Economics & Finance — Book Reviews

"Chu offers a brilliant synthesis of economic growth theory and evolutionary biology, establishing a dynamic framework that extends unified growth theory into the realm of human evolutionary processes. This insightful work navigates the complex interplay between biological adaptations and economic forces, from the earliest days of the Homo species to the intricacies of modern economies ... His analysis broadens the scope of evolutionary economics and deepens our understanding of how these economic mechanisms have shaped human societies across millennia.

Chu's narrative is a compelling invitation to reevaluate conventional economic theories, highlighting the role of natural selection and economic principles in shaping our past and influencing our future. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersections of economics, history, and biology and stands as a significant contribution to the literature.

"There are many good examples throughout the book that illustrate the theory well. The book presents an account of innovative ways of modeling bounded rationality in economic settings."

Why is religion so widespread? Why do individuals donate large amounts of time, money, and effort to religious groups? What forms does the religious competition take? Why are individuals more religious in some countries than others? What is the future of religion?

This book provides a non-technical introduction to how the economic approach answers these and other questions about religion. It defines the economic approach to religion and demonstrates how it is used to study a variety of religious decisions...

"Indispensable reading for clean energy pros and industry newcomers alike. Jenny Chase masterfully tells the story of solar power while weaving in the technical complexity expected by industry veterans. With the book's second edition, Chase rightfully incorporates the impact of geopolitical conflicts, like Russia's invasion of Ukraine, on the energy transition, while also highlighting innovation in tangential sectors, like battery storage, hydrogen, and more. I can't recommend this book enough."

"I am delighted that the popular Kiasunomics series has returned for a third edition. As before, the authors ¡ª Professor Sumit Agarwal, Associate Professor Ang Swee Hoon, and Professor Sing Tien Foo ¡ª draw on the latest economics research to cast insights into contemporary issues of the day, such as climate change, fintech, and not least the perennial topic of property prices. Written in the same accessible, conversational style, these essays demonstrate, once again, how economic understanding can elucidate the changes happening in our society, and provide a sound basis for choices and actions."

"I am very pleased to see this book come to market. It will be great resource for a graduate or advanced undergraduate course on Big Data in finance. I especially like the fact that all the code and data are accessible to the reader."

"This book offers the first systematic exposition of an exciting new line of research. It shows not only how rational choice theory can be generalized to allow for random errors in a flexible way, but how the costs of precision, and hence the structure of the error that should be expected in any given decision problem, can be backed out from behavioral data. It thus shows that one can study decision theory in the rigorous spirit of revealed preference theory..."

"The Black–Scholes equation has quite a unique status in modern science: it is simultaneously extraordinarily important and woefully flawed. The present book, which musters an exceptional lineup of experts, reflects this duality. Some chapters celebrate the golden age, when mathematical finance explored all the nooks and crannies of the Black–Scholes world while too often turning a blind eye to its glaring inadequacies. Other contributions bite the bullet and present new and exciting modelling avenues, ever closer to the complexity of real markets.

"This book demonstrates how growth theory, supported by careful empirical analysis, provides a useful framework to guide practical policy. Drawing upon the expertise of a former official of the International Monetary Fund, a distinguished econometrician, and a former Deputy Governor of a Central Bank, the authors illustrate, for example, how monetary policy and fiscal policy have transitory and permanent growth effects on the economy. The value of combining theory and practice to yield helpful insights is illustrated with a case study of an emerging economy that the authors have an intimate knowledge of."

"Vic Fuchs' Who Shall Live? is the most important book ever on health economics. It has inspired us all these many years, and it is terrific to see a new edition, post-Obamacare and post-pandemic."

"This is a very scholarly book that addresses important issues and presents a natural extension of classical probabilistic results to an applied mathematical finance setting."

"The book is an ideal complement to existing monographs on financial risk management. The reader will benefit from a standard background in no-arbitrage pricing. A tour of risk types and risk management principles is presented in a terse, no-fuss manner. Plenty of pointers to additional literature are given, allowing the interested reader to go deeper into any of the topics presented."

