Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

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Here Partha Dasgupta, an internationally recognized authority in economics, presents readers with a solid introduction to its basic concepts, including efficiency, equity, sustainability, dynamic equilibrium, property rights, markets, and public goods. Throughout, he highlights the relevance of economics to everyday life, providing a very human exploration of a technical subject. Dasgupta covers enduring issues such as population growth, the environment, and poverty. For example, he explores how the world's looming population problems affect us at the local, national, and international level. Economics has the capacity to offer us deep insights into some of the most formidable problems of life, and offer solutions to them too. Combining a global approach with examples from everyday life, Partha Dasgupta reveals the connections between economics, politics, and development, and shows how these interactions create the world we live in today.

I probably would not have been as disappointed with this book as I was had the title not included such misleading words as "Introduction" and "Economics". Grass Root Collective Action for territorially integrated food supply chain: A Case Study from Tuscany," My only criticism is that some parts of the book may be too technical for the broad audience intended by the publishers and could avail from the inclusion of more supporting diagrams. The section on game theory is particularly guilty of this.The book shows an economist thinking and practicing his discipline in a way a lay reader can, with effort, understand rather than offering an overview. The book helped me understand how an economist works. Dasgupta helped me see different ways of thinking about important matters, which is a worthwhile accomplishment and the goal of a "very short introduction". It’s difficult to explain how limited liberal economics is when you do not have the words to describe the real world. Here are some words: As an 'introduction', this book is an extremely heavy read for anyone not already intimately familiar with economics (and even then, it would probably still be a tough book to get through). The author covers such a wide array of topics so fast, that it's difficult to see how they might possibly tie together. Even the examples the author gives require a double-take (at least in my case they did).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about. A little learning is a dangerous thing"; and a "very short introduction" does not have to be easy. Dasgupta's book is not written "for dummies" and it does not present its subject in the manner of an introductory textbook. Instead, Dasgupta offers the lay reader an example of how economists define problems and issues and try to solve them. In other words, the book offers the reader an example of how to "think like an economist". This gives the book a dense character. Dasgupta develops his own way of approaching and his position of questions of economics, neither of which might be fully shared by all members of his profession. Class (i.e. class analysis) remain forever opaque in (modern) liberal economics (remember, this was actually foundational to the Classical liberals), with 2 inconsequential mentions: Shows how economics uncovers and explains these processes, and how it can form solutions and policies. It was Marx who spent so much effort seriously investigating Classical liberal economics and exposing its contradictions, that we now associate the above list (especially the first 3 items) to Marx rather than Smith/Ricardo etc.! The contradictions became so severe that pro-capitalists economics had to throw out the Classical framework entirely, only keeping its pro-capitalist conclusions!

wp2016_17.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa. At the outset, Dasgupta makes two broad worth noting. First, he ties in economics with politics and, especially with ethics. Unlike some scientists who might try to minimize ethical, philosophical questions, Dasgupta is quite clear that ethical commitments are a driving force behind economics and politics. The second point involves Dasgupta's approach to economic questions. He rejects a historical, "narrative" approach because of the difficulty of supporting one proposed "narrative" over another. Dasgupta's approach is heavily analytical and quantitative, relying on mathematical modeling, statistics, and game theory. He tries to identify and weigh the factors involved in economic growth. These pro-capitalist economists consolidated around a new framework (of classless selfish individuals and harmonious equilibriums, a utopia more fanciful than communism) which they labelled as "Neoclassical" economics, today's "mainstream economics". This is why modern Marxist economists (ranging from The Bubble and Beyond to Anwar Shaikh) refer to "Neoclassical" as "anti-Classical". Colonialism/imperialism is directly mentioned once: Why didn’t the poor world take advantage of their resource endowments to enrich themselves in the same way?

Achieving sustainable population: Fertility decline in many developing countries follows modern contraception, not economic growth," Yes, we get the vague history of Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. As in, that stuff that happened a long, long time ago, but there is no modern history because we now have the science of (liberal) economics and political "independence"/ "democracy"!Compares the lives of two children in the Developed and Developing Worlds, and uses this as a key to uncover the processes that shape our lives and our futures.

Yes, sarcasm; the world is reduced to a poorly-lit alley and the author only examines what is under the street light: economic growth (GDP), standard of living (HDI), demography ( population growth, ugh...), trust (how to model it), communities, markets (including the central planning vs. free market "debate", market failures, etc.), institutions (in particular science and technology), households and firms (including property rights, risk), modelling sustainable economic development, modelling social wellbeing, and even the game theory of voting (framed as if this is an adequate intro to “democracy”, how liberal reformist can we get?!). As for calling this an 'economics' book, I really think that is open to interpretation. It was abundantly clear to me that the author had an agenda when writing this book and was not shy about it. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with her viewpoints, but books that are supposed to be references to technical subjects like economics shouldn't have the facts clouded with opinion and rhetoric. So... is liberal economics even meant to answer the question of global inequality, or is it designed to obscure not only the answers but how we frame the question? Up-to-date and progressive, this short book is written by an internationally recognized authority in the field.Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital: an Indian economist, sharing Dasgupta’s famous economist father’s name, in a majestic work of political economy/history Middle-class behaviour can also be the trigger for change”: Ah, yes, “middle-class”, the only class vocalized by liberals to justify inequality (i.e. there is still social mobility if you earn it, thus capitalism remains a meritocracy). Nothing about power (esp. political bargaining power). Economics has the capacity to offer us deep insights into some of the most formidable problems of life. Here, Dasgupta goes beyond the basics to show it's innate effects on our history, culture, and lifestyles. The Very Short Introductions series of Oxford University Press provides succinct introductions to more subjects than a person can reasonably hope to know. Parath Dasgupta offers a brief, pointed look at Economics in this 2007 volume in the series. Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Dasgupta was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his work in economics and has written many important books and studies.