Reviews for Essays on a Mature Economy: Britain after 1840: Papers and Proceedings of the Mathematical Social Science Board Conference on the New Economic History of Britain, 1840-1930, Held a

The average rating for Essays on a Mature Economy: Britain after 1840: Papers and Proceedings of the Mathematical Social Science Board Conference on the New Economic History of Britain, 1840-1930, Held a based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-06-07 00:00:00 Linda Phifer In 1997 - 1998, the economies of both Indonesia and Malaysia were buffeted by the Asian Financial Crisis. Whilst the nature of the contagion was the same, the adjustment policies differed, as did the economic and, more notably, the political outcomes. Why? The answer to this question is the mission of this book. The de facto single party regime in Malaysia engaged in heterodox policies (including capital controls and and other actions to de-internationalize the ringgit, pegging the currency against the USD, etc.) to insulate the economy from external pressures, which played to the needs of their constituents. Whilst the negative economic fallout was severe, UMNO survived politically. In contrast, Indonesia tried to counter these same pressures, but vacillated between following the orthodox dicta of the global markets / IMF and hence satisfying (mobile capital) the Konglomerat, and the fiscal, monetary, and external policies to protect the interests of Soeharto's party and military (ABRI) supporters (fixed capital). In the end, economic adjustment failed and growing unrest led eventually to regime change. The keys? Authoritarian regimes predicate adjustment policies on serving the interests of their supporters. When they succeed, they survive. When not, they don't. The aforementioned needs of Malaysia's supporting coalition (the newly rich Malays invested in local, fixed capital, and the common people, who just needed to get along) were the same and policy aimed to address them, whilst the conflicting needs of the Konglomerat (tight monetary policy to defend the currency) and the ABRI (accommodative monetary policy to assist heavily indebted firms) defied effective policy. Worth a read.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-18 00:00:00 June Paul The author puts forth an interesting and simple argument that when faced with an economic crisis, authoritarian regimes (although I suppose democratic regimes can also be included) abide by the "political logic" of implementing adjustment policies to retain the support of their core supporters, be they fixed capital, mobile capital or labour. But when a regime's core supporters consist of different factions and are divided on what policies they prefer, the regime will not be able to satisfy its core supporters (or at least a part of them), start to lose support and possibly collapse. It is perhaps evident that this book is intended as academic literature, in view of how several parts of it are on the author's research methodology and logic. In fact, one chapter actually discussed in some detail on how the author did a regressive analysis to get more generalised findings! However, if one skips through the academic language, this book is still quite readable for a general public audience.