Critical Concepts in Economics – serie

The Economics of Innovation is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Economics. Edited by Cristiano Antonelli, a leading scholar in the field, it is a four-volume collection of canonical and the best cutting-edge research.Many would argue that the economics of innovation is founded on the work of Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950), though its origins can also be traced to the writings of Adam Smith (1723–90) and Karl Marx (1818–83). In modern, knowledge-based economies, characterized by rapid innovation, interest in the area has exploded in recent decades and innovation economics is increasingly the object of professional and highly specialized research. The resultant body of scholarly literature is characterized by its multiplicity of perspectives from within economics, and, indeed, across the social sciences as a whole. Furthermore, methodologies borrowed from the natural sciences, such as epidemiology, life-cycle analysis and Darwinian evolution, have also contributed to recent advances. The sheer scale of the growth in the research corpus - and the breadth of the field - makes this collection especially timely and welcome.Volume One Innovation and Growth: The Classical Legacy brings together material from and about the foundational sources of the classical analysis of the endogenous determinants of technical change, with the writings of Smith and Marx providing the two key points of departure. Volume Two Innovation and Competition: The Schumpeterian Legacy collects key research following the work of Kenneth J. Arrow (b. 1921), in particular his two 1962 papers on the economics of learning and the economics of knowledge.Schumpeter’s contribution to the economics of innovation is unparalleled. A key definition of innovation; an understanding of the concentration of innovation in time and space with the notion of ‘gales of creative destruction’; and the analysis of the fundamental role of the corporation are all based on his thinking. Volume Three Innovation and Knowledge: The Arrovian Legacy brings together the best - and most influential - work produced in Schumpeter’s wake.The material collected in Volume Four Innovation and Complexity elaborates a single approach where innovation is considered as a key emergent property of an economic system recognized as both dynamic and complex, i.e. constituted by heterogeneous components that interact and change both the architecture and the performance of the whole. In this approach innovation is the result of a path-dependent, collective process that takes place in a localized context, if, when and where a sufficient number of creative reactions are made in a coherent, complementary and consistent way. Broadly speaking, this approach is the result of the integration of the strands of analysis identified in the preceding three volumes within the new emerging paradigm of complexity.With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Economics of Innovation is an essential collection destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

Edited by a leading scholar in the field, this is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Economics. It is a four-volume collection of historical and contemporary work in the flourishing field of feminist economics, an innovative and dynamic area of scholarship that broadens the scope of economic inquiry and allows a richer and more complex view of the ways in which economies function. The first two volumes of the collection consist of work done before the founding of the International Association for Feminist Economics in 1991 and are organized historically. The final two volumes consist of cutting-edge contemporary work in feminist economics and are organized thematically.This new Routledge title, edited by two leading scholars, is a four-volume collection of canonical and the very best cutting-edge work in feminist economics, an innovative and dynamic area of scholarship that has broadened the scope of economic inquiry and has allowed a richer and more complex understanding of the ways in which economies function.Volume I (‘Early Conversations, 1800–1960’) gathers foundational work produced before the professionalization and specialization of the social sciences by writers who were variously categorized as journalists, reformers, and—occasionally—as economists. Their writing provides important historical background on subjects such as household production, women’s participations in paid labour, and gender equality, subjects that remain central to feminist economics today.Volume II (‘Households, Labour, and Paid Work’) brings together the best work by professional economists examining various aspects of women’s labour both within and outside the domestic sphere. Topics include reproductive labour, caring labour, women’s labour force participation, the gender wage gap, occupational segregation, and the economics of the family.Volume III (‘Engendering Development and Economic Well-Being’) assembles work with a specifically international or global perspective. Among the topics covered are: women and development; the gendered effects of structural adjustment; property rights; economic transformation; and measures of economic well-being.The final volume in the collection (‘Epistemological and Methodological Considerations’) focuses on a feminist rethinking of economics. Volume IV collects the best scholarship on methodology, the history of economics, and postmodern and postcolonial critiques of both feminist and conventional economics.Fully indexed and with a comprehensive introduction to each volume newly written by the editors, and an invited introduction to the final volume written by Gillian Hewitson, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Feminist Economics is an essential reference work. It is destined to be valued by scholars and students of economics—as well as those working in allied disciplines such as women’s and gender studies—as a vital research resource.

