In this rigorous and well-crafted work, Kenneth Wolpin examines the role of theory in inferential empirical work in economics and the social sciences in general--that is, any research that uses raw data to go beyond the mere statement of fact or the tabulation of statistics. He considers in...

In recent years central bankers have placed new emphasis on communication with financial markets and the general public. They have done this not only through the traditional channel of monetary policy pronouncements but also by increasing the quantity of information they make public. Yet as...

In Made in the USA, Vaclav Smil powerfully rebuts the notion that manufacturing is a relic of predigital history and that the loss of American manufacturing is a desirable evolutionary step toward a pure service economy. Smil argues that no advanced economy can prosper without a strong,...

Production in the Innovation Economy emerges from several years of interdisciplinary research at MIT on the links between manufacturing and innovation in the United States and the world economy. (This ambitious research project is described in Making in America: From Innovation to Market, also...

Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy is the first book to explore the broad implications of the convergence of industrial and environnmental policy in the United States. Under the banner of “green jobs,†clean energy industries and labor, environmental, and antipoverty organizations...

In recent years, management gurus have urged businesses to adopt such strategies as just-in-time, lean manufacturing, offshoring, and frequent deliveries to retail outlets. But today, these much-touted strategies may be risky. Global financial turmoil, rising labor costs in developing countries,...

For ten boom-powered years at the turn of the twenty-first century, some of America’s most prominent law and accounting firms created and marketed products that enabled the very rich--including newly minted dot-com millionaires--to avoid paying their fair share of taxes by claiming benefits...

This pithy and engaging volume shows that economists may be better equipped to predict the future than science fiction writers. EconomistsÕ ideas, based on both theory and practice, reflect their knowledge of the laws of human interactions as well as years of experimentation and reflection....

Editors of academic journals are often the top scholars in their fields. They are charged with managing the flow of hundreds of manuscripts each year--from submission to review to rejection or acceptance--all while continuing their own scholarly pursuits. Tenure decisions often turn on who has...

Privatizing Russia offers an inside look at one of the most remarkable reforms in recent history. Having started on the back burner of Russian politics in the fall of 1991, mass privatization was completed on July 1, 1994, with two thirds of the Russian industry privately owned, a rapidly rising...