Search results for ""Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd""

It is hard to think of anyone who has contributed so much and so widely to research in international public finance in the last 40 years as has Richard Bird. This volume of essays emerged from a conference dedicated to him. It also expands on our understanding of international public finance.Richard Bird's academic and applied work has always benefited from a far-reaching involvement with, and knowledge of, relevant policy issues in many countries around the world. The range of public finance issues to which he has contributed over the years covers practically the whole gamut of the public finance discipline: tax policy, tax administration, the interdependency between the two, intergovernmental fiscal relations, public expenditure policy, and fiscal management processes. The topics covered in this book reflect the wide contributions of Richard Bird to the subject of international public finance, including original reviews of intergovernmental fiscal relations, fiscal policy, and tax evasion and tax administration, all with a special focus on transition and developing countries. These essays, by top scholars in their own right, will deepen our own understanding of relevant problems and issues in international public finance, much like Richard Bird has been doing for many years, and will be of interest to economists, policymakers and students.

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This outstanding collection charts the work of Jan Fagerberg on the relationship between technology, growth and international competitiveness. With an original introduction and a mix of previously published and unpublished material, the book covers all the main issues including: the technology gap and differences of growth and welfare; structural factors in the growth of exports and production, and the relationship between growth of GDP and trade performance. The final chapter presents a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and applied work on technology and competitiveness.

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This coherent collection of previously published and unpublished papers also includes a specially written introduction by Warren Samuels. The book examines some of the fundamental issues in political economy in a non-judgemental and non-ideological way. The political economy is a process of decision making and these papers attempt to identify the deepest levels of conduct of collective choice. These include official and private government, the 'rule of law', the nature of property, rules and markets, deliberative and non-deliberative choice, and the operation of selective perception and of intellectual fraud in politics. After an objective reading of these essays, no reader should look at government, globalization, rule of law, constitutions, and revolution in quite the same way.

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The purpose of this volume is to bring together the leading scholarly papers about how globalization has impacted the role of SMEs. In fact, globalization has affected SMEs in two major ways. The first has been to facilitate the transnational activities of SMEs. Transnational activities, ranging from exports to foreign direct investment to participating in global value chains have become easier as a result of globalization. The second impact of globalization has been to shift the source of competitiveness towards knowledge-based economic activity, which has led to an increased role for SMEs. The first section of this volume examines how globalization has affected the role of SMEs in the economy. The second section of the volume is devoted to global strategies by SMEs The third section focuses on an important type of global activity of SMEs, which involves foreign direct investment. The fourth section focuses on the role of clusters and networks in generating SME competitiveness in global markets. SME export strategies and performance is analyzed in Section Five. Section Six examines the impact that the international mobility of labour has had on SMEs. The seventh section focuses on the role that SMEs play in transnational technology transfer. Section Eight is devoted to SMEs in the context of developing countries. In the final section of the volume policy issues are raised. This includes identifying how policy needs to address barriers to internationalization confronting SMEs.

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This book looks at the economics of the evolving interface between the movement of people, goods and information (telecommunications). It illustrates the increasing importance of information flows in relation to how people move about, the ways that goods are transported and on land-use patterns. The authors show how the linkages involved are not static but vary as technology develops, as social priorities shift, and as policymakers adjust institutional structures. The situation is evolving but, nevertheless, from a public policy and a narrower commercial, business perspective, it is important to gain broad insights into what is occurring and the ways that telecommunications, transportation, and location interact. This is the focus of the book. Telecommunications, Transportation and Location contains both sytheses and interpretations of what others have found in regard to these interactions as well as new work that extends earlier findings. The material is presented in a rigorous yet accessible manner to open it to a wide audience of practitioners concerned with policy-making within various levels of government and within private business.Researchers and academics teaching courses including transportation planning, communications, regional science, urban and regional planning, urban and regional economics and transport economics will find much to engage them within this book. It will also be very useful to logistics professionals, and policymakers and practitioners involved in transportation planning.

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Top scholars in the field of international business (IB) contribute to this comprehensive analysis of the current state-of-the-art in IB research. The focus of the book is to examine the current state of international business research from an issue-oriented approach rather than the functional approaches that have been characteristic in the recent evolution of the field. In evaluating the current state and future research directions in research areas unique to international business, the book is structured in three parts: the macro-environment, interactions between business and institutions, and competition and strategy. The thirteen chapters in the book deal with specific topics (including regional integration, cultural and financial globalization, intellectual property protection, firm relations with various governments and multilateral agencies, business groups, international acquisitions and alliances, and the impact of the internet on international business) and provide descriptive and theoretical approaches to the understanding of contemporary and potential future issues in international business research. Scholars, students and policymakers interested in international business issues will find this collection a unique and useful tool in their work.

