2 comments about Development Centre Studies The World Economy: Historical Statistics (Development Centre Studies).

1. I have spent a good part of my life studying books on global statistics. This is truly one of the best. There is virtually no other book that takes a global look at world economics and goes back hundreds of years into the past. You might want to check by profile for some of my Listmania lists on the world future if this subject interests you.



2. In the last few years I have been searching books offering a general overview of the past, and I have realized that many books entitled "History of ...whatever" only provide information about the West, the rest of the world being almost ignored.
   
   Maddison's on world economy is different, is truly global. It offers historical statistics of the last two thousand years and is to be read together with "The world economy. A millennial perspective" (a combined edition of both volumes is to be published on December 2007). In my opinion this is masterful work that can be savored by the professional historian and educated layperson alike, so my rate is between 5 (content) and 4 (pleasure, sometimes falling to 3, sometimes raising to 5). I highly recommend the two volumes.
   
   Other works whose scope is as amazingly global as Maddison's and which I would suggest to read (hoping that will be of use for those looking for a broad framework to understand ourselves) are the following: 1. Agrarian cultures: "Pre-industrial societies" by Patricia Crone; 2. Government: "The History of Government" by S.E. Finer; 3. Ideas: "Ideas, a History from Fire to Freud", by Peter Watson; 4. Religion: "The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach" by Moojan Momen; and 5. War: "War in Human Civilization" by Azar Gat.

5 comments about The New Geography of Global Income Inequality.

1. This thorough and informative investigation should be rewarding reading for anyone who is interested in understanding the past, assessing the present, and thinking about the future of world income inequality. This book puts conventional wisdom to the test about the course of global income inequality at a time when alarms are being sounded about large-scale economic changes that are occurring throughout the world with increasing globalization. Among the claims of conventional wisdom that this book challenges are: (1) world income inequality is increasing across nations, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer; (2) globalization exacerbates inequality across nations; and (3) international exchange is inherently exploitative. One of the nice things that the author is able to do is point out how inequality within nations and inequality between nations contribute to the overall level of global income inequality. I would recommend this book to readers of all ideological persuasions who are interested in a thoughtful presentation and discussion of evidence about a contentious issue.



2. Are rich nations getting richer and poor nations getting poorer? Are the rich nations exploiting the poor nations, as critics of globalization in the trade protest movement suggest? The answer to both questions is no, according to Firebaugh, who shows that world inequality is on the decline. This book should become a classic among scholars, but it should also be of interest to the general public. Firebaugh writes well and uses plain talk and common sense along with plenty of supporting evidence.



3. Much of what you thought you knew is wrong! If you are seriously interested in globabilization and recent trends in world income inequality, you need to read Glenn Firebaugh's The New Geography of Global Income Inequality (Harvard U. Press, 2003). In a straightforward and detailed presentation, Firebaugh explains the arithmetic of inequality -- how it divides into within-nation and between-nation components. He then charts each of these, both over-time and at the present time. You will learn where the U.S. fits in the world, and which countries and continents are at the top and the bottom in terms of income and inequality in income. Most important, you will see that, contrary to much current journalistic and even scholarly writing, world income inequality has actually been decreasing since the 1990s. This books complements and in important ways adds to recent books by Stiglitz, Easterly, Soros, Bhalla, Diamond, and Landes



4. Glenn Firebaugh is the first scholar to document an extraordinarily important pattern in modern economic history.

   Prior to industrialization, persons in one nation fared about as well as persons in other nations with respect to income and standard of living. Within nations, however,individual deviations from the means of national income were commonly quite large.

   One effect of industrialization was to reverse this situation. Today dramatic disparities in income are found between industrial and non-industrial nations, with industrial nations and their citizens being quite well off and non-industrial nations and their citizens being quite poor, on average.

   Using highly regarded national income data and bringing to his analysis a set of well-reasoned assumptions, Firebaugh makes an astounding discovery. In the last quarter of the 20th Century income inequality began to increase within nations and
   decline across nations. An economic process that has pointed in one direction for over a hundred years has begun to reverse itself.

   Firebaugh coins the term "inequality transition" to identify the two stages of an economic process related to the global spread of industrialization. In the first stage, the principal source of global income inequality moves from within-nations to between-nations. In the second stage, the principal source of global income is restored to the historic norm, namely, within-nations. Today we are in the early stages of the second phase of the inequality transition.

