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Probability and Statistics for Economists

Bruce E. Hansen

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The Power of Organizations: A New Approach to Organizational Theory

Heather A. Haveman

A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the mathematics that all economics students need to know

Probability theory is the quantitative language used to handle uncertainty and is the foundation of modern statistics. Probability and Statistics for Economists provides graduate and PhD students with an essential introduction to mathematical probability and statistical theory, which are the basis of the methods used in econometrics. This incisive textbook teaches fundamental concepts, emphasizes modern, real-world applications, and gives students an intuitive understanding of the mathematics that every economist needs to know.

• Covers probability and statistics with mathematical rigor while emphasizing intuitive explanations that are accessible to economics students of all backgrounds • Discusses random variables, parametric and multivariate distributions, sampling, the law of large numbers, central limit theory, maximum likelihood estimation, numerical optimization, hypothesis testing, and more • Features hundreds of exercises that enable students to learn by doing • Includes an in-depth appendix summarizing important mathematical results as well as a wealth of real-world examples • Can serve as a core textbook for a first-semester

PhD course in econometrics and as a companion book to Bruce E. Hansen’s Econometrics • Also an invaluable reference for researchers and practitioners

Bruce E. Hansen is the Mary Claire Aschenbrener Phipps Distinguished Chair of Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and one of the most cited econometricians in the world. How organizations developed in history, how they operate, and how research on them has evolved

Organizations are all around us: government agencies, multinational corporations, social-movement organizations, religious congregations, scientific bodies, sports teams, and more. Immensely powerful, they shape all social, economic, political, and cultural life, and are critical for the planning and coordination of every activity from manufacturing cardboard boxes to synthesizing new drugs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To understand our world, we must understand organizations. The Power of Organizations defines the features of organizations, examines how they operate, traces their rise over the course of a millennium, and explains how research on organizations has evolved from the mid-nineteenth century to today.

Heather Haveman shows how almost all contemporary research on organizations fits into three general perspectives: demographic, relational, and cultural. She offers constructive criticism of existing research, showing how it can be remade to be both more interesting and influential. She examines how we can use existing theories to understand the changes wrought by digital technologies, and she argues that organizational scholars can and should alter the impact that organizations have on society, particularly societal and global inequality, formal politics, and environmental degradation.

The Power of Organizations demonstrates the benefits and dangers of these ubiquitous foundations of modern society.

Heather A. Haveman is professor of sociology and business at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Magazines and the Making of America (Princeton).

September 9780691235943 Hardback $65.00 | £50.00

416 pages. 111 b/w illus. 6 tables. 203 × 254 mm. ebook 9780691236148 Economics January 9780691241807 Paperback $35.00 | £28.00 9780691238043 Hardback $120.00 | £94.00

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