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This authoritative two-volume collection brings together the most important published papers on the economics of schooling and school quality, issues which are at the heart of current intellectual and policy debates. Volume I presents articles on labor markets, distribution, including the structure of wages and wage inequality and the effects of schooling on economic growth. Volume II includes papers on efficiency, competition and finance and policy.The mixture of classic papers and cutting edge research provides an invaluable reference source for both students, researchers and professionals.

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Global warming is widely considered to be one of the most serious environmental problems for current and future generations. Moreover, the apparent failure of the Kyoto Protocol to effect a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions has increased the importance of economic research into new ways to control global warming. In this exhaustive study, the authors break new ground by integrating cutting edge insights on global warming from three different perspectives: game theory, cost-effectiveness analysis and public choice. For each perspective the authors provide an overview of important results, discuss the theoretical consistency of the models and assumptions, highlight the practical problems which are not yet captured by theory and explore the different applications to the various problems encountered in global warming. They demonstrate how each perspective has its own merits and weaknesses, and advocate an integrated approach as the best way forward. They also propose a research agenda for the future which encompasses the three methods to create a powerful tool for the analysis and resolution of global pollution problems. Surveying a large amount of literature and providing plentiful examples of potential applications, this extensive book combines three branches of economic research on global warming into one accessible volume. It will be widely read by students and scholars in environmental courses, environmental and resource economists, and those working in governmental and non-governmental organisations concerned with international environmental problems.

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This innovative book uses mainstream theoretical analysis to explain the successes and failures of monetary reforms. Andreas Freytag argues that there is a systematic economic relationship between the success of a reform, the degree of monetary commitment and the institutional setting in a particular country. The book begins with a theoretical discussion of this relationship, and a formalisation of the theory of monetary reform. It goes on to offer an empirical assessment of the theory, using cross-section methods and case studies, before finally presenting economic policy options for countries facing monetary problems.Success and Failure in Monetary Reform will be of unique interest to economists and central banks. Scholars and students of monetary economics all over the world, in particular in developing countries, will also find this book invaluable.

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Anthony Ellison cuts through conventional neo-classical interpretations to expose the indispensable contribution of entrepreneurs in driving the market process and, in particular, in accomplishing the deregulation of the transportation, trade, telecommunications and financial regimes both in North America and across the globe. Entrepreneurs have an important role in any economy, but in this seminal study, the author argues that they have played a crucial part in shaping the contemporary global market. Entrepreneurs and the Transformation of the Global Economy situates the emergence of the contemporary global market economy within an historical context.The author reviews the rival interpretations of the global impacts of the surging market economy and is particularly critical of previous Marxist interpretations. His examination of the deregulation of the North American airline industry and the re-design of its organisational infrastructure serves to illustrate the potential of the neo-institutional approach in economic analysis and is intended to offer a more meaningful alternative.This book will be of interest to academics and researchers of public sector economics, globalisation and deregulation as well as transport economists.

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In this two-volume set the editors have brought together some of the most significant previously published papers by leading academics in this field. The Economics of Natural Hazards investigates the impact of natural disasters on national and regional economies. Volume I considers the effects both of the perception of risk and of direct losses and explores the costs of reducing the impact of disasters by, for example, forecasting, self-protection and the building of physical structures. Volume II deals with mitigating the costs of disaster through insurance, including financial coverage for catastrophic loss, and investigates the development of private-public partnerships for managing disasters and the problems of reconstruction and recovery. A final section addresses the particular problems of disasters in developing countries.

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The Distribution of Wealth is the first book to provide a comprehensive treatment of the personal distribution of wealth. Michael Schneider uses data from fifteen countries to demonstrate how inequality in the distribution of wealth both varies between different parts of the world and changes over time, before going on to discuss why the distribution of wealth is unequal, whether it should be unequal, and how it could be changed. The book focuses on: alternative ways of measuring the degree to which distribution is unequal assessment of the relative importance of the various determinants of the distribution of wealth comparison of the distributions implied by alternative views of society discussion of means by which the distribution of wealth could be altered, and of whether or not a redistribution in a less unequal direction would in time reduce the amount of wealth available to be distributed. This book will be valued and read with interest by economists, particularly those in the fields of welfare economics, distribution theory, heterodox economics and the history of economic thought, as well as sociologists, political scientists and philosophers.

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This fourth volume in the Studies of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in East Asia series focuses on regional and sectoral dimensions in a number of regional economies and economic sectors. The contributors place special emphasis on the importance of SME networking and clustering initiatives and activities. They argue that these initiatives support and nurture the global competitiveness of local SMEs in various economic sectors across the East Asian region. The book goes on to illustrate the increasing recognition that important local, regional and sectoral dimensions of SMEs, activities require their own specific micro policy measures. This is significant as the vitality of many local regional economies depends upon the activities of these local SMEs.The importance and inherent potential of SMEs as small but significant players in national economies and industries is increasingly recognised by policymakers and scholars around the world. Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in East Asia will therefore strongly appeal to both academics and practitioners involved with business and management, Asian studies, industrial organization and entrepreneurship.

