Morris Altman - Böcker

Smart Economic Decision-Making in a Complex World is a fresh and reality-based perspective on decision-making with significant implications for analysis, self-understanding and policy. The book examines the conditions under which smart people generate outcomes that improve their place of work, their household and society. Within this work, the curious reader will find interesting open questions on many fascinating areas of current economic debate, including, the role of realistic assumptions robust model building, understanding how and when non-neoclassical behavior is best practice, why the assumption of smart decision-makers is best to understand and explain our economies and societies, and under what conditions individuals can make the best possible choices for themselves and society at large.

Additional sections cover when and how efficiency is achieved, why inefficiencies can persist, when and how consumer welfare is maximized, and what benchmarks should be used to determine efficiency and rationality.

Makes the case for 'smart and rational' decision-making as a context-dependent rational process that is framed by socio-cultural environment and conditioned by institutional capacities Explains how incorporation of the 'smart' decision-maker concept into economic thought improves our understanding of how, why and when people generate certain outcomes Explores how economic efficiency can be achieved, individual preferences realized, and social welfare maximized through the use of 'smart and rational' approaches

Replete with case studies, Waking the Asian Pacific Cooperative Potential applies a novel theoretical framework to aid in understanding meaningful change in cooperative firms, mutual firms, collectives, and communes, focusing in particular on the underexamined Asia Pacific region. It explores the common, albeit competing, objectives of transformational cooperatives that deliver a range of social benefits and corporative coops where the cooperative exhibits the characteristics of a competitive investor firm. The book provides examples of successful cooperatives in eleven countries across the Asia Pacific and reviews the theoretical framework of cooperatives, including issues pertaining to socio-economic, politico-legal, and domestic and international factors.

Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential provides early-career researchers and graduate students with a systematic resource of cooperatives in the Asia Pacific, highlighting core lessons from case studies regarding the ideal role of cooperatives in a modern economy and on the enabling factors of the role of the state, the market potential for scale-up, the mitigation of poverty, and civil society.

Provides numerous case studies drawn from successful co-operative organizations across the Asia Pacific region Advances a theoretical framework to help readers access and understand the reasons for co-operative success in the Asia Pacific region Develops tools for practitioners to establish effective co-operatives and restructure them to optimal goals

Economists have entered into the realm of sports to provide what they believe to be more cogent explanations for sport-related behaviour and to suggest ways in which incentives can improve sports outcomes. But prices and income, the traditional workhorses of conventional economics, can only provide partial explanations and understandings. Drawing on a bounded rationality approach to behavioural economics, this book demonstrates the analytical insights to be gained by supplementing the conventional economics toolbox with psychological, cognitive, sociological, and institutional factors.The international cast list of contributors cover a wide range of sports topics on which a behavioural approach can reveal new insights. These include preferences, managerial, efficiency, choking, doping, favouritism, athlete well- being, and spectator behaviour. Throughout the book, there is an emphasis on the cognitive limits to smart decision-making as well as the critical role played by the decision-making environment. This volume demonstrates that adopting a bounded rationality approach, complimented with other behaviouralist approaches, helps to better explain sport-related behavioural, sub-optimal behavioural, and market failures. It also provides insights that could be used to improve sports outcomes and the well-being of those involved in sports and to better configure policy to enhance sports performance.This groundbreaking book will be an indispensable reference to students and scholars of sports economics, sports management, and sports science.

Economists have entered into the realm of sports to provide what they believe to be more cogent explanations for sport-related behaviour and to suggest ways in which incentives can improve sports outcomes. But prices and income, the traditional workhorses of conventional economics, can only provide partial explanations and understandings. Drawing on a bounded rationality approach to behavioural economics, this book demonstrates the analytical insights to be gained by supplementing the conventional economics toolbox with psychological, cognitive, sociological, and institutional factors.The international cast list of contributors cover a wide range of sports topics on which a behavioural approach can reveal new insights. These include preferences, managerial, efficiency, choking, doping, favouritism, athlete well- being, and spectator behaviour. Throughout the book, there is an emphasis on the cognitive limits to smart decision-making as well as the critical role played by the decision-making environment. This volume demonstrates that adopting a bounded rationality approach, complimented with other behaviouralist approaches, helps to better explain sport-related behavioural, sub-optimal behavioural, and market failures. It also provides insights that could be used to improve sports outcomes and the well-being of those involved in sports and to better configure policy to enhance sports performance.This groundbreaking book will be an indispensable reference to students and scholars of sports economics, sports management, and sports science.