How does government taxing and spending affect an economy, and how can we determine whether government policies promote a society’s economic objectives? What economic activities should governments undertake? Should they do less? How should an optimal tax system be designed? What information is required to determine the best possible distribution of income? And what are the advantages (or otherwise) of a federalist structure of government?These are the kind of dizzying questions addressed by those working in public sector economics, and this new title in the Routledge series, Critical Concepts in Economics, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subdiscipline’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output.Edited by Richard W. Tresch, author of a leading graduate textbook in the field, and a proponent of the mainstream theory of the public sector, this new Routledge Major Work brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship to provide comprehensive coverage of many of the subdiscipline’s most important topics.Volume I (‘Public Expenditures’) assembles the key work on the responses of governments to markets for desired goods and services that operate inefficiently or not at all. The main questions addressed include: what markets should a government become involved in to restore efficiency to the economy? How should it proceed in each instance to promote efficiency? And what are the factors that impede its efforts to restore efficiency?Volume II (‘Taxation’) collects the most important research on taxation and the principal normative issue of how best to design good taxes from an economic perspective (i.e. taxes that are simple, equitable, and do the least harm to a government’s pursuit of efficiency). Issues explored here include the two main positive economic questions associated with taxation: how do the main taxes that governments use affect economic behaviour, primarily the supply of labour, saving and investment, and the incentives to evade paying these taxes; and tax incidence—who bears the burden of these taxes?Volume III (‘Distribution’) brings together the best work on the pursuit of equity by governments through its taxes and transfer payments. Fundamental questions tackled include the optimal amount of redistribution a government should undertake through taxes and transfers, and how it should best design its transfer programmes to meet distributional goals.The scholarship assembled in the final volume (‘Federalism’) explores the special problems that arise from having a tiered system of (supra-)national, state or provincial, and local governments. Primary issues within federalism include questions about which levels of government should perform the various legitimate functions of government, and how the movement of people in response to state/provincial and local taxes and expenditures affect the quest for equitable and efficient government policies. This volume also covers the important subsidiary debate over the use and effects of grants-in-aid from higher-level to lower-level governments.Fully indexed and with a useful introduction to the collection, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Public Sector Economics is an essential work of reference. It is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

Islamic banking refers to a financial system which is consistent with principles of Islamic law (or ‘sharia’) and guided by Islamic economics. In particular, Islamic law prohibits ‘riba’ or usury, the collection and payment of interest. Additionally, Islamic law prohibits investing in businesses considered unlawful (‘haram’) or contrary to Islamic values. In recent years, a number of Islamic banks have been created to cater to the growing demand, driven by globalization and the vast wealth of some Muslim states in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and Islamic finance has moved from a niche position to become a mainstream component of the global banking system.A large amount of research has been undertaken into this subject (much of which highlights the institutional aspects of Islamic social, economic, and financial arrangements) and this new four-volume collection from Routledge meets the need for a one-stop collection of the best scholarship. Its scope extends from the time of the creation of Islamic institutions in accordance with Quranic principles to the present day. And while Islamic Banking and Finance surveys the historic evolution of Islamic financial institutions over the last 1,400 years, it also illustrates the directions in which the subject is moving, including its role in the new world order, good governance, and transparency, and how the gaps can be bridged between Islamic and conventional financial systems.With a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editor which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Islamic Banking and Finance is an essential work of reference. It is destined to be valued by economists—as well as by scholars, students, and researchers of Islamic Studies, Middle East Studies, and Business Studies—as a vital resource.

