Economic Handbook of the World: 1982--Review and Evaluation

Banks, A.S (Ed.). (1982). Economic Handbook of the World: 1982. New York: McGraw Hill.

            The Economic Handbook is a resource designed to give the user a quick guide to the economic standing of every nation existing in the world in 1982. It presents basic information, such as monetary unit, GNP, GDP and debt, but also adds some geography and politics to provide context for the economic standing of each nation. An article goes on to expound on the current state of each nation’s economy, domestic trends, foreign relations, and the future of the economy in the nation. This handbook is part of a larger series published yearly; however this was the only copy I could find on library shelves.

            As a result, the scope of this work is very broad, but rather shallow. It provides a snapshot of each nation’s economy as it existed in 1982, and also gives some high-level commentary on current status and future trends. Thus, a lot of ground is covered and this work is very broad in terms of the geographic area it relates to, but does not provide a ton of information on any one country.

            This work is written for an audience that is familiar with both economics and the state of political affairs in the early eighties. Although the language is simple and the information presented is relatively straightforward, there are frequent references to economic terms and world events that would cause the lay reader some trouble. Furthermore, even for a reader familiar with economics, the casual references to 1980’s world events would also prove puzzling to an individual who did not have some understanding of history. In spite of this however, the book still remains relatively accessible and could prove a useful resource to an individual studying economic history.

            The timeliness of this work suffers from its design. The Handbook was written to be published yearly, and thus each iteration is designed to be used only within very narrow time constraints. As a result, this work is quite outdated. The world has moved on in the last thirty-two years and there is little information in this book that is directly relevant to the state of affairs today, outside of the examination of historical trends. For example, economic data are presented for both East and West Germany, and also the USSR, none of which have existed since 1991. It could serve as a good resource for an economic historian, or an economist who was searching for information regarding past trends and states of affairs, but beyond that, this work would not be terribly useful to the modern economist.

            The head editor of the series, Arthur Banks, was a respected political science professor at Binghamton University. He passed away in 2011. He was an avid worker in broad-spectrum data analysis, and personally oversaw the writing and editing of each iteration of the Handbook (Ellis 2011). As such, this work has a decent amount of authority. It is overseen and edited by an individual uniquely qualified to present information on the global state of affairs who was a professor at a reputable institution. Furthermore, the work is published by McGraw-Hill, which is a well-known and respected academic publishing company. Thus, in spite of its poor timeliness, this work carries a decent amount of authoritative weight.

            The documentation for this work is abysmal. There are no cited references, and only the briefest suggestion of the international agencies that served as the sources for the information contained within the Handbook. I would speculate that this information was probably given in an accompanying volume that has since been lost or misplaced by the library. However, as a standalone piece, the Handbook’s information is significantly weakened by the lack of even a partial reference list.

            Finally, this work is relatively objective. In stereotypical economic fashion, it merely presents facts and figures and provides little in the way of interpretation. Because it was published in the US, there is some western-centric bias.  In spite of that, said bias is barely noticeable throughout the work and does not present a serious barrier to the information being presented. Overall, the work is quite objective.

Ellis, K. (2011). “Arthur S. Banks, professor emeritus of political science, dies”. Binghamton University. Retrieved from http://www.binghamton.edu/inside/index.php/inside/story/1546/arthur-s.-banks-professor-emeritus-of-political-science-dies/.