An intriguing new title has arrived in the post. It's Identity Economics by George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton. Professor Akerlof is someone who seems to have come into his time. Last year saw the publication of his well-reviewed book Animal Spirits, co-authored with another man for our season, Robert Shiller. Not only that, the banking crisis provided a dramatic demonstration of the validity of Akerlof's classic 1970 'market for lemons' article, as the interbank market simply shut down due to the asymmetric information about the quality of credits between different banks.

The new book steps away from the anonymous identical agents of conventional (but increasingly retro) economic theory. Here's the blurb – a review will follow in due course:

It brings identity and norms to economics. People's notions of what is
proper, and what is forbidden, and for whom, are fundamental to how
hard they work, and how they learn, spend, and save. Thus people's
identity–their conception of who they are, and of who they choose to
be–may be the most important factor affecting their economic lives.
And the limits placed by society on people's identity can also be
crucial determinants of their economic well-being.