Whatever Happened to Thrift? Why Americans Don't Save and What to Do about It

It is no secret that Americans save very little: every economic index confirms as much. But to solve the real mystery, we must ask the questions, “Why?” “What are the effects on our economy?” and “What can be done about it?”

 In this thoroughly researched and thought-provoking book, Ronald T. Wilcox clearly describes not only how the “savings crisis” adversely influences personal lifestyles over the long term but also how it can undermine our national wealth and standard of living. Wilcox cogently explains that savings are essential to fuel our nation’s economic growth, whether it’s putting money in the bank or in the form of direct loans to the government as savings bonds, for example. And, he presents unambiguous facts showing that a high proportion of current wage earners simply will not have enough money for self-support during retirement—and that the government safety nets for income and health can no longer be counted on. Most important, Wilcox examines the many rational and irrational reasons behind individuals’ failures to put money away, what third parties such as corporations and government can do to help, and the steps people can take today to help themselves.

 The book is an attempt to reinvent thrift in the United States, to find practical ways to help people consume less and save more now so that we can be a richer people in the future and a more prosperous nation. It is a must-read for every corporate executive, policy maker, and concerned citizen.

Ronald Wilcox is professor of business administration at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. His expertise is in the area of marketing financial services, marketing and public policy, marketing research, pricing and auctions. Wilcox joined the Darden faculty in 2001. He is formerly an assistant professor at the Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Administration and an economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

yalebooks.yale.edu

INNOVATION ECONOMICS...

Why America no longer leads the world in innovation, why we should be concerned, and what must be done about it

This important book delivers a critical wake-up call: a fierce global race for innovation advantage is under way, and while other nations are making support for technology and innovation a central tenet of their economic strategies and policies, America lacks a robust innovation policy. What does this portend? Robert Atkinson and Stephen Ezell, widely respected economic thinkers, report on profound new forces that are shaping the global economy—forces that favor nations with innovation-based economies and innovation policies. Unless the United States enacts public policies to reflect this reality, Americans face the relatively lower standards of living associated with a noncompetitive national economy.

The authors explore how a weak innovation economy not only contributed to the Great Recession but is delaying America's recovery from it and how innovation in the United States compares with that in other developed and developing nations. Atkinson and Ezell then lay out a detailed, pragmatic road map for America to regain its global innovation advantage by 2020, as well as maximize the global supply of innovation and promote sustainable globalization.

Robert D. Atkinson is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and one of the world’s foremost thinkers on innovation economics.
Stephen J. Ezell is senior analyst at ITIF.

yalebooks.yale.edu

WHY NUDGE?

The bestselling author of Simpler offers a powerful, provocative, and convincing argument for protecting people from their own mistakes

Based on a series of pathbreaking lectures given at Yale University in 2012, this powerful, thought-provoking work by national best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein combines legal theory with behavioral economics to make a fresh argument about the legitimate scope of government, bearing on obesity, smoking, distracted driving, health care, food safety, and other highly volatile, high-profile public issues. Behavioral economists have established that people often make decisions that run counter to their best interests—producing what Sunstein describes as “behavioral market failures.” Sometimes we disregard the long term; sometimes we are unrealistically optimistic; sometimes we do not see what is in front of us. With this evidence in mind, Sunstein argues for a new form of paternalism, one that protects people against serious errors but also recognizes the risk of government overreaching and usually preserves freedom of choice.

Against those who reject paternalism of any kind, Sunstein shows that “choice architecture”—government-imposed structures that affect our choices—is inevitable, and hence that a form of paternalism cannot be avoided. He urges that there are profoundly moral reasons to ensure that choice architecture is helpful rather than harmful—and that it makes people’s lives better and longer.

Cass R. Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University, is the author of several books, including Simpler: The Future of Government and, with coauthor Richard H. Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

yalebook.yale.edu

A GREAT LEAP FORWARD...

This bold re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth is built around a novel claim, that productive capacity grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the golden age (1948-1973) that followed. 

Alexander J. Field takes a fresh look at growth data and concludes that, behind a backdrop of double-digit unemployment, the 1930s actually experienced very high rates of technological and organizational innovation, fueled by the maturing of a privately funded research and development system and the government-funded build-out of the country's surface road infrastructure. This significant new volume in the Yale Series in Economic and Financial History invites new discussion of the causes and consequences of productivity growth over the last century and a half and on our current prospects.

Alexander J. Field is the Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University, and executive director of the Economic History Association.

yalebook.yale.edu

LEARNING BY DOING...

