An integrated collection of a dozen of Peter Earl's lively and thought-provoking essays, carefully edited and updated. Theoretical topics include the prediction of corporate behaviour, the economic foundations of marketing and shopping mall design, pricing strategy and its relationship with the existence of second-hand markets, and the microfoundations of macroeconomics. Case studies include co-operation in the car industry, managerialist reforms in New Zealand and the university sector, structural change in the advertising industry and the place of GB Richardson and GLS Shackle in the literature of economics.

Economics for an Information Age examines the central role of information within economics and society. The neoclassical economic model, taught as ‘mainstream economics’ in universities around the world, relies on a mathematical model of ‘resource allocation’ in which private advantage gives rise to public advantage in the shape of an optimal allocation of resources. However, this model assumes ‘perfect information’. In the present ‘information age’ such an assumption is even farther from the reality than it was in the past. People disseminate and manipulate information to further their interests. This book explains economic behaviour in terms of a theory of ‘money-bargaining’ and political and intellectual ‘support-bargaining’, in which the dissemination of information plays a central role. It uses this lens to explain how information is created, manipulated, disseminated, organised, understood, interpreted, used, bought and sold. This book will be of interest to mainstream and heterodox economists alike, as well as historians of economic thought, and anyone who seeks to better understand the impact of the information age on economic behaviour.

Presents the ONE behavioral approach to economics: a grand synthesis of Old, New and Evolutionary behavioral approaches.

'Ecological and economic systems share some fundamental characteristics that Clem Tisdell has beautifully illuminated. He has given us a much better handle on the roles of competition, diversity, evolution and sustainability in complex, interdependent ecological and economic systems. Our ability to build a sustainable and desirable future fundamentally depends on this integrated understanding.' – Robert Costanza, Portland State University, US This thought-provoking book explores the influences of market competition and diverse behaviours of economic agents on economic performance, particularly dynamic economic performance. Clem Tisdell illustrates – within evolutionary, dynamic and static contexts – how diversity can improve or impede economic performance. He addresses the fact the role of diversity in improving economic performance has been neglected by economic theorists by making economic diversity a focal point of economic analysis. In particular, special attention is given to the value of economic diversity and economic imperfections in improving the performance of economic processes in particular identified situations. Limitations of using market-like mechanisms for managing public bodies and business firms are discussed and the value of business cooperation (economic mutualism) as a means for improving economic performance is examined. It is also observed that as economies develop, different forms of economic competition and business cooperation evolve. Challenging yet accessible, this book will prove a stimulating read for academics and students in the fields of economics, industrial organization and business and management.

Case studies that examine how firms coordinate economic activity in the face of asymmetric information—information not equally available to all parties—are the focus of this volume. In an ideal world, the market would be the optimal provider of coordination, but in the real world of incomplete information, some activities are better coordinated in other ways. Divided into three parts, this book addresses coordination within firms, at the borders of firms, and outside firms, providing a picture of the overall incidence and logic of economic coordination. The case studies—drawn from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when the modern business enterprise was evolving, address such issues as the relationship between coordination mechanisms and production techniques, the logic of coordination in industrial districts, and the consequences of regulation for coordination. Continuing the work on information and organization presented in the influential Inside the Business Enterprise, this book provides material for business historians and economists who want to study the development of the dissemination of information and the coordination of economic activity within and between firms.

This two volume Handbook contains chapters on the main areas to which Post-Keynesians have made sustained and important contributions. These include theories of accumulation, distribution, pricing, money and finance, international trade and capital flows, the environment, methodological issues, criticism of mainstream economics and Post-Keynesian policies. The Introduction outlines what is in the two volumes, in the process placing Post-Keynesian procedures and contributions in appropriate contexts.

This Handbook investigates all types of 'member owned' organizations, whether consumer co-operatives, agricultural and producer co-operatives, or worker co-operatives among many others. The chapters reflect the latest academic research and thinking on each topic, as well as reporting the relevant policy debates.