This book provides a theoretical framework to better understand how firms, economies and labor markets have evolved. This is done in a reader-friendly fashion, without complex mathematical arguments and proofs. Economic Growth and the High Wage Economy shows how high wage economies help make firms and economies more productive and why high wage economies can be competitive even in an increasingly globalized environment. It also demonstrates why concerns that labor supply will dry up as wages increase and social benefits rise are largely based on impoverished economic reasoning.The first chapters provide a theoretical basis for the rest of the book, showing for instance how higher wages are prone to increasing the level of economic efficiency by getting people to work harder and smarter (mainly smarter). Altman also explains that our understanding of technological change can be markedly improved by modelling technological change as a product of higher wages and improved working conditions and other shocks to the economic system. As the book develops, it is shown that increasing and high levels of income inequality are not necessary for growth and development, because the economic ‘pie’ grows when the economic wellbeing of the lower half and even the middle improves. The evolution of the state can also be better understood by applying this analytical framework. So too can the persistence of inefficient systems of production and cultural traits that appear to be inconsistent with economic prosperity. On top of this, the book examines the implications of Altman’s theoretical framework for macroeconomic analysis and policy. Finally, it is shown that labor supply can be better understood by introducing target income into the analytical mix. The main contribution of this book is providing the theoretical underpinning for why relatively high wages and, moreover, competition with high wages is good for dynamic growth and development. This work establishes why an alternative model of labor supply, based on the notion and reality of target income, does a better job of explaining the evolution of labor supply. The latter also reinforces the view that increasing wage and workers’ benefits should not be expected to damage the economy, even in the realm of labor supply. This book will be of interest to public policy experts, trade unions, human rights experts and scholars of behavioural economics, labour economics and globalization.

Exploring Asian-Pacific Cooperatives in Theory and Practice: Resilience and Thriving between the State and the Market investigates Asian-Pacific coop models mainly through the analytical lenses of Asian-Pacific researchers. It consists of theoretical and empirical analyses on transversal themes from interdisciplinary studies and national case studies covering multiple sectors and countries. It focuses on a variety of challenging issues using different analytical approaches to cooperative challenges in the Asian-Pacific and examines the traditional dichotomy between the State and the Market.

Explores how coops in the Asian-Pacific develop as successful business models, providing a broader understanding of cooperatives in different national and cultural settingsInvestigates why coops succeed or fail in the Asian-Pacific region, helping readers to understand under what conditions coops can deliver more equitable and sustainable growthUtilizes a case study approach, with the second half of the book featuring national case studies covering numerous sectors and countries in the Asian-Pacific

This book challenges some of the fundamental tenets of "free market" economics that have had a profound impact on public policy and the plight of the American worker. These include the beliefs that high wages inevitably mean low profits; that a "free" market will automatically reduce discrimination and pay inequality; that anti-trust legislation hinders competitive market forces; and that minimum wage laws and trade unions negatively impact the economy.Using both theoretical analysis and real-life examples, the author shows that these myths are a product of unrealistic behavioral assumptions on the part of "free market" economists about the typical worker. In fact, as the author makes clear, the level of workers' satisfaction with their jobs, as a reflection of how well they are paid and treated by their employers, has a direct impact on the quality level of the products they produce and, inevitably, the economic performance of the firms.

This book challenges some of the fundamental tenets of "free market" economics that have had a profound impact on public policy and the plight of the American worker. These include the beliefs that high wages inevitably mean low profits; that a "free" market will automatically reduce discrimination and pay inequality; that anti-trust legislation hinders competitive market forces; and that minimum wage laws and trade unions negatively impact the economy.Using both theoretical analysis and real-life examples, the author shows that these myths are a product of unrealistic behavioral assumptions on the part of "free market" economists about the typical worker. In fact, as the author makes clear, the level of workers' satisfaction with their jobs, as a reflection of how well they are paid and treated by their employers, has a direct impact on the quality level of the products they produce and, inevitably, the economic performance of the firms.

