On The Politics of Property Rights by Haber, Razo, and Maurer

By Robert H. Bates

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2004

Stephen Haber et al. explore economic growth in key sectors of the Mexican economy, 1876-1929, an era of political instability and (1914-17) civil war. The authors demonstrate that economic growth continued amidst political instability and offer an explan...

Meltzer's History of the Federal Reserve

By David Laidler

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2003

This review argues that Allan Meltzer's account of the Federal Reserve between 1913 and 1951 complements Friedman and Schwartz's in their Monetary History. Meltzer emphasizes policy making within the system, rather than the evolution of the money supply a...

Review of Drug War Heresies by MacCoun and Reuter

By Steven D. Levitt

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2003

MacCoun and Reuter's primary goal is to understand how current U.S. drug policies can be improved. They carefully describe the facts and trends regarding drug usage, criminal justice enforcement, and the harms associated with drug use, then discuss the pu...

On Networks and Markets by Rauch and Casella, eds.

By Ezra W. Zuckerman

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2003

This essay reviews Networks and Markets, edited by James E. Rauch and Alessandra Casella. This book provides a useful vehicle for clarifying the main conceptual and operational issues facing the growing study of economic networks. Three types of ...

Review of Hoshi and Kashyap's Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan

By Juro Teranishi

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2003

Examining the development of the Japanese financial system since the Meiji era, Hoshi and Kashyap derive a number of interesting propositions on the evolution of bank-centered financing, its contribution to rapid growth, and its future transformation. The...

Review of The Ordinary Business of Life by Backhouse

By Samuel Brittan

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2003

Roger Backhouse's book The Ordinary Business of Life is a comprehensive history of economic thought, from the ancient Greeks to the present day. It will be useful both to specialist economists and to people with a smattering of economic ideas who...

Review of Shleifer's Inefficient Markets

By Jeffrey Zwiebel

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2002

This excellent book provides the reader with a broad introduction to, and a powerful advocacy of, behavioral finance. In the tradition of the best of the Clarendon Lecture Series, Andrei Shleifer provides a clear context and motivation for a collection of...

Review of Grossman and Helpman's Special Interest Politics

By David P. Baron

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2002

In Special Interest Politics Gene Grossman and Elhanan Helpman examine how special-interest groups influence political outcomes for the benefit of their members. The authors take interest groups seriously by considering a range of theories and su...

Review of Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth

By Romain Wacziarg

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2002

William Easterly's superb book draws on what we have learned from almost two decades of cross-country growth comparisons, providing a critical synthesis of the current state of empirical knowledge on growth. The author emphasizes policy and institution-dr...

States and Power in Africa by Jeffrey I. Herbst: A Review Essay

By James A. Robinson

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2002

Herbst argues that Africa is plagued by "state failure" to provide certain public goods in society, such as law and order, defense, contract enforcement, and infrastructure. Herbst has provided a bold, historically informed theoretical analysis, essential...

Review of Skidelsky's John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain

By J. Bradford Delong

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2002

Skidelsky's three-volume biography of Keynes, of which this is the third, gives us Keynes, entire. The meat of the biography lies in the well-constructed narrative and in the magnificent portraits of Keynes and his age. Robert Skidelsky has given us a sup...

Review of de Soto's The Mystery of Capital

By Christopher Woodruff

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2001

In The Mystery of Capital, Hernando de Soto promotes his explanation of why formal capital markets function poorly in developing countries. De Soto argues that much of the population of developing countries lacks access to credit, not because the...

Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2001

Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2001

A Review of Monetary Policy Rules

By Christopher A. Sims

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2001

This article reviews Monetary Policy Rules, edited by John Taylor. The book evaluates the Taylor rule, a policy rule that specifies changes in the central bank's interest rate according to what is happening to two variables, real output and infla...

Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2001

Review of Meritocracy and Economic Inequality Edited by Kenneth Arrow, Sameul Bowles, and Steven Durlaf

By Charles Brown

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2001

The twelve essays in this volume deal with the definition of meritocracy and equality of opportunity, the causes and consequences of intelligence, schooling and inequality, and equal-opportunity policy options. They emphasize the importance of education a...

Fitness and Age: Review of Carroll and Hannan's Demography of Corporations and Industries

By Boyan Jovanovic

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2001

The Demography of Corporations and Industries (2000) by Glenn R. Carroll and T. Michael Hannan is a welcome addition to a body of empirical analysis of firms and industries that studies the effects of technological change and other changes that o...

Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2001

A Review of O'Rourke and Williamson's Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth Century Atlantic Economy

By C. Knick Harley

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2000

Much of the comparative economic history of the nineteenth century focuses on the spread of the Industrial Revolution from Britain. Incomes converged, in this view, as the transfer of superior technology raised incomes in the periphery. In Globalizati...