NB Economics (2024)

30/06/2022

Formal mathematical models have provided tremendous insights into politics in recent decades. FORMAL MODELS of DOMESTIC POLITICS (Cambridge University Press) is the leading graduate textbook covering the crucial models that underpin current theoretical and empirical research on politics by both economists and political scientists. This textbook was recently updated to reflect the wealth of new theory-building around the functioning of authoritarian regimes, as well as to include recent developments in the theory of electoral competition, delegation, legislative bargaining, and collective action.

In our interview, we discuss what formal models are, how they work, and illustrates their usefulness with several examples. We also speak briefly at the end about current Russian politics and the ideas he outlined in his February Washington Post Monkey Cage blog piece on the implications of the invasion of Ukraine. Listen in 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/formal-models-of-domestic-politics

28/06/2022

Philanthropists are praised for their generosity but does their desire to keep control of what happens to their donations mean they exercise power in ways that clash with democratic principles? Approval of philanthropists’ good intentions can mask some important moral considerations about what philanthropy means for the donor and the recipient.

Generosity, influence, reputation and paternalism: democracy and philanthropy with Owen Bennett Jones and Emma Saunders Hastings. Hasting is author of PRIVATE VIRTUES, PUBLIC VICES: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality (University of Chicago Press). Author-interview podcast link 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/private-virtues-public-vices

15/06/2022

Transactions have always taken place. For hundreds of years that 'place' was a market or, more recently, a shopping mall. But in the past two decades these physical locations have increasingly been replaced by their virtual counterparts - online platforms. In THE SHARING ECONOMY: Its Pitfalls and Promises (Institute of Economic Affairs), Michael Munger explains how these platforms act as matchmakers or middlemen, a role traders have adopted since the very first exchanges thousands of years ago. The difference today is that the matchmakers often play no direct part in buying or selling anything - they just help buyers and sellers find each other. Their major contribution has been to reduce the costs of organizing and completing purchases, rentals or exchanges. THE SHARING ECONOMY contends that the key role of online platforms is to create reductions in transaction costs and it highlights the importance of three 'Ts' - triangulation, transfer and trust - in bringing down those costs.

In our interview, Munger explains how the emergence of the platform economy creates concentrations of economic power that are just as concerning to him as concentrations of political power. He also explains how thinking through the many changes and disruptions in our working lives that will result from the platform economy has led him to the view that Universal Basic Income and single-payer healthcare are necessary to creating the kind of free and prosperous society that he and other libertarians want. Listen in 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-sharing-economy

13/06/2022

In N**I BILLIONAIRES: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties (HarperCollins), journalist David de Jong presents a groundbreaking investigation of how the N***s helped German tycoons make billions off the horrors of the Third Reich and World War II—and how America allowed them to get away with it.

In this landmark work of investigative journalism, David de Jong reveals the true story of how Germany’s wealthiest business dynasties amassed untold money and power by abetting the atrocities of the Third Reich. Using a wealth of untapped sources, de Jong shows how these tycoons seized Jewish businesses, procured slave laborers, and ramped up weapons production to equip Hitler’s army as Europe burned around them. Most shocking of all, de Jong exposes how America’s political expediency enabled these billionaires to get away with their crimes, covering up a bloodstain that defiles the German and global economy to this day. Give the author's NBN interview a listen ⬇️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/nazi-billionaires

09/06/2022

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pass?

In HOW THE WORLD BECAME RICH: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth (Polity), Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin dive into the many theories of why modern economic growth happened when and where it did. They discuss recently-advanced theories rooted in geography, politics, culture, demography, and colonialism. Pieces of each of these theories help explain key events on the path to modern riches. Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in 18th-century Britain? Why did some European countries, the USA, Canada, and Japan catch up in the 19th century? Why did it take until the late 20th and 21st centuries for other countries? Why have some still not caught up? Koyama and Rubin show that the past can provide a guide for how countries can escape poverty. There are certain prerequisites that all successful economies seem to have. But there is also no panacea. A society’s past and its institutions and culture play a key role in shaping how it may—or may not—develop. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/how-the-world-became-rich

16/05/2022

FOUR SHADES of GRAY: The Amazon Kindle Platform (MIT Press) is the first book-length analysis of Amazon's Kindle explores the platform's technological, bibliographical, and social impact on publishing.

Simon Peter Rowberry recounts how Amazon built the infrastructure for a new generation of digital publications, then considers the consequences of having a single company control the direction of the publishing industry. Exploring the platform from the perspectives of technology, texts, and uses, he shows how the Kindle challenges traditional notions of platforms as discrete entities and argues that Amazon's influence extends beyond “disruptive technology” to embed itself in all aspects of the publishing trade; yet despite industry pushback, he says, the Kindle has had a positive influence on publishing. Check out the author's NBN interview 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/four-shades-of-gray

06/05/2022

In THE SEVENTH MEMBER STATE: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press), Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today’s European Union.