   Critics of modern, capitalist, industrial expansion have it wrong. Contrary to their pessimistic pronouncements, today, the overwhelming majority of the world's poor are not getting poorer but are getting richer. Spreading industrialization is improving the lot of most of the world's peoples. Indeed, the promise of global economic justice is inherent in the notion "inequality transition."




5. When I first came to the United States in 1983 as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, I was overwhelmed by how much money Americans made. Sure, I also noticed inequality in America, but what struck me the most was that almost all Americans were better off than all Chinese. My parents were medical doctors and had higher salaries than their peers. With a combined income of about $100 a month, however, they earned only a fraction of what a minimum-wage American worker would earn. As a graduate student in the United States, I was considered rich in China and was therefore expected to bring home luxury items (such as color TVs and cameras), which I did in 1984.
   Twenty years later, I am now relatively well paid as a University of Michigan professor. China has changed far more dramatically during that time, however. When I visit China now, I often encounter situations in which friends make a concerted effort to let me know that they are financially more successful. Indeed, the rapid pace of economic development in China over the past 25 years has led to sharp increases in both personal income and income inequality, so that many among the Chinese elite now enjoy standards of living that surpass those commonly seen in America and other industrialized nations.
   Personal observations are no substitute for systematic studies. If you want to understand how global income equality has evolved in recent decades and why, look no further. Glenn Firebaugh has provided the most complete, thoughtful, and intriguing study on the subject, The New Geography of Global Income Inequality.
   Global income inequality can be divided into two components: Income inequality within countries and income inequality between countries. Firebaugh's book centers on the latter -- between-nation inequality. We know that income inequality within many countries (such as U.S. and China) has been increasing in recent decades. However, the vast majority of global income inequality in the past two centuries has been attributable to between-nation rather than within-nation inequality. Firebaugh divides the history of global inequality into two phases. Phase 1, which occurred between the beginning of western industrialization in the late eighteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century, was characterized by rapid growth in between-nation inequality. In phase 2, which immediately followed, Firebaugh observes a reversal of that trend -- a steady decline in between-nation inequality. Hence his "new geography of global income inequality" is one of a decreasing trend in between-nation income inequality accompanied by a modest increase in within-nation inequality. Firebaugh provides persuasive explanations for his new geography, chief among which is the spread of industrialization to poor countries and the reduction of distance barriers due to advances in technology and the culture of globalization.
   This is an outstanding book, showcasing what sociology can offer by enhancing our empirical knowledge of the world. While powerfully conceptualized and methodologically sophisticated, Firebaugh's case ultimately rests on the analyses of data from the Penn World Table. It is no small task to draw an empirical generalization from the data. Indeed, much of the book is devoted to discussions of measurement issues that may lead to an alternative conclusion - the continuation of the increase in between-national inequality. Two issues are crucial. First, Firebaugh argues that an international comparison of economic well-being should be based on purchasing power parity rather than exchange rates. Second, because the focus is on individual-level economic well-being, he presents a compelling case that comparisons between nations should be weighted by population size.
   As much as I like the book, I encourage readers to appreciate Firebaugh's excellent scholarship as much for the questions it raises as for the concrete conclusions it reaches. I have a few questions of my own. First, as Firebaugh realizes, his conclusions are mainly driven by a single case: China. China is the most populous nation and has recently experienced rapid economic development. Since his measures are weighted by population size, China exerts overwhelming influence on the decreasing trend of between-nation inequality. How to interpret the rise of economic power in China in the post-1978 period is a complicated issue requiring further research, perhaps into the role of social institutions. Second, the national average of personal income, the raw material for the study, contains no information about within-nation variability. Yet, regional (thus geographical) variation and rural-urban difference in income can be very large in some countries (such as China). Would the trend look the same if we disaggregated China geographically? More broadly, should the "new geography" be based merely on discrete, internally homogeneous units called "countries"? If there is good reason for doing so, one would want to include the role of government and economic exclusivity within national boundaries in the discussion. Finally, despite the word "geography" in the book's title, Firebaugh's measures of between-nation inequality are not truly geographic, as distances between countries (within a continent) are not considered.
   In the final analysis, these questions and comments do not detract from the important contributions made by this book. Firebaugh's argument is articulate, forceful, and well-presented. All who are concerned with issues of income inequality, scholars and laypersons alike, will find much to learn from this book, as will students seeking to master the art of conducting empirical social science. For these reasons, I highly recommend Firebaugh's latest contribution.