An important study of the relationship between technology, skills, and economic inequality that answers some of the most pressing economic questions of our time

Today’s great paradox is that we feel the impact of technology everywhere—in our cars, our phones, the supermarket, the doctor’s office—but not in our paychecks. In the past, technological advancements dramatically increased wages, but for three decades now, the median wage has remained stagnant. Machines have taken over much of the work of humans, destroying old jobs while increasing profits for business owners. The threat of ever-widening economic inequality looms, but in Learning by Doing, James Bessen argues that increased inequality is not inevitable.

Workers can benefit by acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to implement rapidly evolving technologies; unfortunately, this can take years, even decades. Technical knowledge is mostly unstandardized and difficult to acquire, learned through job experience rather than in the classroom. As Bessen explains, the right policies are necessary to provide strong incentives for learning on the job. Politically influential interests have moved policy in the wrong direction recently. Based on economic history as well as analysis of today’s labor markets, his book shows a way to restore broadly shared prosperity.

James Bessen, an economist, is a lecturer at Boston University Law School. He was founder and CEO of a software company that developed the first desktop publishing program.

yalebook.yale.edu

DICTATORS WITHOUT BORDERS...

A penetrating look into the unrecognized and unregulated links between autocratic regimes in Central Asia and centers of power and wealth throughout the West

Weak, corrupt, and politically unstable, the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are dismissed as isolated and irrelevant to the outside world. But are they? This hard-hitting book argues that Central Asia is in reality a globalization leader with extensive involvement in economics, politics and security dynamics beyond its borders. Yet Central Asia’s international activities are mostly hidden from view, with disturbing implications for world security.

Based on years of research and involvement in the region, Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw reveal how business networks, elite bank accounts, overseas courts, third-party brokers, and Western lawyers connect Central Asia’s supposedly isolated leaders with global power centers. The authors also uncover widespread Western participation in money laundering, bribery, foreign lobbying by autocratic governments, and the exploiting of legal loopholes within Central Asia. Riveting and important, this book exposes the global connections of a troubled region that must no longer be ignored.

Alexander Cooley is director, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and professor of political science, Barnard College. He lives in New York City. John Heathershaw is associate professor of international relations, University of Exeter. He lives in Exeter, UK.

yalebook.yale.edu

INNOVATION ILLUSION...

Conventional wisdom holds that Western economies are on the threshold of fast-and-furious technological development. Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel refute this idea, bringing together a vast array of data and case studies to tell a very different story.

With expertise spanning academia and the business world, Erixon and Weigel illustrate how innovation is being hampered by existing government regulations and corporate practices. Capitalism, they argue, has lost its mojo. Assessing the experiences of global companies, including Nokia, Uber, IBM, and Apple, the authors explore three key themes: declining economic dynamism in Western economies; growing corporate reluctance to contest markets and innovate; and excessive regulation limiting the diffusion of innovation. At a time of low growth, high unemployment, and increasing income inequality, innovation-led growth is more necessary than ever. This book unequivocally details the obstacles hindering our future prosperity.

Fredrik Erixon is the director and cofounder of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). Björn Weigel is a business strategist and investor/entrepreneur with extensive experience in working with innovative companies and start-ups. They both live in Sweden.

yalebooks.yale.edu

ROADS TAKEN...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Between the late 1700s and the 1920s, nearly one-third of the world’s Jews emigrated to new lands. Crossing borders and often oceans, they followed paths paved by intrepid peddlers who preceded them. This book is the first to tell the remarkable story of the Jewish men who put packs on their backs and traveled forth, house to house, farm to farm, mining camp to mining camp, to sell their goods to peoples across the world. Persistent and resourceful, these peddlers propelled a mass migration of Jewish families out of central and eastern Europe, north Africa, and the Ottoman Empire to destinations as far-flung as the United States, Great Britain, South Africa, and Latin America.

Hasia Diner tells the story of millions of discontented young Jewish men who sought opportunity abroad, leaving parents, wives, and sweethearts behind. Wherever they went, they learned unfamiliar languages and customs, endured loneliness, battled the elements, and proffered goods from the metropolis to people of the hinterlands. In the Irish Midlands, the Adirondacks of New York, the mining camps of New South Wales, and so many other places, these traveling men brought change—to themselves and the families who later followed, to the women whose homes and communities they entered, and ultimately to the geography of Jewish history.

Hasia R. Diner is Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and director, Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History, New York University. Among her numerous books is We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, a National Jewish Book Award winner. She lives in New York City.

IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEAD?

It’s become an article of faith that American entrepreneurship is in trouble. The problems are many: lack of capital, too few entrepreneurial immigrants, excessive regulation, an aging population, slowing population growth, and rising student debt. But while experts across the country debate the causes and propose solutions, Scott Shane explains that the data just do not fit. Dismantling each of the most widely accepted theories in turn, he persuasively demonstrates that—while an evolving market is changing the nature of most startups—entrepreneurship is actually alive and well. Shane reveals how the number of incorporated startups is rising, fewer startups are failing, and the number of businesses backed by investors is increasing. The overall picture is positive. Exhaustively researched and compellingly told, this book will be read and discussed for years to come.