Urban and regional economics encompasses both the economics of geography and spatial economics to focus on the growth, behaviour, and economic performance of cities and regions. Over the last two decades, urban and regional economics has grown dramatically—both as a taught subject and as an active research area—and as work in the subdiscipline flourishes as never before, this new four-volume collection from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output.The collection, part of Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series, is edited by Philip McCann, author of the leading textbook in the field. He has carefully organized the collection to give users not only a thorough understanding of current ideas, but also a detailed exploration of the origin and development of these critical concepts to situate them within a number of rich analytical research traditions.Urban and Regional Economics is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor. It is an essential collection destined to be valued by urban and regional economists—and those working in cognate areas—as a vital research resource.

The study of economic phenomena over time is a well-established and flourishing area of research and study, and this new four-volume collection in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Economics, meets the need for an authoritative, up-to-date, and comprehensive reference work synthesizing the voluminous literature from twentieth-century economic historians. Indeed, the sheer scale of the research output—and the breadth of the field—makes this collection especially welcome. It answers the need for a comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary contributions to facilitate ready access to the most influential and important scholarship from a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives.The collection is organized into ten principal parts. Part 1 explores theory and methodology and the role of economic history as either an alternative to mainstream economics, or as a ‘help discipline’. Part 2 gathers the key research on growth in economic history. The third and fourth parts cover the causes and social consequences of the Industrial Revolution, while Part 5 brings together the best and most influential work on the feudal and early modern economy. Part 6 deals with free trade, mercantilism, and imperialism. Part 7 focuses on the Great Depression, while Part 8 collects research on world economic history and the slave economy. The final part collects a fascinating miscellany of crucial issues, including taxation and gender.Twentieth-Century Economic History is edited by Lars Magnusson, a leading scholar in the field. The collection is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the material in its intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

The editors of this new collection write:Western economists define economics as the branch of knowledge or science which investigates how scarce resources are best allocated into competing claims upon them. These claims are socially and culturally determined. Islamic economics and its principles have also developed from a specific set of social and cultural circumstances, but the key to the whole subject is the guidance given in the Prophetic scriptures. The tenets laid down in the Qur’an provided the basis for a comprehensive, and continuous, system of social and cultural, and hence also economic, behaviour, for which there is no Western equivalent.This collection analyses the rationale of Islamic values and Islamic laws in economic activities. It examines how Islam has contributed several alternative values to business and economic policies in Muslim countries. Consideration is also given to how Islam can be considered as a universal system that can be applied to various economic policies, business strategies and government regulations.

The application of the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock—and to land usage more generally—is a well-established and flourishing area of research and study, and this new four-volume collection in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Economics, meets the need for an authoritative, up-to-date, and comprehensive reference work synthesizing its voluminous literature. Indeed, the sheer scale of the research output—and the breadth of the field—makes this collection especially welcome. It answers the need for a comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary contributions to facilitate ready access to the most influential and important scholarship from a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives.Agricultural Economics is edited by Gail L. Cramer, a leading scholar in the field. The collection is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the material in its intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

It is more than three decades since China initiated its economic reform and open-door policies. During that period, China has successfully transformed itself from an inefficient centrally-planned economy to a fast-growing market-orientated economy. To the rest of the world, China has emerged from the condition of a poor and completely isolated nation to become the most powerful engine of global economic growth. China’s dynamic economic transition and development, especially its performance in the current world financial crisis, have attracted considerable worldwide interest.This new Routledge collection answers the need for a reference work to allow researchers and students to gain a better understanding of the history and development of Chinese economic reform. The gathered classic and cutting-edge scholarship covers a wide range of critical issues in the modern Chinese economy, with the particular focus on the period after 1978 when China embarked on economic reform and integration into the global economy.Economic Reform in Modern China is supplemented with a full index and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital research resource.

