Annotated Listing of New Books

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2006

JEL Classification System

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2006

The Big Push Déjà Vu: A Review of Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

By William Easterly

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2006

Jeffrey Sachs's new book (The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Penguin Press: New York, 2005) advocates a "Big Push" featuring large increases in aid to finance a package of complementary investments in order to end world pove...

The Great Escape: A Review of Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100

By Angus Deaton

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2006

In this essay, I review Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100, which is concerned with the past, present, and future of human health. Fogel's work places great emphasis on nutrition, not only for the history of he...

The International Monetary Fund in a Time of Crisis: A Review of Stanley Fischer's IMF Essays from a Time of Crisis: The International Financial System, Stabilization, and Development

By Patrick Conway

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2006

Stanley Fischer was deputy managing director of the IMF from 1994 to 2001 and, perhaps more than any other individual, he personifies the international "rapid response" to financial crises in the 1990s. This book is a collection of essays written during h...

Constitutions, Politics, and Economics: A Review Essay on Persson and Tabellini's The Economic Effects of Constitutions

By Daron Acemoglu

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2005

In this essay, I review the new book by Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini, The Economic Effects of Constitutions, which investigates the policy and economic consequences of different forms of government and electoral rules. I also take advantag...

Are We Collapsing? A Review of Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

By Scott E. Page

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2005

Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking Penguin, 2005), tells the dramatic decline of past civilizations—the Easter Islanders, the Anasazi in the Southwestern United States, the Mayans in Central America, the N...

Reviews of the 2005 Economic Report of the President

By Joseph Farrell, Jonathan Gruber, Robert E. Hall, Gordon H. Hanson, and Joel Slemrod

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2005

Getting the Properties Right to Secure Property Rights: Dixit's Lawlessness and Economics

By James E. Rauch

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2005

This is a review article of Lawlessness and Economics: Alternative Modes of Governance (Princeton University Press 2004) by Avinash K. Dixit.

Foundations of Human Sociality: A Review Essay

By Larry Samuelson

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2005

This is a review article of Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies (Oxford University Press 2004) edited by Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer, Erns...

A Review of Interest and Prices: Foundations of a Theory of Monetary Policy by Michael Woodford

By Edward J. Green

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2005

This is a review article of Interests and Prices: Foundations of a Theory of Monetary Policy (Princeton University Press 2003) by Michael Woodford.

Review of The New Financial Order by Shiller

By Stephen A. Ross

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2004

Review of Mokyr's Gifts of Athena

By Hal R. Varian

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2004

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...