Scott A. Shane is the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.

yalebooks.yale.edu

Welfare Justice Restoring Social Equity

Over the past several decades the welfare state has become increasingly unfair, says Neil Gilbert in this fresh and provocative book. He analyzes some critical developments: traditional welfare arrangements have failed to accommodate the changing character of family life and gender equality; groups identifying themselves as victims (feminists, gays, disabled people, older people, and others) have increasingly demanded new social rights while ignoring the need to enlarge civic responsibilities; advocates have exaggerated the prevalence of such social ills as rape and child abuse, thus muddying policy deliberations; and a hidden welfare state has evolved that delivers huge subsidies to the middle and upper classes—for health, housing, daycare, and pensions—in the midst of growing resentment against welfare spending for the poor.

Gilbert argues that policymakers need to develop programs that balance the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and they need to take a hard look at exactly who benefits from government resources. He calls for a new form of social protection to supersede the welfare state: the "enabling state," where citizens are treated not as passive recipients of public benefits and care but as individuals capable of looking after themselves with occasional assistance from the government. The central challenge of the enabling state will be to create a system of social protection that encourages private responsibility while maintaining an equitable framework of humane public care for those unable to assist themselves.

Neil Gilbert is Milton and Gertrude Chernin Professor of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many previous books, including Capitalism and the Welfare State, 

published by Yale University Press and hailed as a "powerful call for a social philosophy of the welfare state" by Robert B. Reich in the New York Times Book Review.

yalebooks.yale.edu

Samuel Knowles: MICROECONOMICS

Author(s): Samuel Bowles

Series: Roundtable Series in Behavioral Economics

Publisher: Princeton University Press, Year: 2006

ISBN: 0691126380,9780691126388


In this novel introduction to modern microeconomic theory, Samuel Bowles returns to the classical economists' interest in the wealth and poverty of nations and people, the workings of the institutions of capitalist economies, and the coevolution of individual preferences and the structures of markets, firms, and other institutions. Using recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioral experiments, and the modeling of dynamic processes, he develops a theory of how economic institutions shape individual behavior, and how institutions evolve due to individual actions, technological change, and chance events. Topics addressed include institutional innovation, social preferences, nonmarket social interactions, social capital, equilibrium unemployment, credit constraints, economic power, generalized increasing returns, disequilibrium outcomes, and path dependency.

Each chapter is introduced by empirical puzzles or historical episodes illuminated by the modeling that follows, and the book closes with sets of problems to be solved by readers seeking to improve their mathematical modeling skills. Complementing standard mathematical analysis are agent-based computer simulations of complex evolving systems that are available online so that readers can experiment with the models. Bowles concludes with the time-honored challenge of "getting the rules right," providing an evaluation of markets, states, and communities as contrasting and yet sometimes synergistic structures of governance. Must reading for students and scholars not only in economics but across the behavioral sciences, this engagingly written and compelling exposition of the new microeconomics moves the field beyond the conventional models of prices and markets toward a more accurate and policy-relevant portrayal of human social behavior.

THE LONELY CROWD...

yalebooks.yale.edu

The Lonely Crowd is considered by many to be the most influential book of the twentieth century. Its now-classic analysis of the “new middle class” in terms of inner-directed and other-directed social character opened exciting new dimensions in our understanding of the psychological, political, and economic problems that confront the individual in contemporary American society. The 1969 abridged and revised edition of the book is now reissued with a new foreword by Todd Gitlin that explains why the book is still relevant to our own era.

“As accessible as it is acute, The Lonely Crowd is indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand American society. After half a century, this book has lost none of its capacity to make sense of how we live.”—Todd Gitlin
Praise for the earlier editions:"One of the most penetrating and comprehensive views of the twentieth-century urban American you're likely to find."—Commonweal
"Brilliant and original."—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

David Riesman is Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University. Nathan Glazer is emeritus professor of education and sociology structure at Harvard University. Reuel Denney was emeritus professor of English at the University of Hawaii. Todd Gitlin is professor of culture, journalism, and sociology at New York University and the author of The Sixties, The Twili

THE WEALTH OF NETWORKS...

With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today’s emerging networked information environment.

In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing—and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained—or lost—by the decisions we make today.

Yochai Benkler is the Joseph M. Field ’55 Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Yale University.

Visit Dr. Benkler's http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php/Main_Page">wiki

THE MORAL ECONOMY...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Why do policies and business practices that ignore the moral and generous side of human nature often fail?