No comments about The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies.

1 comments about A New View of Comparative Economics with Economic Applications Card and InfoTrac College Edition.

1. This is one of those books - you would expect in the thirties or fourties - that tell you how bad planning is but then suggest that a socialist society is probably great if you live there. The only really annoying part is when facts are down-played, which they are in certain descriptive paragraphs. Describing a centrally planned economy:
   
   "Restrictions on movement and the central determination of wages made the market for labor clumsy and unresponsive, but on the whole workers responded to material incentives just as in the developed market economies."
   
   -- Anyone who has studied Socialist planned economies knows just how untrue that statement is. Material incentives were introduced and constantly re-worked in an attempt to get a response from workers, but largely the material incentives did not work or did not work as planned. Firms could not profit-maximize because they had to fulfill a plan, the plan would be given in "tons" or "square meters" and the incentives were skewed toward fulfilling the plan - sometimes for material reward, other times due to coercion, but in neither case was it an incentive system that lined up in the way it does in a market economy. The phrasing leads one to beleive that the incentive is similar in both systems, but the incentives in a planned economy were a constant struggle and often produced the opposite of the objective (eg incentive to produce less instead of more).
   
   One or two just misleading paragraphs would not bother me. But there are very many:
   
   "Workers performed because of piece rates, bonuses, or the prospect of advancement as well as supervision, just as in the West... Truly coercive systems of labor allocation and job performance are those that rely on slavery, serfdom, indenturement, or peonage."
   
   -- So, the USSR had no gulags, then? Forcing people to work and allocating a job for them at a certain wage, with all consumption products from housing to media to milk to clothing also planned and priced by the government - the one employer - is nothing like serfdom, then?
   
   The wording is clearly trying to convince the reader that the USSR was an improvement on what came before it. Many Russian would disagree and you have to skew the facts and omit facts - keep the discussion at a very high level - to get this viewpoint across.
   
   In case you think I am twisting the words of the writer, he states several times that planning is not that bad, the market is coercive through its "whip of hunger", and "it may be premature to assume that central planning is buried forever", "the widely held belief in the superiority of the market, which may well be called into question in the future." etc etc.
   
   My other complaint is that although it *does* do a nice job of describing many different economic systems - it doesn't go into great detail about all of them, and clearly at least some of the high-level analysis is questionable. Therefore it remains a very introductory text on comparative systems that ought to be taken with a grain of salt.
   
   There is also one absurd thing that the author does - maybe more than one, but here is an example of a ludicrous bias.
   
   There is one very dishonest and obviously biased paragraph in this book. Its so obvious that its bizarre to see it published in a textbook. The book makes the choice to compare two economic freedom rankings. The first is the Heritage Institute's Indices of Economic Freedom. The ranking is described and the table is shown and then the author provides a caveat:
   "The six 'freest' nations are all small, with an average population of less than 4 million. ... On the whole it is difficult to draw lessons for the design and conduct of an economic system from the experience of such small states, no matter how rapid their their recent growth experience. It is simply not realistic to assume that Russia or India will undergo sustained growth by adopting the same policies as Hong Kong or Singapore."
   
   Okay. Reading this one may notice that he seems to want to defend more socialistic states, but perhaps he is simply making the observation that if the "freest" countries by this measure are all small and have had recent growth but not long-term growth, then you may not be able to draw any conclusions.
   
   But the table is included and I sincerely hope that no reader falls for that or moves on taking his words at face value. It is completely dishonest. One look at the table shows that his "6 freest" are actuall 6 of 8 - the first three are ranked #1 #2 and #3, then there are 5 ranked #4 that are all equal in score!
   
   Guess which countries came in #4 with a score of 1.8 exactly?
   
   Estonia
   Ireland
   Luxembourg
   Netherlands
   United States
   
   Then the next in rank is Australia with a score of 1.85.
   