At a time when both scholars and the public demand explanations and answers to key economic problems that conventional approaches have failed to resolve, this groundbreaking handbook of original works by leading behavioral economists offers the first comprehensive articulation of behavioral economics theory. Borrowing from the findings of psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, legal scholars, and biologists, among others, behavioral economists find that intelligent individuals often tend not to behave as effectively or efficiently in their economic decisions as long held by conventional wisdom. The manner in which individuals actually do behave critically depends on psychological, institutional, cultural, and even biological considerations. "Handbook of Contemporary Behavioral Economics" includes coverage of such critical areas as the Economic Agent, Context and Modeling, Decision Making, Experiments and Implications, Labor Issues, Household and Family Issues, Life and Death, Taxation, Ethical Investment and Tipping, and Behavioral Law and Macroeconomics. Each contribution includes an extensive bibliography.

Human agency means the ability and desire of individuals to choose how well they work and how hard they work. In this book, the author extends the basic agency model, where choice of effort affects productivity and efficiency, to one in which choice of effort also affects choice of technology. The text argues against traditional neoclassical beliefs, including such ideas as that competitive markets erode discrimination and that the integration of firms through mergers and acquisitions can save substantial transaction costs. In summary, this text calls for a new approach to the study of economics from a socio-economic and behavioural perspective.

This comprehensive Handbook addresses a wide variety of methodological approaches adopted and developed by behavioural economists, exploring the implications of such innovations for analysis and policy. Presenting analytical narratives from renowned economists and economic psychologists, the Handbook applies a broad array of methodological perspectives to behavioural economics. These span from bounded rationality, asymmetric information, and heuristics and biases to fast and frugal heuristics, rational agents and smart decision-makers, and capabilities improvements and institutional design. Chapters further explore diverse areas such as public policy, micro and macroeconomics, labour economics, the firm, decision-making, preference formation, punishment, love, altruism, trust, the environment, money and finance, health, and sports. Providing a pluralistic approach to behavioural economics, the Handbook ultimately introduces readers to an array of possible methodologies that can be adopted to address topical economic issues, as well as facilitating an enriched and nuanced understanding of human behaviour in an economic context. Comparing and contrasting different methodologies within behavioural and neoclassical economics, this dynamic Handbook will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in economics, social psychology, and marketing courses. Policymakers will also benefit from its examination of the implications of behavioural economics for real-world decision making and policy.

A guide to the study of how and why you really make financial decisions While classical economics is based on the notion that people act with rational self-interest, many key money decisions—like splurging on an expensive watch—can seem far from rational. The field of behavioral economics sheds light on the many subtle and not-so-subtle factors that contribute to our financial and purchasing choices. And in Behavioral Economics For Dummies, readers will learn how social and psychological factors, such as instinctual behavior patterns, social pressure, and mental framing, can dramatically affect our day-to-day decision-making and financial choices.Based on psychology and rooted in real-world examples, Behavioral Economics For Dummies offers the sort of insights designed to help investors avoid impulsive mistakes, companies understand the mechanisms behind individual choices, and governments and nonprofits make public decisions. A friendly introduction to the study of how and why people really make financial decisionsThe author is a professor of behavioral and institutional economics at Victoria UniversityAn essential component to improving your financial decision-making (and even to understanding current events), Behavioral Economics For Dummies is important for just about anyone who has a bank account and is interested in why—and when—they spend money.

This book provides a theoretical framework to better understand how firms, economies and labor markets have evolved. This is done in a reader-friendly fashion, without complex mathematical arguments and proofs. Economic Growth and the High Wage Economy shows how high wage economies help make firms and economies more productive and why high wage economies can be competitive even in an increasingly globalized environment. It also demonstrates why concerns that labor supply will dry up as wages increase and social benefits rise are largely based on impoverished economic reasoning.The first chapters provide a theoretical basis for the rest of the book, showing for instance how higher wages are prone to increasing the level of economic efficiency by getting people to work harder and smarter (mainly smarter). Altman also explains that our understanding of technological change can be markedly improved by modelling technological change as a product of higher wages and improved working conditions and other shocks to the economic system. As the book develops, it is shown that increasing and high levels of income inequality are not necessary for growth and development, because the economic ‘pie’ grows when the economic wellbeing of the lower half and even the middle improves. The evolution of the state can also be better understood by applying this analytical framework. So too can the persistence of inefficient systems of production and cultural traits that appear to be inconsistent with economic prosperity. On top of this, the book examines the implications of Altman’s theoretical framework for macroeconomic analysis and policy. Finally, it is shown that labor supply can be better understood by introducing target income into the analytical mix. The main contribution of this book is providing the theoretical underpinning for why relatively high wages and, moreover, competition with high wages is good for dynamic growth and development. This work establishes why an alternative model of labor supply, based on the notion and reality of target income, does a better job of explaining the evolution of labor supply. The latter also reinforces the view that increasing wage and workers’ benefits should not be expected to damage the economy, even in the realm of labor supply. This book will be of interest to public policy experts, trade unions, human rights experts and scholars of behavioural economics, labour economics and globalization.

