For most of the vast span of human history, economic growth was all but nonexistent. Then, about two centuries ago, some nations began to emerge from this epoch of economic stagnation, experiencing sustained economic growth that led to significant increases in standards of living and profoundly altered the level and distribution of wealth, population, education, and health across the globe. The question ever since has been--why? This is the first book to put forward a unified theory of economic growth that accounts for the entire growth process, from the dawn of civilization to today. Oded Galor, who founded the field of unified growth theory, identifies the historical and prehistorical forces behind the differential transition timing from stagnation to growth and the emergence of income disparity around the world. Galor shows how the interaction between technological progress and population ultimately raised the importance of education in coping with the rapidly changing technological environment, brought about significant reduction in fertility rates, and enabled some economies to devote greater resources toward a steady increase in per capita income, paving the way for sustained economic growth. Presents a unified theory of economic growth from the dawn of civilization to today Explains the worldwide disparities in living standards and population we see today Provides a comprehensive overview of the three phases of the development process Analyzes the Malthusian theory and its empirical support Examines theories of demographic transition and their empirical significance Explores the interaction between economic development and human evolution

In this book, Robert Lucas brings together several of his seminal papers on the subject, together with the Kuznets Lectures that he gave at Yale University, to present a coherent view of economic growth."--BOOK JACKET.

Macroeconomic policy is one of the most important policy domains, and the tools of macroeconomics are among the most valuable for policy makers. Yet there has been, up to now, a wide gulf between the level at which macroeconomics is taught at the undergraduate level and the level at which it is practiced. At the same time, doctoral-level textbooks are usually not targeted at a policy audience, making advanced macroeconomics less accessible to current and aspiring practitioners. This book, born out of the Masters course the authors taught for many years at the Harvard Kennedy School, fills this gap. It introduces the tools of dynamic optimization in the context of economic growth, and then applies them to a wide range of policy questions – ranging from pensions, consumption, investment and finance, to the most recent developments in fiscal and monetary policy. It does so with the requisite rigor, but also with a light touch, and an unyielding focus on their application to policy-making, as befits the authors’ own practical experience. Advanced Macroeconomics: An Easy Guide is bound to become a great resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, and practitioners alike.

Variations in the foreign exchange market influence all aspects of the world economy, and understanding these dynamics is one of the great challenges of international economics. This book provides a new, comprehensive, and in-depth examination of the standard theories and latest research in exchange-rate economics. Covering a vast swath of theoretical and empirical work, the book explores established theories of exchange-rate determination using macroeconomic fundamentals, and presents unique microbased approaches that combine the insights of microstructure models with the macroeconomic forces.

“Unified Reality Theory demonstrates that the source of reality is a universal consciousness, and that we are in no way separable from that source, and so in no way truly separable from each other or any other aspect of reality. I recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the nature of reality and their place in it.” —Deepak Chopra Unified Reality Theory describes how all reality evolves from an absolute existence. It also demonstrates that this absolute existence must have consciousness as an attribute that’s intrinsic to its being. Thus, Unified Reality Theory shows that consciousness, rather than being a product of the evolution of physical reality, is itself the source of what we experience as physical reality, and that physical reality is itself but one aspect of an evolving universal consciousness. Unified Reality Theory shows that, most fundamentally, this absolute consciousness-existence evolves into reality by means of a single process: self-relation. That is, consciousness-existence becomes reality by forming relationships with itself, analogous in a very limited way to what happens to a rubber band that’s twisted upon itself, i.e., it remains whole while differentiating into other forms. Thus, Unified Reality Theory demonstrates that reality is a state of existential self-relation. The idea that the universe consists of existence which has formed relationships with itself isn’t new; Taoists have understood this idea for at least a couple of thousand years. What’s new here is the presentation of this idea in the form of a detailed and defined structural model that correlates with the behavior of physical reality as described by science in general and physics in particular. Ultimately, Unified Reality Theory uses science and logic to make the case that God exists, as a pervasive and absolute consciousness that transcends the realities of space and time, and that we, as well as everything else, are that!

This book integrates spatial and behavioral perspectives - in a word, those of the Rochester and Michigan schools - into a unified theory of voter choice and party strategy. The theory encompasses both policy and non-policy factors, effects of turnout, voter discounting of party promises, expectations of coalition governments, and party motivations based on policy as well as office. Optimal (Nash equilibrium) strategies are determined for alternative models for presidential elections in the US and France, and for parliamentary elections in Britain and Norway. These polities cover a wide range of electoral rules, number of major parties, and governmental structures. The analyses suggest that the more competitive parties generally take policy positions that come close to maximizing their electoral support, and that these vote-maximizing positions correlate strongly with the mean policy positions of their supporters.

This book explores the policy implications of the unified theory of capitalism—how economic growth has led to a new epoch, the Anthropocene, and it presents a new set of economic principles that are needed in this new age. The unified theory of capitalism has been published as a new scientific endeavor, attempting to present new economics for the Anthropocene age that are empirically verifiable and fully consistent with the physical sciences. This book elaborates on the implications of the unified theory for both the science of economics and for public policies. In particular, this book develops in more detail the policy implications, discussing the fundamental economic and societal policy issues of our time—employment, inequality, the environment, and quality of life—in empirical terms.