   So, is it "difficult to draw lessons" from the Unites States - ranked equally to some of those 6 that he mentioned? Is it "simply unrealistic to assume that Russia or India will undergo sustained growth by adopting the same policies as" the United States, ranked equal to some of his 6?
   
   Why pick six? He picked them because they were small, and if the United States ranked *after* them by score, it would make sense, although you might expect him to mention that the US came soon after, if it was close in score. But the US didn't come after, the US tied in score! So did the netherlands which is 19 million, not under 4 million. And then Australia was in fact very close, another larger country.
   
   It would be an outrage if it weren't so idiotic.
   
   Then again, if you are buying it second hand as I did, only two years old and under $10, it is probably worth the buy and worth the read.

No comments about The Economics of Growth.

No comments about Culture and Prosperity: Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor.

1 comments about Durable Inequality.

1. The book arrived within two weeks of my ordering it and was in the condition advertised.

4 comments about Stone Age Economics.

1. This superb work discusses the types of economic organization which currently exist and which have existed throughout human history (and into pre-history). It then shows the effect of such economic organizations on social structure.

   This book should be required reading for all students of economics, as it has major implications for our own societies today.

   Stone Age Economics is also a very interesting and readable text, not at all dry or boring. It is filled with information about various cultures and interesting details such as the fact that the hunter-gatherer Bushmen in the Kalihari desert spend only about 1 1/2 hours per day on staying alive, and spend the rest of the time singing, drinking and telling stories.

   This is a truly important work.




2. This is a well-known and rather old (1972) classic work on the economics of exchange as a cultural phenomenon. I remember this book was quoted several times during my studies of economics (and that was in the early 80s). I always kept the idea that as an economist I actually should read it myself, and so now i finally did.

   The book is written from an anthropological angle and claims that stone age economies were the original affluent society. The claim is startling as it is original, as it runs counterintuitive; weren't people in early primitive (as defined by level of societal complexity) communities not always on the border of starvation and their needs much unfulfilled? Here the author points out that in the central concept of economics, scarcity, or the tension between wants and means, can be reduced either from the supply side (which is what modern production and exchange economies do) or on the demand side, the Zen way to happiness so to speak, by not having much of any demand. Within their own context such hunter-gatherer societies were therefore quite well-off and not on the brink of disaster. To have high wealth in the form of goods was simply not practical in this way of life as you had to carry all of it around hence slowing you down. Similarly, there was often an under-use of resources rather than a constant bumping against existence limits. Of course, there were very real Malthusian limits also as a result of the societal organization. Nevertheless, the point on scarcity is well made and can be seen as a (mild) critique of consumer society. It also bring the social and cultural context in which economics plays to the fore. At the same time, the author discusses the role of gift exchange in return for other goods as a social phenomenon next to the purely economic terms of exchange. Gifts and trade rather than war has a very real meaning in societies and is especially tangible in less complex groups, somethinh he shows in true antropologist fashion by referring to some interesting studies of several small societies in Africa and Polynesia.

   The same idea also of course holds for more developed nations, but here the direct social relationships among and between much larger groups is much more anonymous and diffused.

   I am an economist, not an anthroplogist, and found it very interesting to read this well-written and sometimes humorous book in order to realise once again how economics is a social science in the true sense of the word. Nothing to be ashamed about, and it is always good as a refresher to read from different angles on the fundamentals of your own profession.

   recommended.




3. I highly recommend this book for reasons mentioned by other reviewers. But...the data Sahlins uses to make his argument about the "Original Affluent Society" have been called into question on multiple grounds, notably 1) inadequate time-depth, 2) a restrictive definition of "work," and 3) contrary evidence suggesting that many foragers suffer from malnutrition. See David Kaplan, "The Darker Side of the Original Affluent Society," in the Journal of Anthropological Research (2001).



4. He takes a subject that could be dry and dull, and makes it interesting.
   The logical conclusion from this book is that we should figure out what we really need materially, calculate how many hours we have to work to supply these needs, and not work a minute more.

No comments about Plato's Ethics.

1 comments about Third Ways: How Bulgarian Greens, Swedish Housewives, and Beer-Swilling Englishmen Created Family-Centered Economies - And Why They Disappeared (Culture of Enterprise).

