empirical work on growth. To be clear, it is notthat empirics is entirely absent from the book.Data are presented to identify stylised facts thatmotivate theoretical models. Recent empiricalfindings are referred to in order to complementthe theoretical discussion and inform the policyanalysis. But, possibly with the exception ofChapter 4, not much detail is provided on themany methodological challenges that the empiri-cal macroeconomist has to face. To get thesedetails, one would have to refer back to the ori-ginal work of the author. In terms of individualtopics, relatively little is said of the relationshipbetween growth and the business cycle, with thenotable exception of a discussion on real busi-ness cycle models in the chapter devoted to sto-chastic growth. The role of natural resources inthe growth process is also left out, apart from abrief mention in connection with the discussionon the fundamental causes of growth. But over-all, as I said, these are necessary choices that donot diminish the value of this book.

From a teaching perspective, Acemoglu’sbook fits very well the learning needs of a first-year PhD ⁄ Honours level course. This could be aspecialised course in economic growth or amore general macro course with a growth com-ponent. In the first case, assuming a semester of13 weeks and 3 contact hours per week, the lec-turer can most likely cover the first four parts(introduction, neoclassical growth and AK mod-els, and endogenous technological change) plusa suitable selection of Chapters 18–23. My per-sonal preference would be for Chapter 19 on therelationship between trade and growth, Chapter20 and ⁄ or 21 on economic development, andChapter 22 on the political economy of growth.The extent of coverage of Part V (stochasticgrowth) would depend on the specific learningobjectives of the course. In the case of a moregeneral macro course, some of the chapters inparts I and IV could be dropped (i.e. Chapters 1,3, 12, and 15) and the selection from Chapters18–23 further tightened to make room for mate-rial from other graduate-level macroeconomictextbooks on business cycles and macroeco-nomic policy. Chapter 17 should probably beincluded in the core of a macro course.

Beyond coursework, this is a book that shouldbe compulsory reading for any PhD student inmacroeconomics, even for those whose thesisdoes not specifically focus on growth. Finally,selected materials from this book, and Part I inparticular, could also be included in the reading

list of an undergraduate course in advancedmacroeconomics, provided that students in thiscourse have already taken both introductory andintermediate macroeconomics and second-yearmathematical economics.

I opened this review talking about a quest.The widespread differences in per-capita incomelevels across countries and the variety of growthexperiences, with countries capable of sustain-ing growth rates close to 10 per cent for manyyears and others stacked around zero or evennegative growth, are there to remind us that thequest is far from completed. This book will bean inseparable and precious companion to allthose who will engage in this quest for manyyears to come.

FABRIZIO CARMIGNANI

Griffith University

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, D. and Johnson, S. (2007), ‘Disease andDevelopment’, Journal of Political Economy, 115,925–85.

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. (2001),‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Develop-ment: An Empirical Investigation’, American Eco-nomic Review, 91, 1369–401.

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. (2002),‘Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions inthe Making of Modern World Income Distribution’,Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 1231–94.

North, D.C. and Thomas, R. (1973), The Rise of theWestern World: A New Economic History. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.

Macroeconomic Policy: Demystifying Monetaryand Fiscal Policy (Second Edition), by FarrokhK. Langdana (Springer, New York, NY,2010), pp. xviii + 286.

A major problem with economics is that mostof us economists speak to one another, but notto the 99.9 per cent of the population who arenot economists. Most introductory textbooks arewritten for an audience of future economists,rather than for the student who might take onlyone or two subjects in economics and needs tounderstand some basic principles, as well ashow these principles are applied in practice. Inthis book the author aims to explain to non-economists the logic of competing views amongeconomists, and then provide an assessment of

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these competing views using examples. Thebook does not use any mathematics beyond sim-ple algebra and graphs, with short examplesfrom newspapers and other sources used to helpframe some of the debates.

As someone who has taught only MBA stu-dents for the past decade, I hoped that this bookwould live up to its promise in being appliedand policy driven, and above all interesting – inshort, something I could set as background read-ing for an MBA class or a good book on policyfor the layperson. I was disappointed. The textis very dry. There is very little actual data pre-sented. In an age of video wizardry and gloss,this book is literally and figuratively black andwhite all over. The examples are too oftenstylised, rather than real world, data-driven,messy problems. Chapters 2 and 3 for examplepresent national income accounting and thenational savings identity. Yet, no actual datafrom any country is used. At a minimum the USnational accounts could be reproduced and dis-cussed in Chapter 2. In the discussion of twindeficits in Chapter 3 it would be very useful tocarefully examine the US data in the past dec-ade, as well as perhaps some simple graphicalpresentation of the correlation between nationalsavings rates and trade deficits.

Chapters 4 and 5 outline the AD-AS model,and here again the presentation suffers from alack of data-driven examples. Can this simpleframework help us understand Japan’s deflation?What about the Greenspan argument in the late1990s that rising US productivity driven bycomputerisation helped keep inflation low?Again, these episodes can be discussed usingthe models, but also a lot of relevant data –again, the data are messy, but students needto be exposed to the challenges of trying tountangle this data and use it to support relevantarguments.

The book then gets into model overdrive – theIS-LM framework is presented, followed by theClassical and Keynesian versions of the AD-ASmodel leading into the Phillips Curve. In a bookwith the aim of explaining policy to a generalaudience I am not convinced that the IS-LMmodel has a place. If a non-economist can gettheir mind around the basic mechanics of theAD-AS model and understand when the classicalor Keynesian supply curves are more likely to berealistic, then they will have done well. Again,the book would have been much stronger if it hadsome proper examples in these chapters – an

obvious example would be the question of howapplicable the Keynesian model was to the USAin 2009, or to Europe today. Instead, at the endof Chapter 9 there are two short discussions offictitious countries, followed by a longer discus-sion of Iceland’s collapse at the end of 2008which is not related to theory in that or anyother chapter.

This book provides a good example of what iswrong with macroeconomics. The author claimsto be trying to communicate with a generalaudience but he is unable to get off the crutchof mathematics and simple models, and unableto apply his mind to real, day-to-day, policyissues. It may be that this book is backgroundreading to the real issues that are discussed inclasses, but if that is the case it is the realpolicy and applications that are of interest, notthis textbook, which is trapped between simpletheory and reality.

MARK CROSBY

SP Jain School of Global Management

Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of EconomicIdeas, by Nancy Folbre (Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford, 2009), pp. xxxiii + 379.

In this book, Nancy Folbre sets out to providea perspective on the evolution of economicthought over the last four centuries; one whichhighlights the tension between the valorizationof self-interest in the market-place and that ofaltruism within the household. While the pursuitof private interest was largely presumed to gen-erate collectively beneficial outcomes in thesphere of market transactions, most economictheorists resisted extending this logic to rela-tions inside the household, whether explicitly orthrough their analytical silences. The resultanttension was sought to be resolved at the ideo-logical level by positing intrinsic gender differ-ences in abilities and attitudes. This in turn,coupled with a valorization of self-abnegationinside the household, systematically legitimisedthe restriction of women’s independent rightsto property, employment, education, politicalparticipation and sexual self-expression. WhileLockean self-ownership arguments were progres-sively extended by economic theorists to justifythe commercial society based on male privateproperty and laissez faire in the market-place,

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