This book explores family economic decision-making in the United States from the nineteenth century through present day, specifically looking at the relationship between family resource allocation decisions and government policy. It examines how families have responded to incentives and...

The publication of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America has kindled interest across disciplines to appraise the exceptional nature of U.S. activities. In general, however, all the published works have not focused their analyses from an economic point of view. While economics was for...

This volume traces the evolution of the field of law and economics from its European roots to its neoclassical “Chicagoan” period to its current identity as a more fluid, transatlantic discipline. Paying special attention to the work of German economist Juergen Backhaus, who was instrumental...

This book highlights the contribution of language standardization to the economic rise of the West between 1600 and 1860. Previous studies have been unable to explain why during this period almost all industrial innovation was confined to small areas around the main cultural centers of three...

This book - the first of two volumes- looks at episodes in American economic history from a public choice perspective. Each chapter discusses citizens, special interests, and government officials responding to economic incentives in both markets and politics. In doing so, the book provides fresh...

This book focuses on wealth inequality trends in the North Atlantic Anglo-sphere countries of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States over the period from 1668 to 2013: a wider perspective than generally used when wealth inequality is discussed. This book demonstrates that it is...

This book analyses the causes and consequences of deflation. In contrast to the widespread believe that deflation would be harmful to the economy as a whole, the author argues that free market deflation is liberating and beneficial. Several myths of deflation are exposed and the reasons for the...

1 Introduction: The Economics of a Living Wage -- 2 The Living Wage from World War I through the Great Depression -- 3 Planning a Living Wage: The NIRA -- 4 A Useful and Remunerative Job: The National Labor Relations Act -- 5 Social Security: Protection from Old Age and Unemployment -- 6 The...