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The Economics of Scientific Knowledge demonstrates how contemporary economic theories, such as rational choice theory, public choice theory, game theory, and neo-institutionalist economics can be successfully applied to resolve the issues currently existing in science studies and science and technology policy. Yanfei Shi criticizes the sociology of scientific knowledge and the traditional philosophy of science for their failures in justifying science as a rational enterprise. From an economic perspective, he explains why scientific enterprise as a public good is possible if individual scientists are self-interested and presents a new and convincing story of how scientific knowledge is produced in the contemporary society. With professional experience as a policy analyst, Yanfei Shi's economic perspective on scientists and their behaviors, and his institutional analysis will have great implications to the current discussions on science and innovation policy issues. Scholars and students in the fields of economics, philosophy and sociology as well as scientists, administrators and policy analysts will find this book a welcome addition to the literature of the increasingly important field of science studies.

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The economics of language remains neglected territory. Language makes information operational. As a social technology, it is a resource of the symbolic species - some argue it defines the human species. Language affects ability to find employment; cultural identity, effective communication in business, international trade, and tourism; negotiations and settlement procedures; political activity; and conflict within and between nations.Donald Lamberton, a leading scholar in the field, has selected key papers which address issues such as why some languages survive and others do not, the importance of language to the operation of a world-wide business, the problem of the language divide in economic development and the future of new language technologies such as telephone interpreting services, the internet and talking machines.This authoritative collection of papers contributes, in the words of Jacob Marschak, to 'the essential stuff of economics, in particular the economics of uncertainty that characterizes problems of human information, communication and organization'.

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This is an authoritative collection of previously published articles on important aspects of the 'automobile age'.The volume has been divided into five areas of interest. Part I focuses on supply side issues related to the car industry, technological change in the transport sector and future developments of automobile technology. Parts II, III and IV deal with the demand for automobile transport within the overall transport system. The final section deals with private and social costs, externalities such as accidents, congestion and pollution, and policy interventions.Rapidly growing car ownership has brought about a remarkable increase in mobility. The mobility and travel choices need to be analysed within complex networks. The strong mutual interactions between transport and spatial developments have led to an intense debate on 'car dependence' and related spatial systems analyses.This collection will be an invaluable source of reference to students, teachers and researchers in the field of transport studies and the history of the car industry.

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It is a well-known fact that conventional commercial banks provide financial intermediation services on the basis of interest rates on assets and liabilities. However, since interest is prohibited in Islam, Islamic banks have developed several other modes through which savings are mobilized and passed on to entrepreneurs, none of which involve interest.Islamic Banking and Finance discusses Islamic financial theory and practice, and focuses on the opportunities offered by Islamic finance as an alternative method of financial intermediation. Key features of profit-sharing (as opposed to debt-based) contracts are highlighted, and the ways in which they can facilitate improved efficiency and stability of a financial system are explored.The authors illustrate that in addition to some 200 Islamic banks operating in Muslim as well as non-Muslim countries, some of the biggest multinational banks are now offering Islamic financial products. This book will fascinate students, researchers and academics with a special interest in comparative banking, middle-eastern studies and international finance, and will also appeal to practitioners of banking and finance.

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The book analyses the evolution of research and innovation policies in the world's leading countries. The last decade has witnessed a radical transformation of the landscape shaped after World War II, as described in the seminal collection edited by Richard Nelson in the early 1990s. Even though national systems have inherited different institutional arrangements and trajectories, analyses show three major converging trends in their public policies. There has been a retraction from support to large firms and programmes and a shift toward small to medium enterprises and the innovation infrastructure; the focus on public research and training capabilities is growing; and there has been a redesign of public intervention with the growing role of regions and states on one hand and multinational authorities on the other, particularly in the European Union.The authors, all leading scholars in innovation research, provide thorough analytical descriptions of the national innovation system in their country and set that system in historical perspective. Each chapter is written so the reader can easily make comparisons between countries and regions. Six major issues are identified and addressed in each chapter: the dynamics of universities and their relations with the economy the evolving role of defence R&D and other large public programmes the growth of technology policies and the innovative capabilities of SMEs the changing rationale for government laboratories the growing role of regions in fostering innovation the capability of government to adapt to rapid changes in innovation systems. This essential book will be of interest to scholars and students of science, technology and innovation policy, management, institutional economics and managers of research and innovation policies at a national and local level.

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Greening the Budget regards the fundamental cause of environmental degradation as government and market failure and proposes the use of budgets as an instrument of environmental policy to rectify this problem. The book focuses on the elements of the public budget which currently affect the environment and explores the scope for greening both revenue and expenditure through specific measures. The authors begin by considering the effects of removing environmentally damaging subsidies and the potential for correcting market failure by way of appropriate pricing. They go on to examine the introduction of new taxes following the 'polluter pays' principle and, in contrast, the allocation of incentives for those who take the environmentally preferred course of action. They also explore the environmental and budgetary implications of European Union financial transfers by looking at a case study of the agricultural sector. The book concludes by addressing public purchasing and administration. This book will be of particular interest and value to scholars of environmental economics, researchers involved in environmental policy, and environmental consultants, practitioners and policymakers.

