Ten books for the summer 2022

Summer 2022 just can’t get here fast enough; with hopes of ending that long year of 2020 and an opportunity to read more [and travel, of course]. Adding to the previous suggestions [here & here], listed below are my ten books to read this summer.

View of Tolors, Armenia. July 2019. (c) AVGevorkyan

So far, we have been talking economic systems, development patterns, and competitive pressures across industries, … and more. There are two rising economic issues: 1) new social contract in the advanced economies and 2) the fate of the “small economy.” The global economy is likely to go through major realignments in economic policy, trade patterns, supply chains, consumer markets, and, importantly, access to new technology. Much of it has already been happening since (and before) 2020, and intensifying recently [some preliminary thoughts here and here].

But back to the readings… This selection [as before, avoids the latest blockbuster issues and] is motivated by the above and exchanges with students, colleagues, and on social media [for which, I’m sincerely grateful], but still, subjectively, reflects what I find relevant to the confusing intellectual and policy web of economic development.

  1. Assa, Jacob. 2016. The Financialization of GDP: Implications for economic theory and policy. London: Routledge
  2. Darby, Paul; James Esson; and Christian Ungruhe. 2022. African football migration: Aspirations, experiences and trajectories. Manchester University Press.
  3. Eichengreen, Barry; Asmaa El-Ganainy; Rui Esteves; and Kris James Mitchener. 2021. In Defense of Public Debt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Grossman, Vasily. 2013. An Armenian Sketchbook. New York: New York Review of Books.
  5. Horvat, Branko. 2017 (1976). The Yugoslav Economic System: The First Labor-Managed Economy in the Making. Oxford: Routledge.
  6. Russell, Bertrand. 2004. In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays. Oxford: Routledge.
  7. Samuels, Richard. 1996. Rich Nation, Strong Army: National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  8. Sen, Amaratya. 1997. Resources, Values, and Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  9. Thirwall, A. P. 2013.  Economic Growth in an Open Developing Economy The Role of Structure and Demand. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
  10. Zeidan, Rodrigo. 2018. Economics of Global Business. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Hopefully, the diversity of the book list will be sufficient for potential readers to find at least one book to add to their readings. Oh, and claiming monopoly powers, I hope you might challenge your priors and look through my Transition Economies: Transformation, Development, and Society in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. The linearity of economic thinking has led on the false path of crushing hopes. The book is an attempt to provide a holistic analysis of the region’s economic history nonlinear trajectories, explaining the present and peaking into the future…