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Commissioning and publishing autobiographical sketches by prominent economists has become something of a cottage industry at the Lubin School of Business at Pace University where the senior editor, Michael Szenberg, is based (Szenberg, 1992, 1998). This volume is the third major exercise in this genre. The first—entitled Eminent Economists: Their Life Philosophies—appeared in 1992. Some 22 outstanding economists (nine of whom were Nobel Laureates) contributed in this round. A second volume, published in 1998 under the title Passion and Craft: Economists at Work, solicited essays from economists a generation or so younger who were asked to write about how they practiced their profession. Twenty responded to this invitation. The volume under review returns to the “philosophy of life” theme and reports the responses of 26 contributors. A fair number of the essays in each of these volumes appeared originally in The American Economist, a journal edited by Szenberg.

This paper examines how the formation and implementation of the Eurosystem correlates with benefits to be gained from cooperation with members along with competition with the U.S. and the Rest of the World (ROW). The findings suggest that protectionism is the dominant reason for the creation of the European Union (EU). Both the total gains for member countries from groupings such as the Eurosystem or NAFTA are greater than the sum of the gains each member can command individually. Profits, therefore, remain the driving force behind the formation of the European Monetary Union.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the flow of funds and growth variables for Latin America during the period of 1973–2000. To do so, we present a four equation econometric model that represents the traditional Monetarist and Keynesian perspectives. We also examine the hypothesis that the region can grow through gains from trade, through investigating trade as a source of growth from both computational general equilibrium (CGE) and Cournot-Nash equilibrium standpoints. Analyzing several scenarios, we determine that liberalization and reduced protectionism are superior strategies for Latin America.

This book is an attempt to reflect on what we have learned from financial policies and financial crises in Latin America. The 21 chapters in this volume capture the developments in various ways. They cover theoretical contributions, regional empirical studies, and specific inquiries on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The breadth of methodologies implemented suggests that researchers are looking at Latin American financial markets through a variety of lenses. The chapters are divided into 7 parts, including, in Part I, an initial overview. Part II examines the foreign exchange markets in Latin America and their interactions with other markets. Part III discusses dollarization issues in the region. Part IV then takes up the issue of banking in Latin America. Equity and bond markets are considered in Parts V and VI, respectively. Lastly, Part VII considers pension systems in Latin America. Taken as a whole, the 21 chapters seize the excitement of studying Latin America and provide lessons that are applicable around the world.