Growing Prosperity or Case Studies in Contracting and Organization

Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Barry Blueston

The sudden drop in America's productivity rates in the early 1970s has bedeviled a generation of eminent economists. Looking at economic trends stretching back into the nineteenth century, Bluestone and Harrison offer an elegant solution to this long-standing mystery that has dramatic consequences for today's economy. The first to document how productivity increases from revolutionary new technologies-whether the steam engine or the cotton gin-have come only after a considerable time lag, the authors then demonstrate that this has been especially true of computer and information technologies. Indeed, only after two decades of learning to integrate these technologies in our economy, have we begun to see productivity rates reminiscent of our post-war glory days.
This analysis flies in the face of the ruling economic orthodoxy, which posits that controlling inflation and permitting the free flow of finance capital are the sin qua non for sustained growth. Bluestone and Harrison not only show how this "Wall Street Model" is fatally flawed for the diminished role it assigns to productivity, but reveal how its set of policies have the potential to sabotage our economy's current health. Growing Prosperity is a beautifully argued and sure to be controversial work that goes beond critique to envision a way to add as much as $3.2 trillion dollars to our economy. With its provocative thesis and its clear proscriptive message, it will be of great interest to all with a stake in our economic future.

Publishers Weekly

To many observers, the strong performance of the U.S. economy in recent years may seem mysterious. Most mainstream economists credit the Wall Street-Pennsylvania Avenue Accord, "based on balanced federal budgets, free trade, flexible labor markets, and a firm monetary policy," for our economic success. While acknowledging the benefits of these factors, Bluestone, a professor of political economy at Northeastern University, and Harrison, who until his death last January was a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (coauthors of The Deindustrialization of America, etc.), find the source of our growth elsewhere, in increased productivity. They begin by examining a perplexing period in American economic life, between 1973 and 1995, in which productivity growth was a mere 1.2%. The conundrum is how to explain the rise in productivity growth to 2.0% since 1996. Bluestone and Harrison claim that the increase and resulting gains in GDP have occurred as a result of improvements in information technology. As in their previous writings, the authors challenge conventional thinking. Unrepentant Keynesians, Bluestone and Harrison argue persuasively for replacing the Wall Street model with pro-Main Street policies, contending that renewed government investment in research and development and infrastructure, the promotion of liberalized trade with environmental and worker protections, rising wages and greater employment security can advance social justice and economic growth simultaneously. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Bluestone (political economy, Northeastern Univ.) and the late Harrison (Kennedy Sch. of Government, Harvard) have produced a scholarly, well-written, and very readable book on current economic policy and issues. After tracing the history of the U.S. economy since the end of World War II, the authors examine the current state of the economy. They note the role of technology and its effect on productivity and current economic policy and agree that low inflation and a budget surplus contribute to our present prosperity. But they emphasize that to help ensure continued growth, government spending in areas such as infrastructure, research and development, and education must take priority. Government policies regarding labor and wages must also be changed to gurarantee that the population can afford to take advantage of all that technology has to offer. The authors' perspective offers students, professionals, and others interested in political science, economics, and business a much-needed reassessment of our current and future prospects. A good choice for large public and academic libraries.--Steven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Richard Gephardt
Bluestone and Harrison have alerted us to the key issue confronting America: how to achieve growth with equity.... This is the blueprint for the terms of that debate.
— U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, House Democratic Leader

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
	Preface to the Paperback Edition
1	Growth with Equity	1
2	A History of American Growth	27
3	America's New Growth Potential	50
4	The Wall Street Model	102
5	The Wall Street Model: Too Little Long-Term Growth	138
6	The Wall Street Model: Too Much Long-Term Inequality	182
7	The Main Street Model for Growth with Equity	205
8	From Wall Street to Main Street: Economic Policy for the Twenty-first Century	237
	Notes	265
	Bibliography	311
	Index	329

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Case Studies in Contracting and Organization

Author: Scott E Masten

Case Studies in Contracting and Organization is an edited collection of empirical studies from the transaction-cost economics literature on contracting and organization. Derived from the work of Ronald Coase, 1991 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Olive Williamson, and other transaction-cost economists, the studies explore such fundamental organizational issues as the role of reputation, the purpose and limitations of contracts, the nature and boundaries of the firm, and the evolution and role of hybrid organizational forms such as franchising, leasing, and joint ventures. Industries covered include aerospace, automotive, electric power generation, fast food, natural gas, ocean shipping, petroleum, coke refining, rail transportation, soft drink distribution, shoe manufacturing, and tuna processing. An introductory chapter provides an overview of transaction-cost reasoning and a summary of each study's contributions to our understanding of the problem of economic organization. The relatively nontechnical nature of the readings makes the book accessible to business and law students as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students of economics.