The Unequal Effects of Globalization
By: Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, With Greg Larson – Yale University
At this critical moment of shifting attitudes toward globalization, The Unequal Effects of Globalization enters the debate while also taking a step back. Goldberg investigates globalization’s many dimensions, disruptions, and complex interactions, from the late twentieth century’s wave of trade liberalizations to the rise of China, the decline of manufacturing in advanced economies, and the recent effects of trade on global poverty, inequality, labor markets, and firm dynamics. From there, Goldberg explores the significance of the recent backlash against and potential retreat from globalization and considers the key policy implications of these trends and emerging dynamics.
As comprehensive as it is well-balanced, The Unequal Effects of Globalization is an essential read on trade and cooperation between nations that will appeal as much to academics and policymakers as it will to general readers who are interested in learning more about this timely subject.
Systemic Risk, Crises, and Macroprudential Regulation
By: Xavier Freixas, Luc Laeven, José-Luis Peydró – Universitat Pompeu Fabra, European Central Bank
This book offers a framework for understanding the reasons for the regulatory shift from a microprudential to a macroprudential approach to financial regulation. It defines systemic risk and macroprudential policy, cutting through the generalized confusion as to their meaning; contrasts macroprudential to microprudential approaches; discusses the interaction of macroprudential policy with macroeconomic policy (monetary policy in particular); and describes macroprudential tools and experiences with macroprudential regulation around the world.
The book also considers the remaining challenges for establishing effective macroprudential policy and broader issues in regulatory reform. These include the optimal size and structure of the financial system, the multiplicity of regulatory bodies in the United States, the supervision of cross-border financial institutions, and the need for international cooperation on macroprudential policies.
Using macroprudential policies to maintain financial stability, while monetary policy remains predicated to the achievement of price stability, is the current mantra. But, like the boy who has been taught about reproduction but has never met a girl, will the authorities, preferably central banks, be able to transform theory into effective practice when the time comes, against myriad political economy constraints? The authors of this beautifully written and lucid book take us carefully through the theory of, and the limited practical experiences with, both systemic risk and countervailing macroprudential policies. But neither they, nor we, can know many of the answers yet. But central banks, regulators, bankers, financiers, and economists will be much better prepared for future concerns with financial stability if they read this excellent book first.
Charles A. E. Goodhart, London School of Economics
The Problem of Twelve – When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything
By: John Coates – Harvard University
A “problem of twelve” arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation.
The Big Four index funds of Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of S&P 500 companies—a concentration of power that’s unprecedented in America. Then there’s the rise of private equity funds, such as the Big Four of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle, and KKR, which have amassed $2.7 trillion of assets, and are eroding the legitimacy and accountability of American capitalism—not by controlling public companies, but by taking them over entirely, and removing them from public disclosure and scrutiny.
This quiet accumulation in the last few decades represents a dramatic transformation in how the American economy operates—a sea change that few of us have noticed and all of us need to consider. Harvard law professor John Coates forcefully calls our attention to what is sure to be one of the major political and economic issues of our time.
The Economic Approach – Unpublished Writings of Gary S. Becker
Edited by: Julio J. Elias, Casey B. Mulligan, Kevin M. Murphy – University of CEMA, Argentina, University of Chicago
After forty years at the University of Chicago, Becker left a slew of unpublished writings that used an economic approach to human behavior, analyzing such topics as preference formation, rational indoctrination, income inequality, drugs and addiction, and the economics of family.
These papers unveil the process and personality—direct, critical, curious—that made him a beloved figure in his field and beyond. The Economic Approach examines these extant works as a capstone to the Becker oeuvre—not because the works are perfect, but because they offer an illuminating, instructive glimpse into the machinations of an economist who wasn’t motivated by publications. Here, and throughout his works, an inquisitive spirit remains remarkable and forever resonant.