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The strategic value of human resource management (HRM) in successful, sustainable competitive advantage is fully acknowledged and yet, until now there has been little in the way of descriptive analytic profiles of countries and markets outside of the US and Europe. Together with Volume 1 this Handbook forms a complete codification of HRM policies and practices of all 21 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) member economies.This unique volume contains 11 profiles of Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Vietnam. The Handbook of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices in Asia-Pacific Economies, Volume 2 will be essential reading for lecturers, researchers, academics and managers concerned with human resource management, international business, management, and cross-cultural studies. The Handbook will also be of great interest to those involved in industrial and employment relations.

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It is becoming increasingly recognised that the way in which human resources are managed is a key source of sustainable competitive advantage for business. Nowhere, Michael Zanko argues, is this seen to be more relevant than in the Asia-Pacific region.The aim of the Handbook and its systematically codified economy human resource management (HRM) profiles is to improve knowledge and understanding of HRM policy and practices in the Asia-Pacific region. It serves as a practical guide to predominantly macro-level HRM policies and practices in ten APEC economies, covering Australia, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, People's Republic of China, Thailand and the United States of America.The Handbook of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices in Asia-Pacific Economies Volume I will be essential reading for lecturers, researchers, academics and managers concerned with human resource management, international business, management, and cross-cultural studies. The Handbook will also be of great interest to those involved in industrial and employment relations.

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The theme of this book is moral leadership in action as it manifests itself implicitly and explicitly in European business organizations. We understand leadership as interplay among people at all levels within organizations and also within the economic system by which people are bound together through particular forms of interaction. The contributions collected in this volume mirror the plurality of approaches we find in the theoretical writings of academics in different European countries. The additional business cases from six different nations show how leaders actually have adopted and integrated working with values in their own organizations, i.e. how they put moral leadership into action. While the selected papers are not meant to be representative of each country, particular economic and cultural traditions are apparent in both thinking and managing moral leadership. The contributors, by presenting this emerging multicultural pattern of Europe, contribute to a better and more knowledgeable understanding of how European business leaders pursue their goals.Managers, students and teachers in business, ethics and leadership studies will find this volume an indispensable guide to the unique contributions of European leadership scholars.

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Written by the scholar who, together with Chris Freeman, first introduced the concept of the innovation system, this book brings the literature an important step forward. Based upon extraordinarily rich empirical material, it shows how and why competence building and innovation are crucial for economic growth and competitiveness in the current era. It also provides a case study of a small, very successful European economy combining wealth creation with social cohesion. The author's comparative analysis of innovation systems demonstrates that the 'new economy' can thrive and grow not only in the US-type of economy but also in European economies which exhibit a high degree of social cohesion. He warns against the polarisation that may result from a development path where the success of individuals, organisations and national economies reflects their capability to adopt new competencies and skills. He argues that if this kind of learning economy is left unattended, it will eventually undermine the social cohesion that is essential for interactive learning processes. As such, he emphasises the need to develop coherent policy strategies at the regional, national and EU level in order to cope with the new challenges of the globalising learning economy.Innovation, Growth and Social Cohesion is a highly readable, non-technical book which illustrates the basic concepts with plentiful examples and a wide variety of empirical material. Students and scholars in the field of industrial dynamics and innovation research will find this an invaluable resource. It will also be of significant interest to policymakers looking for growth models compatible with social cohesion and those interested in understanding the dynamics of the new learning economy.

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Trust is an authoritative collection of previously published articles and is unique in the growing literature on trustworthiness. The broad ranging articles are organized into three parts, expressing three definite answers to the question posed in the introduction: Why does trustworthiness pay? Part I, 'Trust as Strategy', stipulates that trust is an investment in reputation. Part II, 'Trust as Taste', argues that agents have a preference for trustworthiness, which may explain the anomaly of trustworthiness in single-shot games. Part III, 'Trust as Trait', maintains that trust is a trait that evolutionary selection may favor. In his extensive introductory essay, Elias Khalil elaborates and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of each answer.Including over 35 articles from diverse disciplines such as economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, evolutionary biology, and organizational studies, Trust will be a valuable reference for many years to come.

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Price and Markup Behaviour in Manufacturing examines the role that cost, competing domestic and foreign prices, domestic demand and market structure play in determining the price and markup of manufacturing firms across a range of countries and industries. Michael Olive models imperfectly competitive behaviour at the firm level, establishing logical relationships between these variables. Aggregating these relationships gives predictions for price and markup at the industry level.Empirical analysis is carried out by estimating a pricing equation for 11 industrialised countries in Asia, Europe and North America, and for 24 International Standard Industrial Classification industries from 1970 to 1991. The results exhibit a pattern of incomplete pass-through from competing foreign price into industry price and markups that are not fixed. The author illustrates that for higher levels of industry concentration cost becomes less influential in determining industry price, while the opposite is true for competing domestic and foreign prices. This comprehensive and thorough examination of the literature on pricing, the innovative model development and the comparative analysis in this study will be of great interest to government policymakers and academics wanting to keep abreast of new developments in the area of pricing and markup.

