Each of 2 Universities-National Bureau of Economic Research Conferences on demographic economics held in 1958 and in 1976 resulted in a volume of essays with great significance for those working in demographic economics. Both are discussed for the 2 sets of essays do much to illustrate what the subdiscipline is doing and neglecting. The 1st dealt nominally with more developed countries and the 2nd purportedly with less developed countries. During the 1st period the dominant idea was neo-Malthusian with emphasis on demographic performance as a consequence of economic progress although in which direction (more children and sooner or fewer children and later) was in part a matter of choosing between the Becker/Mincer formulation of opportunity costs of parenthood and the Easterlin formulation of satisfaction with oneself or alternatively a fear that prosperity was effectively bounded. The book of the 2nd conference includes 9 essays plus a brief introduction by the editor. Each of these essays is reviewed briefly. What is most impressive about this volume are the preferences for the Iron Law of Wages/neo-Malthusian approach -- economic progress leads to demographic response and not the other way around.

NANCY STOKEY AND ROBERT LUCAS, JR., and Ed Prescott have produced an exceptionally useful, thorough, and timely introduction to stochastic economic dynamics. Dynamic optimization techniques developed in Operations Research, formulated initially by Richard Bellman (1957), have been used extensively in economics, particularly in macroeconomics, finance, and public finance. Economic theorists have extended dynamic programming theory in several valuable directions. Of particular note for this book is the concept of recursive equilibrium introduced in Edward Prescott and Rajnish Mehra (1980). While these techniques have been used extensively, there has been no broad, unified, and comprehensive presentation of the concepts, tools, and applications of recursive dynamic techniques that is written for economists and demands no more mathematics than a typical student is exposed to in a good graduate program. This book succeeds marvelously in filling this need. Furthermore, given the depth of development, it is also a valuable reference for researchers. Before describing the book's contents in detail, we should discuss what is distinctive and important about the recursive approach to dynamic economic problems. To do this, let's examine a simple problem and an alternative approach to its solution. The canonical problem for economic dynamics is the infinite horizon deterministic growth problem. Let k, be the capital stock at the beginning of period t, f(kt) a neoclassical production function expressing period t production as a function of kt, ct consumption in period t chosen at the end of the period, u(c) a concave utility function, and I the discount factor. Then a social planner for this infinitely lived economy will solve the problem

Loss aversion is one of the most widely used concepts in behavioral economics. We conduct a large-scale, interdisciplinary meta-analysis to systematically accumulate knowledge from numerous empirical estimates of the loss aversion coefficient reported from 1992 to 2017. We examine 607 empirical estimates of loss aversion from 150 articles in economics, psychology, neuroscience, and several other disciplines. Our analysis indicates that the mean loss aversion coefficient is 1.955 with a 95 percent probability that the true value falls in the interval [1.820, 2.102]. We record several observable characteristics of the study designs. Few characteristics are substantially correlated with differences in the mean estimates. (JEL D81, D91)

Edward L Glaeser of Harvard University reviews “Chicago before the Fire: An Economic History” by Louis P. Cain The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Examines the economic and business history of Chicago before the Great Fire of 1870, focusing on how the city's early growth and development determined its rise as the Midwest's dominant city.”

Half of individuals released from prison in the United States will be re-incarcerated within three years, creating an incarceration cycle that is detrimental to individuals, families, and communities. There is tremendous public interest in ending this cycle, and public policies can help or hinder the reintegration of those released from jail and prison. This review summarizes the existing empirical evidence on how to intervene with existing offenders to reduce criminal behavior and improve social welfare. (JEL D91, I18, I28, I38, K42, R23)

In Discrimination and Disparities, Thomas Sowell describes how economists think about the causes of disparities in socioeconomic outcomes. He cautions against government intervention to reduce disparities, noting that such interventions often have unintended consequences. In this review, I discuss the role of economic theory and empirical evidence in helping move society toward more equitable outcomes. I find far more reason to be hopeful about the role of government than Sowell does, but also argue for more experimentation and rigorous evaluation to be sure that our well-intentioned policies have their intended impacts. (JEL D63, J15, J16, J71, J78)

The two books being reviewed are concerned with the importance of slavery in the antebellum US South for the economic development of the Northern states. One (Schermerhorn) deals primarily with Southern financial arrangements facilitating the sales of slaves and cotton. The other (Baptist) presents a broader picture of masters' treatment of slaves, as well as how the incomes of slaveowners spurred the demand for Northern industrial production. The review argues that both books overstate the importance of slavery and cotton production for US economic growth. (JEL J15, N11, N31, N51, P16)

Alvin Roth's Who Gets What—And Why provides a richly accessible introduction to his pioneering work on market design. Much of economics ignores the institutions that allocate goods, blithely assuming that the mythical Walrasian auctioneer will handle everything perfectly. But markets do fail and Roth details those failures, like the market for law clerks that unravels because clerks and judges commit to each other too quickly. Roth combines theory and pragmatic experience to show how the economist can engineer successful markets. He has even enabled welfare-improving trades in kidney exchanges, where law and social repugnance forbids cash payments. (JEL C78, D47)

Fragile by Design by Charles W. Calomiris and Stephen H. Haber introduces a framework for understanding financial crises and credit abundance with politics at its center. Using the historical experiences of five nations to illustrate, the authors propose that democracies such as the United States and Canada can have stable banks and ample credit so long as populist forces do not dominate the policy agenda, and that strong autocratic states such as Mexico can also achieve stability at the cost of restricting credit. Weak autocracies, such as Brazil over much of its history, often require inflationary finance and suffer from the banking fragility that comes with it. The authors identify populist ideologies and related policy decisions (such as unit banking, deposit insurance, and the Community Reinvestment Act) as underlying causes of banking instability in the United States as typified by the recent subprime crisis. Canada, in contrast, by holding populist forces in check through calculated political choices, remains crisis-free. (JEL D72, E44, G01, G21, N20, O16, O17)