Knowledge that Transforms

Elizabeth U. Cascio of Dartmouth College reviews “Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education for the Disadvantaged Pay Off across the Generations?” by Paul Attewell, David E. Lavin,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines the experiences of students admitted under the City University of New York's “open admissions” policy and their children to determine whether widening college access can accelerate social mobility across generations. Discusses passing the torch--an overview; thirty years later--educational attainments; how families fared--the college payoff; breaking the cycle of disadvantage--maternal education and children's success; how college changes a mother's parenting and affects her children's educational outcomes; dads and neighborhoods--their contributions to children's success; mass higher education and its critics; and the bottom line--the difference that open access makes. Attewell and Lavin are Professors of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Index.”

Christopher L. Foote of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reviews “Economic Turbulence: Is a Volatile Economy Good for America?” by Clair Brown, John Haltiwanger, Julia Lane,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores the real impact of economic volatility on American workers and businesses. Discusses economic turbulence--what, who, and how much; the industries; firms, their workers, and their survival; firm turbulence and job ladders; turbulence and worker career paths; economic turbulence and middle-income jobs; and conclusions and implications for policy. Brown is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Haltiwanger is Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. Lane is Senior Vice President and Director of the Economics, Labor, and Population Department at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Bibliography; index.”

Blake LeBaron of Brandeis University reviews “Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life” by John H. Miller, Scott E. Page,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Provides an account of complex adaptive social systems, focusing on the key tools and ideas that have emerged in the field since the mid-1990s, as well as the techniques needed to investigate such systems. Discusses complexity in social worlds; modeling; emergence; computation as theory; why agent-based objects; a basic framework; complex adaptive social systems in one dimension; social dynamics; evolving automata; some fundamentals of organizational decision making; and social science in between. Miller is Professor of Economics and Social Sciences in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and Research Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Page is Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics at the University of Michigan and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. Bibliography; index.”

Frank Levy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology reviews “Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class” by Robert H. Frank,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores how increased concentrations of income and wealth at the top of the economic pyramid have set off “expenditure cascades” that raise the cost of achieving many basic goals for the middle class. Discusses recent changes in income and wealth inequality; inequality, happiness, and health; envy or context; the rising cost of adequate; why we care about rank; what types of consumption are most sensitive to context; how middle-class families can afford to keep up; smart for one, dumb for all; looking ahead; and lessons for public policy. Frank is with the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Index.”

Peter Schmidt of Michigan State University reviews “Advanced Robust and Nonparametric Methods in Efficiency Analysis: Methodology and Applications” by Cinzia Daraio, Leopold Simar,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of recent developments in efficiency analysis in order to overcome the drawbacks of the traditional nonparametric approach. Discusses the measurement of efficiency; statistical inference in nonparametric frontier estimation; nonparametric robust estimators--partial frontiers; conditional measures of efficiency; economies of scale, scope, and experience in the Italian motor vehicle sector; age, scale, and concentration effects in a public research system; and exploring the effects of manager tenure, fund age, and their interaction. Daraio is with the Institute of Informatics and Telematics and in the Department of Electrical Systems and Automation, School of Engineering, University of Pisa. Simar is in the Institute of Statistics at the Catholic University of Louvain. Author and subject indexes.”

Bumba Mukherjee of University of Notre Dame reviews “Democratic Processes and Financial Markets: Pricing Politics” by William Bernhard, David Leblang,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines the conditions under which democratic events, including elections, cabinet formations, and government dissolutions, affect asset markets. Discusses democratic processes and political risk--evidence from foreign exchange markets; when markets party--stocks, bonds, and cabinet formations; the cross-national financial consequences of political predictability; cabinet dissolutions and interest rate behavior; bargaining and bonds--the process of coalition formation and the market for government debt in Austria and New Zealand; time, shares, and Florida--the 2000 presidential election and stock market volatility; polls and pounds--exchange rate behavior and public opinion in Britain; and political predictability and financial market behavior. Bernhard is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Leblang is Professor of Political Science and Research Associate at the Institute for Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado. Index.”

William J. Baumol of New York University reviews “Inside the Economist's Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists” by Paul A. Samuelson, William A. Barnett,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Sixteen papers present interviews with some of the world's most important economists, whose work contributed to the evolution of modern economic thought. Papers include interviews with Wassily Leontief; David Cass; Robert E. Lucas Jr.; Janos Kornai; Franco Modigliani; Milton Friedman; Paul A. Samuelson; Paul A. Volcker; Martin Feldstein; Christopher A. Sims; Robert J. Shiller; Stanley Fischer; Jacques Dreze; Thomas J. Sargent; Robert Aumann; and James Tobin and Robert J. Shiller on the “Yale Tradition” in macroeconomics. Samuelson is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Barnett is Oswald Distinguished Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Kansas. No index.”

Harold Cole of University of Pennsylvania reviews “The Economics of the Great Depression: A Twenty-First Century Look Back at the Economics of the Interwar Era” by Randall E. Parker,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores the evolution and the current state of economic literature on the Great Depression. Presents interviews with twelve American economists who have made substantial contributions to the twenty-first century understanding of the economics of the Great Depression: Peter Temin, Ben Bernanke, James Hamilton, Robert Lucas, Lee Ohanian, Christina Romer, Barry Eichengreen, Stephen Cecchetti, James Butkiewicz, Michael Bordo, Charles Calomiris, and Allan Meltzer. Parker is Professor of Economics at East Carolina University. Index.”

William A. Masters of Purdue University reviews “Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country” by William R. Cline,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines the likely impact of global warming at the country level, especially in the developing world, and considers the asymmetry between potentially severe agricultural damages in many poor countries and milder effects in rich countries. Discusses a brief survey of existing literature; key issues--carbon fertilization, irrigation, and trade; country-level climate projections; country-level agricultural impact estimates; and dynamic considerations. Appendices provide further information on global grids, regions, and climate models. Cline is Senior Fellow jointly at the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Index.”

Steven Nafziger of Williams College reviews “Comrades! A History of World Communism” by Robert Service,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines the history of communism throughout the world. Discusses communism before Marxism; Marx and Engels; communism in Europe; Russian variations; the October Revolution; the first communist state; European revolutions; communism and its discontents; the communist international; probing America; making sense of communism; the USSR in torment; the Soviet model; world strategy; Stalinist ideology; inside the parties; friends and foes; communism in the World War; forcing the peace; the cold war and the Soviet Bloc; the Yugoslav road; Western Europe; warring propaganda; the Chinese revolution; organizing communism; against and for reform; detente and expansion; China convulsed; revolutionary Cuba; communist order; rethinking communism; Europe east and west; reduced expectations; the last of the communist revolutions; roads from communism; anticommunism in Eastern Europe; China's capitalist communism; perestroika; the comrades' departure; and accounting for communism. Service is a fellow of the British Academy and Professor of Russian History at Oxford University. Select bibliography; index.”