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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Easterlin, Richard A., 1926-2024, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic history.

Demography.

United States--Economic conditions.

United States.

Physical Description:

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

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

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'.

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

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-278) and index.

ISBN:

9781107147973

1107147972

9781280477829

1280477822

9780511195228

0511195222

9780511195884

0511195885

9780511193811

0511193815

9780511314247

0511314248

9780511616730

0511616732

9780511194559

0511194552

OCLC:

171138761