David Colander

Roland Kupers

"A much-needed, fresh view of policy. It is based neither on free market ideology nor on heavy government control, but on seeing the economy as an always evolving complex system that can be guided toward desirable outcomes. An important book that will change how policies are made."--W. Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute ""Complexity and the Art of Public Policy" helps readers understand how politics and business are part of a large sophisticated social system and how the critical issues and transitions of this system can be driven successfully."--Dick Benschop, president-director of Shell Netherlands and former deputy minister of foreign affairs for the Netherlands "We live in an increasingly interconnected world that generates hugely wicked problems--managing this complexity will be the hallmark of good governments. In this book, Colander and Kupers show how complexity is relevant to policymaking and present a rich menu of ideas for governments wanting to function better in today's intricate operating environment. It deserves to be read by all policymakers."--Peter Ho, Centre for Strategic Futures, Singapore "Easily one of the best policy and economics books I've read in a long time. It should be widely read and studied by policymakers, students of public policy, and the informed public alike."--David W. Orr, Oberlin College and the Cleveland Foundation "A blend of common sense, historical knowledge, and the latest developments in complexity theory, this book shows what's wrong with the current policy narrative, and offers an exciting alternative."--Martin Reeves, director of the BCG Strategy Institute "This book describes how economics got us stuck into two competing policy narratives, and how complexity provides a new way forward. Policymakers everywhere should read it."--Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute "This accessible and well-researched book argues that the world in which our leaders govern has become increasingly complex and interconnected, with the potential for unexpected, harmful events, such as market crashes and political uprisings. Complexity, though, should not be avoided. Properly harnessed, the drivers of complexity can produce constant innovation while maintaining system-level robustness. Achieving those ends requires an understanding of the bottom-up thinking so engagingly presented in this book."--Scott Page, University of Michigan

Solving Society's Problems from the Bottom Up

Complexity and the Art of Public Policy

Craig Freedman

Chicago's Abandonment of Classical Liberalism

Where Economics Went Wrong

"Shows what is happening in elite U.S. economics Ph.D. programs, providing a view of cutting-edge economics and a glimpse at its likely future ... Also shows how much--and in what ways--the field has changed over the past two decades"--From publisher description.

The Making of an Economist, Redux

How modern economics abandoned classical liberalism and lost its way Milton Friedman once predicted that advances in scientific economics would resolve debates about whether raising the minimum wage is good policy. Decades later, Friedman’s prediction has not come true. In Where Economics Went Wrong, David Colander and Craig Freedman argue that it never will. Why? Because economic policy, when done correctly, is an art and a craft. It is not, and cannot be, a science. The authors explain why classical liberal economists understood this essential difference, why modern economists abandoned it, and why now is the time for the profession to return to its classical liberal roots. Carefully distinguishing policy from science and theory, classical liberal economists emphasized values and context, treating economic policy analysis as a moral science where a dialogue of sensibilities and judgments allowed for the same scientific basis to arrive at a variety of policy recommendations. Using the University of Chicago—one of the last bastions of classical liberal economics—as a case study, Colander and Freedman examine how both the MIT and Chicago variants of modern economics eschewed classical liberalism in their attempt to make economic policy analysis a science. By examining the way in which the discipline managed to lose its bearings, the authors delve into such issues as the development of welfare economics in relation to economic science, alternative voices within the Chicago School, and exactly how Friedman got it wrong. Contending that the division between science and prescription needs to be restored, Where Economics Went Wrong makes the case for a more nuanced and self-aware policy analysis by economists.

Robert E. Prasch

Falguni A. Sheth

Noneconomists often think that economists' approach to race is almost exclusively one of laissez-faire. Racism, Liberalism, and Economics argues that economists' ideas are more complicated. The book considers economists' support of markets in relation to the challenge of race and race relations and argues that their support of laissez-faire has traditionally been based upon a broader philosophical foundation of liberalism and history: what markets have and have not achieved in the past, and how that past relates to the future. The book discusses the concepts of liberalism and racism, the history and use of these terms, and how that history relates to policy issues. It argues that liberalism is consistent with a wide variety of policies and that the broader philosophical issues are central in choosing policies. The contributors show how the evolution of racist ideas has been a subtle process that is woven into larger movements in the development of scientific thought; economic thinking is embedded in a larger social milieu. Previous discussions of policies toward race have been constrained by that social milieu, and, since World War II, have largely focused on ending legislated and state-sanctioned discrimination. In the past decade, the broader policy debate has moved on to questions about the existence and relative importance of intangible sources of inequality, including market structure, information asymmetries, cumulative processes, and cultural and/or social capital. This book is a product of, and a contribution to, this modern discussion. It is uniquely transdisciplinary, with contributions by and discussions among economists, philosophers, anthropologists, and literature scholars. The volume first examines the early history of work on race by economists and social scientists more generally. It continues by surveying American economists on race and featuring contributions that embody more modern approaches to race within economics. Finally it explores several important policy issues that follow from the discussion. ". . . adds new insights that contribute significantly to the debate on racial economic inequality in the U.S. The differing opinions of the contributors provide the broad perspective needed to examine this extremely complex issue." --James Peoples, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee "There is an immense economic literature on racial discrimination, employing a variety of models and decomposition methods. This volume makes a unique contribution by focusing on the philosophical assumptions at the root of this analysis and by presenting many sides of the very vigorous debate surrounding these controversial issues." --Thomas Maloney, University of Utah "By focusing upon the progress of analytical technique, historians of economic thought have grossly neglected the symbiotic relation of economics to public policy and ideology. This collection of essays offers a most welcome breach of disciplinary apartheid. Seizing upon recent research in the almost forgotten writings about race of Classical economists and their contemporaries, it relates nineteenth-century ideas to current debates about economic discrimination and other manifestations of racism. As the writing is both learned and lively, the book should appeal both to the generally educated reader and to teachers of courses in multiculturalism." --Melvin Reder, Isidore Brown and Gladys J. Brown Professor Emeritus of Urban and Labor Economics, University of Chicago

Race, Liberalism, and Economics

Massimo Salzano

This book considers the benefits of complexity, suggesting that economists should become a bit less certain in their policy conclusions. A broader range of models would include agent-based models, which use computational power to deal with specification of models that are far beyond analytic solution; and non-linear dynamic stochastic models, many of which are beyond analytic solution, but whose nature can be discovered by a combination of analytics and computer simulations.

David Colander

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