Essays in economics And Other Cheerful Themes (Hardback)  | Released: 28 Aug 2014

Essays in Economics and Other Cheerful Themes is a collection of pieces on economy, polity and society, written by a social scientist over a number of years. The book addresses conceptual and empirical issues in development at both national and global levels. The philosophical bases of these issues are sought to be addressed in relatively non-technical and accessible terms. The book also makes space for essays that deal with less solemn phenomena, such as cricket, film, the conduct of academic institutions, and the esoteric excesses of scholarly writing in the social sciences and humanities. The book is something of a professional economist's ramble through territory that is both familiar and important to him, but undertaken in a spirit of some leisureliness which the author hopes will attract a readership beyond that, solely, of fellow-professionals. Written primarily with the non-specialist reader in mind, these essays aim to be of interest to younger students, policy-makers, and involved and interested 'lay' citizens.Table of Contents: AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction: A Brief Guide to the BookI: OF HOME AND THE WORLDGlobal Deprivation and DisparityWell-being and the World TodayGlobal Poverty, Inequality and Aid Flows: A Rough Guide to Some Simple JusticeDomestic Deprivation and DisparityThe Status of the Child In IndiaHuman Development and Human Rights‘Inclusive Development’ and the Quintile Income StatisticPolity and SocietyReprisal without RectitudeMoral Catastrophes and Immoral ReasoningLooking Back, and AheadExamining the Creamy Layer PrincipleII. BETWEEN ECONOMICS AND PHILOSOPHYOn Headcount Poverty ComparisonsThinking through JusticeAre Egalitarians Really Vulnerable to the Levelling-Down Objection and the Divided World Example?Can We Possibly Subscribe to Both Liberty and Equality at One and the Same Time?III. MISCALLANEOUS MISTAKESA Curmudgeon’s ComplaintsJai Ho, Jeeves! An Advanced Sociological Analysis of Slumdog MillionaireLanguage and Representation (Or, More Modestly) Mathematical Economics and PovertyWriting Economics in Exactly 300 Words: Two Samples in the Tradition of J.B. Morton (‘Beachcomber’)