been at the forefront of research on inequality, and brings his theoretical and practical experience to bear on its diverse problems. In this book, he presents a comprehensive set of policies that could bring about a genuine shift in the distribution of income in developed countries.

The Trouble with Europe

Reviewer: Donald Anderson

The EU needs fundamental reform: it has not delivered the prosperity and growth it promised; the euro has turned out to be part of the problem rather than the solution; the EUs share of world GDP is set to fall sharply. This updated and expanded edition of Roger Bootle s critically acclaimed book includes new material on federal union, policies to avert catastrophe in the Eurozone (including the Greek situation) and mass migration.

Wildcat Currency: How the Virtual Money Revolution is Transforming the Economy

Reviewer: Nigel Dodd, Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics

Today's economy has seen an explosion of new forms of monetary exchange not created by the federal government. Credit card companies offer points that can be traded in for a variety of goods and services, from airline miles to online store credit. Online game creators have devised new mediums of electronic exchange that turn virtual money into real money. In this dynamic and essential work, Edward explores the current phenomenon of virtual currencies and what it will mean legally,

The Forgotten Depression - 1921: The Crash that Cured Itself

Reviewer: Bill Allen

The Forgotten Depression - 1921 is an account of the deep economic slump of 1920–21 that proposes, with respect to federal intervention, “less is more.” This is a free-market rejoinder to the Keynesian stimulus applied by Bush and Obama to the 2007–09 recession, in whose aftereffects, Grant asserts, the nation still toils.

James Grant tells the story of America’s last governmentally-untreated depression; relatively brief and self-correcting, it gave way to the Roaring Twenties. His book appears in the fifth year of a lackluster recovery from the overmedicated downturn of 2007–2009

The Shifts and the Shocks

What we’ve learned - and have still to learn - from the financial crisis

Reviewer: Mark Cleary, Kinetic Economics

Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times Martin Wolf gives an insightful and timely analysis of why the financial crisis occurred, and of the radical reforms needed if we are to avoid a future repeat.

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Articles reflect the authors’ views which are not necessarily shared by the Society or the Editors. The Editors welcome 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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