1. _Third Ways: How Bulgarian Greens, Swedish Housewives, and Beer-Swilling Englishmen Created Family-Centered Economies - And Why They Disappeared_, published in 2007 in the Culture of Enterprise Series by ISI Books, by leading family scholar Allan C. Carlson is a fascinating examination of some of the early attempts to promote a sort of "third way" economic system that differed and was opposed to both liberal capitalism and communism and that was centered on the family. The third way was frequently aligned with agrarian interests, advocated widespread ownership of private property, and in particular placed a strong emphasis on the family, frequently calling for the creation of a "family wage". The third way also differed from fascism and Nazism in its commitment to democratic institutions and pluralism. The third way emphasized "natural" communities of family, village, neighborhood, and parish and was frequently linked to religious interests. In particular, following the papal encyclical of Leo XIII, _Rerum Novarum_, both G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc developed an economic system they referred to as Distributism to oppose what they perceived as the excesses of both capitalism and socialism and the dread mergence of the two in the "Servile State" as envisioned by Belloc. This book offers a fascinating examination of some of these economic developments with their emphasis on private property, small-scale ownership, agrarianism, and in particular the role of the family and the household economy.
   
   The book begins with a "Preface" in which the author explains the developments of the twentieth century in which Communism emerged as a significant force to compete with economic liberal capitalism. During the Cold War era, individuals were frequently pushed into taking a side on this encompassing issue; however, the author notes that in the 1920s and 1930s some individuals had developed alternatives to both capitalism and socialism. Some of these individuals had sided with fascism or Nazism, but others were committed to a more peaceful "third way", such as the Distributists associated with Chesterton and Belloc. Ultimately, the third way saw itself as the only opportunity to preserve human liberty in the face of the coming mergence of both capitalism and socialism in the Servile State (or what may today be called "state capitalism") as predicted by Belloc. Many of these individuals actively promoted the family and called for the renewal of a "family wage" and many were associated with religious movements.
   