At a time when both scholars and the public demand explanations and answers to key economic problems that conventional approaches have failed to resolve, this groundbreaking handbook of original works by leading behavioral economists offers the first comprehensive articulation of behavioral economics theory. Borrowing from the findings of psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, legal scholars, and biologists, among others, behavioral economists find that intelligent individuals often tend not to behave as effectively or efficiently in their economic decisions as long held by conventional wisdom. The manner in which individuals actually do behave critically depends on psychological, institutional, cultural, and even biological considerations. "Handbook of Contemporary Behavioral Economics" includes coverage of such critical areas as the Economic Agent, Context and Modeling, Decision Making, Experiments and Implications, Labor Issues, Household and Family Issues, Life and Death, Taxation, Ethical Investment and Tipping, and Behavioral Law and Macroeconomics. Each contribution includes an extensive bibliography.

The first and only encyclopedia to focus on the economic and financial behaviors of consumers, investors, and organizations, including an exploration of how people make good—and bad—economic decisions.Traditional economic theories speculate how and when people should spend money. But consumers don't always behave as expected and often adopt strategies that might appear unorthodox yet are, at times, more effective than the rule prescribed by conventional wisdom. This groundbreaking text examines the ways in which people make financial decisions, whether it is because they are smart but atypical in their choices … or just irrational decision makers.A leading authority on behavioral economics, Morris Altman and more than 150 expert contributors delve into key concepts in behavioral economics, economic psychology, behavioral finance, neuroeconomics, experimental economics, and institutional economics to help inform economic models based on reality, not theory. Through 250 informative entries, the book explores various aspects of the subject including decision making, economic analysis, and public policy. In addition to introducing concepts to readers new to the subject, the book sheds light on more advanced financial topics in a manner that is objective, comprehensive, and accessible.

Some of the fundamental tenets of conventional economic wisdom, which have had a profound impact on public policy, are challenged in this book. These precepts include the affirmation that low wages are more beneficial that high wages to the process of growth and development; convergence in terms of output per person is just a matter of time; minimum wage laws and trade unions negatively impact on the economy as a whole; pay inequality due to labor market discrimination cannot persist over time; larger firms are typically more efficient than smaller firms; and culture is of little consequence to the course of economic development. Such predictions, the author argues, are a product of unrealistic behavioral assumptions about the economic agent. In this book, the author offers a more inclusive theoretical framework and a more reasonable modeling of the economic agent. This new approach is built upon conventional neoclassical theory while incorporating the most recent research in behavioral economics. The case is made that individuals have some choice over the quantity and quality of effort which they can supply in the process of production. Even under the constraints of severe product market competition and the assumption of `utility maximizing' individuals, effort need not be maximized, especially in firms characterized by antagonistic management-labor relations. This is especially true when relatively inefficient firms can remain competitive by keeping wages relatively low - low wages serve to protect such firms from more efficient firms. Alternatively, relatively high wage firms can remain competitive only if they become more productive. Under these assumptions, higher wages and factors contributing to higher wages can advance the performance of an economy while lower wages can have the opposite effect and cultural and institutional variables, by themselves, can affect the long run productivity and even the long run competitiveness of firms and economies. In summary, this book calls for a revised approach to the study of economics from a behavioral and socio-economic perspective, with significant consequences for public policy.

This timely book offers a nuanced critique of the nudge narrative, and demonstrates why and how ethical behaviour can have significant positive economic and wellbeing outcomes. Morris Altman models a complex alternative to the expectations of ethical behaviour and shows how this behaviour can be consistent with competitive market economies, contrary to what conventional economic theory suggests.Providing an alternative theoretical framework to analyse the relationship between ethical behaviour, decision-making environments and capabilities, individual preferences and the economy, Altman examines how being ethical can be an engine for economic growth and development. The book offers a better understanding of how ethical behaviour is good not only for the economy, but also for improving the wellbeing of our society at large whilst respecting and enhancing the rights and freedoms of individuals.This book is an important read for all those not content with the conventional economic narrative. It is also a provocative and thoughtful book for policy-makers and economists looking to better understand the growing importance of ethical behaviour for the economy.

