A collection of ten classic texts of 20th-century British political economy. The texts deal with managed capitalism, the welfare state and the middle ground, and should promote readers' understanding of British politics and economic ideology in the years since the Great Depression.

A collection of ten classic texts of 20th-century British political economy. The texts deal with managed capitalism, the welfare state and the middle ground, and should promote readers' understanding of British politics and economic ideology in the years since the Great Depression.

A collection of ten classic texts of 20th-century British political economy. The texts deal with managed capitalism, the welfare state and the middle ground, and should promote readers' understanding of British politics and economic ideology in the years since the Great Depression.

A distinctive feature of economic trends of the past three decades has been the increase in microeconomic intervention by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the market economies of rich industrial and poor developing nations. The majority of SOEs were established as policy instruments of choice in response to a variety of socioeconomic needs and socio-political problems. As persuasively demonstrated in this book, microeconomic efficiency criteria alone, stemming from the theory of a perfectly competitive economy, are badly designed criteria for public firms. The historical part of the book, in particular, discusses quite compellingly a number of causes other than market failures for the existence of state-owned enterprises. This discussion develops complex answers regarding causes for the existence of public firms.

A distinctive feature of economic trends of the past three decades has been the increase in microeconomic intervention by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the market economies of rich industrial and poor developing nations. The majority of SOEs were established as policy instruments of choice in response to a variety of socioeconomic needs and socio-political problems. As persuasively demonstrated in this book, microeconomic efficiency criteria alone, stemming from the theory of a perfectly competitive economy, are badly designed criteria for public firms. The historical part of the book, in particular, discusses quite compellingly a number of causes other than market failures for the existence of state-owned enterprises. This discussion develops complex answers regarding causes for the existence of public firms.

In a new and updated edition of this classic textbook, Henry William Spiegel brings his discussion and analysis of economic thought into the 1990s. A new introductory chapter offering an overall view of the history of economics and a bibliographic survey of the economic literature of the 1980s and early 1990s have been added. Maintaining the link between economics and the humanities, Spiegel's text will continue to introduce students to a wide range of topics in the history of economic thought. From reviews of previous editions: "The history of economic thought to end all histories of economic thought."--Robert D. Patton, Journal of Economic Literature "The book is in the grand tradition of the history of doctrines. It is a history of economic thought broadly conceived--and superbly written to boot. It is not to much to say that Spiegel's book will become and remain a leading text in the field."--Warren J. Samuels, Social Science The author conveys the essence of an idea simply and clearly, yet in a graceful style."--William F. Kennedy, Journal of Economic Literature

Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.