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The market for residential solid waste management and disposal has experienced dramatic changes over the past 20 years. This collection of outstanding published research examines these changes and thoroughly analyzes the strategies popularized by municipal governments over the past two decades.Kerbside recycling, unheard of in the 1970s, is currently available to 46% of Americans. Thousands of towns across the nation have also implemented user fees requiring households to pay a fee for every bag of garbage they generate. These policy shifts have attracted the attention of environmental economists interested in knowing the best strategy for managing solid waste. The editors, both long-time scholars of these trends, offer theoretical solutions for the optimal pricing of garbage and recycling collection. They provide original data collection and suggest appropriate econometric techniques that correct for statistical biases. A policy focus provides information relevant to municipal governments as well as researchers.This excellent volume will be useful for policymakers, students and scholars in environmental economics.

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Following on from their previous book Economic Efficiency and Productivity Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, the authors in this volume analyse the economic performance of many of the major economies in the Asia-Pacific region including Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Japan. They examine economic and productivity growth, competitiveness and efficiency developments in the region. An introductory essay by the editors surveys recent economic developments in the region whilst introducing and cohesively integrating the chapters that follow. The studies employ a variety of modern analytical constructs and empirical techniques of open economy growth accounting as well as the measurement of productivity change, technical change and economic efficiency. A number of the chapters examine the entire region while others focus exclusively on a nation or industry. Several chapters study the causes and consequences of the financial crises in the region in 1997 from a recent historical perspective.This book will be of special interest to scholars of economic growth and its determinants as well as all those interested in Asian studies.

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Experience suggests that trade liberalization has contributed substantially to the remarkable growth of industrialised countries. However, for various reasons many developing countries have not yet been able to integrate successfully into global markets and reap the growth-inducing and poverty-reducing benefits of trade. This book argues that while developing countries are heavily represented in the WTO - accounting for about four-fifths of its membership - there is still plenty of scope for the world trading system to work more effectively in their interests.The book examines the achievements of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in reforming the world trading system and the challenges to future reforms. It begins with an overview of the genesis of the world trading system and moves on to examine the key issues as they relate to developing countries. These include further liberalization of agricultural trade; abolition of the Multifibre Arrangement; environmental and labour standards; competition policy; regional integration in South East Asia; and the implications for developing Asian countries of the liberalization of the Chinese economy and its WTO membership. Furthermore, the book discusses the links between trade liberalization and poverty reduction - drawing on the experience of Asian countries - and puts forward arguments on how trade liberalization could effect a greater reduction in poverty. This is a timely and succinct presentation of the critical issues relating to the world trading system in the context of developing countries in general, and Asia-Pacific countries in particular. It will interest and inform a wide readership including scholars and students of development and international economics, and practitioners and policymakers concerned with international trade issues and global trade relations.

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Veblen was an original thinker, responsible for introducing and popularising a host of important concepts and insights. He ignited controversy not only in economics, but also in sociology, history and political science. The number and quality of the responses to his work provide evidence of the novelty and explanatory power of his ideas. These comprehensive volumes will enable the reader to sample the broad spectrum of Veblen's thought and that of his critics and interpreters. They include critical appraisals of the corpus of his published work as well as reinterpretations of his life and influence on the social sciences particularly economics, political science and sociology.This authoritative collection includes reprints of materials previously published by leading scholars on nearly every aspect of Veblen's life and work. It will be invaluable to professional scholars and graduate students who wish to heighten their understanding of the alternatives to formalism in the social studies.

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Civil Service Systems in Anglo-American Countries presents a comprehensive overview of the important issues in modern bureaucracies, combined with a comparative analysis of the civil service systems and administrative traditions of five Anglo-American nations: Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States.In each chapter, expert contributors undertake a systematic analysis of each country's civil service from three broad perspectives: external relations, internal constituent features and patterns of change. By employing a comparative framework in conjunction with empirical research, they are able to emphasise the specific nature, characteristics and development of each civil service system. They also highlight the historical developments and reforms associated with the Anglo-American model, which are often highly distinctive compared with other OECD nations. The book concludes with a systematic comparison of each civil service system, attempting to find parallels and variations between them.Scholars and students of public administration, political science and international affairs will value this unique comparative study of the civil service traditions of Anglo-American countries.

