Life and death matters

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Gordon Brown

Former British Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown believes the international financial crisis can be reversed, but that the world's leaders must work together if we are to avoid a decade of lost jobs and low growth. Brown speaks both as someone who was in the room driving discussions that led to some crucial decisions, and as an expert renowned for his financial acumen. No one who had Brown's access has written about the crisis yet, and no one has written so convincingly about what the global community must do next in order to climb out of this abyss. As he sees it, the crisis was brought on not simply by technical failings, but by ethical failings too. He argues that markets need morals, and suggests that the only way to truly ensure that the world economy does not flounder again is to institute a banking constitution and a global growth plan.--From publisher description.

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Philip Cooke

"This book traces the theoretical explanation for clusters back to the work of classical economists and their more modern disciples who saw economic development as a process involving serious imbalances in the exploitation of resources. First, natural resource endowments explained the formation of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century industrial districts. Today geographical concentrations of scientific and creative knowledge are the key resource. But these require a support system, ranging from major injections of basis research funding, to varieties of financial investment and management, and specialist incubators for economic value to be realized. These are also specialized forms of knowledge that contribute to a serious imbalance in the distribution of economic opportunity."--Jacket.

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Marilyn A. Brown and Benjamin K. Sovacool

Tackling climate change and improving energy security are two of twenty-first century's greatest challenges. In this book, Marilyn Brown and Benjamin Sovacool offer detailed assessments of most advanced commercially available technologies for strengthening global energy security, mitigating the effects of climate change, and enhancing resilience through adaptation and geo-engineering. They also evaluate the barriers to deployment of these technologies and critically review public policy options crucial to their adoption. Arguing that society has all technologies necessary for the task, Brown and Sovacool discuss options available today, including high-efficiency transportation, renewable energy, carbon sequestration, and demand-side management. They offer eight case studies from around the world that document successful approaches to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and improving energy security. These include the Danish approach to energy policy and wind power, Brazil's ethanol program, China's improved cook stove program; and the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory. Brown and Sovacool argue that meeting twin challenges of climate change and energy security will allow us to provide energy, maintain economic growth, and preserve natural environment.

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Stephen J. Turnovsky

"Fertility choices depend not only on the surrounding culture but also on economic incentives, which have important consequences for inequality, education and sustainability. This book outlines parallels between demographic development and economic outcomes, explaining how fertility, growth and inequality are related. It provides a set of general equilibrium models where households choose their number of children, analysed in four domains. First, inequality is particularly damaging for growth as human capital is kept low by the mass of grown-up children stemming from poor families. Second, the cost of education can be an important determining factor on fertility. Third, fertility is sometimes viewed as a strategic variable in the power struggle between different cultural, ethnic and religious groups. Finally, fertility might be affected by policies targeted at other objectives. Incorporating new findings with the discussion of education policy and sustainability this book is a significant addition to the literature on growth."--Publisher's website.