An ever-increasing share of human interaction, communication, and culture is recorded as digital text. We provide an introduction to the use of text as an input to economic research. We discuss the features that make text different from other forms of data, offer a practical overview of relevant statistical methods, and survey a variety of applications.

We provide an introduction to the recent developments of dynamic mechanism design, with a primary focus on the quasilinear case. First, we describe socially optimal (or efficient) dynamic mechanisms. These mechanisms extend the well-known Vickrey– Clark–Groves and D’Aspremont–Gérard–Varet mechanisms to a dynamic environment. Second, we discuss revenue optimal mechanisms. We cover models of sequential screening and revenue-maximizing auctions with dynamically changing bidder types. We also discuss models of information management where the mechanism designer can control (at least partially) the stochastic process governing the agents’ types. Third, we consider models with changing populations of agents over time. After discussing related models with risk-averse agents and limited liability, we conclude with a number of open questions and challenges that remain for the theory of dynamic mechanism design.

Chris Miller’s book is a historian’s account of Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to save the Soviet economy. Miller focuses on the question of why Gorbachev did not follow Deng Xiaoping and did not manage to reform the economy. Miller argues that it was not for the lack of understanding (Gorbachev did invest in learning China’s approach to reform and did understand it well), nor for the lack of trying. In fact, Gorbachev did try to implement Deng’s agricultural and industrial enterprise reforms. However, Gorbachev’s reforms were blocked by powerful vested interests. An inability to tackle the agricultural and industrial lobbies eventually resulted in the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet Union. While I generally agree with the political economy argument, I discuss a number of alternative explanations. I also discuss sources of Gorbachev’s weak state capacity and offer an evaluation of Gorbachev’s and post-Gorbachev reform efforts and mistakes based on the political economy research carried out in the last twenty-five years.

This paper reviews the book Why Muslim Integration Fails in Christian-Heritage Societies by Claire Adida, David Laitin and Marie-Anne Valfort (hereafter, ALV), providing an analytical perspective on the issues related to minority discrimination and integration in a host society. Building upon the sociological and recent economic approaches to cultural integration, we highlight the different mechanisms behind the existence of a discriminatory equilibrium between a majority group and a minority group in a given social context. The paper then discusses the specific case of the Muslim minority groups in the French context and outlines the strengths and limitations of the research approach expanded by ALV. We finally consider the policy proposals provided by ALV, assessing their viability, as well as the dynamic political economy constraints they might face in a Christian-heritage society

The categories listed below are used to classify books, book reviews, journal articles, and dissertations indexed in JEL, JEL on CD, EconLit. New changes to the classification system appear as soon as possible on www.econlit.org . The JEL classification system may be used freely for scholarly purposes. We suggest the following format: “JEL: A10, B10, etc.”

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-first Century’s thesis is that violence and only violence significantly reduces inequality. It shows supportive cases of violence reducing inequality, especially World War II and the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, and highlights recent peacetime increases in within-country inequality. The great virtue of the book is to present a lot of evidence on both sides for the readers to judge the thesis for themselves. Other historical evidence is not supportive. Other measures of inequality, like absolute poverty or inequality between countries or groups, show many examples of violence making inequality or deprivation worse. The unequal burden of conscription, rationing, and casualties may also show war to be dis-equalizing. Also against the thesis is that recent peaceful globalization of trade, investment, and migration flows, including the rapid growth of China and India, has arguably reduced global inequality and absolute poverty to a historic extent.

This essay reviews Till Time’s Last Sand: A History of the Bank of England, 1694–2013, David Kynaston’s history of the Bank of England (the Bank) from its foundation in 1694 to the present day. I focus on three themes running through his narrative. First, for much of that time, the Bank was a private company playing a public role; how did it manage to do this and why was it eventually brought into public ownership? Second, I examine the various attempts to constrain the Bank’s monetary policy to follow a simple rule; these almost invariably proved unsustainable unless the rule provided enough room for discretion. Finally, I cover the Bank’s journey to becoming the lender of last resort, together with its evolving attitude to the associated risk of moral hazard.