"Charles and Sophie's book is exceptional in the way that they approach a step-by-step explanation of how a process works and how a concept is used in practice … The book is a great education resource for a broad audience of market participants looking for a well-balanced mixture of practitioner's wisdom and data-driven theoretical understanding. The authors equip the readers with up-to-date knowledge of market microstructure for further discussion about efficiency of ever evolving markets.”

"The Pacific Basin is the region where economic dynamism is most acutely observed in the world. The authors, identifying the short as well as long run nature of time series with their superb expertise in Asian economics, mathematical economics and econometrics, not only clarify the time series structures of interdependence among countries with international trade and investments, but also reveal the strategic interactions among macroeconomic policies of exports, foreign direct investment and economic growth in East and Southeast Asian economies."

"Itkin's book discusses the numerical and analytic techniques needed for local volatility surface estimation and brings its reader to the research frontier in this subject. This book is valuable for practitioners, researchers, and PhD students in quantitative finance."

"This book systematically introduces the theory and programming of CGE models in a simple, intuitive, and easy-to-operate manner for graduate students and public policy scholars. It not only covers the basic economic concepts and technical skills (including data assembling and GAMS programming), but also alternative specifications and extensions to CGE modeling. I expect it to become a standard reference of CGE modeling."

"In addition to presenting many state-of-the-art techniques on highly relevant technical contents, this book provides a truly immersive experience that sets new standards for textbooks in mathematical and computational finance of the twenty-first century … the book is a very valuable source for an instructor. All Matlab and Python codes used in by the authors in the examples are available online at https://github.com/LechGrzelak/QuantFinanceBook."

"The book is not a look-up reference but a good place to gain a basic working knowledge of machine learning and to prepare the reader for more advanced material."

"The theoretical and empirical analyses of the mean—variance portfolio theory and stochastic dominance are a monumental achievement of more than half-a-century worth of finance research. Both the established facts and the methods used to investigate optimal asset allocation problems with different investment horizons have subtle complexities that can mislead casual observers. This inspiring new book presents a thorough review of what we know about the impact of investment horizon on optimal diversification"

"This landmark monograph accomplishes two goals. First, it makes explicit, in a unified framework, progress in the measurement of economic well-being over the past 50 years. Some of this progress is in the folklore of the literature, and thus unavailable to the uninitiated, but completely in line with how it is taught to fortunate graduate students. Second, using this framework, it advances the theory of cost-benefit analysis in completely unexpected ways, showing that a small perturbation of consumer surplus dominates the Hicksian measures of welfare in many circumstances."

"This isn't simply a book about banking or money. Instead, it's a book about the 'financialization' of everything — how the value of a real asset is increasingly based on data about the asset, not the asset itself — and the societal implications of this change."

"A highly relevant book for the challenges of the post-pandemic world. Few tools are as effective as taxes for health in improving wellbeing while ensuring fiscal sustainability."

"You have to be as old as I am to know how long Victor Fuchs has been the dean of health economics. No one knows more, or has thought as carefully about all matters relating to health care than Victor. He is a wise, caring and very funny man. Now more than ever, we need his wisdom, and here we have it in nice bite-sized digestible portions, just like the doctor would order. Read it and learn."

"The financial system in 10–15 years will only be vaguely recognizable from today's perspective. The system of the future will have five key features: efficiency (including absence of monopoly power), inclusion, security, transparency, and interoperability. Our current infrastructure fails on each of these dimensions. However, to grasp the potential of the future, it is crucial to fully understand our complex current system. Lehalle and Raboun provide a comprehensive analysis of today's landscape. Highly recommended."

"At last — if you want to truly understand distributed ledger technology and its implications for payments, here finally is an authoritative and accessible reference book. No polemics, breathless praise, or impenetrable prose — the authors impartially explain how DLT works and how it can be used to upgrade our outdated payment systems. Along the way, the authors delight the reader with fascinating historical details and many practical applications. This book has instantly become the definitive source."

"All of us can benefit enormously from improving our financial literacy. Wealth Wisdom can provide a big step toward achieving control over our financial lives."

