Markets and States in Tropical Africa or Neoclassical Finance

Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy Series)

Author: Robert H Bates

Most Africans live in rural areas and derive their incomes from farming; but because African governments follow policies that are adverse to most farmers' interests, these countries fail to produce enough food to feed their populations. Markets and States in Tropical Africa analyzes these and other paradoxical features of development in modern Africa and explores how governments have intervened and diverted resources from farmers to other sectors of society. A classic of the field since its publication in 1981, this edition includes a new preface by the author.

Table of Contents:

1	Policies toward cash crops for export	11
2	The food sector : the political dynamics of pricing policies	30
3	The food sector : the use of nonprice strategies	45
4	The emerging industrial sector	62
5	The market as political arena and the limits of voluntarism	81
6	Rental havens and protective shelters : organizing support among the urban beneficiaries	96
7	The origins of political marginalism : evoking compliance from the countryside	106
	Commonalities and variations : the politics of agricultural policy	119
App. A	Interrelations between food supply, demand and prices	133
App. B	Value received by farmers for export crops	136

Read also Summer on a Plate or Multiple Sclerosis Diet Book

Neoclassical Finance

Author: Stephen A Ross

Neoclassical Finance provides a concise and powerful account of the underlying principles of modern finance, drawing on a generation of theoretical and empirical advances in the field. Stephen Ross developed the no arbitrage principle, tying asset pricing to the simple proposition that there are no free lunches in financial markets, and jointly with John Cox he developed the related concept of risk-neutral pricing. In this book Ross makes a strong case that these concepts are the fundamental pillars of modern finance and, in particular, of market efficiency. In an efficient market prices reflect the information possessed by the market and, as a consequence, trading schemes using commonly available information to beat the market are doomed to fail.

By stark contrast, the currently popular stance offered by behavioral finance, fueled by a number of apparent anomalies in the financial markets, regards market prices as subject to the psychological whims of investors. But without any appeal to psychology, Ross shows that neoclassical theory provides a simple and rich explanation that resolves many of the anomalies on which behavioral finance has been fixated.

Based on the inaugural Princeton Lectures in Finance, sponsored by the Bendheim Center for Finance of Princeton University, this elegant book represents a major contribution to the ongoing debate on market efficiency, and serves as a useful primer on the fundamentals of finance for both scholars and practitioners.