øElgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by some of the world�s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid su

This book provides an overview of the evolution and theories of the Austrian School of Economics and develops answers to current economic questions and the pressing problems of the 21st century from the Austrian perspective. Readers will learn about the fundamental ideas of the Austrian School, the current state of Austrian economics, and the intellectual figures and institutions that sustain it as a vibrant intellectual movement. International experts on Austrian economics cover topics such as the economic impact of pandemics, trade blocs, federalism and European integration, and the economic development of China. The book also discusses the influence of the Austrian School on modern economic thought and mainstream economics, as well as on policymakers. It will appeal to students and scholars of economics and to anyone interested in social and economic liberalism.

Artificial intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data from and about users. These companies are largely self-regulating in Western countries. How do economic theories explain the rise of a very few dominant platforms? Mansell and Steinmueller compare and contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy explanations. They show how these perspectives can lead to contrasting claims about platform benefits and harms. Uneven power relationships between platform operators and their users are treated differently in these economic traditions. Sometimes leading to advocacy for regulation or for public provision of digital services. Sometimes indicating restraint and precaution. The authors challenge the reader to think beyond the inevitability of platform dominance to create new visions of how platforms might operate in the future.

Many questions arise of an economic nature that are only partially addressed by standard economic analysis. These lacunae give rise to particular lines of critique in economics, including a wide-ranging and increasingly cogent feminist approach to reenvisioning economics. This book provides a comprehensive description of this intriguing new area of feminist economics. It includes discussion of what constitutes feminist economics and how feminist economics is different from other approaches. The intellectual origins of the area are explicated, and the current state of the subfield outlined. Specific topics covered include conflict over terminology, pedagogy, and content in the field of economics, measurement of the unmeasured economy, the role of caring labor in the economy, heteronormativity in economics, feminist approaches to economic development, multiple approaches to empiricism, modeling of intrahousehold relationships, consideration of the role of property rights in reifying gender roles, differential effects of international trade and finance by gender, and feminist approaches to public finance and social welfare.

Any human endeavor is shaped by, and shapes, changes in the physical and biological environment. In this Advanced Introduction, Matthias Ruth draws on a diverse set of theories, methods and applications to critically assess key concepts in ecological economics.

This essential book documents the current configuration of digital society worldwide and examines its social, economic, political and cultural consequences. Presenting state-of-the-art empirical analysis and academic research, preeminent author Manuel Castells explores the profound impact that technology and digital transformation continues to have on the world as we know it.

This book, now in its second edition, provides a comprehensive and up to date survey of the field of International Political Economy. Although the subject’s roots go far back, the modern field has developed along sharply divergent paths followed by different clusters of scholars. Today there are multiple versions of IPE, each with its own distinct personality. This book illuminates the full array of analytical styles and traditions to be found across the globe in this rich field of study.

This highly informative Advanced Introduction explores the diverse and far-reaching legal implications of some of the key findings of behavioral economics. This Advanced Introduction provides a much-needed assessment and analysis of the law as a critical domain for the use of behavioral economics, and investigates how techniques including nudging, mandates, and taxes can be used to enhance the effectiveness and improve the implementation of the law.

Expertly navigating the interdisciplinary field of economic anthropology, Peter D. Little illustrates how an anthropological perspective can deepen understandings of customary and global markets; different types of money; diversified livelihoods of the poor; gendered and racialized labor; climate change and other global issues. By questioning common dichotomies, such as the informal versus formal sectors and customary versus modern institutions, the book uncovers those hidden connections, power relations, and economic actors and processes that underpin real economies throughout the world.

This insightful and highly readable Advanced Introduction provides a succinct, yet comprehensive, overview of legal reasoning, covering both reasoning from canonical texts and legal decision-making in the absence of rules. Overall, it argues that there are only two methods by which judges decide legal disputes: deductive reasoning from rules and unconstrained moral, practical, and empirical reasoning.