"The articles collected in this book by different authors from China and the West provide a coherent analysis of China's spectacular rise from poverty to prosperity in recent decades with the perspective of new institutional complexity. This is an important reference book for anyone interested in the most intriguing transformation in our times."

"Mailath's Lecture Notes provide graduate students with a solid background to understand how strategic interaction is conceptualised and applied in current research in economics and social sciences. After an initial rigorous presentation of equilibrium concepts, their existence and their nature, the unique feature of the book consists in showing how to use repeated and dynamic games to formalise problems of reputation building, bargaining and mechanism design. This approach will be welcome by all those interested in institutional design."

"The author spent some years in former Yugoslavia, met and talked to numerous people in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which gave him a unique opportunity to analyze its development. This is an excellent book describing a rather remote part of the world and analyzing a not too well-known development."

"The book discusses current Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), social media and the digital world economy: elements of which add significant challenges and risks for developers of new projects and those associated therewith as illustrated through several current case studies. ... For me, as an international project developer, financial engineer & financier, and advisor this book is a should read for all parties engaged with project development. I shall now be putting this book on my shelf alongside, Sun Tzu's, The Art of War, which has been one of my classics for over 45 years since graduating from Business School."

"The author has been successfully teaching the material in this book to NYU Masters students for the last 8 years. As equity analytics continues to evolve, this field-tested almanac is an indispensable guide to the past, present, and future."

"Using a Marxist perspective, Rob Bryer argues that British accounting principles are inchoate, and American accounting theory, framed by Irving Fisher's economic theory of accounting, is incoherent. Bryer's authoritative analysis of Fisher's theory shows how it contributed to the 1929 Great Crash, facilitated the 2007–2008 Global Financial Crisis and hindered the development of accounting regulation. Creating the 'Big Mess' is a meticulously researched and passionately argued book..."

"This incisive and insightful book is a compass for navigating the complex field of global health. In this unflinching tour de force, Adeyi combines a sweeping understanding of the big picture with deep dives from his decades of experience. The result is both uplifting and humbling. This book reminds us of humanity's shared destiny in global health, the perils of schisms between the Global North and the Global South, and opportunities to do better. Every policy maker and practitioner should read Global Health in Practice."

"The Age of Fire Is Over fills a critical void in our strategic thinking about the future of the world, and the role that energy plays in it. The author lays out a robust framework for navigating the interlinkages across sectors, society, innovation and our relationship with Nature. Vincent Petit has once again pulled together a compelling perspective for each of us to reflect on, learn from, and incorporate into our thinking."

"A highly readable book that provides important messages both for business and government leaders."

"The focus of the book is on the formal game theoretic analysis. It carefully motivates and discusses model assumptions. All results are formally developed and proven … An outstanding feature of the book is its careful reflection on solution concepts and their interpretation."

"The book can be recommended to all readers interested in this field."

"Regardless of whether the reader agrees with the authors or not entirely, the book is written in a very interesting and even fascinating manner, it will be useful both to practitioners and to those professors who, according to the author's opinion, have created a chimeric market efficiency hypothesis. The book contains many interesting examples from real finance, is written in a simple and clear language, the mathematical calculations are also quite understandable."

"My congratulations to the organisers on the publication of this volume of Asian Monetary Policy Forum (AMPF) speeches and commissioned papers. This volume brings together the expertise and scholarship of international researchers assembled at AMPF over the years, on issues of direct relevance to policymakers in Asia and beyond. The AMPF has come a long way since its inception. At a time when the global consensus for economic integration is being challenged, the AMPF and Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research are well placed to promote informed discussions on related issues through rigorous research..."

"Tom Prusa has shaped our understanding of contingent protection through his writings over the years. His penetrating and innovative analysis, has increased the awareness about the welfare implications of these instruments. He has for sure, transcended the ostensible. Bringing some of his best work under one roof, is a very welcome publication, a reference point indeed, for academics and practitioners alike."