Listen in as Brown discusses this new book that combats understandings of Europe’s “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-seventh-member-state

27/04/2022

RED SILK: Class, Gender, and Revolution in China's Yangzi Delta Silk Industry (Harvard University Press) is a history of China's Yangzi Delta silk industry during the wars, crises, and revolutions of the mid-20th century. Based on extensive research in Chinese archives and focused on the 1950s, the book compares 2 very different groups of silk workers and their experiences in the revolution. Male silk weavers in Shanghai factories enjoyed close ties to the Communist party-state and benefited greatly from socialist policies after 1949. In contrast, workers in silk thread mills, or filatures, were mostly young women who lacked powerful organizations or ties to the revolutionary regime. Both groups of workers and their employers had to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. Their actions--protests, petitions, bribery, tax evasion--compelled the party-state to adjust its policies, producing new challenges. The results, though initially positive for many, were ultimately disastrous. Delve deeper on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/red-silk

27/04/2022

Has the internet really been the main culprit behind the upheaval of the contemporary media industries?

In MEDIA DISRUPTED: Surviving Pirates, Cannibals, and Streaming Wars (MIT Press), Amanda Lotz provides a rebuttal to persistent myths about disruption across the mediascape of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. Through a granular reading of four media industries – newspapers, recorded music, film and television – Lotz demonstrates that the internet has had diffuse and divergent effects in each, none of which are adequately explained through simplistic narratives of piracy or cannibalism. Lotz suggests that the speed and scale of reconfiguration in these industries has stemmed more from built up consumer demand and business (mal)practices, often with deep historical roots, which have only then been catalysed by the advent of the internet. Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/media-disrupted

26/04/2022

Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Yet this vital work receives little political support, and its primary workers—parents—labor in isolation. If they ask for help, they are made to feel inadequate; there is no centralized organization to represent their interests; and there is virtually nothing spent on research and development to help them achieve their goals. It’s almost as if parents are set up to fail—and the result is lost opportunities that limit children’s success and make us all worse off.

Listen in as Nate G.Hilger discusses THE PARENT TRAP: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis (MIT press), a new book that combines cutting-edge social science research, revealing historical case studies, and on-the-ground investigation to recast parenting as the hidden crucible of inequality. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-parent-trap

26/04/2022

Is the finance industry fair? In HEDGED OUT: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street (University of California Press) Megan Tobias Neely explores this question by asking who is successful, and who is excluded, in hedge funds. Drawing on ethnography and interviews, the book sets out how elite, white, masculinity is the dominant demographic of the industry, along with the importance of patronage relationships in perpetuating inequalities. It also explores the narratives and justifications used to explain the persistence of exclusions, even in the context of an industry that is supposed to reward passion and talent. Closing with a powerful call to transform both the finance industry and the world, the book is essential reading across social science and business, as well as for anyone interested in understanding how inequality persists. Give the author's NBN interview a listen ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/hedged-out

21/04/2022

Coming in at a short 277 pages, Thomas Piketty's A BRIEF HISTORY of EQUALITY (Harvard University Press-Belkap) gives us a comparative history of inequalities among social classes in human societies – or, as he points out: a brief history of equality acknowledging the long-term trend toward greater social, economic and political equality. The book opens with ‘the movement toward equality’ and ‘the slow deconcentration of power and property’ before reminding readers of our ‘heritage of slavery and colonialism’ and then broaching ‘the question of reparations’. Listen in as Piketty shares his thoughts on why this question is key for reconciling societal divisions and what reparations could represent in terms of social justice on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-brief-history-of-equality

20/04/2022

Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school.

THE BOND KING: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All (Flatiron Books) is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today's most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession--to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing. Learn more as Mary Childs joins us on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-bond-king

20/04/2022

In BREAKING THINGS AT WORK: The Luddites Were Right About Why You Hate Your Job (Verso Books), Gavin Mueller provides a bracing and wide-ranging study of the fractious relationship between workers and technology under capitalism. Mueller traces the thought and actions of ordinary people past and present – including hackers, dockers, musicians and the titular textile workers - who have recognized that technological ‘progress’ too often comes at the expense of their autonomy and dignity. Listen in as Mueller fills us in on this book that pushes back against visions of machine-driven utopia that have continually reemerged on both the right and the left on the podcast ⤵️
https://newbooksnetwork.com/breaking-things-at-work