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Knowledge is fast becoming one of the main sources of wealth, yet it can also become a source of inequalities. The New Knowledge Economy in Europe attempts to determine whether it is possible to hasten the transition towards a knowledge-based economy and enhance competitiveness with increased employment and improved social cohesion across Europe.The book is an amalgamation of the scientific and political agendas which led to the European strategy for the knowledge-based economy adopted by the European Union. Its authors illustrate their own influence on European policy making with contributions on a broad range of subjects, including: the potential for the growth of a knowledge-based global economy new challenges for the welfare state emerging trends in employment the role of international benchmarking as a policy learning tool the construction of European identity the building of multilevel governance required to undertake reforms. The results of the European strategy for the knowledge economy have become apparent throughout the EU in policy areas including research, innovation, single markets, education and employment, amongst others. This is the new blueprint for economic and social modernisation in the EU.The New Knowledge Economy in Europe will be of great interest to academics, managers, public administrators and professional organisations involved in studies of Europe or innovation.

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The prospective WTO Millennium Round of negotiations will highlight critical economic issues regarding the application and implementation of the WTO rules to international trade in goods and services. In this book, a distinguished group of academic experts considers the agenda and areas of interest for the next Round in light of Seattle, the functions of the WTO and competition policy issues arising from trade liberalization. This is followed by a focus on a wide range of WTO-specific economic issues and debates, including: state trading and state aids regional integration agriculture, including the EU-US banana dispute international investment patents financial services. Trade Liberalization, Competition and the WTO will be of interest to academics and policymakers as well as students of international economics and global trade reform.

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In Human Nature and Organization Theory, Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto challenges the conventional wisdom that (organizational) economics is an amoral and empirically incorrect science. He treads new ground regarding the behavioural portrayal of human nature in organization theory. The book focuses on the works of Taylor, Simon and Williamson, reconstructing methods and variables of their organization theories in non-behavioural, institutional economic terms. Implications for institutional economic theory building and practical intervention are outlined. The book suggests that the image of human nature in organizational economics has to be deduced from theoretical and practical outcomes of economic analysis rather than from methods of economic analysis. If this is considered, organizational economics can make considerable moral claims, since it can generate socially desirable interaction outcomes even in the face of pluralism.This volume will appeal to a wide cross-section of organizational researchers, and also deserves to be widely read by economists, business ethics researchers and business historians.

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James Tobin was America's most distinguished Keynesian economist, whose path-breaking theoretical work has demonstrated that Keynes's original theories can be adapted to deal with modern macroeconomic problems. This significant volume presents a selection of those papers which in Professor Tobin's opinion have made a significant contribution to the developments of Keynesian economics in the twentieth century.

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Travel Behaviour is a challenging and original volume, adding to the growing literature focusing on understanding transportation systems. The book capitalises on actual scientific and applied developments in Europe, the importance of EC policies and the resultant trend in studying differences between North American and European research.The authors present non-traditional approaches to four pertinent topics in the field of travel behaviour: mobility and travel, telecommunication and travel, traffic congestion and modelling travel behavioural responses. In contrast to many orthodox studies that propose congestion relief solutions, Travel Behaviour suggests that a certain amount of congestion is good for transportation systems.This unique volume is aimed at a wide variety of complementary disciplines from transportation professionals, to policymakers, transport economists, urban and regional planners, geographers and behavioural scientists.

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Economics is the study of a complex system in which simple laws are not always forthcoming. That complexity mandates three branches of the profession: positive, normative and the art of economics. The economics profession has focused on one of these - positive economics, and in doing so has lost the art of economics. In a series of provocative essays the author argues that most of what economists do is applied policy, which belongs in the art of economics, not in normative or positive economics. The essays explore the forces in academic institutions that have led economics to its current position, as well as the implications of the lost art for the economics profession and its future. In the end, the author is positive about the future of the profession, and predicts that in 2050 it will no longer be as Solow suggested it currently is - 'the overeducated in pursuit of the unknowable'. Instead it will be the 'appropriately educated in search of the knowable'.The essays are written in a highly accessible style, and can be enjoyed by most non-economists, as well as by those economists who don't take themselves too seriously. It can be usefully read by all economists, even those who do take themselves too seriously.

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This outstanding book presents new original contributions from some of the world's leading economists including Ronald Coase, Douglass C. North, Masahiko Aoki, Oliver E. Williamson and Harold Demsetz. It demonstrates the extent and depth of the New Institutional Economics research programme which is having a worldwide impact on the economics profession.The book lays out the fundamental dimensions of the research programme with special emphasis on the interaction between institutional factors, both formal and informal, and the performance of different arrangements that organize transactions. After examining the foundations of New Institutional Economics and honouring Ronald Coase's contribution to the field, it presents controversial and conflicting views on the sources of growth. It places special emphasis on organizations and transactions, focusing on issues of trust, corruption, enforcement of contracts and modes of organization. Written by an eminent group of scholars, Institutions, Contracts and Organizations is an important landmark in the development of New Institutional Economics.

