Knowledge that Transforms

Rebecca L. Thornton of University of Michigan reviews “Global Lessons from the AIDS Pandemic: Economic, Financial, Legal and Political Implications” by Bradly J. Condon, Tapen Sinha,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Presents an interdisciplinary perspective on solutions to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Discusses HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strategies in developed and developing countries; insurance, mortality, treatment costs, and the business impact of HIV/AIDS in developed and developing countries; the economics of HIV/AIDS; the political economy of patents and global health threats; global diseases, global patents, and developing countries in World Trade Organization law; bilateral and multilateral financing of HIV/AIDS programs--the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Global Fund, bilateral donors, and the private sector; the successes and failures of global health organizations--the World Health Organization, the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, Medicins sans Frontieres, and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; and the way forward--prevention, treatment, and human rights. Condon is Professor of International Trade Law and International Business at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico and Senior Fellow in the Tim Fischer Centre for Global Trade and Finance in the School of Law, at Bond University. Sinha is ING Comercial America Chair Professor in the Department of Actuarial Studies and Director of the International Center for Pension Research at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico. Index.”

Juhani T. Linnainmaa of University of Chicago reviews “The Heretics of Finance: Conversations with Leading Practitioners of Technical Analysis” by Andrew W. Lo, Jasmina Hasanhodzic,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Presents interviews with fourteen practitioners of technical analysis and explores the craft and culture of the field. Provides profiles of Ralph J. Acampora, Laszlo Birinyi Jr., Walter Deemer, Paul F. Desmond, Gail M. Dudack, Robert J. Farrell, Ian McAvity, John J. Murphy, Robert R. Prechter Jr., Linda Bradford Raschke, Alan R. Shaw, Anthony W. Tabell, and Stan Weinstein. Discusses conviction--countering the skeptics and the scoundrels; the evolution of technical analysis; luck, astrology, and other unsanctioned signs; creativity, talent, and the art of the craft; the challenge of emotions; the path to success; and favorite patterns and indicators. Lo is Harris & Harris Group Professor of Finance at the Sloan School of Management and Director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hasanhodzic is a research scientist with AlphaSimplex Group. Index.”

Anand V. Swamy of Williams College reviews “Reinventing Foreign Aid” by William Easterly,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Nineteen papers examine how to improve foreign aid and reduce poverty in the developing world. Papers discuss making aid work; the use of randomization in the evaluation of development effectiveness; whether it pays to be ignorant--a simple political economy of rigorous program evaluation; solutions when the solution is the problem--arraying the disarray in development; donors and service delivery; the illusion of sustainability; an aid-institutions paradox--a review essay on aid dependency and state building in sub-Saharan Africa; why aid agencies exist; absorption capacity and disbursement constraints; donor fragmentation; the International Monetary Fund and economic development; the knowledge bank; debt relief and fiscal sustainability for heavily indebted poor countries; making vaccines pay; whether we can build a better mousetrap--three new institutions designed to improve aid effectiveness; competing with central planning--marketplaces for international aid; placing enterprise and business thinking at the heart of the war on poverty; avoiding hubris--and other lessons for reformers; and seven deadly sins--reflections on donor failings. Easterly is Professor of Economics and Codirector of the Development Research Institute at New York University. Index.”

Justine S. Hastings of Yale University and NBER reviews “Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines how we can apply the new science of choice architecture to nudge people toward favorable life decisions. Discusses biases and blunders; resisting temptation; following the herd; when we need a nudge; choice architecture; saving more tomorrow; naive investing; credit markets; privatizing social security--smorgasbord style; prescription drugs; how to increase organ donations; saving the planet; improving school choices; whether patients should be forced to buy lottery tickets; privatizing marriage; a dozen nudges; objections; and the real third way. Thaler is Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, and Director of the Center for Decision Research in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Sunstein is Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence in the School of Law and is in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Bibliography; index.”

Ming Hsu of University of California, Berkeley reviews “Midbrain Mutiny: The Picoeconomics and Neuroeconomics of Disordered Gambling: Economic Theory and Cognitive Science” by Don Ross, Carla Sharp, Rudy Vuchinich, David Spurrett,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines different economic models of disordered gambling, using the frameworks of neuroeconomics and picoeconomics, and drawing on empirical evidence about behavior and the brain. Discusses whether there is such a thing as addiction; gambling in scientific focus; picoeconomics, impulsive consumption, and disordered gambling; behavioral and psychological investigations of disordered gambling; the neuroeconomics of addiction; addictive gambling as the basic form of addiction; clinical evidence and implications; and the microexplanation of disordered gambling. Ross is Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Economics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town. Sharp is Assistant Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. Vuchinich is Professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Spurrett is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Cognitive Science Program at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Index.”