"This book presents an excellent collection of authoritative and comprehensive assessments offered by leading experts on the Turkish economy. The book does a particularly good job of uncovering the political and institutional sources of why Turkey's development has stalled after a much promising start. Another strength of the analysis is its coverage of substantial ground including economic history, quality of growth, structural change, financial cycles, the labour market and redistribution. The book aptly ends with an evaluation of how Turkey's economy is likely to evolve in the next decade, a cliff-hanger in itself, justifying the editors' depiction of its current state as at a 'crossroads'."

"The book deals with many of the important aspects of infrastructure and suggests ways in which some of the problems related to the sector might be resolved. It is very easy to read and it is highly recommended to those who are interested in not only in economic development but also those who are concerned about our future." Read Full Review

"This well-written and highly readable book makes a major contribution to advancing our understanding of the contribution that economics can make to analysing the impact of international trade policies for environmental risks … Regardless of the likelihood that the current WTO dispute settlement procedures can be changed in the way suggested by the authors of this book, it is essential reading for those interested in the contribution that economics can make to advancing our understanding of the implications of international trade law for environmental issues."

"This work is a commendable effort in the exploitation of the conceptual framework of microfinance and its various mechanisms for the alleviation of poverty in some Asian countries. It is a book teeming with first-hand information because most chapters emanate from academic and field research backed by statistical data ... The book is well-structured and provides a good insight into microfinance in some Asian countries with added data. The experiences gathered in this book include wealth of information which can be of benefit to other countries."

"Dennis Buchanan's text clearly shows how an understanding of the complementary disciplines of geoscience, conventional engineering and advanced financial engineering is essential to making the right decisions concerning how to appraise a resource or project and how to structure the funding of natural resources assets in order to mitigate technical and financial risk and to maximise value for owners. Crucially, the book also looks at how other sources of capital, such as limited recourse lenders, appraise metals and energy assets. Such an understanding is essential to optimising the capital structure and valuation of natural resources assets ..."

"The author is commended for opening new frontiers offering innovative ideas to realize the potential of Islamic economics and finance. Tech disruption offers a golden opportunity for the advocates of Islamic economics and finance to demonstrate the merits of a risk-sharing based system in action. This valuable volume provides the foundation and lays the blueprint on how to capitalize on this opportunity."

"This fascinating book describes how financial judgments and decisions associated with time and risk systematically differ across countries and cultures. I predict that for years to come, this book will be an extremely valuable reference for scholars interested in cultural finance."

"This plain-language introduction for students seeks to simplify arguments and avoid unnecessary complications. It begins with microeconomic foundations, general standard of living, and GDP accounting. Later chapters are devoted to classical, neoclassical, Keynesian, neo-Keynesian, and classic-Keynesian models at micro and macro levels. Further chapters explain stock market bubbles and crashes, the wage gap, global imbalances and poverty, growth cycles, and the supply of money. A final chapter suggests economic reform for ethical economic policy, with suggestions such as raising the minimum wage and enforcing anti-trust laws. Color charts and graphs are included."

"Angus Chu's book superbly manages to teach undergraduate students the intertemporal macroeconomic methods needed to fully understand the research going on in this field. Hence it fills an important gap in the current didactic literature, which badly misses it and leaves Bachelor students unable to write, for example, a theoretical thesis ... I strongly recommend this book in any good economics curriculum."

"What an amazing collection of papers, edited by John B Guerard and William T Ziemba — two seasoned, intuitive investors, authors and scholars. Ziemba's fascinating five — investor-group codification, including the one that is the book's main focus [market anomalies], is persuasive and captivating. As someone who also builds models and has found several anomalies to profit from, I am convinced!"

"Stock market declines of ten percent or more are both costly and frequent. The authors share what they have learned about dodging these disasters, based on decades of research, data analysis and trading. "

"Alex Lipton revolutionized financial engineering over a phenomenal career lasting multiple decades. While he is by no means done, this book takes stock of this magnificent achievement."

