|Peter Boettke|
At the top of your reading list for 2013 should be Virgil Storr's new book, Understanding the Culture of Markets (Routledge, 2013). Storr's book is the latest in the now rather sizeable list in the "Foundations of the Market Economy" series edited by Mario Rizzo and Lawrence White.
"The reason," I have written in a review of the book, "that some countries prosper while others languish in abject poverty is ultimately a function of the institutions of governance that are operating within each country. Peaceful and prosperous countries have institutions that curb public and private predation; poor, sick and violent countries have institutions that leave public and private predation unchecked. This observation is in many ways as old as economics as a discipline, and certainly was a central message of Adam Smith's description about the difference between barbarism and opulence. But the puzzle of how peoples are able to move from one set of institutions to another is not as obvious. Smith's recipe of 'peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice' must be supplemented by a deeper examination of the cultural preconditions that allow such an instititutional configuration to take root in any society. Those cultural preconditions become evident to us through the stories societies tell about the themselves, and the tacit presuppositions that underlie social intercourse in specific social contexts. Political economy, in other words, must ultimately move from the pure theory of price and the institutional analysis of development to an understanding of the culture of markets if an adequate explanation of the wealth and poverty of nations is to emerge. Enter Virgil Storr's concise, readable, learned, and penetrating discussion of the beliefs, norms, mores, attitudes, and 'spirits' that make human societies tick. Understanding the Culture of Markets is required reading for any student of society and the doings of human action regardless of disciplinary background and ideological disposition. Storr provides his reader with not only a primer on cultural economy, but also an examination of the methodological and analytical adjustments required by economics if the discipline is to realize its full potential as a science of human action."
The book is listed for $135 on amazon (168 pages). Priced for libraries.
Posted by: John Hall | February 06, 2013 at 09:54 AM
John --
It is called a scholarly monograph, and libraries are full of them.
Authors have no control over the price of the books, that is set by publishers. And pricing a book at a trade publication price doesn't mean it will sell to the targeted audience. This is a book written by a scholar intended for other scholars.
Finally, I don't think I have ever met an academic author that is completely happy with either the pricing or the marketing of their books.
Reading a book doesn't require owning it, just borrow from the library and if they don't have there is a thing called interlibrary loan services.
BTW, I am sure in short order a paperback copy and a digital copy of Storr's book will be made available.
Posted by: Peter Boettke | February 06, 2013 at 10:14 AM
Sounds interesting.
How does it compare with McCloskey's works on values and "Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress" by Lawrence E. Harrison, Samuel P. Huntington?
Posted by: Roger McKinney | February 07, 2013 at 09:55 AM
Taylor & Francis are selling the digital version for $135 ... which is more than the device to read it!
... if priced similar to, say, Living Economics I'd snap it up.
Posted by: David Scofield | February 07, 2013 at 03:35 PM
Sounds like a book I should ask my library to procure.
Posted by: JFCatalan | February 10, 2013 at 02:05 PM
Peter, are you familiar with Hayek's essay on what he called "Market Morals"? I had Jeffrey Tucker track it down and he put in online in April 2011. Sounds like Storr used Hayek as a spingboard:
http://mises.org/community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2011/03/27/rot-at-the-core-prophetic-words-from-hayek-on-the-grim-threat-posed-by-the-erosion-of-quot-market-morals-quot.aspx
More here: http://mises.org/community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=market+morals
Tom
Posted by: Tokyo_Tom | February 27, 2013 at 08:00 PM