Michael A. Williams of Competition Economics reviews “Truth or Economics: On the Definition, Prediction, and Relevance of Economic Efficiency” by Richard S. Markovits,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Considers the way in which scholars and public decisionmakers define, predict, and assess the moral and legal relevance of economic efficiency. Discusses the correct definition of the impact of a choice on economic (allocative) efficiency; a critique of the definitions of and tests for economic efficiency that economists and law and economics scholars use; the distortion analysis approach to economic efficiency assessment; some second-best-theory critiques of canonical allocative efficiency analyses and of the standard justifications for ignoring second best; the prescriptive moral and legal relevance of allocative efficiency conclusions; and a critique of various relevance arguments made by economists and law and economics scholars. Markovits is John B. Connally Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. Glossary; index.”

Vincenzo Galasso of Bocconi University and IGIER reviews “Endogenous Public Policy and Contests” by Gil S. Epstein, Shmuel Nitzan,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines endogenous policy determination, focusing on the role of interest groups and their lobbying efforts in the determination of public policy. Discusses the policy contest; contest rationalization--microfoundations; endogenous public policy; culture, politicization, and relative rent dissipation; lobbying and compromise; effort and performance; prizes (size and distribution) and efforts; asymmetry and corrective public policy; the social cost of rent seeking when consumer opposition influences monopoly behavior; strategic restraint; monopoly-price determination; privatization; migration policy; minimum wage; and tournaments. Epstein is with the faculty of the Department of Economics, and Nitzan is Sir Isaac Wolfson Chair in Economics, at Bar-Ilan University. Name and subject indexes.”

Lee E. Ohanian of University of California, Los Angeles reviews “The ABCs of RBCs: An Introduction to Dynamic Macroeconomic Models” by George McCandless,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Provides a basic introduction to real business cycle and New Keynesian models. Discusses the basic Solow model; savings in an overlapping generations model; infinitely lived agents; recursive deterministic models; recursive stochastic models; Gary Hansen’s real business cycle model; linear quadratic dynamic programming; money--cash in advance; money in the utility function; the staggered pricing model; staggered wage setting; financial markets and monetary policy; and small open economy models. McCandless is an economist at the Central Bank of Argentina. Index.”

Richard R. Nelson of Columbia University and the University of Manchester reviews “Morals and Markets: An Evolutionary Account of the Modern World” by Daniel Friedman,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores how human morals and markets work together to shape the world. Discusses the Savanna Code--what good morals are; bazaar and empire--how we became civilized and why we started shopping; the great transformation--why the modern world is so rich; utopias of cooperation--romantics, communists, and other antimoderns; Russia’s transition to kleptocracy--when markets need morals; Japan’s economic bubbles and crashes--when morals choke markets; towers of trust--the rise (and occasional crash) of financial markets; the move from Hudson’s Bay to eBay--why some people like going to work; markets for crime and for punishment; mullahs’ revenge--gangs, cults, and antiterrorists; cooling the Earth--environmental markets and morals; and future morals and markets--whether this marriage can be saved. Friedman is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Bibliography; index.”

Raymond B. Palmquist of North Carolina State University reviews “Hedonic Methods in Housing Markets: Pricing Environmental Amenities and Segregation” by Andrea Baranzini, Jose Ramirez, Caroline Schaerer, Philippe Thalmann,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Ten papers, resulting from a workshop held at the Geneva School of Business Administration in June 2007, consider the use and advancement of the hedonic approach to analyze and quantify the sources of rent and property price differentials in the housing market. Papers discuss theoretical foundations and empirical developments in hedonic modeling; hedonic modeling of the home selling process; hedonic property value studies of transportation noise--aircraft and road traffic; pricing the homebuyer’s countryside view; semiparametric tools for spatial hedonic models--an introduction to mixed geographically weighted regression and geoadditive models; estimating hedonic models of consumer demand with an application to urban sprawl; conceptual and operational issues in incorporating segregation measurements in hedonic price modeling; using hedonic models to measure racial discrimination and prejudice in the U.S. housing market; the problem with environmental justice studies, and how hedonics can help; and distinguishing racial preferences in the housing market--theory and evidence. Baranzini, Ramirez, and Schaerer are in the Geneva School of Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland. Thalmann is at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. Name and subject indexes.”