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A letter from the Editor: Stephen Partridge 

Stephen Partridge is Editorial Director of Business, Finance and Economics at Palgrave Macmillan.

What a year. As Britain stumbles shambolically towards Brexit, the US pulls up the drawbridge and withdraws from the TPP, and China’s growth continues to slow (albeit to a level still unimaginable in the West), the economy, and the worlds of business and finance, have been central to all of the major challenges facing our societies. Indeed, given the current climate, the need for calm, considered, and, most importantly, informed, examination of these issues has never been greater.

That is why we at Palgrave Macmillan are proud to play a small part in that debate by seeking out the best new thinking by the finest minds in the area and bringing that work to the widest possible audience.

To select just a handful of highlights from the nearly 400 titles we’ve published in business, economics and finance in 2017 is not an easy task but let’s start with edited by Robert Skidelsky and Nico Fraccaroli, an up to the minute overview of one of the most topical debates of our times.  

In the year that saw the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences recognize Richard Thaler and the important contribution of behavioural economics, we’re very pleased to publish the work of Thaler’s oft time collaborator Cass Sunstein, .

As we approach next year’s tenth anniversary of the Lehman collapse it is worth spending some time unpicking what went wrong and how.  by Panicos Demetriades, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, offers a rare first-hand account of the euro crisis in Cyprus.

Britain’s Labour party leader has just told bankers that his party is “a threat” to them, but perhaps it is time to ask whether the greatest threat to the market economy comes not from the disenfranchised masses but from the privileged elite? The case is made by A. Cocksun Samli in .

Our business list also explores the interdisciplinary connections between our field and the Humanities and Social Sciences in works such as  by Theo Lieven, and in Karise Hutchinson’s , which examines the role of storytelling in leadership.

Our commitment to Open Access continues with a number of OA titles this year, including Prados de le Escosura’s , Øyvind Kvalnes’  and  by Dean A. Shepherd and Holger Patzelt.

We have also published some heavy hitting reference works this year, including Robert Cord’s two volume which features a stellar list of contributors including Nobel laureate Bob Solow (and keep an eye out for the next volume, on LSE, due in 2018), and  edited by David B. Szabla, William A. Pasmore, Mary A. Barnes, Asha N. Gipson.

Finally, we were extremely pleased to confirm the appointment of Matías Vernengo as Editor-in-Chief for a new fourth edition of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics to commence publication next year. All in all, an exciting and rewarding year.