Trillion Dollar Economists: How Economists and Their Ideas have Transformed Business (Bloomberg) - Hardcover

Litan, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1118781805 ISBN 13: 9781118781807

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2014

Synopsis

A detailed look at how economists shaped the world, and how the legacy continues

Trillion Dollar Economists explores the prize-winning ideas that have shaped business decisions, business models, and government policies, expanding the popular idea of the economist's role from one of forecaster to one of innovator. Written by the former Director of Economic Research at Bloomberg Government, the Kauffman Foundation and the Brookings Institution, this book describes the ways in which economists have helped shape the world – in some cases, dramatically enough to be recognized with a Nobel Prize or Clark Medal. Detailed discussion of how economists think about the world and the pace of future innovation leads to an examination of the role, importance, and limits of the market, and economists' contributions to business and policy in the past, present, and future.

Few economists actually forecast the economy's performance. Instead, the bulk of the profession is concerned with how markets work, and how they can be made more efficient and productive to generate the things people want to buy for a better life. Full of interviews with leading economists and industry leaders, Trillion Dollar Economists showcases the innovations that have built modern business and policy. Readers will:

• Review the basics of economics and the innovation of economists, including market failures and the macro-micro distinction
• Discover the true power of economic ideas when used directly in business, as exemplified by Priceline and Google
• Learn how economists contributed to policy platforms in transportation, energy, telecommunication, and more
• Explore the future of economics in business applications, and the policy ideas, challenges, and implications

Economists have helped firms launch new businesses, established new ways of making money, and shaped government policy to create new opportunities and a new landscape on which businesses compete. Trillion Dollar Economists provides a comprehensive exploration of these contributions, and a detailed look at innovation to come.

About this title

About the Author

ROBERT LITAN has spent four decades publishing over 25 books and more than 200 articles about the U.S. economy and has directed economic research at some of the nation’s leading research organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors: the Brookings Institution, the Kauffman Foundation, and Bloomberg Government. He is currently a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Of Counsel to the law firm of Korein Tillery (St. Louis and Chicago), and Chief Economist of Main Street Genome, a new company providing analytics to small companies. He is also a regular contributor to Wall Street Journal’s “Think Tank” blog.

From the Back Cover

A trillion dollars, and most likely more &; that&;s how much economists contribute to the U.S. economy. But you&;d never know it by reading the jokes and criticisms (some of it fair) about economists in the media and in the blogosphere.

In Trillion Dollar Economists, one of the nation&;s leading policy analysts, Robert Litan, explains with lucidity and precision how the insights of many economists, mainly over the past fifty years, have helped to revolutionize business, resulting in huge benefits for companies and consumers.

Economists and their ideas are embedded throughout the economy, Internet-based companies (even on-line dating sites), and increasingly in sports. Whether they know it or not, Internet retailers owe their existence to economists who in earlier decades helped convince policy makers to remove limits on prices and entry into the transportation business, while providing much of the intellectual impetus for breaking up the telephone monopoly that otherwise most likely would have inhibited the growth of the Internet.

The widespread use of auctions in on-line commerce and search has its origins in economic research.

Consumers and businesses that have benefited from the oil and gas boom have economists to thank for convincing policy makers to remove energy price controls. Investors in indexed mutual funds and other financial products are in debt to entrepreneurs who got their ideas or inspiration from financial economists.

Readers will learn about these and many other contributions of economists in Trillion Dollar Economists, an important book that will be of interest to students of all ages, anyone in business or thinking of starting one, and policy makers wanting an easy and fun way to know what most economists really do and why their work is so important.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118781805
• ISBN 13: 9781118781807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400