Amy Finkelstein: 2012 John Bates Clark Medalist

By Jonathan Levin and James Poterba

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2012

Amy Finkelstein is the 2012 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. The core concerns of Amy's research program have been insurance markets and health care. She has addressed whether asymmetric information leads to ...

Jon Elster's Securities against Misrule: Juries, Assemblies, Elections: A Review Essay

By David Austen-Smith

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2015

The standard economic approach to designing institutions for collective decision making recognizes individuals' strategically rational motivations for misrepresentation and asks how best, given an objective function, to design a set of incentives and cons...

The Science, Economics, and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Review of The Climate Casino by William Nordhaus

By Adam B. Jaffe and Suzi Kerr

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2015

The problem of global climate change presents overwhelming factual, analytical, and normative challenges. Nordhaus surveys this terrain bravely and mostly successfully. He explains the scientific/economic consensus that the planet is warming, that people ...

A Review of William Easterly's The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor

By Carol Graham

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2015

William Easterly marshals yet another brilliant critique of established development policies, with a focus on the experts' excessive focus on state-led policies and goals (a la Myrdal) and ignorance of bottom-up solutions, including technology and individ...

A Review of Angus Deaton's The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality

By David N. Weil

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2015

This book explores the relationship between the material standard of living and health, both across countries and over time. Above all, Deaton is interested in the question of whether income growth contributes significantly to better health. His answer is...

Strategy in History and (versus?) in Economics: A Review of Lawrence Freedman's Strategy: A History

By Avinash Dixit

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2014

This essay reviews Lawrence Freedman's book "Strategy: A History". The main themes—definitions, strategies in war, business, politics, and revolutions—are overviewed. The value of game-theoretic thinking for practical strategy is assessed. A critical ...

The Ethics of Efficient Markets and Commons Tragedies: A Review of John Broome's Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World

By William Nordhaus

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2014

What are the ethical implications of our contributions to global warming on an individual level? In his extended essay, John Broome analyzes the moral implications of our imposing damages on future generations through our greenhouse-gas emissions. He argu...

What's the Future of Public Higher Education? A Review Essay on Gary C. Fethke and Andrew J. Policano's Public No More: A New Path to Excellence for America's Public Universities

By Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2014

Gary Fethke and Andrew Policano's book "Public No More: A New Path to Excellence for America's Public Universities" paints a picture of a future for public research universities that is very different than what many people will want to see. Their message ...

A Review of Peter Temin's The Roman Market Economy

By François Velde

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2014

Herein, I review Peter Temin's book, "The Roman Market Economy", and take the occasion to alert economists to the exciting work that is being done and could be done in the economic history of the ancient world. (JEL C80, N01, N13, N73)

Review Essay on Charles F. Manski's Public Policy in an Uncertain World: Analysis and Decisions

By John Geweke

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2014

Public policy setting often involves quantitative choices with quantitative outcomes. Yet unqualified statements about the precise consequences of alternative choices characterize much of the policy analysis bearing on these decisions. Public Policy i...

The New Science of Cities by Michael Batty: The Opinion of an Economist

By Jacques-Francois Thisse

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2014

Cities are the cradle of a wide range of cultural, social, and technological innovations that are at the heart of modern economic growth and development. Half of humanity today lives in cities but, until the last two decades, economists have paid much les...

The Return of "Patrimonial Capitalism": A Review of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century

By Branko Milanovic

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2014

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty provides a unified theory of the functioning of the capitalist economy by linking theories of economic growth and functional and personal income distributions. It argues, based on the long-run h...

A Flourishing Economist: A Review Essay on Edmund Phelps's Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change

By Joel Mokyr

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2014

In his recent Mass Flourishings, Edmund Phelps makes a strong and eloquent plea for a more dynamic economy, which he sees not only as a key for economic performance, but also as necessary for what he calls "the good life." This review essay evalu...

Rethinking the Principles of Bank Regulation: A Review of Admati and Hellwig's The Bankers' New Clothes

By Roger B. Myerson

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2014

In an important new book, Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig raise broad critical questions about bank regulation. These questions are reviewed and discussed here, with a focus on how the problems of maintaining a stable financial system depend on fundamental...

A Review Essay about Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis by Paul Glimcher

By Colin F. Camerer

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2013

Neuroeconomics aims to discover mechanisms of economic decision, and express them mathematically, to predict observed choice. While the contents of neuroeconomic models and evidence are obviously different than in traditional economics, (some of the) go...

European Integration at the Crossroads: A Review Essay on the 50th Anniversary of Bela Balassa's Theory of Economic Integration

By André Sapir

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2011

Bela Balassa's Theory of Economic Integration, published fifty years ago, is a remarkable, yet little known book. This essay reviews developments in the economic literature and in the process of European integration since the book's publication, ...

A World without Intellectual Property? A Review of Michele Boldrin and David Levine's Against Intellectual Monopoly

By Richard Gilbert

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2011

In their recent book, Against Intellectual Monopoly, Michele Boldrin and David Levine conclude that patents and copyrights are not necessary to provide protection for either innovation or creative expression and should be eliminated. The authors ...

Thinking about the Firm: A Review of Daniel Spulber's The Theory of the Firm

By Oliver Hart

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2011

In this review, I describe how economists have moved beyond the firm as a black box to incorporate incentives, internal organization, and firm boundaries. I then turn to the way that the theory of the firm is treated in Daniel Spulber's book The Theo...

A Review of Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast's Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

By Robert Bates

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2010

In Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast probe the organizational foundations of development. Outlining the properties of the "natu...

A Review of Scott E. Page's The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

By Yannis M. Ioannides

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2010

This assessment of Scott Page's The Difference (Princeton University Press, 2007) emphasizes the depth and breadth of the book's coverage and arguments and checks them against existing empirical evidence, when available. It argues that the book...