This Handbook is a unique and original contribution of over thirty chapters on behavioural economics. It examines and addresses an important stream of research where the starting assumption is that decision-makers are, for the most part, relatively smart or rational. This particular approach is in contrast to a theme running though much contemporary work in which individuals' behaviour is deemed irrational, biased and error-prone, often due to how the brain is hardwired. In the smart people or bounded rationality approach, where errors or biases occur and when social dilemmas arise, more often than not, improving the decision-making environment can repair these problems without hijacking or manipulating the preferences of individuals. The Handbook covers a wide-range of themes from micro to macro, including economic psychology, heuristics, fast and slow thinking, neuroeconomics, experiments, the capabilities approach, institutional economics, methodology, nudging, ethics and public policy. It argues that neoclassical decision-making benchmarks are typically not the gold standard for best practice. The expert contributions demonstrate that decision-making capabilities and decision-making environments can both be more effective and consistent than nudging in improving welfare and utility, and in maximizing well-being. They also demonstrate how learning, improved information, empowerment, voice and preference play a vital role in determining smart decision-making outcomes. This comprehensive and original Handbook will appeal to academics in behavioural and experimental economics, and economic psychology.Contributors include: M. Altman, C.L. Anderson, G. Antonides, M. Augier, S. Austen, N. Berg, P. Biscaye, P.J. Boettke, S. Bourgeois-Gironde, R.A. Candela, A. Cronholm, G. Danese, G. Foster, R. Frantz, P. Frijters, K. Gangl, H. Gintis, M.J.J. Handgraaf, B. Harrison, B. Hartl, A. Hopfensitz, S. James, B. Kamleitner, E.L. Khalil, R. Kheirandish, D. Kilger, E. Kirchler, F. Kutzner, D. Lester, A. Leung, E. McPhail, B. Meder, T. Mengay, L. Mittone, S. Mousavi, H. Neth, A. Ortmann, M. Pingle, O. Powell, O. Rosin, T.F. Rötheli, N. Sari, N. Shestakova, L. Spiliopoulos, V. Tarko, S. Teraji, J.F. Tomer, J. van Beek, T. Vogel, B. Yang Lester

This Handbook is a unique and original contribution of over thirty chapters on behavioural economics. It examines and addresses an important stream of research where the starting assumption is that decision-makers are, for the most part, relatively smart or rational. This particular approach is in contrast to a theme running though much contemporary work in which individuals' behaviour is deemed irrational, biased and error-prone, often due to how the brain is hardwired. In the smart people or bounded rationality approach, where errors or biases occur and when social dilemmas arise, more often than not, improving the decision-making environment can repair these problems without hijacking or manipulating the preferences of individuals. The Handbook covers a wide-range of themes from micro to macro, including economic psychology, heuristics, fast and slow thinking, neuroeconomics, experiments, the capabilities approach, institutional economics, methodology, nudging, ethics and public policy. It argues that neoclassical decision-making benchmarks are typically not the gold standard for best practice. The expert contributions demonstrate that decision-making capabilities and decision-making environments can both be more effective and consistent than nudging in improving welfare and utility, and in maximizing well-being. They also demonstrate how learning, improved information, empowerment, voice and preference play a vital role in determining smart decision-making outcomes. This comprehensive and original Handbook will appeal to academics in behavioural and experimental economics, and economic psychology.Contributors include: M. Altman, C.L. Anderson, G. Antonides, M. Augier, S. Austen, N. Berg, P. Biscaye, P.J. Boettke, S. Bourgeois-Gironde, R.A. Candela, A. Cronholm, G. Danese, G. Foster, R. Frantz, P. Frijters, K. Gangl, H. Gintis, M.J.J. Handgraaf, B. Harrison, B. Hartl, A. Hopfensitz, S. James, B. Kamleitner, E.L. Khalil, R. Kheirandish, D. Kilger, E. Kirchler, F. Kutzner, D. Lester, A. Leung, E. McPhail, B. Meder, T. Mengay, L. Mittone, S. Mousavi, H. Neth, A. Ortmann, M. Pingle, O. Powell, O. Rosin, T.F. Rötheli, N. Sari, N. Shestakova, L. Spiliopoulos, V. Tarko, S. Teraji, J.F. Tomer, J. van Beek, T. Vogel, B. Yang Lester

