JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 132.174.255.116 on Thu, 31 Dec 2015 01:57:08 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 530 BOOK REVIEWS 530 BOOK REVIEWSbe blamed for the hyperinflation. The increased quantity of money came later, and according to Robinson, only allowed the inflation to continue. Although the popularity of Robinson's cost-push explanation faded in the 1960s, its inclusion in this volume serves as an important example of the Keynesian doctrine that dominated post-depression economic analysis. Capie has included many papers that analyze the politics surrounding inflation, which provide both fascinating reading and variety to the volume. The topics range from Andrew White's narrative description of the pre-revolution French inflation to Charles Maier's political coalition explanation of modem Latin American hyperinflation. The issues covered are too numerous to list, but to Capie's credit the coverage is both complete and informative.On the whole, Major Inflations in History serves as a useful reference on the study of inflation. It examines the causes of major inflations and extracts lessons from the experiences. The strength of the volume lies in the variety of perspectives used to analyze inflation. Students of the current crisis in the former Soviet Union would do well to read this book. They will be struck by the similarities between past and current situations.
Christopher M. Otrok Federal Reserve Bank of RichmondThe Maze of Urban Housing Markets.In this book a theoretical and empirical framework for analyzing the diversity of urban housing markets is presented. The housing market is, according to the authors, characterized by "segmentation" by both demanders and suppliers. This segmentation is a consequence of the unique features of housing, which include spatial immobility, durability, heterogeneity, and modifiability. An implication of spatial immobility (and durability) is that demanders of housing services (in particular, owner occupied) will make choices based on an array of public and private services associated with the fixed location. These patterns of demand, which will vary for a given individual with life cycle, economic, and other circumstances, produce a complex "quality-service" segmentation. The urban housing market is thus characterized as an aggregation of noncompeting submarkets. Demanders of the services provided by a given submarket are relatively unresponsive to market and price adjustments in other noncompeting submarkets. The result is highly inelastic demand for a given segment. Substitutability is further reduced by the high cost of adjustments to housing consumption and investment. In addition to its intuitive appeal, this view of...
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