The Great Depression had a devastating effect on much of the world’s developed economies. (For example, at its nadir, around one-quarter of the US workforce was unemployed. And, in Britain, exports virtually halved by 1933 as international trade collapsed.) The political and cultural consequences of the Great Depression were equally far-reaching.The ongoing search fully to comprehend the worldwide economic collapse in the 1930s remains a dizzying intellectual challenge (‘the Holy Grail of macroeconomics’ according to Ben Bernanke). Moreover, the current global economic and financial tumult has prompted many economists—as well as scholars from related disciplines—to explore the Great Depression anew in the hope of gaining knowledge on how best to survive the latest desperately serious and sustained global economic slump.As research in and around the Great Depression flourishes as never before this new addition to Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in scholarly output. Edited by two leading scholars in the field, this new Routledge Major Work is a five-volume collection of classic and cutting-edge contributions.With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Great Depression is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued as a vital research tool.

More than one hundred years after Thorstein Veblen’s famous article ‘Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?’, Evolutionary Economics is now widely recognized as a highly productive approach offering crucial insights for the understanding of socio-economic processes of change and development.A major feature in the development of Evolutionary Economics is—and has always been—its strong multi-disciplinary character, and this new four-volume collection in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Economics, meets the need for an authoritative, up-to-date, and comprehensive reference work synthesizing this voluminous literature. Indeed, the sheer scale of the research output—and the breadth of the field—makes this collection especially welcome. It answers the need for a comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary contributions to facilitate ready access to the most influential and important scholarship from a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives.Evolutionary Economics is edited by Andreas Pyka, a leading scholar in the field. The collection is fully indexed and has a comprehensive, newly written, introduction, which places the material in its intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

The branch of economics concerned with the allocation of resources in the labor market addresses some of the most difficult issues facing governments and policy-makers at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The range of dizzying questions it seeks to answer include: what is the impact of immigration on the wage and employment opportunities of native-born workers? are government subsidies of investments in human capital an effective way to improve the economic well-being of disadvantaged workers? what factors determine the distribution of wages? what is the economic impact of trade unions? why did the labor-force participation of women rise steadily throughout the past century in many industrialized countries?In addition to its policy relevance, labor economics has played an important role in the development of modern economics as a whole. Because of the widespread availability of data on labor-market outcomes, labor economists have developed a number of econometric methods that have profoundly influenced the profession. The diffusion of these methods to other fields within economics (and to other social sciences) has radically changed how social scientists analyse and interpret data.This new title from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in research. Edited by George J. Borjas, the pre-eminent scholar in the field, The Economics of Labor is a four-volume collection of classic and contemporary contributions.The first volume is dedicated to the basic models of labor supply and labor demand. Volume II, meanwhile, focuses on studies of labor-market equilibrium, including the theory of compensating differentials. The third and fourth volumes bring together a number of related topics, including labor-market discrimination, labor-market unions, migration, theories of incentives and compensation, and unemployment. Together, the four volumes provide a one-stop resource for all interested researchers, teachers, and students to gain a thorough understanding of the roots of labor economics and its future direction.With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Economics of Labor is destined to be valued by all economists, as well as by other social scientists working in related areas, as an essential work of reference.

In the memorable words of Ragnar Frisch, econometrics is ‘a unification of the theoretical–quantitative and the empirical–quantitative approach to economic problems’. Beginning to take shape in the 1930s and 1940s, econometrics is now recognized as a vital subdiscipline supported by a vast—and still rapidly growing—body of literature.Edited by a leading researcher in the history of econometrics, this new collection from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series brings together in one ‘mini library’ the best and most influential scholarship on the rise of econometrics. The set provides an authoritative one-stop resource to enable users to understand what has shaped econometrics into its current form. With a full index and comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editor, the collection also provides a synoptic view of many current key debates and issues.

In recent decades, human capital has become one of the most popular and influential research programmes in the academy. Its influence is not limited to economics, but has proved to be significant to many other social sciences; indeed, it has infused social and political debates about education and training. Moreover, human capital has become part of the jargon of many non-economists. Now, to help make sense of this critical concept, Routledge announces a new four-volume collection. It provides an extensive overview of the breadth and depth of human-capital research, highlighting not only the evolution of its theoretical and empirical development, but also the variety of topics that it has spawned. Edited and with a new introduction by a leading scholar, this collection gathers together the very best and most influential works.

