[co-authored with Erwin Dekker] Economie Voor In Bed, Op Het Toilet Of In Bad. Bbnc Uitgevers, 2012

"De serie waar dit een deel van is, lijkt geinspireerd op de bekende 'dummies'-reeks, maar dan beknopter. In ongeveer 150 pagina's worden alle economische kernbegrippen behandeld. Tevens wordt een overzicht gegeven van de grote economische theorieen en de auteurs daarvan. Een beknopte en praktische handleiding, ook qua formaat (gebonden uitvoering in pocketformaat). Voor verdieping en achtergronden moeten andere boeken worden geraadpleegd, maar dit boek geeft als inleiding goede aangrijpingspunten. Een aantal schema's bevat erg kleine letters. Helaas bevat het boek geen literatuuropgave of register." — Drs. D.A. Bloemendaal

[co-authored with Cees Langeveld] Pak Aan. Stichting Economie en Cultuur, 2011

Als nooit tevoren wordt er bezuinigd op de kunsten. PAK AAN bevat vele ideeën, voorstellen, inzichten, en tips die kunstenaars en culturele organisaties, maar ook (lokale) bestuurders en kunstliefhebbers, moeten inspireren om meer kansen te grijpen. De tijd van zwarte pieten en ja-maren is voorbij. Het is tijd om aan te pakken.

Speaking of Economics: How to Get in the Conversation. London: Routledge, 2006

"Would but that the conversation of economics were characterized by the humor, humility, and humanity with which Arjo Klamer composed this marvelous book. Fortunately, I think the 'bunch of conversations' that make up the discipline of economics will be better — more tolerant of dissenters, more inclusive of outsiders, more relevant to students and everyday economists — when economists accept Klamer's invitation to see how strange their conversational habits really are. And what it takes to change them." — David Ruccio, University of Notre Dame

In Hemelsnaam! Over de economie van overvloed en onbehagen. Kampen: Uitgeverij Ten Have, 2005

"Tot een tijdje terug werden we volgens de statistieken van jaar tot jaar steeds welvarender. Toch kwam er een sluier van chagrijn over ons land te liggen. Hadden we het toen echt zo goed? Nu lijkt het economisch minder te gaan. Betekent dat dat we verder wegzakken in de treurnis, of hebben we de kans om de grauwsluier een beetje weg te trekken?" — Johan Schaberg, NRC Handelsblad

[co-authored with Harry van Dalen] Het verhaal van geld. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1998. New edition published by Alphen a/d Rijn: Drukkerij Haasbeek, 2009

Doet het ertoe of we met guldens of euro's betalen? Geld is een mysterie. We kunnen niet zonder, we willen er meer van, maar begrijpen we wel wat geld is, welke prijs het heeft, hoe het ontstaat en hoe het werkt? Het verhaal van geld ontmaskert het mysterie, kort en bondig. Klamer en Van Dalen vertellen over het ontstaan van geld, over de symbolische betekenissen ervan en onthullen hoe geld gecreëerd wordt en welke rol het speelt in de economie. Geld, zo blijkt, is meer dan een rekeneenheid of een betaalmiddel: geld is ook een symbool van gemeenschap.

[co-authored with L. van der Laan, J. Prij.] De illusie van volledige werkgelegenheid. Van Gorcum, 1997

Dutch Welfare: A Case Apart. Belgium Center for the New Europe, 1996

"The American students were perplexed. They had come over from a prestigious Southern university to take a summer course in Dutch economics. Exploring the coffeeshops in Amsterdam they noticed a large number of adult men on the streets in broad daylight. The reason must be unemployment, they figured. Then they found out about ... " read more »

[authored with several others] Weg van Nederland. Amsterdam: Balans, 1996.

[co-authored with Harry van Dalen] Telgen van Tinbergen: Het verhaal van Nederlandse economen. Amsterdam: Balans, 1996.

"It is a little superfluous for any foreigner to come to Rotterdam to lecture about economics at all. I feel a bit like a 17th century New England smuggler lecturing on seamanship to Admiral Tromp. The trade in economics nowadays is as much the other way: we send our young men to Rotterdam to learn, not our middle-aged professors to teach. Indeed some of our best middle-aged professors are named Koopmans and Houthakker! I suppose the logic of the situation is that I am not import at all; I am to be processed and re-exported, like cocoa beans." — Robert M. Solow in 1963 when visiting the Rotterdam School of Economics.

[co-authored with Olav Velthuis] Kansen voor de eeuwige student: Het belang van cultureel kapitaal voor de kennissamenleying. Amsterdam: OC & W, 1996

[Foreword of] Poverty and Political Culture: The Rhetoric of Social Welfare in the Netherlands & France, 1815-1854, by Frances Gouda. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1995.

