'In this thought-provoking and enlightening book, Mainelli and Harris highlight a point that economists too often forget: that economics is, at its heart, the study of human behaviour, and that both commerce and its wicked sister, finance, mean nothing unless they are connected to people and society.' Bill Emmott, Former-Editor of the Economist 'We have all discovered, painfully, that there are some areas, important to our existence, where price signals have worked badly or not at all. Financial markets are one. Deep-sea fishing part of the tragedy of the commons - is another. This book is a challenging contribution to understanding these failures.' Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

Educated at Harvard, Michael Mainelli is Commerce Professor Emeritus and Fellow at Gresham College (founding home of the Royal Society and former home to Christopher Wren). He is also Visiting Professor at LSE and was responsible for creating the London Accord the world's leading research cooperative into environmental, social and governance investment. He is the co-founder of Z/Yen, the City of London's leading commercial think-tank established in 1994 to promote societal advance through better finance and technology. Over the course of his career, he has worked in economics, political science, seismology, cartography, energy information, research and development, in defense and at the highest level of accountancy. Ian Harris is a co-founder of Z/Yen, having previously conceived and launched the award-winning joint venture Charity Share and guided the Marine Stewardship Council towards a Best Practice award for its strategic planning and governance, as well as working to solve other problems of long-term thinking in charities and other non-governmental organizations.