Download POSSIBLE READING MATERIAL File

SK/SUGGESTED READING MATERIAL
There is no obligatory reading material for this course; the slides and the handouts
should be enough (+ following the lectures).
But there is of course a lot a material that could usefully be looked into:
 Any introductory book into the history of economic analysis would be useful. A
good one is Agnar Sandmo (2011): “Economics Evolving. A History of Economic
Thought.” If you want to go really deep into the topic, then Joseph Shumpter
(1954) “A History of Economic Analysis” is for you (but it is heavy).
 Any introductory textbook would be useful to look into, mainly for
macroeconomics. One example is O. Blanchard and D.R: Johnson (2013):
“Macroeconomics”, notably their chapter on “The Story of Macroeconomics”,
which gives a survey of the various macroeconomic schools of thought
 Reading the original books of great economists can be a rewarding experience
(but also hard work). For instance, Adam Smith: “The Wealth of Nations”, of
which there is a new translation into Finnish. Interesting are also, for instance,
Friedrich Hayek: “The Road to Serfdom”, of Milton Friedman: “Capitalism and
Freedom”. John Maynard Keynes: “The General Theory” is great but difficult.
 An interesting book about the importance of institutions and politics for the
economy is Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2012): “Why Nations Fail. The
Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty.”
 A great (but lengthy) book on the history of economic crises is Reinhart and
Rogoff (2009): “This Time is Different. Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”
 A nice book on the economics of happiness is Richard Layard (2005): “Happiness.
Lessons from a New Science”
 There is a large number of books on the Great Depression. The most readable is
probably Charles Kindleberger (1973): “The World in Depression 1929-1933”. A
bit more heavy is Barry Eichengreen (1992): “Golden Fetters. The Gold Standard
and the Great Depression”. More recently (2015) the same author has published
“Hall of Mirrors. The Great Depression, the Great Recession and the Uses – and
Misuses – of History”
 For postwar Finland see Jukka Pekkarinen and Juhana Vartiainen (1992):
“Talouspolitiikan pitkä linja” or Matti Pohjola (1996): ”Tehoton pääoma”
 For the Great Depression in Finland in the early 1990s, see Jaakko Kiander and
Pentti Vartia (1998): ”Suuri lama. Suomen 1990-luvun kriisi ja talouspoliittinen
keskustelu”
 For the various economic schools of thought see the book by Blanchard and
Johnson (referred to above) or use Google (and you easily find a lot of material)
 One of many descriptions of the global financial crisis which erupted in 2007-08
is in H. Davis: “The Financial Crisis. Who is to Blame?”
 For the problems of the EMU, see my book “Euro – valuutta vailla valtiota” or
search on the internet page Voxeu, which contains a lot of debate of EMU as well
as of economic policy issues
 For issues related to banking, see A. Admati and M. Hellwig (2013): “The Bankers’
New Clothes. What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It”
 Interesting overviews of macroeconomic policy issues and the crisis can be found
in, for instance, Akerlof, Blanchard, Romer and Stiglitz (2014): “What have we
learned? Policy after the crisis” and A. Turner (2012): “Economics after the Crisis.
Objectives and Means”
 For economic policy debate see on internet “Akateeminen talousblogi” or
“Ekonomistas” or “Voxeu” or ………..