The economic principles that underpin commercial transactions via electronic networks, and the many associated economic issues and controversies that e-commerce generates, are dizzying in their complexity. Now, to help advanced students and researchers make sense of an explosion of scholarship, Routledge announces e-Commerce Economics, a new title in its acclaimed Critical Concepts in Economics series. Edited by David VanHoose, a leading scholar in the field, e-Commerce Economics is a ‘mini library’ that brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge research.With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, e-Commerce Economics is an essential collection destined to be valued as a vital one-stop resource.

In the memorable words of Ragnar Frisch, econometrics is ‘a unification of the theoretical–quantitative and the empirical–quantitative approach to economic problems’. Beginning to take shape in the 1930s and 1940s, econometrics is now recognized as a vital subdiscipline supported by a vast—and still rapidly growing—body of literature.Following the positive reception of The Rise of Econometrics (2013) (978-0-415-61678-2), Routledge now announces a new collection from its Critical Concepts in Economics series. With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the assembled materials in their historical and intellectual context, Time Series Econometrics is an essential work of reference. This fully indexed collection will be particularly useful as an essential database allowing scattered and often fugitive material to be easily located. It will also be welcomed as a crucial tool permitting rapid access to less familiar—and sometimes overlooked—texts. For researchers and students, as well as economic policy-makers, it is a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

In the memorable words of Ragnar Frisch, econometrics is ‘a unification of the theoretical–quantitative and the empirical–quantitative approach to economic problems’. Beginning to take shape in the 1930s and 1940s, econometrics is now recognized as a vital subdiscipline supported by a vast—and still rapidly growing—body of literature.Following the positive reception of The Rise of Econometrics (2013) (978-0-415-61678-2), Routledge now announces a new collection in its Critical Concepts in Economics series. Edited by the author of the field’s leading textbook, Panel Data Econometrics brings together in one ‘mini library’ the best and most influential scholarship. This four-volume set provides an authoritative, one-stop resource to enable users to understand the econometrics of panel data, from both theoretical and applied viewpoints. With a full index and comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editor, the collection also provides a synoptic view of many current key debates and issues.

How does information affect economic relations? What of the strategic issues surrounding the use of information: the make-buy-or-copy decision; the working and failure of markets; and the important role of outguessing each other in a macroeconomic context? Now, to help advanced students and researchers make sense of these and other dizzying questions, Routledge announces a new title in its acclaimed Critical Concepts in Economics series. Edited by David E. M. Sappington, a leading scholar in the field, Information Economics is a ‘mini library’ that brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge research.With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Information Economics is an essential collection and is destined to be valued as a vital one-stop resource.

The development experience of India has been a matter of much interest in recent years. India is home to a sixth of the world’s population, and about a third of the country is acknowledged to be living below the officially determined poverty line. After more than six decades of planned economic development the levels of achievement in education and health are poor. After three and a half decades of moderate growth following India’s Independence in 1947, a period characterised by centralized planning, the pace picked up in the 1980s with some opening up of the economy. It gathered further momentum after the introduction of market oriented liberalization and significant economic reforms in 1991, and in the past decade the overall growth rate of the economy has been extremely impressive. It is however important to emphasize that it is not just high growth per se but growth along with equity or distributive justice that needs to be seriously addressed. This collection presents some of the historical material on development issues in the Indian context going back about a hundred years, from Gandhi’s economic formulations to Nehru’s ideas, substantially different on issues such as the agriculture versus industry debate and the relative roles of the public and private sectors. After India gained independence in 1947 the issue of economic development assumed centre stage in national policy making. Indeed one might even say that India was the laboratory where many of the significant new hypotheses or theories on economic development have been tested.