"Building on the success of the first volume, Kiasunomics©2 has returned to explain, in clear and simple prose, how economic principles shape our everyday lives, and influence the decisions we make. Kiasunomics©2 explores many topics near and dear to many Singaporeans — public housing, education, and even shopping! The book also wonderfully illustrates how exciting and original research can help us better understand our ever-changing environment, and guide us to make better and more informed choices"

"Overall, the book is highly technical, including full mathematical proofs of the results stated. Potential readers are post-graduate students or researchers in Quantitative Risk Management willing to have a manual with the state-of-the-art on portfolio diversification and risk aggregation with heavy tails, including the fundamental theorems as well as collateral (but most useful) results on majorization and copula theory."

"As India, Thailand and ASEAN are moving through future changes and challenges, this volume provides an in-depth and timely analysis and background, from historical, cultural, people-to-people contacts, down to present-day context of their geo-economic and geo-political relationships. By contextualizing truly and interestingly their multilateral and bilateral ties, this innovative, brilliant, and unparalleled 9-chapter work widens a whole, useful, and yet practical, perspective on the India-Thailand and ASEAN relations and should prove to be an invaluable resource and reference to everyone; policymakers, researchers and students, all included, of the region and beyond, for years to come."

"Starting with a fascinating, well-researched history of the notion of ether and attempts to detect its influence, the authors detail the Michelson-Morley experimental results before transitioning into a discussion of more recent ether-drift measurements."

"Elizabeth worked her entire life which was unusual for a mother at that time. She died when she was only 50 of an aneurism. Elizabeth disappeared from history: Why is analysed in Mary Harris's book, but it was all about being a woman scientist in an era when women were expected to stay at home."

"This is an essential book for anyone aiming to start a career in solar power or just seeking a deeper understanding. It's also an entertaining read, salted with personal anecdotes and, in places, wry humour. Jenny Chase gives a lively account of how she rose through a precarious startup to become the head of solar analysis at Bloomberg. There is helpful career advice. At its core the book contains detailed analysis of the history, technology, economics, finance, and business practices of the photovoltaics industry and her views on its prospects. The style is relaxed and discursive, and the reader feels privileged to be enjoying a coffee and a friendly chat with someone who is uniquely well informed about this industry so vital for our future."

"Discussions in the chapters of selected problems serve as illustration with a pedagogical intention. It overcomes the need of introducing elemental ideas of games theory avoiding exhaustively the mathematical treatment of side issues. It is self contained. The oeuvre may be used for an advanced course in undergraduate studies but fits perfectly for PhD ones."

"Providing high quality of education programs for health workers is a central theme of the US 1 billion Health in Africa initiative that I manage at the World Bank/International Finance Corporation. The research done for this publication shows that delivering such programs are both affordable and feasible in low- and middle-income countries, not just in higher income contexts. Africa is in dire need of new and innovative approaches in education to offer to its youthful population, in order to reap the demographic dividends."

"Professor Chuk Kyo Kim, a respected senior research economist, tells a highly insightful and convincing story of Korea's economic development. This most updated book of the Korean economy certainly deserves special attention of both development economics students and policy makers."

"This book offers a rare analysis of how peripheral societies can develop health financing solutions locally through consensus, self-governance, and self-financing. In fact, it shows that promoting community ('micro') solutions can contribute to achieving the global aim of universal health coverage. Furthermore, the utilization of local information, local provision, local talent and local rules-in-use to devise local solutions, unlike top-down 'think globally' solutions, can set in motion a dynamic for devising local solutions. Considering that the Protection Gap is growing, this book invites all well-intentioned persons to pay more attention and direct more investments to 'act locally'."

"A book about market-tested investment analytics combined with scalable technology wrapped in an accessible package."

"Avoiding the immense dangers of unmanaged climate change requires holding global temperature increases to the Paris COP21 target of 'well below 2 degrees Centigrade'. Currently, future likely or planned emissions paths fall far short of the reductions necessary to achieve this goal. Strong and urgent reductions of emissions are vital and it is increasingly clear that we will also need to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To incentivise efficient and effective action on the scale now necessary we will need a strong carbon price to reward reductions and removals. This important book not only makes these arguments clearly and strongly, it also argues that the necessary technologies for removal, including those developed by the authors, are now available."

