Parentonomics: An Economist Dad Looks at Parenting

What every parent needs to know about negotiating, incentives, outsourcing, and other strategies to solve the economic management problem that is parenting. 
Like any new parent, Joshua Gans felt joy mixed with anxiety upon the birth of his first child. Who was this blanket-swaddled small person and what did she want? Unlike most parents, however, Gans is an economist, and he began to apply the tools of his trade to raising his children. He saw his new life as one big economic management problem -- and if economics helped him think about parenting, parenting illuminated certain economic principles. Parentonomics is the entertaining, enlightening, and often hilarious fruit of his "research." 
Incentives, Gans shows us, are as risky in parenting as in business. An older sister who is recruited to help toilet train her younger brother for a share in the reward given for each successful visit to the bathroom, for example, could give the trainee drinks of water to make the rewards more frequent. (Economics later offered another, better toilet training solution: outsourcing. For their third child, Gans and his wife put it in the hands of professionals--the day care providers.) Gans gives us the parentonomic view of delivery (if the mother shares her pain by yelling at the father, doesn't it really create more aggregate pain?), sleep (the screams of a baby are like an offer: "I'll stop screaming if you give me attention"), food (a question of marketing), travel ("the best thing you can say about traveling with children is that they are worse than baggage"), punishment (and threat credibility), birthday party time management, and more. 
Parents: if you're reading Parentonomics in the presence of other people, you'll be unable to keep yourself from reading the funny parts out loud. And if you're reading it late at night and wake a child with your laughter -- well, you'll have some guidelines for negotiating a return to bed.

Gans, Joshua

Business & Money

Mit Pr

An expert in management takes on the conventional wisdom about disruption, looking at companies that proved resilient and offering managers tools for survival. 
“Disruption” is a business buzzword that has gotten out of control. Today everything and everyone seem to be characterized as disruptive―or, if they aren't disruptive yet, it's only a matter of time before they become so. In this book, Joshua Gans cuts through the chatter to focus on disruption in its initial use as a business term, identifying new ways to understand it and suggesting new tools to manage it. 
Almost twenty years ago Clayton Christensen popularized the term in his book The Innovator's Dilemma, writing of disruption as a set of risks that established firms face. Since then, few have closely examined his account. Gans does so in this book. He looks at companies that have proven resilient and those that have fallen, and explains why some companies have successfully managed disruption―Fujifilm and Canon, for example―and why some like Blockbuster and Encyclopedia Britannica have not. Departing from the conventional wisdom, Gans identifies two kinds of disruption: demand-side, when successful firms focus on their main customers and underestimate market entrants with innovations that target niche demands; and supply-side, when firms focused on developing existing competencies become incapable of developing new ones. 
Gans describes the full range of actions business leaders can take to deal with each type of disruption, from “self-disrupting” independent internal units to tightly integrated product development. But therein lies the disruption dilemma: A firm cannot practice both independence and integration at once. Gans shows business leaders how to choose their strategy so their firms can deal with disruption while continuing to innovate.

The Disruption Dilemma

Management & Leadership

The MIT Press

How to get more innovation and more equality.
Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades―in such areas as artificial intelligence, genetics, and materials―have benefited society collectively and rewarded innovators handsomely: we get cool smartphones and technology moguls become billionaires. This contributes to a growing wealth gap; in the United States; the wealth controlled by the top 0.1 percent of households equals that of the bottom ninety percent. Is this the inevitable cost of an innovation-driven economy? Economist Joshua Gans and policy maker Andrew Leigh make the case that pursuing innovation does not mean giving up on equality―precisely the opposite. In this book, they outline ways that society can become both more entrepreneurial and more egalitarian. 
All innovation entails uncertainty; there's no way to predict which new technologies will catch on. Therefore, Gans and Leigh argue, rather than betting on the future of particular professions, we should consider policies that embrace uncertainty and protect people from unfavorable outcomes. To this end, they suggest policies that promote both innovation and equality. If we encourage innovation in the right way, our future can look more like the cheerful techno-utopia of Star Trek than the dark techno-dystopia of TheTerminator.

Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator

Leigh, Andrew

Science Fiction & Fantasy

What every parent needs to know about negotiating, incentives, outsourcing, and other strategies to solve the economic management problem that is parenting. 
Like any new parent, Joshua Gans felt joy mixed with anxiety upon the birth of his first child. Who was this blanket-swaddled small person and what did she want? Unlike most parents, however, Gans is an economist, and he began to apply the tools of his trade to raising his children. He saw his new life as one big economic management problem―and if economics helped him think about parenting, parenting illuminated certain economic principles. Parentonomics is the entertaining, enlightening, and often hilarious fruit of his “research.” 
Incentives, Gans shows us, are as risky in parenting as in business. An older sister who is recruited to help toilet train her younger brother for a share in the reward given for each successful visit to the bathroom, for example, could give the trainee drinks of water to make the rewards more frequent. (Economics later offered another, better toilet training solution: outsourcing. For their third child, Gans and his wife put it in the hands of professionals―the day care providers.) Gans gives us the parentonomic view of delivery (if the mother shares her pain by yelling at the father, doesn't it really create more aggregate pain?), sleep (the screams of a baby are like an offer: “I'll stop screaming if you give me attention”), food (a question of marketing), travel (“the best thing you can say about traveling with children is that they are worse than baggage”), punishment (and threat credibility), birthday party time management, and more. 
Parents: if you're reading Parentonomics in the presence of other people, you'll be unable to keep yourself from reading the funny parts out loud. And if you're reading it late at night and wake a child with your laughter―well, you'll have some guidelines for negotiating a return to bed.

MIT Press]

A guide to the pandemic economy- essential reading about the long-term implications of our current crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a firehose of information (much of it wrong) and an avalanche of opinions (many of them ill-founded). Most of us are so distracted by the everyday awfulness that we don't see the broader issues in play. In this book, economist Joshua Gans steps back from the short-term chaos to take a clear and systematic look at how economic choices are being made in response to COVID-19. He shows that containing the virus and pausing the economy--without letting businesses fail and people lose their jobs--are the necessary first steps.

The Pandemic Information Gap: The Brutal Economics of COVID-19

Economics

Economist Joshua Gans and Australian Parliament member Andrew Leigh argue that equality should not be sacrificed for the amazing technological innovations of the last two decades. Artificial intelligence, genetics research, and materials science study have benefited society collectively and rewarded innovators handsomely- we get cool smartphones and technology moguls become billionaires. This contributes to a growing wealth gap; in the United States; the wealth controlled by the top 0.1 percent of households equals that of the bottom ninety percent. Is this the inevitable cost of an innovation-driven economy? Economist Joshua Gans and policy maker Andrew Leigh make the case that pursuing innovation does not mean giving up on equality--precisely the opposite. In this book, they outline ways that society can become both more entrepreneurial and more egalitarian through policies that promote both innovation and equality. If we encourage innovation in the right way, our future can look more like the cheerful techno-utopia of Star Trek than the dark techno-dystopia of The Terminator.

Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator (Mit Press)

With the goal of combining economic reform with social objectives, this policy book takes on the issues involved in reforming health care, housing, education, and transportation in Australia. A new approach to the major economic issues facing Australia is outlined along with logical policies of government expenditure and intervention.

Finishing the Job: Real-World Policy Solutions in Health, Housing, Education and Transport

KING,STEPHEN

Education & Reference

Melbourne University Publishing

Covid-19 is a global pandemic inflicting large health and economic costs. In his previous book, The Pandemic Information Gap: The Brutal Economics of COVID-19 (MIT Press, 2020), economist Joshua Gans explains that those costs have been so large because governments and others have lacked the information needed to control the pandemic. Unless we know who is infectious, we can't break the chains of transmission, which results in the escalation of our problems. Pandemics, he writes, are information problems. Now, in this follow-up book, Gans outlines the solution to the information gap. By engaging in rapid, frequent screening, we can control the pandemic and restore normality. We can lower the number of cases, break chains of transmission, and make it safe for people to interact again. This will require changing our mindset about testing, gathering the right information, and matching that information to the right decisions. We have the ingredients to do all these things. We just need to put them together in a scalable and sustainable system. This book is a guide to the issues and trade-offs that policymakers and other key decision-makers need to grapple with and follow.

The Pandemic Information Solution: Overcoming the Brutal Economics of Covid-19

Endeavor Literary Press

Joshua Gans, Erin L. Scott, and Scott Stern wrote this book for students--all students--who are hungry to learn how they can emulate the success of entrepreneurs they see in the media and in their communities. This text brings modern research and insights together to teach a proven approach to understanding, navigating, and choosing an entrepreneurial path. Informed by their decades of research, the authors provide tested tools to get started, helping students use four key choices and four core strategic approaches to find and frame opportunities. Throughout, the book emphasizes that students should choose and pursue the approaches that fit their personal goals and interests, and it underscores the important roles of guidance, mentorship, and entrepreneurial education in a founder's path to success.

Entrepreneurship: Choice and Strategy

Stern, Scott

Scott, Erin

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

W.W.Norton&Company

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gans, Joshua. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gans, Joshua

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gans, Joshua. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Parentonomics: An Economist Dad Looks at Parenting

The Disruption Dilemma

Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator

Parentonomics: An Economist Dad Looks at Parenting

The Disruption Dilemma

The Pandemic Information Gap: The Brutal Economics of COVID-19

Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator (Mit Press)

Finishing the Job: Real-World Policy Solutions in Health, Housing, Education and Transport

The Pandemic Information Solution: Overcoming the Brutal Economics of Covid-19

Entrepreneurship: Choice and Strategy