Faculty Bookshelf - Economics
| Title & Authors | Description |
|---|---|
A Pluralistic Introduction to Macroeconomics: Methodology, Theory, and Policy Hendrik Van den Berg (Edward Elgar, 2024) | This textbook provides a broad introduction to the field of macroeconomics and the alternative approaches to modeling an economic system. It ultimately demonstrates that economic modeling is always a matter of choice and compromise, and no one school of thought can accurately capture the full essence of a real evolving economic system under all circumstances, in all places, and at all times in history. |
Busting the Bankers' Club: Finance for the Rest of Us Gerald Epstein (University of California Press, 2024) | Drawing from decades of research on the history, economics, and politics of banking, economist Gerald Epstein shows that any meaningful reform will require breaking up this club of politicians, economists, lawyers, and CEOs who sustain the status quo. Thankfully, there are thousands of activists, experts, and public officials who are working to do just that. Clear-eyed and hopeful, Busting the Bankers' Club centers the individuals and groups fighting for a financial system that will better serve the needs of the marginalized and support important transitions to a greener, fairer economy. |
The Economics of Structural Racism: Stratification Economics and U.S. Labor Markets Patrick L. Mason (Cambridge University Press, 2023) | This extensive and comprehensive book tracks persistent racial disparities in the US across multiple regimes of structural racism. It begins with an examination of the economics of racial identity, mechanisms of stratification, and regimes of structural racism. It analyzes trends in racial inequality in education and changes in family structure since the demise of Jim Crow. The book also examines generational trends in income, wealth, and employment for families and individuals, by race, gender, and national region. It explores economic differences among African Americans, by region, ethnicity, nativity, gender, and racial identity. Finally, the book provides a theoretical analysis of structural racism, productivity, and wages, with a special focus on the role of managers and instrumental discrimination inside the firm. The book concludes with an investigation of instrumental discrimination, hate crimes, the criminal legal system, and the impact of mass incarceration on family structure and economic inequality. |
The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems: An Intersectional Political Economy Nancy Folbre (Verso, 2021) | Why do patriarchal systems survive? In this groundbreaking work of feminist theory, Nancy Folbre examines the contradictory effects of capitalist development. She explains why the work of caring for others is under-valued and under-rewarded in today's global economy, calling attention to the organization of childrearing, the care of other dependents, and the inheritance of assets. Upending conventional definitions of the economy based only on the market, Folbre emphasizes the production of human capabilities in families and communities and the social reproduction of group solidarities. Highlighting the complexity of hierarchical systems and their implications for political coalitions, The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems sets a new feminist agenda for the twenty-first century. |
Informal Women Workers in the Global South Jayati Ghosh (Routledge, 2021) | Formalising employment is a desirable policy goal, but how it is done matters greatly, especially for women workers. Indeed, formalisation policies that do not recognize gendered realities and prevailing socio-economic conditions may be less effective and even counterproductive. This book examines the varying trajectories of formalisation and their impact on women workers in five developing countries in Asia and Africa: India, Thailand, South Africa, Ghana and Morocco. They range from low- to middle-income countries, which are integrated into global financial and goods markets to differing degrees and have varying labour market and macroeconomic conditions. |
How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Economic Reform Debate Isabella Weber (Routledge, 2021) | Based on extensive research, including interviews with key Chinese and international participants and World Bank officials as well as insights gleaned from unpublished documents, the book charts the debate that ultimately enabled China to follow a path to gradual reindustrialization. Beyond shedding light on the crossroads of the 1980s, it reveals the intellectual foundations of state-market relations in reform-era China through a longue durée lens. Overall, the book delivers an original perspective on China’s economic model and its continuing contestations from within and from without. |
The Economic Case for LGBT Equality: Why Fair and Equal Treatment Benefits Us All M.V. Lee Badgett (Beacon Press, 2020) | We know that homophobia harms LGBT individuals in many ways, but economist M. V. Lee Badgett argues that in addition to moral and human rights reasons for equality, we can now also make a financial argument. Finding that homophobia and transphobia cost 1% or more of a country’s GDP, Badgett expertly uses recent research and statistics to analyze how these hostile practices and environments affect both the US and global economies. |
Microeconomics: Competition, Conflict and Coordination Samuel Bowles and Simon Halliday (Oxford University Press, 2020) | Bowles and Halliday capture the intellectual excitement, analytical precision, and policy relevance of the new microeconomics that has emerged over the past decades. Drawing on themes of the classical economists from Smith through Marx and 20th century writers - including Hayek, Coase, and Arrow - the authors use twenty-first century analytical methods to address enduring challenges in economics. |
