This well-established work began life in 1997. Its fourth edition (RR 2013/087) highlighted financial markets, and continuing to reflect changes in the world and the subject, its fifth edition highlights globalization and the international economy. In doing this, the editors tell us that they are aiming at a wider readership than just people in the UK: they want to attract an audience in Europe and the USA. The dictionary is a favourite among students coming to economics for the first time although for the more seasoned reader there are many advanced concepts and explanations, as well.
Having it in paperback format makes good sense, given how quickly the field evolves. The range of content, certainly, has expanded to make reference to numerous economic and trade and business concepts relevant to Europe and relevant to English-language readers both in the UK and Europe wanting clear and concise definitions. References to economic matters of American interest have increased, and some attention is given to South America (explicitly) and China and India (mostly implicitly). The focus is still very much on the UK scene, but international economics get wider coverage than earlier.
All this makes the regular re-appearance of this work (and other works in the same series from Oxford University Press such as dictionaries on business/management, statistics, accounting, and finance/banking) attractive to the student, teacher and professional (and with suitable reinforcement the library too, college and public). Attractive too to the general reader with a passing or a serious interest in economic, political and business terms widely used by journalists and commentators (such as those in journals like The Economist). Typical of such terms or jargon are flight from money, floating exchange rate, cheap money, double dip recession, cyclically adjusted budget deficit, core inflation, bounded rationality, shell company and supply-side economics – all included and well explained.
Two criteria usually applied to any such reference tool must be coverage and currency. On coverage it comes out well, discriminating wisely in length and complexity of entries (such concepts as Keynesian economics, quantity theory of money, monetary policy, insurance and labour force, all complex and multi-sided, get good treatment), whereas the main run of entries (bold against a small but clear text) is well-chosen without straying into the merely obvious. Boundaries are well-observed, too, since economics strays into business/management (e.g. with concepts like increase in the book value of stocks and work in progress, profit maximization and buffer stock) and statistics (e.g. hypothesis testing, heteroscedasticity, and convergence in probability). The growth of statistical and mathematical approaches to economics is reflected in econometrics, of course (bringing out above all the expertise of one of the editors, John Black who has published widely here), and econometrics (e.g. Lucas critique, IS curve, distributional weight, Harberger triangle, counterfactual analysis and the rest) is not insignificant in the dictionary. Quantitative entries also appear, some with formulae (e.g. indirect utility function, marginal revenue product, interest-elasticity of the demand for money and equivalent variation). This reflects current academic teaching around the world, as well as the drift towards the quantitative in fields like international marketing and distribution.
By the same token, international issues – economic and those related to it such as climate change and international development and public policy – get attention, and this makes the book all the stronger. Typical concepts here include international debt, World Trade Organization, Islamic banking, UN Millennium Fund, Louvre Accord, immiserizing growth, Human Development Index and global warming. References to the USA tend to be predictable – New Deal, Chicago Board of Trade, Standard and Poor’s, Laffer curve and USA Trade Representative. This last – along with many other entries – have links to web-sites (e.g. OPEC, FCA, WTO, Annual Population Survey and others). Readers and purchasers of works in this series may also know that Oxford University Press itself offers additional resources at its web-site www.oxfordreference.com/page/econ.
At its heart, the dictionary remains one focused on UK readers and those interested in economic phenomena and entities in the UK. Accordingly, the bulk of the entries have this feature – universal credit, Restrictive Practices Court, Lloyds, HM Treasury, PAYE, the Mirrlees Review (one of the editors, Gareth Myles, served on the panel, dealing as it did with taxation), council housing, long-term care, family allowance and working tax credit. Concise definitions are provided, helpful to new students and to anyone slightly fuzzy about exactly what it means (yet not wanting to be bamboozled). Some may be familiar to UK citizens, even those only marginally economically literate, but many may be culturally unfamiliar to English-language readers abroad. Helpful, too, in many of the more complex entries are generous cross-references.
So a useful and value-for-money desk-reference tool for anyone reading intelligent economic commentary or striving to write a convincing essay for a tutor. Still a lot to do with such works – above all to fulfil the hints the editors throw out about including, say, China and India and embedding the economic concepts more fully in the socio-cultural and political mesh of such countries. English-language economic terminology is very much a “lingua franca” (as it is in diplomacy and trade), but the wide-variety of indigenous usages that exist implies the need for more cross-cultural treatment. To do so probably requires another book entirely, so let us hope the publisher has that in mind for the future.