18/04/2022

Few would disagree that inclusion is both the right thing to do and good for business. Then why are we so terrible at it? If we believe in the morality and the profitability of including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace, why don’t we do it? Because, explains Ruchika Tulshyan in this eye-opening book, we don’t realize that inclusion takes awareness, intention, and regular practice. Listen in as Tulshyan discusses INCLUSION ON PURPOSE: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work (MIT Press) on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/inclusion-on-purpose

15/04/2022

In the first post-Mao decade, China's reformers were sharply divided. They agreed that China had to reform its economic system and move toward more marketization - but struggled over how to go about it. Should China destroy the core of the socialist system through shock therapy, or should it use the institutions of the planned economy as market creators?

China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country's rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. HOW CHINA ESCAPED SHOCK THERAPY: The Market Reform Debate (Routledge Books) uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China's path. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/how-china-escaped-shock-therapy

14/04/2022

Most economists would argue that policies and business strategies are most likely to succeed if they are evidence-based, with their efficacy demonstrated empirically by randomized controlled trials before they are implemented at scale. John List spearheaded the introduction of field experiments in economics, publishing a raft of influential studies with this approach, and using his research insights to help shape both government policy and business strategy. He has learned a thing or two along the way.

In THE VOLTAGE EFFECT: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale (Currency), he draws upon his own experiences and his research to show all the ways in which an idea that “works” in a field experiment can fall flat when rolled out at a larger scale. This book provides tremendous insight into both the value of field experiments and the careful attention to detail needed to ensure that they teach us the right lessons. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-voltage-effect

14/04/2022

In SUBPRIME ATTENTION CRISIS: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising--the beating heart of the internet--is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008.

From the unreliability of advertising numbers and the unregulated automation of advertising bidding wars to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang demonstrates that while consumers' attention has never been more prized, the true value of that attention itself--much like subprime mortgages--is wildly misrepresented. And if online advertising goes belly-up, the internet--and its free services--will suddenly be accessible only to those who can afford it. Listen in 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/subprime-attention-crisis

08/04/2022

Since its establishment, Social Security has become the financial linchpin of American retirement. Yet demographic trends—longer lifespans and declining birthrates—mean that this popular program now pays more in benefits than it collects in revenue. Without reforms, 83 million Americans will face an immediate benefit cut of 20% in 2034. How did we get here and what is the solution?

In FIXING SOCIAL SECURITY: The Politics of Reform in a Polarized Age (Princeton University Press), R. Douglas Arnold explores the historical role that Social Security has played in American politics, why Congress has done nothing to fix its insolvency problem for 3 decades, and what legislators can do to save it. Delve deeper on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/fixing-social-security

08/04/2022

The epochal shift toward neoliberalism--a web of related policies that reduced the footprint of government in society and reassigned economic power to private market forces--changed the world. Today, the word "neoliberal" is often used to condemn a broad swath of policies, from prizing free-market principles over people to advancing privatization programs in developing nations around the world.

To be sure, neoliberalism has contributed to a number of alarming trends, not least of which has been a massive growth in income inequality. Yet as the eminent historian Gary Gerstle argues in THE RISE and FALL of the NEOLIBERAL WORLD ORDER: America and the World in the Free Market Era (Oxford University Press), these indictments fail to reckon with the full contours of what neoliberalism was and why its worldview had such a persuasive hold on both the right and the left for three decades. Listen in as Gerstle discusses his sweeping re-interpretation of the last 50 years of neoliberalism on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order

07/04/2022

Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard our security, provide jobs and stimulate the economy. Not only conservatives, but many progressives and liberals, support it for these reasons.

INDEFENSIBLE: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms Trade (Zed Books) is the essential handbook for those who want to debunk the arguments of the industry and its supporters. Deploying case studies, statistics and irrefutable evidence to demonstrate they are fundamentally flawed, both factually and logically. Far from protecting us, the book shows how the arms trade undermines our security by fanning the flames of war, terrorism and global instability. PODCAST LINK ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/indefensible

06/04/2022

Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet.” It's a life science hub, hosting Biogen, Moderna, Pfizer, Takeda, and others. It's a major tech center, with Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple all occupying big chunks of pricey office space. Kendall Square also boasts a dense concentration of startups, with leading venture capital firms conveniently located nearby. And of course, MIT is just down the block.

In WHERE FUTURES CONVERGE: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub (MIT Press), Robert Buderi offers the first detailed account of the unique ecosystem that is Kendall Square, chronicling the endless cycles of change and reinvention that have driven its evolution. Check out the author's NBN interview 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/where-futures-converge

NB Economics

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