   The first chapter of this book is entitled ""ChesterBelloc" And the Fairy Tale of Distributism" and focuses on the third way system developed by both G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc (both English Catholics). The author begins by noting some of the reactions of various authors to the ideal of Distributism, noting that authors have not been particularly kind to this ideal of Chesterton and Belloc. Even friendly commentators have frequently derided Distributism as being unrealistic; however, it should be pointed out that Belloc's prediction of the growth of the "Servile State" (a coming mergence of both capitalism and socialism in the power of the state) has proven particularly prescient. The author considers the relationship this system had with Roman Catholicism, noting the importance of the papal encyclical _Rerum Novarum_ of Leo XIII. The author notes in particular the importance of the right to property expressed in this encyclical. The author next turns to Chesterton and Belloc, noting each of their roles respectively in promoting the system of Distributism, emphasizing the thinking that grew up around A. R. Orage and his journal _The New Age_. The author explains the ideas of Chesterton and Belloc concerning the role of private property, the importance of a widespread distribution of property, and the emphasis on agrarianism, the family, and the small-scale. The author also notes some of the prescriptions of Chesterton and Belloc in fighting against monopoly and the emerging state. The author also discusses the Distributist League (noting amusingly the importance of alcoholic beverages for members of this league) and its role in discussing the ideas that came to be called Distributism. The author also discusses some of the influence of Distributism and also its ultimate failure. The second chapter of this book is entitled "The Wages of Kin: Building a Secular Family-Wage Regime". Here, the author discusses the role of the "family wage" (the wage needed of a breadwinner to support himself and a family), noting the importance that the family wage came to play and the role of labor in supporting this idea. The author discusses the origins of the notion of the "family wage" in scholastic "just price" theory and its role in the thinking of various economists including Smith, Malthus, and Marx. The author notes the opposition of some feminists to this notion, showing how women came to play a larger role in the workplace as they left the home. The author also discusses the emergence of the welfare state and its role in subjugating women by making them dependent on the state as pointed out by certain feminist critics. The author also discusses the role of children in the workplace and the importance of the family wage for maintaining liberty. The third chapter of this book is entitled "Alexander Chayanov and the Theory of Peasant Utopia". Here, the author discusses the ideas of Russian economist Alexander Chayanov and his theories concerning the role of agriculture and the peasantry. The author notes the traditional importance of the peasant in Russian life before the coming Bolshevik revolution as well as the growth of populism. The author discusses Chayanov's utopian books that present a "decentralized, oddly progressive, democratic Russian state". The author contrasts Chayanov's thinking with that of both Marx and Ricardo and explains how Chayanov (who although an initial supporter of the Russian Revolution) eventually came into conflict with the Soviets and Stalin eventually put him into a gulag. The fourth chapter of this book is entitled "Green Rising: The Promise and Tragedy of Peasant Rule in Eastern Europe". This chapter discusses the role of Distributist ideas in Eastern Europe emphasizing agrarian reform and peasant rule. In particular, Alexander Stamboliski (a Bulgarian Green) came to play a prominent role in the peasant rising in Bulgaria in the interwar period. The author discusses the ideas of Stamboliski and his conflicts with various groups including the Marxists and why his ideas ultimately failed. The fifth chapter is entitled "Last March of the Swedish Socialist Housewives", which explains the importance of the role of the housewife in Sweden and the thinking of various feminists about this role. The author discusses in particular the thinking of Ellen Key (who proposed a Nietzschean supermother) and Alva Myrdal (who offered a feminist critique of the housewife). The author notes the importance that home economics came to take on for the movement of the housewives and how socialist housewives frequently allied themselves with more conservative groups in their goal to preserve this institution. The sixth chapter is entitled "Karl Polany and "The Economy Without Markets"". This chapter discusses the ideas of Karl Polanyi author of _The Great Transformation_ and concerns itself with his opposition to markets. Polanyi praised capitalism, but at the same time maintained that the liberal free-market rested upon state interference. In particular, Polanyi had a complicated relationship to both liberalism and conservativism (as those words are understood both in the United States and Britain) and although regarded as a liberal in the United States has been praised by conservative thinkers such as Robert Nisbet. In particular, Polanyi predicted liberalism's economic collapse and expressed unease over the idea of "homo economicus" that reflects much conservative thinking on the subject. The seventh chapter is entitled "Seeking a Moral Economy: The Christian Democratic Movement". The author begins by discussing the notion of the "culture war" as expressed by Pat Buchanan in the United States, but showing how this notion is rooted in the Germanic idea of the "kulturkampf" in which the German empire launched an assault on religious liberty and family. The author discusses the opposition of many Christians to the French Revolution and the emergence of the Christian Democrats as an attempt to face the French Revolution. The Christian Democrats were strongly influenced by Catholic elements which opposed the Enlightenment and expressed an opposition to the excesses of the state as well as a respect for the family. However, Protestants too came to play an important role in the Christian Democratic movement (especially in that Christians realized they must put aside their differences that had led to a series of religious wars in order to fight a common enemy that had emerged from the French Revolution). Among the Protestants, Abraham Kuyper of the Netherlands played an important role in forming an Anti-Revolutionary Party. Another individual sometimes associated with the Christian Democrats is the liberal economist Wilhelm Ropke who advocated for a humane economy and proposed a notion of "homo religiosus". The author explains the troubled relationship between the Christian Democrats and the fascists, the decline of the Christian Democrats with the coming of a new libertine morality in the 1960s and some of the corruption of their original ideals. The author also explains why no strong Christian Democrat movement committed to social justice has emerged in the United States. The book ends with a chapter entitled "Conclusion: Dreams, Realities, Illusions". Here, the author explains why the third way movements have ultimately failed with the coming of Belloc's Servile State and the complicated relationship between the third way and the welfare state. The author notes the naivety and intellectual decency of many involved in the third way (in their commitment to honesty and pacifism) and contrasts this to the more violent approaches taken by many states in the twentieth century. The author then discusses the failure of the "Second Way" (or Soviet Communism) and the rise of a Servile State and a form of "Mafia Capitalism" in its midst. The author also notes how third way proponents frequently were more opposed to the influence of the state and were more "anti-tax" than many economic liberals. The author finally discusses how a "Family Way" must be restored in an effort to bring change and combat the Servile State or the "Business State".
   
   This book offers a fascinating examination of certain economic alternatives to both liberal capitalism and communism. Most of these alternatives were developed in the period between the world wars when it still seemed possible to combat the coming mergence of the Servile State. As such, they offer some hope for those of us today who wish to combat the slavery imposed by the Servile State.