Economics for the Curious: Inside the Minds of 12 Nobel Laureates

Author(s): Robert M. Solow

Economics

Alfred Marshall, the founder of modern economics, once described economics as 'the study of mankind in the ordinary business of earning a living'. In Economics for the Curious, 12 Nobel Laureates show that 'the ordinary business of earning a living' covers a wide range of activities, as they take readers on an engaging tour of some of the everyday issues that can be explored using basic economic principles. Written in the plainest possible language, Nobel Laureates including Paul Krugman, Eric Maskin, Finn E. Kydland and Vernon Smith confront some of the key issues challenging society today - challenges that claim attention in any phase of the business cycle. The range of topics includes how economic tools can be used to rebuild nations in the aftermath of a war; financing retirement as longevity increases; the sustainable use of natural resources and what governments should really be doing to boost the economy. Economics for the Curious is an accessible but informative display of the kinds of questions economics can illuminate.
It will appeal to anyone who has an interest in economics and the world around them, and we hope it will encourage further interest and study in the topic from readers everywhere.


Product Information

Robert M. Solow is Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a professor of economics since 1949. He taught macroeconomics and other subjects to undergraduate and graduate students until January, 1996. Professor Solow studied at Harvard and received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1987 for his theory of growth. For a number of years he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and was Chairman of that Board for three years. He is past president of the American Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a former member of the National Science Board. He received the National Medal of Science in 2000. He has written articles and books on economic growth, macroeconomics, and the theory of unemployment, as well as occasional reviews in The New York Review of Books and The New Republic. Some of the books for which he is most noted include Capital Theory and the Rate of Return (1963); Growth Theory: an Exposition (1970); Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge (with M. Dertouzos, R. Lester and the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, 1989); the Labor Market as a Social Institution (1990); and A Critical Essay on Modern Macroeconomic Theory (with Frank Han, 1995). He is currently Foundation Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. Janice Murray spent 20 years at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with economists Robert M. Solow and Paul A. Samuelson. For the MIT Press she edited Volumes 6 and 7 of The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, published in 2011. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

1. Depressions are Different; Paul Krugman 2. Rethinking Economics: A Classical Perspective; Vernon L. Smith 3. Employment and Unemployment; Peter Diamond 4. Unemployment During and After the Great Recession; Dale T. Mortensen 5. Long Term Trends and Stuctural Change in the Global Economy; Michael Spence 6. On Policy Consistency; Finn E. Kydland 7. Natural Resources and Sustainability; Robert Solow 8. Research Studies Approaching Cooperative Games with New Methods; John F. Nash, Jr 9. Interdisciplinary Social Science: The Transaction Cost Economics Project; Oliver E. Williamson 10. Financing Retirement; William F. Sharpe 11. How Should We Elect Our Leaders?; Eric Maskin 12. Standards for State-Building Interventions; Roger Myerson

General Fields

  • : 9781137383587
  • : Palgrave Macmillan
  • : Palgrave Macmillan
  • : 0.454
  • : 31 December 2013
  • : 222mm X 141mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 01 February 2014
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Robert M. Solow
  • : Hardback
  • : 330
  • : 188
  • : 14 figures, 4 tables