Should the idea of economic man—the amoral and self-interested Homo economicus—determine how we expect people to respond to monetary rewards, punishments, and other incentives? Samuel Bowles answers with a resounding “no.” Policies that follow from this paradigm, he shows, may “crowd out” ethical and generous motives and thus backfire.

But incentives per se are not really the culprit. Bowles shows that crowding out occurs when the message conveyed by fines and rewards is that self-interest is expected, that the employer thinks the workforce is lazy, or that the citizen cannot otherwise be trusted to contribute to the public good. Using historical and recent case studies as well as behavioral experiments, Bowles shows how well-designed incentives can crowd in the civic motives on which good governance depends.

Samuel Bowles directs the Behavioral Sciences Program at the Santa Fe Institute and is the author of Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution; A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution (with Herbert Gintis);andThe New Economics of Inequality and Redistribution.

A LITTLE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS...

yalebooks.yale.edu


A lively, inviting account of the history of economics, told through events from ancient to modern times and the ideas of great thinkers in the field

What causes poverty? Are economic crises inevitable under capitalism? Is government intervention in an economy a helpful approach or a disastrous idea? The answers to such basic economic questions matter to everyone, yet the unfamiliar jargon and math of economics can seem daunting. This clear, accessible, and even humorous book is ideal for young readers new to economics and for all readers who seek a better understanding of the full sweep of economic history and ideas.

Economic historian Niall Kishtainy organizes short, chronological chapters that center on big ideas and events. He recounts the contributions of key thinkers including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and others, while examining topics ranging from the invention of money and the rise of agrarianism to the Great Depression, entrepreneurship, environmental destruction, inequality, and behavioral economics. The result is a uniquely enjoyable volume that succeeds in illuminating the economic ideas and forces that shape our world.

Niall Kishtainy, former economic policy advisor to the UK government and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, is guest teacher, department of economic history, London School of Economics, and author of The Economics Book and Economics in Minutes. He lives in London, UK.

T.R. MALTHUS...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population remains one of the most influential works of political economy ever written. Most widely circulated in its initial 1798 version, this is the first publication of his benchmark 1803 edition since 1989. Introduced by editor Shannon C. Stimson, this edition includes essays on the historical and political theoretical underpinnings of Malthus’s work by Niall O’Flaherty, Malthus’s influence on concepts of nature by Deborah Valenze, implications of his population model for political economy by Sir Anthony Wrigley, an assessment of Malthus’s theory in light of modern economic ideas by Kenneth Binmore, and a discussion of the Essay’s literary and cultural influence by Karen O’Brien. The result is an enlarged view of the political, social, and cultural impact of this profoundly influential work.

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) was an English cleric and scholar.Shannon C. Stimson holds the Leavey Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at Georgetown University. Her books include After Adam Smith: A Century of Transformation in Politics and Political Economy, Ricardian Politics

HARD TIMES...

yalebooks.book.edu

An analysis of the enduring social costs of the post-2008 economic crisis

2008 was a watershed year for global finance. The banking system was eventually pulled back from the brink, but the world was saddled with the worst slump since the 1930s Depression, and millions were left unemployed. While numerous books have addressed the financial crisis, very little has been written about its social consequences.

Journalist Tom Clark draws on the research of a transatlantic team led by Professors Anthony Heath and Robert D. Putnam to determine the great recession’s toll on individuals, families, and community bonds in the United States and the United Kingdom. The ubiquitous metaphor of the crisis has been an all-encompassing “financial storm,” but Clark argues that the data tracks the narrow path of a tornado—destroying some neighborhoods while leaving others largely untouched. In our vastly unequal societies, disproportionate suffering is being meted out to the poor—and the book’s new analysis suggests that the scars left by unemployment and poverty will linger long after the economy recovers.

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have shown more interest in exploiting the divisions of opinion ushered in by the slump than in grappling with these problems. But this hard-hitting analysis provides a wake-up call that all should heed.

Tom Clark writes daily editorials on politics, economics, and social affairs for The Guardian in London. Anthony Heath is professor of sociology, University of Manchester, and emeritus professor at the University of Oxford.

NUDGE...

www.google.com
https:yalebooks.yale.edu.

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and legal scholar and bestselling author Cass Sunstein explain in this important exploration of choice architecture that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.

In Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.

Richard H. Thaler, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.  His latest book is Misbehaving:  The Making of Behavioral Economics.  Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and most recently the author of Impeachment:  A Citizen’s Guide.

As above, so below 3...

As within, so without.
The Emerald Tablet. 3.000 Bc

As above, so below 2...

Phrase:

as above, so below

Wikipedia has an article on:

as above, so below

1. (occultism) What happens on one level of reality also happens on every other level; the microcosm and macrocosm behave alike.