The principles that underpin the economics of natural resources and the many associated issues and controversies that the topic generates are dizzying in their complexity. Now, to help advanced students and researchers make sense of an explosion of scholarship, Routledge announces The Economics of Natural Resources, a new title in its acclaimed Critical Concepts in Economics series. Edited by Barry C. Field and Gardner M. Brown, two leading scholars in the field, The Economics of Natural Resources is a ‘mini library’ that brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge research.With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Economics of Natural Resources is an essential collection and is certain to be recognized as a vital one-stop resource.

The economic principles that underpin international trade, and the many associated issues and controversies that this evergreen topic generates, are dizzying in their complexity. Now, to help advanced students and researchers make sense of an enormous—and growing—corpus of scholarship, Routledge announces International Trade, a new addition to its acclaimed Critical Concepts in Economics series. Edited by Bharat Hazari and Yin Wong Cheung, this four-volume set is a ‘mini library’ that brings together the foundational and the very best cutting-edge research.Furnished with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the assembled materials in their historical and intellectual context, International Trade is an essential collection and is certain to be recognized as a vital one-stop resource.

In the memorable words of Ragnar Frisch, econometrics is ‘a unification of the theoretical–quantitative and the empirical–quantitative approach to economic problems’. Beginning to take shape in the 1930s and 1940s, econometrics is now recognized as a vital subdiscipline supported by a vast—and still rapidly growing—body of literature.Following the positive reception of The Rise of Econometrics (2013) (978-0-415-61678-2), Routledge now announces a new collection bringing together the best that has been published on the practical application and functional use of economic metrics and measurements. With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the assembled materials in their historical and intellectual context, Applied Econometrics is an essential work of reference. This fully indexed collection will be particularly useful as an indispensable database allowing scattered and often fugitive material to be easily located. It will also be welcomed as a crucial tool permitting rapid access to less familiar—and sometimes overlooked—texts. For researchers and students, as well as economic policy-makers, it is a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

Fritz Machlup (1902–83), the Austrian-American economist, is recognized as one of the first scholars to examine knowledge as an economic resource and, for more than half a century, many other economists and management theorists have also argued that economic growth is—or soon will be—dependent on the effective acquisition, transmission, and application of information and ideas.As serious scholarly work on and around ‘the knowledge economy’ continues to flourish, this new four-volume collection from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series meets the need for an authoritative, up-to-date, and comprehensive reference work to make better sense of a voluminous—and somewhat amorphous—body of literature. The Economics of Knowledge and the Knowledge-Driven Economy provides a ‘one-stop’ collection of classic and contemporary contributions to facilitate ready access to the most influential and important scholarship from a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives. As well as gathering the best work of economists, the collection also incorporates insights from disciplines including Management Science, Law, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Political Science.The Economics of Knowledge and the Knowledge-Driven Economy is compiled by Cristiano Antonelli (editor of Routledge’s earlier collection on The Economics of Innovation (2008) (978-0-415-42677-0)) and Paul A. David, leading scholars in the field. The Economics of Knowledge and the Knowledge-Driven Economy is fully indexed and has a newly written introduction which places the gathered material in its intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

The application of the principles of economics to the dizzyingly complicated aviation and airline industry is a well-established and flourishing area of research and study, and this new four-volume collection in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Economics, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to enable users to make better sense of its voluminous literature. Indeed, the sheer scale of the research output—and the breadth of the field—makes this anthology especially welcome.

China’s Macroeconomic Policy is a key collection of articles that showcase how economic policies have changed—and are changing still—in the world’s second largest economy, in a way that will affect the global economy. From exchange rates to fiscal policy, Chinese reforms have developed gradually to transform the country from one dominated by the state’s central-planning apparatus to one with more nuanced policies designed to manage an increasingly market-based economy. Most of the crucial reforms have occurred in the past couple of decades, with key policy and regime changes in the past few years. For instance, the RMB regime was set up in 1994, then moved to a trade-weighted basket of currencies in 2005, and then came the latest policy geared at internationalization of the RMB. All of which have significant effects on the global reserve currency regime. The main topics covered in the collection include: exchange rates, trade, investment, fiscal policy, monetary policy, financial regulation, and GDP.

