Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 4 - November 2017) - Oxford University Press: Economic Theory

The fiscal crisis in Europe continues to cast a shadow on the global economic outlook, and the securities issued by the United States and European nations are losing their status as traditional safe assets and reserve value. As a result, investors and governments are looking to diversify theirinvestment portfolio with emerging markets, particularly Asian bonds. Such renewed interest has led to excessive capital inflows, making the region increasingly vulnerable to external shocks. However, on the other hand, it leads to abundant liquidity in the capital markets, which reduces financingcosts and expands investment opportunities. This book analyses this dilemma and proposes that development of local bond markets and achieving greater market depth and interconnectedness is the best bet to prevent the reoccurrence of a currency crisis like 1997. It thus, assesses the progress achieved thus far in capital market integration inAsia, and compares it with its global peers. The study also assesses the degree to which volatility in equity and bond market returns, driven by financial turmoil originating at both the regional and global levels, spills over into emerging Asia domestic equity and bond markets. The results of thisanalysis indicate that such spill-over significantly impacts both domestic equity and bond markets in the region. This finding suggests that on-going regional capital market integration initiatives should take into account the risk of contagion that regional financial integration presents, andintroduce measures for mitigating such risk as a means of ensuring financial stability in the region.

Price : Rs.995

Written over the last three decades, the four volume set of Kaushik Basu's Collected Papers deals with both the philosophical foundations of economics as well as a wide range of issues of immediate policy relevance. Basu's work plays a significant role in transforming development economicsfrom being a largely descriptive, long-winded, and unstructured discipline, to a much more rigorous and theoretically well-founded one. On one hand, the essays cover abstract topics such as the scope of utilitarianism, strategic analysis, game theoretic behaviour, and philosophical underpinnings ofindividualism. On the other, they also address urgent contemporary concerns such as labour standards, growing inequality in a globalized world, sexual harassment at the workplace, gender empowerment, and political origins of 'economic' crises.Volume I deals with the interaction between development, markets, and institutions. Volume II is a collection of papers on game theory and strategic analysis. Volume III focuses on welfare economics, law, and the making of global economic policy. Volume IV is a collection of the author'sinter-disciplinary essays straddling several of the social sciences and also the philosophical foundations of economics.

Price : Rs.2495

This miscellany of popular writings deals with the world of academe, politics, and policy, especially the world of economics. The volume begins with the two 'closing' columns that the author wrote before joining the Indian government's Ministry of Finance as an adviser. They describe his excitement and trepidation on moving from academics to the world of policy and politics. The other essays cover a wide range oftopics-from recession and the global financial crises to foreign policy, art and commerce, and philosophical reflections on finance and economics. In addition, there is a piece of travel writing; an essay on persons, ideas, and books that have influenced the author; and a diary entry on his motherturning 90. Two short stories by Shibram Chakravarty-considered classics in mid-twentieth century Bengali literature-translated by the author for the first time feature in this volume. The stories are hilarious and yet have scathing social content, and one of them is explicitly to do with economics. Thecollection also includes 'Crossings at Benaras Junction'-a light-hearted, facetious play with an academic setting and a lot of contemporary philosophy built into the conversation. Finally, the book provides a description of two popular games that were created by the author as a diversion fromeveryday work-Duidoku and Ultimate Duidoku.

Price : Rs.395

In this classic text, first published in 1973, Amartya Sen relates the theory of welfare economics to the study of economic inequality. He presents a systematic treatment of the conceptual framework as well as the practical problems of measurement of inequality. In his masterful analysis, Senassesses various approaches to measuring inequality and delineates the causes and effects of economic disparities. Containing the four lectures from the original edition as well as a new introduction, this timeless study is essential reading for economists, philosophers, and social scientists. In a substantial new annexe, Amartya Sen, jointly with James Foster, critically surveys the literature that followed the publication of this book, and also evaluates the main analytical issues in the appraisal of economic inequality and poverty.

Price : Rs.375