A Not-so-dismal Science A Broader View of Economies and Societies [Paperback]

Many of economics' greatest successes have been outside the traditional boundaries of the discipline. Economic ideas have been the intellectual focus in the study of law, while in the study of politics, economists and political scientists using economics-type methods are uniquely influential. In sociology and history, economics has had a smaller but growing influence through rational choice sociology and cliometrics.

This book shows that, in calling economics the dismal science, Thomas Carlyle was profoundly wrong. Economic ideas have illuminated behavior in all of the social sciences in addition to the economists' traditional domain. The broadening of economics and the use of economists' methods by social scientists in other fields is leading to a unified and positive view of economies and societies.

Introduction: The Broader View,Mancur Olson and Satu K?hk?nen
1. Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk: Why Some Nations are Rich and Others Poor,Mancur Olson
2. Innovation and its Enemies: The Economic and Political Roots of Technological Inertia,Joel Mokyr
3. Economic Institutions and Development: A View from the Bottom,Oliver E. Williamson
4. Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development,Mancur Olson
5. Overstrong against Thyself: War, the State, and Growth in Europe on the Eve of the Industrial Revolution,J. Bradford De Long
6. The Swedish Model: A Comment on Mancur Olson's Analysis,Erik Moberg
7. Affirmative Action and Reservations in the American and Indian Labor Markets: Are They Really that Bad?,Edward Montgomery
8. Communities and Development: Autarkic Social Groups and the Economy,Russell Hardin
9. Law from Order: Economic Development and the Jurisprudence of Social Norms,Robert D. Cooter
10. The Nature of Institutional Impediments to Economic Development,Pranab Bardhan

Mancur Olsonwas Distinguished lSR