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The institutional economy is the economy of rules and laws, conventions and precedents. It is prices but also practices, change but also constancy, individual but also interdependence. David Reisman argues that conformity and repetition as well as new initiatives and mould-breaking departures constitute the essence of supply and demand. This thorough and comprehensive book examines the role that institutions play in economic life. The discussion begins with common values, shared traditions and individual habits which have their roots in the past. It goes on to consider consumer preferences, needs and wants, altruism, malevolence, intrinsic motivation, organisational memory and the social capital that is embedded in networks and communities. Its conclusion is that there is a case for a broadly-based economics which is a science of norms and standards as well as a theory of prices and costs. Culture is continuity and pattern. Precisely the same is true of supply and demand.The Institutional Economy deals with a topic that is of increasing importance in social economics and political economy. It will be of interest to all social scientists concerned to make demand and supply more relevant to the economic conditions of the present day.

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This book argues that the Internet revolution should exert a far more significant influence on economic thinking and on the perception of law. The authors acknowledge that the economic analysis of law provides a potentially powerful framework for evaluating regulatory approaches to the Internet. However, they question the capacity of traditional law and economics models to define the scope of legal intervention, both in cyberspace and in other more traditional markets which have also been influenced by the recent technological revolution.The book examines the conventional application of law and economics, and contends that the new reality of cyberspace transforms the basic theoretical tenets of this approach and requires fresh conceptual thinking. It challenges fundamental concepts such as the notion of work as linked to the workplace, the notion of community as linked to geographical space, the sources of law and their traditional connection with the state, the belief that proxies and representatives are indispensable for collective action and public decision-making processes, and the role of technology and its relationship with the law. It covers the analysis of both economic and non-economic markets, and includes a thorough examination of legislation, case law and the academic literature relating to cyberspace. The authors conclude that there is pressing need for re-evaluating the analytical tools used to study the information environment, and propose an innovative approach for the role of technology within the law and economics framework.This book represents a groundbreaking attempt to critically analyze the suitability of traditional law and economics for the new digital environment. Scholars and students working in the field of law and economics, and lawyers interested in technology, intellectual property, cyberlaw and governance will find this a stimulating and thought-provoking volume.

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While characteristically 'Austrian' themes such as entrepreneurship, economic calculation, tacit knowledge and the temporal structure of capital are clearly relevant to the business firm, Austrian economists have said relatively little about management, organization, and strategy. This innovative book features 12 chapters that all seek to advance the understanding of these issues by drawing on Austrian ideas. Building on existing research in transaction cost economics, agency theory, evolutionary economics and the resource-based theory of the firm, the authors cover a wide range of theoretical and applied topics. These include knowledge management, authority and hierarchy, modularity, corporate restructuring, telecommunications regulation and competitive advantage. They clearly show how Austrian ideas can usefully engage, challenge and extend more mainstream perspectives on economic organization. There are many books on Austrian economics and many more on the theory of the firm, but virtually none that integrate these two bodies of literature. Scholars of Austrian economics and academics interested in strategy, organization and the theory of the firm will draw great value from this insightful book.

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It is a widely held belief that the Polish experience of system transformation following the final collapse of 'real socialism' in 1989 is one of the 'best'. Poland into the New Millennium surveys the country's post-communist transformation as it prepares for the challenges of the early years of the new century.The contributors describe key aspects of system transformation in order to promote better understanding of the nature of the processes introduced to the economy and society since 1989. The book seeks to illustrate what has been achieved - and what has not - and tentatively explores likely future developments in relation to the problems that may lie ahead.Entry into the European Union figures as a major issue, but the volume contains sometimes controversial and divergent interpretations of the underlying dynamic shaping Polish society in the new millennium.This comprehensive and multidisciplinary book will be invaluable to researchers, lecturers and students concerned with post-communist transformation across the social sciences and will be of great importance to members of international organisations, consultancies, and financial institutions with a particular interest in Poland.

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This authoritative book analyses the recent problems associated with the UK's monetary system and suggests a long-term solution to control bank lending in the future. It draws on extensive historical material, discussions with former senior officials and politicians, and the perceptive insights of Gordon Pepper, an advisor to Margaret Thatcher when the foundations of monetary control were being laid, to revisit and re-examine the monetarist experiment of the 1980s.The authors argue that, in spite of the instinct of the Prime Minister, the authorities never attempted to control the supply of money in the 1980s and only paid lip service to controlling the demand for money. Extraordinary behaviour of bank lending was a significant cause of the Barber boom in the mid-1970s, of the Lawson boom of the 1980s and of the depth of the recession in the early 1990s. They assert that varying interest rates is an ineffective tool to manage lending and controversially propose that the only enduring solution is to control the banks' reserves. The authors forcefully argue that should the UK not become a member of the European Single Currency the debate surrounding monetary base control will need to be reopened.By reassessing a significant era in British economic policy and suggesting a strategy for the future, this book will be of great interest to economic historians, monetary and political economists, policymakers and investment advisers.

