Technology, competitiveness, and the state

Privatise, liberalise, deregulate, downsize the state... Have economists got what they want? There is much debate today as to whether the free market approach to economics has finally run its course, The Market Revolution and its Limits is a timely consideration of the arguments. Non-polemical in its approach, this book provides a comprehensive appraisal of the market and its alternatives, backed up with empirical international illustrations. The Market Revolution and its limits summarises why many economists believe that markets are best, explores how even 'market failures' can be given market solutions, and asks why market ideas seem to have taken such a firm hold. Alan Shipman argues that the static and dynamic cases for market superiority rest on two very different views of markets information processing and coordinating capacities. By identifying the wide transaction area between market and plan, he concludes that the 'revolution' to date lies less in recreating market outcomes than in redefining the market process, with large businesses playing a crucial organising role.