In last Sunday’s New York Times, veteran Timesman Sam Roberts wrote a nice review of my new book, The Surprising Design of Market Economies, in his “Bookshelf” column in the Metropolitan Section. Here’s the link, but I’ll post the whole thing here, since it was short.

Bookshelf Column, Excerpt

By Sam Roberts

Feb 22, 2013

Despite its dry title, “The Surprising Design of Market Economies” (University of Texas Press, $25), by Alex Marshall, offers keen insights into urban planning, public works and even the history of New York’s onetime ambivalence toward a professional police force. Mr. Marshall is a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit planning agency for the New York City metropolitan area, and many of his arguments turn on hometown examples.

Mr. Marshall’s premise is that “free markets” are, in fact, elaborate systems created and shaped by regulation, laws, cultural mores and public infrastructure. His exploration of these systems brings him to his point: Government can do some things better than private enterprise when it has the will.

“If you look at the way society and our nation have progressed,” he writes, “a simple rule is that they have progressed by converting private responsibilities to public responsibilities.”