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A unique and comprehensive source of information, this book is the only international publication providing economists, planners, policymakers and business people with worldwide statistics on current performance and trends in the manufacturing sector.The Yearbook is designed to facilitate international comparisons relating to manufacturing activity and industrial development and performance. It provides data which can be used to analyse patterns of growth and related long term trends, structural change and industrial performance in individual industries. Statistics on employment patterns, wages, consumption and gross output and other key indicators are also presented.

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The implementation of a democratic order embedded in a market economy environment has proved immensely difficult. Furthermore, this process is subject to tremendous variety within Central and Eastern Europe. Ten years after the collapse of communism it was apparent that only Poland and Slovenia surpassed their 1989 levels of GDP. This book scrutinises the arrangements to enforce good governance in this area both by means of external help and domestic political leadership.From the popular assumption that transformation is a collective good, it follows that the problem of free-riding has to be faced. Consequently there is a danger that transformation may never be completed. This book empirically tests the relationship between economic performance and good governance focusing upon voluntary coercion as a means to prevent free-riding behaviour. The author examines the role of international organisations and discusses elite formation as an important element of good governance - something often ignored in the economic analysis of economic performance.Scholars and researchers of political and economic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe as well as those from the fields of political economy, international relations and political science will find this book enlightening.

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Commenting on the quality of the contributors when opening the conference on which these books are based, the former Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Edward George, said ”I cannot remember ever before having had such a galaxy of academic economist and central banking superstars gathered together under one roof!”'Celebrating the contribution that Charles Goodhart has made to monetary economics and policy, this unique compendium of original papers draws together a highly respected group of international academics, central bankers and financial market regulators covering a broad range of issues in modern monetary economics. Topics discussed include: central bank independence credibility and transparency the inflation forecast and the loss function monetary policy experiences in the US and the UK the implications of Goodhart's Law the benefits of single versus multiple currencies money, near monies and credit. Each chapter of the volume relates to subjects that have been research projects in Charles Goodhart's wide-ranging portfolio, and all are interconnected. Through these, the book offers a summary of current thinking and insights into monetary controversies.Covering recent thinking on monetary theory, central banking, financial regulation and international finance, academic and professional economists alike will find this book an invaluable source of information.The companion volume examines monetary history, exchange rates and financial markets.

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With air transport becoming an increasingly vital part of the economy, the regulatory reform of this market has been a major development in European political economy. This book focuses on two market failures within the airline industry - market power and environmental externalities - and analyses how they have been affected by deregulation. The author employs economic models complemented by extensive empirical research, to demonstrate how the introduction of competition, brought about by liberalization, has resulted in considerable consumer benefits. The author argues that these benefits, such as increased choice through the expansion of operations, must be off set against increased environmental costs including greater noise pollution and emissions, not to mention the reduction of profits that often accompany market liberalization. In the process the book tackles a number of important issues including the background and history of airline regulation in the EU, the basic policy trade-off between monopoly power and external costs, monetary valuation of externalities, and the relationship between airline scheduling and external costs. Perhaps surprisingly, the author concludes that even in the presence of environmental costs, the introduction of competition in airline markets has resulted in net welfare improvements. Policymakers, as well as practitioners and researchers of environmental and transport economics, should draw great value from this original and pertinent volume.

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Korea has been at the centre of intense debate concerning the role of government in economic development. Taking an in-depth approach, this book analyses the path of Korea's industrial technology development. In contrast to many previous studies on Korea, the author argues that the role of foreign multinational enterprises has been significant while the government's was surprisingly limited in scope. The author addresses three main questions: How was Korea able to develop so effectively despite the low inflow of foreign technologies and capital? What is the role of multinational enterprises in 'teaching' technology to the firms from developing countries? What has been the influence of public policy on Korea's technology development? The author demonstrates that the key to the Korean electronics industry's spectacular growth has been through its participation in and learning from an inter-firm arrangement called 'original equipment manufacturing' (OEM) arrangement, and a number of firm-level case studies support this argument. This book will be of special interest to scholars of industrial and development economics, innovation and Asian studies. It will also be of use to policymakers responsible for industrial policy development.

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The design of an electoral system is fundamental to any democracy. It is through electoral systems that the commitment of a society to a political system is achieved. The peculiarities of an electoral system assume significant importance in periods in which democratic polities seem caught between a crisis of confidence in their representative systems and mass apathy over the product of government - as has recently occurred in Italy.Electoral rules constrain available choice alternatives and therefore have profound effects on governance of a country since different electoral rules generate different outcome patterns even with no change in the identity of candidates. The two most common electoral schemes are proportional representation and plurality. The theoretical debate concerning these two systems is of intense interest not least because of the importance of finding a stable, democratic and representative institutional structure that can be employed worldwide. This topical book analyses the change of electoral rules in Italy from proportional representation toward plurality. While Italy is used as the illustrative case, the analysis has far-ranging theoretical and practical implications, and will therefore be of interest to academics and researchers of political economy, constitutionalism and public choice.

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