Gerald Friedman (Polity Press, 2020) | For decades, Americans have wrestled with how to fix their broken healthcare system. In this razor-sharp contribution to the healthcare debate, leading economist and former adviser to Bernie Sanders Gerald Friedman recommends that we build on what works: a Medicare system that already efficiently provides healthcare for millions of Americans. Rejecting the discredited idea that healthcare should be treated like any other commodity, Friedman shows that healthcare is distinctive and can be best provided only through universal program of social insurance. Deftly exposing the absurdities of the opponents of reform, Friedman shows in detail how the solution to our health care crisis is staring us in the face: enroll everyone in Medicare to improve the health of all Americans. |
Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet Robert Pollin and Noam Chomsky (Verso, 2020) | Together, Chomsky and Pollin show how the forecasts for a hotter planet strain the imagination: vast stretches of the Earth will become uninhabitable, plagued by extreme weather, drought, rising seas, and crop failure. Arguing against the misplaced fear of economic disaster and unemployment arising from the transition to a green economy, they show how this bogus concern encourages climate denialism. |
Economy, Society and Public Policy Samuel Bowles, Margaret Stevens, Eileen Tipoe, and The CORE Team (Oxford University Press, 2019) | This book has been created specifically for students from social science, public policy, business studies, engineering, biology, and other disciplines who are not economics majors. If you are one of these students, we want to engage, challenge, and empower you with an understanding of economics. We hope you will acquire the tools to articulate reasoned views on pressing policy problems. You may even decide to take more courses in economics as a result. The book is also being used successfully in courses for economics, business, and public policy majors, as well as in economics modules for masters' courses in Public Policy and in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). |
Economics for People and the Planet: Inequality in the Era of Climate Change James K. Boyce (Anthem Press, 2019) | ‘Economics for People and the Planet’ challenges the myth that economic growth must come at the expense of the natural environment and advances our understanding of how a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and power can help to safeguard the environment and address climate change. The audiobook version of Economics for People and the Planet features new chapters on the Green New Deal and the environmental costs of inequality. |
James K. Boyce (Polity Press, 2019) | In this compelling book, leading economist James Boyce shows that the key to solving this conundrum is to put a limit on carbon emissions, thereby raising the price of fossil fuels and generating strong incentives for clean energy. But there is a formidable hurdle: how do we secure broad public support for a policy that increases fuel costs for consumers? Boyce powerfully argues that carbon pricing can be made just and politically durable only if linked to returning the revenue to the public as carbon dividends. Founded on the principle that the gifts of nature belong to us all, not to corporations or governments, this bold reform could spark a twenty-first-century clean energy revolution. |
Keynes Against Capitalism: His Economic Case Against Liberal Socialism James Crotty (Routledge, 2019) | Keynes is one of the most important and influential economists who ever lived. It is almost universally believed that Keynes wrote his magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, to save capitalism from the socialist, communist, and fascist forces that were rising up during the Great Depression era. This book argues that this was not the case with respect to socialism. |
The Political Economy of Central Banking: Contested Control and the Power of Finance Gerald Epstein (Elgar Press, 2019) | Central banks are among the most powerful government economic institutions in the world. This volume explores the economic and political contours of the struggle for influence over the policies of central banks such as the Federal Reserve, and the implications of this struggle for economic performance and the distribution of wealth and power in society. |
What's Wrong With Modern Money Theory: A Policy Critique Gerald Epstein (Palgrave, 2019) | This Palgrave Pivot assesses the validity of Modern Money Theory’s approach to macroeconomic policy, specifically monetary and fiscal policy. Whereas other papers have focused primarily on theoretical and doctrinal issues, this book focuses primarily on an analysis of MMT’s policy approach. Though drawing on academic literature, this book’s approach is empirical and policy-based, making it accessible to scholars and the public alike. It addresses a burning question in the policy and politics of the US and elsewhere where MMT is gaining a policy foothold, especially among progressive activists and politicians: Is MMT, in fact, a good guide for progressive macroeconomic policy? The main focus of this book is to explain why the answer to this question is no. |
Microeconomics as a Social Science Gerald Friedman (Kendell Hunt, 2019) | While recognizing the variation within each approach, Microeconomics as a Social Science focuses on two broad classes of economic ideologies: those built on methodological individualism where social formations reflect the characteristics of individuals, and social science theories where social formations are independent of individuals and determine individual characteristics. Within each system, there are alternative variants, with different approaches and politics. While methodological individualism tilts towards “laissez faire” and social science towards public “intervention,” there are arguments within both perspectives favoring either political policy. |
Have a new addition to this list? Email mworoner [at] umass [dot] edu (Morgan Woroner) with the details!