"Nothing great, nothing monumental has ever been done in France and I shall add, in the world, except by the state. How could it be otherwise, since the government is the nation in action" — Alphonse de la Montaigne, 1938, quoted in Gouda, 1995, p. 13.

Verzuilde dromen: 40 jaar SER. Amsterdam: Balans, 1991.

[co-authored with David Colander] The Making of an Economist: Studies in the History, Method and Boundaries of Economics. Boulder: Westview Press, 1990.

Graduate schools have reputations that rub off on their Ph.D.'s. Where you went to school is a signal of what type of an economist you are. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is known for attracting the best students. A Ph.D. from MIT, therefore, means something like, "Ah, she must be bright." MIT is also known as solidly neoclassical with a Keynesian slant. Its Ph.D.'s are expected to be just that. Chicago stands for a conservative tradition in economics. Hearing "Chicago," most economists will think, "Oh, one of the Gary Becker-George Stigler-Robert Lucas crowd." (Older Ph.D.'s will evoke the reaction "Milton Friedman.") Ph.D.'s from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst will bring "radical" to mind, because that is the reputation of that school. A George Mason Ph.D. will make one think "Austrian" or "public choice." Read more »

U.S. versus Europe. Amsterdam: Multimedia, 1989.

[with Alan Reynolds] Monetarism and Supply Side Economics. Blackstone Audio 2006. Narrated by Louis Rukeyser.

Klamer: "Monetarism emerged in the 1960's under the leadership of Milton Friedman, who received the Nobel Prize in 1976. Friedman taught at the University of Chicago during this period, developing monetarism as a branch of Frank Knight's famous "Chicago School" of economics. Monetarists emphasize the role of money and the government's monetary policy in economic affairs; they vigorously defend the free market in their work."
          Reynolds: "Supply side economics, another modern branch of free market economics, emphasizes the harmful role of impediments to production (such as taxes). Robert A. Mundell is often considered the father of this modern school of economic thought. Supply side economics advocates government policies that would stimulate increased overall economic production, rather than to redistribute existing production."

[with Cees Langeveld] Pak Aan: 100 en 1 ideeën voor alternatieve financiering van kunst en cultuur.
Rotterdam, 2011.

Conversations with Economists: New Classical Economists and Opponents Speak Out on the Current Controversy in Macroeconomics. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1984. Published in England under the title The New Classical Macroeconomics: Conversations with New Classical Economists and Their Opponents. Wheatsheaf, 1984. Translated into Japanese, French, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.

[co-edited with D.N. McCloskey and Robert Solow] The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

The field of economics proves to be a matter of metaphor and storytelling — its mathematics is metaphoric and its policy making is narrative. Economists have begun to realize this and to rethink how they speak. This volume is the result of a conference held at Wellesley College, involving both theoretical and applied economists, that explored the consequences of the rhetoric and the conversation of the field of economics.
Order | Chapter 1: Economics in the Human Conversation (pp. 3-20).

The Value of Culture: On the Relationship between Economics and Arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1996; Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Culture manifests itself in everything human, including the ordinary business of everyday life. Culturally-determined values influence negotiations in the marketplace, and conflicting values and unshared codes may thwart the development of local or international markets. But economic values also constrain art and culture. Resourses are limited, both for artists and for cultural institutions. Even 'priceless art' has its price. Arts sponsorship and subsidies suggest a value that exceeds market price. So what is the real value of culture?

[co-authored with Harry van Dalen] Het verhaal van geld. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1998.

The Values of Cultural Heritage: Merging Economic and Cultural Appraisals. Los Angeles: Getty Foundation, 1998.

The Economic Conversation: A Textbook [co-authored with Deirdre McCloskey and Stephen Ziliak]

"It is only by argument, by conflict if you like, that economics makes progress" — John Maynard Keynes.

The Economic Conversation is a groundbreaking new first-year undergraduate principles of economics textbook that does far more than teach the basic principles. It uses entertaining and insightful dialogues in the text to actively involve and engage students in the debates surrounding economic arguments.

The dialogues take the form of candid and lively conversations among the three authors and a group of student characters, who give voice to the kind of probing questions and insights made by real students as they grapple with this challenging subject for the first time. Through these conversations, students are memorably introduced to the assumptions, goals and values that underlie economic principles in a manner that actually shows them how to make economic arguments themselves.

Innovative pedagogical features, including technical workshops and concept checks interspersed throughout the text, ensure that students gain a firm grasp of the subject matter. These features, combined with the authors' clear and entertaining writing style, make this book an exceptionally accessible and engaging text that will inspire and excite students' interest.

The Economic Conversation is designed for full-year economics courses covering micro- and macroeconomic principles, but it is priced to be competitive with "split" editions, making it suitable for semester, quarter or modular courses in introductory microeconomics or macroeconomics.

For more information and for an introduction to the "conversation" please visit: The Economic Conversation website.