Book Reviews

Abstract

Harry de Gorter of Cornell University reviews, “Political Power and Economic Policy: Theory, Analysis, and Empirical Applications” by Gordon C. Rausser, Johan Swinnen, and Pinhas Zusman. The EconLit abstract of this book begins: “Analyzes the links between political economics, governance structures, and the distribution of political power in economic policy making. Discusses public policy—the lens of political economy; the Nash solution to the bargaining problem; the Harsanyi solution to the bargaining problem; political-economic analysis; normative political-economic analysis; dynamic political-economic analysis; political power, ideology, and political organizational structures; political power, influence, and lobbying; constitutional prescription and political power coefficients; the political economy of commodity market intervention; the political economy of public research and development; a political-economic analysis of redistributive policies and public good investments; interest groups, coalition breaking, and productive policies; policy reform and compensation; political-economic analysis of land reform; political-economic analysis of water resource systems; the political economy lens on quality and public standard regulations; political-economic analysis in transition economies; the power of bureaucracies—the European Commission and EU policy reforms; political econometrics; the political econometrics of the Israeli dairy industry; flexible policy instruments given a political-power distribution; estimating statistical properties of power weight; and the role of institutions in the joint determination of political economic resource transactions and political economic seeking transfers. Rausser is Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Swinnen is Professor of Economics and Director of the LICOS Institute for Institutions and Economic Performance at the Catholic University of Leuven and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies. The late Zusman was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Index.”