Until fairly recently, many economists looked at Latin America with horror and dismay. Burdened by debt, and ravaged by hyperinflation and unemployment, it was often characterized as a financial disaster zone. Even now, many commentators consider that this resource-rich part of the world underperforms in comparison with other emerging economies. And how to explain stark differences within the area, such as the poor growth rates of the Atlantic-facing countries of Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina compared with the Pacific Alliance? More precisely, how do the various Latin American economies function? And what are the future prospects for the region?As serious research on and around Latin American economics continues to blossom, this new title from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series addresses these and other questions. In four volumes, the collection provides a much-needed compendium of foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship.Latin American Economics is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

Proponents of ‘nudge theory’ argue that, because of our human susceptibility to an array of biases, we often make subprime choices and decisions that make us poorer, less healthy, and more miserable than we might otherwise be. However, using behavioural economics—and insights from other disciplines—they suggest that apparently small and subtle solutions (or ‘nudges’) can lead to disproportionately beneficial outcomes without unduly restricting our freedom of choice. Indeed, the apparently virtuous—and cost-effective—possibilities of nudge theory has led to its enthusiastic adoption by adherents in the highest echelons of government and business, and ‘nudge units’ (such as the Behavioural Insights Team in the British Cabinet Office) have been established in the UK, the United States, and Australia.While far from uncontroversial (some critics have questioned its ethical implications and dismissed many of its practical applications as short-term, politically motivated initiatives based on flimsy evidence), in recent years there has been an astonishing growth in scholarly output about and around the economics of nudge. And now, while the hybrid field continues to flourish, Routledge announces a new four-volume collection to provide users with a much-needed compendium of foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship.The collection is co-edited by Cass R. Sunstein (Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard), the co-author (with Richard Thaler) of the pioneering Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2008), and Lucia Reisch of the Copenhagen Business School. The Economics of Nudge is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and policymakers as a vital resource.

Given that commercial shipping has been undertaken for over five thousand years, it is perhaps unsurprising that Maritime Economics is a well-established and flourishing area of research and study. Now, a new four-volume collection from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series answers the growing need for an authoritative reference work to enable users to make better sense of its voluminous literature. Indeed, the sheer scale of the research output—and the breadth of the field—makes this anthology especially welcome. It provides a one-stop collection of classic and contemporary contributions to facilitate ready access to the most influential and important scholarship from a wide range of perspectives.Maritime Economics is edited by Wayne K. Talley, a leading scholar in the field, and includes a comprehensive introduction which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. This essential collection is destined to be valued by advanced students and researchers of Economics, Maritime Studies, Marine Technology, and International Business and Trade as a vital one-stop resource.

As Russia aggressively tries to regain the status of a ‘Great Power’, whether it has the economic capacity to do so has become a matter of enormous topical importance, not just for those with a long-standing professional interest in the Russian economy, but also for a wider range of economists, political scientists, and foreign-policy specialists who need to understand the workings of this major—if somewhat unusual—state. Moreover, to determine if Russia can meet and sustain its apparent ambitions requires a knowledge not just of its current economic circumstances, but also of its economic past. What, if any, is the legacy of the Soviet period? How did Russia approach the transition from central planning to a market-type economy (a question which is relevant not just to our understanding of Russia itself, but also of transitional, emerging, and developing countries more generally)? And, leaving aside its Great Power ambitions, does the contemporary Russian economy possess the resources, structures, and policies to enable it to achieve and sustain even a viable society?As serious research on and around the Russian economy continues to blossom, this new title from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series addresses these and other questions. In four volumes, the collection provides a much-needed compendium of foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship. It brings together the most informative and influential major works on the Soviet economy, Russia’s early post-Soviet transition experiences, and its continuing economic successes and failures.The Russian Economy is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and policymakers as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.