"I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to blockchain economics. These international scholars and practitioners have adopted new approaches to analyze blockchain based on economic principles spanning across the biological, chemical and physical fundamentals. Ideas associated with natural sciences were deplored to look at implications of distributed ledgers, breaking away from traditional views, and giving the readers a fresh perspective to many previously unresolved issues."

"This book gives a clear and precise picture of important aspects of XVA implementation, in particular, KVA using regression with in depth numerical analysis. By avoiding model oversimplifications, this book will help any reader get a better and more practical understanding of the mechanics of XVA."

"The 19 papers in this volume — a small sample of George Zodrow's contributions to the theory and practice of taxation in five areas — exhibit the traits we expect to find in his work: comprehensive coverage of topics, thorough knowledge of both prior literature and policy context, penetrating analysis of issues, and innovative thinking. His theoretical investigations are motivated by a desire to solve important practical problems. Conversely, his discussions of practical problems of taxation are informed — indeed, underpinned — by sound theoretical analysis. As a body, these papers show why Zodrow is one of the leading tax policy economists of his generation."

"aving for retirement... provides a basis for greater choice and wellbeing in the years after work — a period which... is getting longer and longer. The current state of retirement globally casts a shadow over economic growth, if not sustainability and societal health."

"Exotic Betting at the Racetrack by William T Ziemba is not only highly informative but is also hugely accessible to anyone with an interest in racetrack betting systems and strategies. Its use of wonderful examples and engaging commentary and anecdotes is a sheer delight. I am adding it with great pleasure to the very top table of my personal library."

"Investment professionals are diving into new quantitative tools, from machine learning to artificial intelligence. Economics Gone Astray provides some great insights into how to use these new tools, while staying firmly grounded in solid economic analysis. This book will be a great read for the hedge fund community."

"Donghyun Park makes clear that capitalism gets a bad rap, in large part because of too much emphasis on capital as in financial engineering, and too much emphasis on capitals as in government protectionism. Park argues a compelling case that genuine capitalism, which is about entrepreneurship, is necessary to solve the big problems most people face around the globe."

"I highly recommend this excellent volume, which is full of original and important research and insights. I have learned a huge amount from it. An absolute joy to read."

"This year, as we commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Alma-Ata Declaration of 'Health for All' in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 1978 and the 70th Anniversary of the UK National Health Service, 1948, we also celebrate the great achievement over the past decades in bringing access to affordable and quality health care for billions of people across the world since the 1950s. Looking forward, at the recent Universal Health Coverage Forum 2017 in Tokyo, Japan, the international development community — including both bi-laterals and multi-laterals — committed to the 'Tokyo Declaration on Universal Health Coverage: All Together to Accelerate Progress towards UHC'. This text book makes a valuable contribution by reviewing the political, policy and implementation challenges that countries face in achieving this agenda. The approach used to analyze the eight case studies presented in the volume is a seminal work in comparative health policy"

"For hundreds of years, commodities were traded in open outcry markets and traders trusted their gut instincts. But today, electronic trading has revolutionized markets — gut feelings don't suffice to execute trades and analyse markets any longer. Dr. Steven Moffitt's 'Strategic Analysis of Financial Markets' is a must read for the professional trader who is participating in this new paradigm. With a deep understanding of how the human psyche influences markets and is in turn influenced by the markets, Dr. Moffitt illustrates what is required by those who want to become, and then remain successful in the world of commodity and equity trading."

"A modestly self-described student of markets, Richard Sandor has never been one for a heavy history lesson but he deftly weaves a compelling narrative through the past to take us well into the financial future, with an elegant self-deprecation for his sheer genius of thought, analysis, insight and vision. His insights alongside his elegant portfolio of persuasive thinkers is a treasure to behold. This one man blockchain of financial insight has assembled a cornucopia of ideas from among the best minds in this new technology."

"The main contribution of the research done by ACI was that it can contribute to public policy as one cannot use expatriates for ordinary residents if public policy is the focus. In addition, though it is important to look at cost, the bigger concern is purchasing power. It does not matter if things are expensive as long as you can afford them. This is another point that I took away from the research and I was very happy to see that the team did purchasing power and not just cost of living."