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 The
Economics of Life: From Baseball to Affermative Action to Immigration,
How Real-World Issues Affect Our Everyday Life
With Guity Nashat Becker
McGraw-Hill, 1996
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About the Book
From the Publisher
In The Economics of Life, Gary Becker
and historian Guity Nashat Becker have collected the best of the economist's
popular work from Business Week (where he is a monthly columnist). These
thought-provoking essays show us where we have been and where, for better
or worse, we are headed. Many of them aroused heated debate upon their
original publication, and they will no doubt do so again. Extending well
beyond the traditional range of economics, these 138 essays crisply address
the changing role of women in modern economies, crime, immigration, drugs,
marriage contracts, the effects of the stock market collapse in 1987, whether
the Japanese stock market has been rigged, the organization of major league
baseball and other sports, communism, competition between religions, the
"Swedish way," discrimination against minorities. Supreme Court decisions,
government spending, addictions, and many other topics. Although the Beckers
emphasize analysis, they do not shy away from advocating controversial
changes in public policy and personal behavior. Among their provocative
recommendations: legalizing drugs, selling the rights to immigrate, privatizing
social security, enforcing marriage contracts more fully, curtailing welfare
sharply, limiting the terms of Supreme Court justices and other federal
judges, taxing drunk driving and other heavy drinking, and reforming health
care to preserve free choice and competition.
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Accounting
for Tastes
Harvard University Press, 1996
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About the Book
From the Publisher
Economists generally accept as a given
the old adage that there's no accounting for tastes. Gary Becker disagrees,
and in this new collection he confronts the problem of preferences and
values: how they are formed and how they affect our behavior. He observes,
for example, that adjacent restaurants, which have roughly the same quality
of food and similar prices, may differ greatly in the number of customers
they are able to attract. Why is one invariably full, while the other has
seats to spare? And why is it that the profits of tobacco companies may
rise when consumption falls? The answers to these and many other questions
about people's consumption patterns, Becker argues, have to do with the
way preferences and values are shaped. Although these are central topics
of social behavior, they have never been addressed in a systematic and
analytical way. Becker applies the tools of modern economic analysis to
just this topic, one that economists have traditionally left out of their
models for rational choice.
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The
Essence of Becker
Edited By Ramon Febrero and Pedro
S. Schwartz
Hoover Institution Press, 1996
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About the Book
From the Publisher
Twenty-six essays in this volume showcase
the brilliant originality and range of economic thought that earned Hoover
Institution senior fellow Gary S. Becker the Nobel Prize in 1992 and corroborate
his reputation as the leading figure in unconventional economics. This,
the first published collection of Becker's papers, presents an overview
of the fundamental theories and unorthodox applications that inspired Milton
Friedman to call Becker "one of the most creative economists of our generation."
Becker's significant contributions evolve from an economic approach to
analyzing social issues that ranges beyond those usually considered by
economists. By questioning assumptions taken for granted in most economic
modeling, Becker sheds new light on previously unconnected and poorly understood
social phenomena. Becker's findings not only shift huge problems that other
social scientists once considered immovable but also stand up to empirical
challenge. His singular axiom - that all actors in the social game are
economic persons who maximize their advantages in different cost situations
- allows Becker to study persistent racial and sexual discrimination, investment
in human capital, crime and punishment, marriage and divorce, the family,
drug addiction, and other apparently noneconomic dimensions of society.
The essays presented here capture Becker's innovative analyses of these
topics and include the text of his Nobel lecture, a personal assessment
of his contributions to the profession.
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The
Economic Way of Looking At Behavior: The Nobel Lecture
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About the Book
From the Foreword by John Raisian
"In the lecture he delivered as part
of the 1992 Nobel Prize award ceremony, Gary discussed four topics--discrimination
against minorities, crime and punishment, the development and accumulation
of human capital, and the structure of families--that are emblematic of
his innovative approach to the economic analysis of social issues. We are
pleased to reproduce Gary's Nobel lecture as a Classic in the Hoover Essays
in Public Policy series."
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Human
Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to
Education
The University of Chicago Press,
1993
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About the Book
From the Publisher
Human Capital is Becker's classic
study of the consequences of investing in a person's knowledge and skills.
According to his theory, investment in an individual's education and training
is similar to business investments in equipment. Becker looks at the economic
effects of investment in education on employment and earnings, and shows
how his theory measures the incentive for such investment. The human capital
approach also allows for determining the costs and returns from college
and high school education. Another part of the study explores the relation
between on-the-job experience, age, and earnings.
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A
Treatise on the Family
Harvard University Press, 1991
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About the Book
From the Publisher
Gary Becker sees the family as a kind
of little factory - a multi-person producing unit of meals, health, skills,
children, and selfsteem from market goods and the time, skills, and knowledge
of its members.
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The
Economic Approach to Human Behavior
The University of Chicago Press,
1976
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About the Book
From the Publisher
Since his pioneering application of
economic analysis to racial discrimination, Gary S. Becker has shown that
an economic approach can provide a unified framework for understanding
all human behavior. In a highly readable selection of essays Becker applies
this approach to various aspects of human activity, including social interactions;
crime and punishment; marriage, fertility, and the family; and "irrational"
behavior.
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The
Economics of Discrimination
The University of Chicago Press,
1971
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About the Book
From the Publisher
Mr. Becker's work confronts the economic
effects of discrimination in the market place because of race, religion,
sex, color, social class, personality, or other non-pecuniary considerations.
He demonstrates that discrimination in the market place by any group reduces
their own real incomes as well as those of the minority.
The original edition of The Economics
of Discrimination was warmly received by economist, sociologists, and psychologists
alike focusing the discerning eye of economic analysis upon a vital social
problem.
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