The reluctant economist : perspectives on economics, economic history and demography

Author/Creator:

Easterlin, Richard A., 1926- author

Publication/Creation:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004

Resource Type:

Book

Edition:

1st ed.

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

The reluctant economist : perspectives on economics, economic history and demography / Richard A. Easterlin

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

Economic history
Demography
United States--Economic conditions

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Tables and Figures; tables; figures; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 The Reluctant Economist; 2 Economics and the Use of Subjective Testimony; 3 Is Economic Growth Creating a New Postmaterialistic Society?; 4 Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?; 5 Kuznets Cycles and Modern Economic Growth; 6 Industrial Revolution and Mortality Revolution: Two of a Kind?; 7 How Beneficent Is the Market?; 8 An Economic Framework for Fertility Analysis; 9 New Perspectives on the Demographic Transition
10 Does Human Fertility Adjust to the Environment? Population Change and Farm Settlement in the Northern United States11 America's Baby Boom and Bust, 1940-1980: Causes and Consequences; 12 Preferences and Prices in Choice of Career: The Switch to Business; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index

Summary:

Where is rapid economic growth taking us? Why has its spread throughout the world been so limited? What are the causes of the great twentieth century advance in life expectancy? Of the revolution in childbearing that is bringing fertility worldwide to near replacement levels? Have free markets been the source of human improvement? Economics provides a start on these questions, but only a start, argues economist Richard A. Easterlin. To answer them calls for merging economics with concepts and data from other social sciences, and with quantitative and qualitative history. Easterlin demonstrates this approach in seeking answers to these and other questions about world or American experience in the last two centuries, drawing on economics, demography, sociology, history, and psychology. The opening chapter gives an autobiographical account of the evolution of this approach, and why Easterlin is a 'reluctant economist'.

Language:

English

Language Note:

English

Physical Type/Description:

1 online resource (xx, 284 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

General Note:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9936712716002486

ISBN:

1-107-14797-2
1-280-47782-2
0-511-19522-2
0-511-19588-5
0-511-19381-5
0-511-31424-8
0-511-61673-2
0-511-19455-2

OCLC Number:

171138761
173610042