Avner Offer is an economic historian specializing in international political economy, law, and the First World War. His current research focuses on post-war economic growth in affluent societies and the challenges that this affluence presents to well-being. Offer explores the difficulties that abundance brings and its impact on quality of life. His work is characterized by a deep analysis of historical economic trends and their contemporary implications.
A distinctive new account why governments loom so large in market societies. Avner Offer explains how finance limits firms to short-term enterprise. For long term commitment business requires exclusive concessions and privileges. Only governments can manage uncertainty in the long-term interests of society, e.g. the challenge of climate change.
Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain Since 1950
The book presents a thorough critique of modern consumer society in Britain and the United States post-World War II, challenging the prevalent belief that freedom of choice enhances individual and societal well-being. It offers a reasoned argument that scrutinizes the consequences of consumerism, urging readers to reconsider the true impact of choice on happiness and social health.
How the creation of the Nobel Prize in Economics changed the economics profession, Sweden, and the worldOur confidence in markets comes from economics, and our confidence in economics is underpinned by the Nobel Prize in Economics, which was first awarded in 1969. Was it a coincidence that the prize and the rise of free-market liberalism began at the same time? The Nobel Factor is the first book to describe the origins and power of the most important prize in economics. It tells how the prize, created by the Swedish central bank, emerged from a conflict between central bank orthodoxy and Sweden's social democracy. The aim was to use the halo of the Nobel brand to influence the future of Sweden and the rest of the developed world by enhancing the bank's authority and the prestige of market-friendly economics. And the strategy has worked spectacularly―with sometimes disastrous results for societies striving to cope with the requirements of economic theory and deregulated markets. Drawing on previously untapped archives and providing a unique analysis of the sway of prizewinners, The Nobel Factor offers an unprecedented account of the real-world consequences of economics and its greatest prize.