Abstract: Despite significant public resources devoted to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship there is little agreement about how to measure outcomes towards achieving the larger objectives of economic development. This paper starts by defining economic development and then considers the role of government, arguing that public policy should focus on building capacities that are beyond…
It is a matter of regret how little time is devoted to teaching mineral exploration in first degree university and college courses in the United Kingdom and in many other countries. As a result the few available textbooks tend to be expensive because of the limited market. By supplying our publisher with camera ready copy we have attempted to produce a cheaper book which will help to redress…
: Firms and workers are much more productive in large and dense urban environments. There is substantial evidence of such agglomeration economies based on three aproaches. First, on a clustering of production beyond what can be explained by chance or comparative advantage. Second, on spatial patterns in wages and rents. Third, on systematic variations in productivity with the urban enviro…
In this paper I reflect on Piero Sraffa’s concept of the ‘standpoint’ of the old classical economists from Adam Smith to Ricardo and compare it with the standpoint of the marginalist economists in the theory of value and distribution.
C. K. Ogden, the great semanticist and inventor of "Basic English", is reported to have commented on the saying: "words are convenient noises" by remarking that no more than one thousand of them have any precise meaning. This is particularly true of words relating to human affairs! The reason for this unsatisfactory state of affairs is not hard to find. Social relationships (political and…
GDP is the core measure of aggregate income used to measure total production from a country or region over a given period of time (usually a year, sometimes a quarter). You should have a quick catch up with what you have learned from EC2065 Macroeconomics about GDP and be able to distinguish between it and gross national product (GNP) . GDP per capita (divided by population) is, therefore,…
We have designed this book to be a supplement to Robert J. Barro’s Macroeconomics, which is the textbook that is used in introductory macroeconomics courses at the University of Chicago. In teaching these courses, we have found that Barro’s treatment of the subject does not make use of the mathematical skills of our students. In particular, Barro relies almost exclusively on economic in…