Business & Economics

Economic policymakers use various macroeconomic models, but how reliable are they in real-world conditions? Starting from the premise that all models are wrong, but some are useful, Matteo Iannizzotto introduces and explains the workings of the key economic models available for policymaking. He shows that the inconsistencies and contradictions evident in the real world require the economist to make choices about which models to adopt in certain circumstances and when not to rigidly adhere to a single approach.


The book uses a clear and critical step by step analysis to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each model, in a way that enables students to develop their own critical engagement with macroeconomic policymaking. In so doing, the book provides an understanding of the world economy’s fluctuations since the global financial crisis that embraces the uncomfortable fact that inconsistency and the need for a multiplicity of models is central to macroeconomic policy choices.


For the many students bewildered by the disconnect between the models in their textbooks and the policy choices so hotly debated in the press, the book will be essential reading.

The advent of digital stablecoins and the continuing decline of cash are prompting central banks across the world to explore developing their own digital currencies. Although few have launched so far, the potential for central bank digital currency (CBDC) promises a revolution in banking.


Michael Lloyd considers the opportunities and threats that the arrival of CBDCs will have for commercial banking and the world’s monetary system. The choices facing central banks regarding the use, design and technology of digital currencies are examined as well as the potential impacts on consumer security and privacy.

Growing levels of income and wage inequality and the precaritization of many sections of the labour force have made labour unions as salient as ever. Although membership levels have decreased, they remain among the world’s largest representative organizations and continue to play a significant role as vehicles for democracy, sustainable development and social justice.


This handbook assembles an array of experts to critically engage with the debates and discussions about the role and purpose of unions and the many means by which they seek to attain them. The book provides insights into how unions can meet the challenges of structural changes in the labour market, including technological progress, the green agenda and the digital platform economy, and how they can better represent the needs of their members, in particular migrant, domestic and informal workers.


The book is a valuable resource for industrial relations, labour economics, sociology of work, employment and labour law, history of trade unionism, working patterns and practices, workplace culture and workers’ rights.

Antitrust or competition law is widely considered an essential part of the legal and political structures of most liberal democracies and an integral foundation of a market economy. In this book, Mark D. White disputes this understanding, drawing on concepts from economics, philosophy, and law to argue that the pre-eminent status accorded to the regulation of competition should be reconsidered by any government that claims to support basic property rights.


Despite its populist origins, antitrust is usually understood today in terms of economic theory, which provides a solid foundation for the analysis of market competition. As this logic goes, governments restrict firms from engaging in behaviour regarded as uncompetitive, with the purpose of protecting consumers, other firms, or the very process of competition itself. However, this neglects the fundamental property rights on which the market economy is based, an unfortunate implication of the utilitarian ethics at the heart of economics. Firms are held responsible for promoting societal welfare and penalized for failing to do so, even when their actions violate no recognized rights of consumers or competitors. This view of commerce sees firms as agents of the state rather than opportunities for individuals to pursue their interests in exchange with others. As White explains, competition or antitrust law serves as an example of how economics privileges welfare and efficiency over rights and justice, promoting the maximization of outcomes while ignoring the rights of those who generate them.


Accessible and non-technical, this book assumes no previous knowledge of economics, philosophy, or law, and provides a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on antitrust and competition law that will challenge readers from all backgrounds and political stances to question the degree to which its wisdom is taken for granted.

This book studies the methodological revolution that has resulted in economists’ mathematical market models being exported across the social sciences. The ensuing process of economics imperialism has struck fear into subject specialists worried that their disciplinary knowledge will subsequently count for less. Yet even though mathematical market models facilitate important abstract thought experiments, they are no substitute for carefully contextualised empirical investigations of real social phenomena. The two exist on completely different ontological planes, producing very different types of explanation.


In this deeply researched and wide-ranging intellectual history, Matthew Watson surveys the evolution of modern economics and its modelling methodology. With its origins in Jevons and Robbins and its culmination in Samuelson, Arrow and Debreu, he charts the escape from reality that has allowed economists’ hypothetical mathematical models to speak to increasingly self-referential mathematical truths. These are shown to perform badly as social truths, consequently imposing strict epistemic limits on economics imperialism.


The book is a formidable analysis of the epistemic limitations of modern-day economics and marks a significant counter to its methodology’s encroachment across the wider social sciences.

The carbon emissions generated by concrete and steel construction are well-known. Why then are we not using more carbon-friendly building materials? In a passionate and compelling argument Paul Brannen advocates the use of timber in buildings wherever possible. His controversial and counterintuitive argument is clear: planting trees is not enough to reduce carbon, we also have to chop them down and use more wood in our buildings and cities.


This is the first book to take timber from the margins to the mainstream, from the forests to the cities. The book tackles head-on questions about sustainability, safety, the biodiversity of commercial forests and the pressures on land use. The case for timber as a construction material is persuasively made – the creation of new engineered timbers with the structural strength of steel and concrete enable us for the first time to build wooden skyscrapers – and draws on the latest developments in engineering and material science. In addition to the familiar forestry models, the book advocates alternatives such as wood farming and agroforestry that bring with them added biodiversity gains for farms.


With the built environment currently responsible for 40 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, Brannen's message is unequivocal: we must change how we build. Timber! offers fresh and inventive ideas that over time could see our expanding cities storing more carbon than our expanding forests.

Water is an integral part of our daily lives, yet most of us have little idea about how much water we use to maintain our lifestyles and the extent to which our lifestyles pollute and degrade water resources. The increasing occurrence of floods, droughts and water pollution incidents are reminders of our vulnerability in relation to water. Estimates suggest that global water demand could outstrip supply by the middle of the century if we continue with the current “business as usual” approach to water management.


Melvyn Kay and Olcay Ünver use Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 as a framework to explore the concept of sustainable water resources management and how to improve water security. They provide a synthesis of water resources planning and management issues across all water-using sectors to dispel misunderstandings and myths and enable informed approaches to decision-making. In so doing, they offer an in-depth critical review of SDG6, including what it does and does not do. Case studies from around the world are used throughout the book to illustrate the key issues of water (in)security.

Water is an integral part of our daily lives, yet most of us have little idea about how much water we use to maintain our lifestyles and the extent to which our lifestyles pollute and degrade water resources. The increasing occurrence of floods, droughts and water pollution incidents are reminders of our vulnerability in relation to water. Estimates suggest that global water demand could outstrip supply by the middle of the century if we continue with the current “business as usual” approach to water management.


Melvyn Kay and Olcay Ünver use Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 as a framework to explore the concept of sustainable water resources management and how to improve water security. They provide a synthesis of water resources planning and management issues across all water-using sectors to dispel misunderstandings and myths and enable informed approaches to decision-making. In so doing, they offer an in-depth critical review of SDG6, including what it does and does not do. Case studies from around the world are used throughout the book to illustrate the key issues of water (in)security.