Institutions affect economic outcomes, but variation in them cannot be directly linked to environmental factors such as geography, climate, or technological availabilities. Game theoretic approaches, based as they typically are on foraging only assumptions, don't provide an adequate foundation...

In spite of its checkered intellectual history, and in spite of the myriad proposals of alternative models that claim both to account for the range of human behavior and to dispense with the need for selection above the organism level, a multilevel selection framework allowing for biological as...

In this paper, I consider a body of observational evidence not commonly studied by social scientists, namely the behavior of men and women (mostly men) in the military. I focus here on two issues: first, the behavioral foundations for creating an effective military unit, and second, evidence...

1 The Future of Economic History -- 2 Macroeconomics and History -- 3 The Exploration of Economic Change: The Contribution of Economic History to Development Economics -- 4 General Equilibrium Models and Research in Economic History -- 5 Economic History and Historical Demography: Past, Present,...

The events associated with the financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009 continue to unfold. If the output loss from this recession ends up in the range of the 1982 downturn, it will be because Congress and the Federal Reserve moved more quickly and effectively with immediate remedies than was...

Galbraith, John Kenneth (15 Oct, 1908-29 Apr. 2006), economist and author, was born in Iona Station, Ontario (Canada) to Archibald Galbraith and Sarah Catherine Kendall. Galbraith, who advanced and reinterpreted institutionalist and Keynesian traditions in economics while promoting a liberal and...

This paper has two main sections and an appendix. The first provides an overview of what lay behind record productivity growth in the US economy between 1929 and 1941. The second considers the role of rigidities and other negative supply conditions in worsening the downturn and slowing recovery....

A consideration of TFP growth in the United States during the golden age (1948–1973) raises two related questions: on the one hand why was it so strong and on the other hand, why were TFP growth rates lower than they were during the Depression years (1929–1941)? A continuing downward trend...