Bücher der Reihe Classroom Companion: Economics

This textbook explains comprehensively and in rigorous detail not only mainstream microeconomics, but also why many economists are dissatisfied with major aspects of it, and the alternative that they are exploring in response: the Classical-Keynesian-Kaleckian approach. This advanced yet user-friendly book allows readers to grasp the standard theory of consumers, firms, imperfect competition, general equilibrium, uncertainty, games and asymmetric information. Furthermore, it examines the classical approaches to value and income distribution advocated by Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx, as well as Post-Keynesian pricing theory, and the microeconomics of variable capacity utilization. Using simple models, it highlights the analytical roots of the important differences between the marginal/neoclassical approach and the classical-Keynesian, critically examining the plausibility and reciprocal consistency of their assumptions.The book also addresses various microeconomicissues not generally included in advanced microeconomics textbooks, including differential land rent, joint-production long-period pricing, capital theory from Walras to the Cambridge debates, the foundations of aggregate production functions, the microeconomics of labor markets, and the long-period theory of wages. Lastly, it presents a unique re-evaluation of welfare economics. Intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate microeconomics courses, this textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to the various approaches and different schools of thought currently competing in the context of economic theory. It can also be used in courses on value and distribution, heterodox economics, and the history of economic analysis. In the present situation, characterized by scientific uncertainty and the co-existence of competing approaches, it will stimulate students to form their own opinion as to which approach appears more promising from a scientific standpoint.

This textbook teaches some of the basic econometric methods and the underlying assumptions behind them. It also includes a simple and concise treatment of more advanced topics in spatial correlation, panel data, limited dependent variables, regression diagnostics, specification testing and time series analysis. Each chapter has a set of theoretical exercises as well as empirical illustrations using real economic applications. These empirical exercises usually replicate a published article using Stata, Eviews as well as SAS.This new sixth edition has been fully revised and updated, and includes new material on limited dependent variables and panel data as well as revision of basic topics like heteroskedasticity, endogeneity, over-identification and specification testing. The author also provides more exercises and empirical examples based on published economic applications.

Insurance Economics brings together the economic analysis of decision making under risk, risk management and demand for insurance among individuals and corporations, objectives pursued and management tools used by insurance companies, the regulation of insurance, and the division of labor between private and social insurance.Appropriate both for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of economics, management, and finance, this text provides the background required to understand current research. Predictions derived from theoretical arguments are not merely stated, but also related to empirical evidence. Throughout the book, conclusions summarize key results, helping readers to check their knowledge and comprehension. Issues discussed include paradoxes in decision making under risk and attempts at their resolution, moral hazard and adverse selection including the possibility of a ¿death spiral¿, and future challenges to both private and social insurance such as globalization and the availability of genetic information.This second edition has been extensively revised. Most importantly, substantial content has been added to represent the evolution of risk-related research. A new chapter, Insurance Demand II: Nontraditional Approaches, provides a timely addition in view of recent developments in risk theory and insurance. Previous discussions of Enterprise Risk Management, long-term care insurance, adverse selection, and moral hazard have all been updated. In an effort to expand the global reach of the text, evidence and research from the U.S. and China have also been added.

This book is a survey of the field of development studies from a political economy perspective. It first reviews the academic literature on development and highlights the fundamental importance of institutions and social values, over and above other alternative theories, as determinants in long-run development. In this context, the book draws from the works of Nobel Laureates Douglass North, F.A. Hayek and Elinor Ostrom, and argues that the ingredients of property rights, the rule of law, and market freedoms are essential in generating socio-economic progress. Successful reforms however are not simply a function of constructing formal institutions, but must cohere with the social values, norms, and cultural commitments of local communities. It is in this spirit that the book theorises on the oft-neglected role that political entrepreneurs play in driving endogenous institutional change. Specifically, this book integrates the theoretical discussion on market-driven development with a range of case studies from around the world, featuring the bottom-up efforts of local change agents to pursue institutional reforms and changes in social opinion.

Based on over 15 years¿ experience in the design and delivery of successful first-year courses, this book equips undergraduates with the mathematical skills required for degree courses in economics, finance, management, and business studies. The book starts with a summary of basic skills and takes its readers as far as constrained optimisation helping them to become confident and competent in the use of mathematical tools and techniques that can be applied to a range of problems in economics and finance.Designed as both a course text and a handbook, the book assumes little prior mathematical knowledge beyond elementary algebra and is therefore suitable for students returning to mathematics after a long break. The fundamental ideas are described in the simplest mathematical terms, highlighting threads of common mathematical theory in the various topics.Features of the book include:a systematic approach: ideas are touched upon, introduced gradually and thenconsolidated through the use of illustrative examples;several entry points to accommodate differing mathematical backgrounds; numerous problems, with full solutions, and exercises to illustrate the theory and applications; key learning objectives and self-assessment questions provided for each chapter; full solutions to exercises, available to lecturers via the Springer Nature Extramaterial - Lecturer Material website. Vass Mavron is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Aberystwyth University. Tim Phillips is Professor of Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University.