This compelling book critically examines the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular by challenging the efficiency of lockdown measures. Morris Altman, Hannah Altman and Louise Lamontagne highlight the negative economic, social and psychological impacts of these measures, while proposing alternative strategies for pandemic management.Drawing on comparative global data, the authors contend that nuanced, targeted strategies frequently yielded better results than strict lockdowns. They explore responses to previous pandemics, demonstrating how softer policies such as increased hygiene measures, selective restrictions and targeted mask mandates could have led to comparable or even improved health outcomes and reduced death rates. Chapters cover key themes including the high concentration of Covid-19 deaths among the elderly, the inadequate protection of care home residents and the disproportionate burden on small businesses and lower-income populations. The book also investigates how political, academic and media discourses influenced policy decisions, underscoring the vital role of democratic debate and historically informed decision-making.How to Manage Covid-19 and Other Pandemics is a beneficial resource for scholars and students of behavioural and experimental economics, economic health, psychology and public policy. It is also a crucial read for policymakers and public health advisors looking to understand efficient pandemic management.

This comprehensive Handbook addresses a wide variety of methodological approaches adopted and developed by behavioural economists, exploring the implications of such innovations for analysis and policy. Presenting analytical narratives from renowned economists and economic psychologists, the Handbook applies a broad array of methodological perspectives to behavioural economics. These span from bounded rationality, asymmetric information, and heuristics and biases to fast and frugal heuristics, rational agents and smart decision-makers, and capabilities improvements and institutional design. Chapters further explore diverse areas such as public policy, micro and macroeconomics, labour economics, the firm, decision-making, preference formation, punishment, love, altruism, trust, the environment, money and finance, health, and sports. Providing a pluralistic approach to behavioural economics, the Handbook ultimately introduces readers to an array of possible methodologies that can be adopted to address topical economic issues, as well as facilitating an enriched and nuanced understanding of human behaviour in an economic context. Comparing and contrasting different methodologies within behavioural and neoclassical economics, this dynamic Handbook will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in economics, social psychology, and marketing courses. Policymakers will also benefit from its examination of the implications of behavioural economics for real-world decision making and policy.

John Tomer was a leading intellectual figure in behavioural economics, making distinct contributions to the theory of the firm, social economy, choice theory, and government policy.

John Tomer was a leading intellectual figure in behavioural economics, making distinct contributions to the theory of the firm, social economy, choice theory, and government policy. His underlying methodology as an economist was to incorporate different disciplinary approaches to the subject at hand, whilst maintaining an underlying respect and understanding of how and why humans behave the way they do.This book brings together a collection of scholars celebrating John Tomer’s contributions to the field of economics. Covering key areas of his research, contributing authors discuss the latest research in behavioral economics, the human firm, climate change policy, sustainability, well-being, human capital, and human development. This volume, extending John Tomer’s more scientific perspective rooted in behavioural and institutional economics, should find an audience among both scholars and policy advocates. It can also enrich course delivery, providing students with alternativeperspectives and approach to economic and socio-economic analysis.

A major theme of this book is that, contrary to what many experts believe, being endowed with a plenitude of natural resources is not a curse: rather it provides a potential advantage, if capitalized by the well-endowed economy. Much depends on the institutions that help frame the decision-making process that affects the process of growth and development. Canada is an example of a successful export-oriented economy. And, its export-orientation has been a focal point of discussion and debate, going way back to discussions of the early fur trade, the fishing industry, wheat farming, and mining and oil and gas exploration. Unlike other economies well-endowed with natural resources, Canada does not appear to be at all cursed, but rather blessed with natural resource abundance. This book, which ranges from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century, provides insights from Canadian economic history on how such abundance can be a handmaiden of successful growth and development. From this perspective, the natural resource curse appears to be more of a ‘man-made’ phenomenon than anything else. This book also investigates aspects of gender inequality in Canada as well as the evolution of hours worked as it intersects with worker preferences and ‘market forces’. The narratives in this book are contextualised by the construction of new or significantly revised data sets, which speaks to the importance of data construction to robust economic analysis and economic history.