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This book collects Frank Hahn's less technical essays on economic theory. Marked by his unique blend of style, wit, and principle, they explore the concept of equilibrium and its "usefulness," the problematic role of money in the general equilibrium framework, and the shortcomings of monetarists, rational expectation ists, and neoRicardians. Frank Hahn is Professor of Economics at Cambridge University. His critique of monetarism, Money and Inflation, is an MIT Press paperback.
These original essays focus on a wide range of topics related to Frank Hahn'sdistinguished work in economics. Ranging from market analysis and game theory to the microeconomicfoundations of macroeconomics and from equilibrium and optimality with missing markets to economicsand society, they reflect the diversity of modem research in economic theory. What distinguishesHahn's work and many of the essays in this book is that the motivation often comes from practicalconcerns about unemployment, savings and investment, poverty, or the stability of markets.The essaysin Part I deal with the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomics - a field in which Hahn has madeimportant contributions, most not...
Hahn on Methodology: The Quest for Understanding addresses two fundamental questions: (i) what is distinctive about economic theorising?; (ii) what is the cognitive value of the outcome of this activity of economic theorising, i.e. economic theory. We will argue that for Hahn, economic theorising is distinctive with respect to four dimensions. Firstly, the aim of economic theory is neither to describe nor explain the real economic world, as in the physical sciences. Rather the aim is to achieve objective, but non-scientific, understanding. Secondly, the central question for economic theory remains for Hahn how to understand, but not to predict as in physics for instance, how decentralised choices interact and perhaps get co-ordinated. Thirdly, Hahn identifies ‘three commitments’ without which, he argues, economic theorising for him is not possible. Finally, economic theorising has a distinctive approach, which Hahn calls its ‘grammar of argumentation’ .
In recent years certain leading figures in the world of economics have called the usefulness of general equilibrium theory into question. This superb new book brings together leading economic theorists with important contributions to the ongoing debate. General equilibrium theorists including Michio Morishima, Michael Magill and Martine Quinzii debate strengths, weaknesses and possible futures with leading thinkers such as Herb Gintis, Pierangelo Garegnani and Duncan Foley, who seek to explain the rejection of general equilibrium. Uniquely, none of the contributors portray general equilibrium theory as the perfect guide to market economies actual behaviour, but rather illustrate that there is insufficient acquaintance with existing alternatives and that general equilibrium theory is often used as an ideal 'benchmark'.
This book collects together the basic documents of an approach to the theory and policy of the balance of payments developed in the 1970s. The approach marked a return to the historical traditions of international monetary theory after some thirty years of departure from them – a departure occasioned by the international collapse of the 1930s, the Keynesian Revolution and a long period of war and post-war reconstruction in which the international monetary system was fragmented by exchange controls, currency inconvertibility and controls over international trade and capital movements.
Sir John Hicks made a major contribution to almost every aspect of modern economic theory. In this book a number of leading contemporary economists pay tribute to Hicks and his work.
This sequel to Frank Hahn's "Equilibrium and Macroeconomics" presents his theoretical work published over the past thirty years. The twentyone contributions have been selected on the basis of their relevance to current economic debate, and they comprise some of Hahn's most widely cited and influential essays.Organized in five parts - Money, Non-Walrasian Equilibria, Stability, Growth, and Miscellaneous - most of the essays concentrate on monetary theory and economic dynamics (or stability). In the first instance, Hahn shows that classical Arrow-Debreu general equilibrium theory cannot be used for monetary theory. A reconstruction of this theory turns out to have some surprising welfare econo...
According to many scientists, climate change is a growing threat to life as we know it, requiring a large-scale, immediate response. According to many economists, climate change is a moderately important problem; the best policy is a slow, gradual start, to avoid spending too much. They can't both be right. In this book, Frank Ackerman offers a refreshing look at the economics of climate change, explaining how the arbitrary assumptions of conventional theories get in the way of understanding this urgent problem. The benefits of climate protection are vital but priceless, and hence often devalued in cost-benefit calculations. Preparation for the most predictable outcomes of global warming is ...
The theory of competition has held a central place in economic analysis since Adam Smith. This book, written by one of the most distinguished of contemporary economic theorists, reports on a major research program to provide strategic foundations for the theory of perfect competition. Beginning with a concise survey of how the theory of competition has evolved, Gale makes extensive and rigorous use of dynamic matching and bargaining models to provide a more complete description of how a competitive equlibrium is achieved. Whereas economists have made use of a macroscopic description of markets in which certain behavioral characteristics, such as price-taking behavior, are taken for granted, Gale uses game theory to re-evaluate this assumption, beginning with individual agents and modelling their strategic interaction. A strategic foundation for competitive equilibrium shows how such interaction leads to competitive, price-taking behavior. Essential reading for graduate courses in game theory and general equilibrium.
On the basis of theoretical considerations and on the evidence of real-worldeconomies, Frank Hahn demonstrates in unequivocal terms that Monetarism offers an implausiblesolution to the most pervasive economic problems. He confronts the central issue of current economictheory by making the case that the growth of the money supply is not a necessary cause of inflation,as the Monetarists have assumed. And he contends that inflation is in any case not the overwhelmingsatanic force disrupting society and the economy that the strict Monetarists think it to be ontheoretical grounds and so many others feel it to be in terms of practical economic realities. It isthe tax systems, he points out, that are the real influence at work against the economies of theindustrialized nations.Frank Hahn, one of Britain's most eminent economists, is Professor ofEconomics at Cambridge University and author of Equilibrium and Macroeconomics (MIT Press1985).