Search results for ""edward elgar publishing ltd""

This thorough reconstruction of microeconomics 'post-2008' provides economic students with a new way of real-world understanding and strategic qualification that will be better appreciated by their future employers and any professional practice. It will prove essential for economic students and other social science programs at a graduate level. This accessible and engaging textbook includes: A survey of the most famous core models of modern microeconomics including the neoclassical approach and its heterodox critiques - Sraffian, Institutionalist, Post-Keynesian and Mirowskian An introduction to complexity thinking in economics An introduction to game theory An introduction to the methods of complex computer simulation An introduction to strategic behavior An newly integrated approach to real-world and complexity economics, rather than focusing on neoclassical ('perfect') market equilibrium 'plus a thousand recent extra things on top'. See the companion website - www (dot) microeconomics (dot) us - for teaching material, readings, exams and as a general guide to explore issues raised in the book.

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Almost all developing countries have implemented major economic reforms over the past two decades, but there is no consensus either on how this impacts on manufacturing or on how policy could be adapted to support manufacturing. On the one hand there is a widely held view that protectionism is dead and trade liberalisation is the only direction. On the other hand there is an increasing perception that governments have a role in supporting manufacturing.This book considers the impact of economic reforms on manufacturing performance and explores policy options for promoting manufacturing. Using country-specific case studies spanning Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and Latin America, the authors examine the evidence for and against both trade liberalisation and government support policy.Economic Policy and Manufacturing Performance in Developing Countries will prove an invaluable source of reference to all scholars of development economics and trade policy.

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In the 1990s, institutional and evolutionary economics emerged as one of the most creative and successful approaches in the modern social sciences. This timely reader gathers together seminal contributions from leading international authors in the field of institutional and evolutionary economics including Eileen Appelbaum, Benjamin Coriat, Giovanni Dosi, Sheila C. Dow, Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Uskali Maki, Bart Nooteboom and Marc R. Tool. The emphasis is on key concepts such as learning, trust, power, pricing and markets, with some essays devoted to methodology and others to the comparison of different forms of capitalism. An extensive introduction places the contributions in the context of the historical and theoretical background of recent developments in economics and the social sciences.Essential reading for lecturers, researchers, graduates and advanced undergraduates in economics, business studies and sociology, this diverse yet complementary collection of essays will also find a broad readership amongst those wanting to understand the manifest changes apparent within modern socio-economic systems.

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The twin benefits of improving environmental quality and reducing tax distortions through the recycling of environmental tax proceeds prove an attractive policy objective. This book analyses the use of the double dividend concepts for evaluating ecological tax reforms.The author aims to analyse unilateral environmental policy measures thoroughly and to assess under which conditions a double dividend can be achieved. The analysis is undertaken in the context of international capital mobility and cross-border externalities. He also includes a discussion of an empirically relevant example for an ecological tax reform scenario in Germany - the DIW proposal.International Environmental Externalities and the Double Dividend will be of great interest to all researchers and those working in NGOs in the areas of environmental economics, ecological tax reform issues as well as trade and the environment.

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This significant book presents an original examination of the theoretical and empirical interactions between globalization, technology and poverty. Jeffrey James studies the effect of information technology on patterns of globalization and explores how such patterns can be altered to reduce the growing global divide between rich and poor nations.The author first illustrates how the impact of information technology on globalization can be conceptualized in terms of transactions costs, product proliferation and mechanisms of cumulative causation. He finds that globalization tends to benefit a relatively small group of rich individuals, firms and countries. Consequently he suggests policy measures through which information technology can be used to lessen, rather than exacerbate, the digital divide. He goes on to argue that even if the proposed measures are reasonably successful, considerable attention will still need to be paid to conventional technologies and, in particular, to the promotion of technologies that will benefit the poorest groups in the developing nations. Finally, the author looks in detail at technology policy in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which has profited least from the benefits provided by new technologies such as email and the internet.Technology, Globalization and Poverty will be essential reading for academics interested in technological change, economic development, and the relationship between the two. Policymakers in both developed and developing countries will also draw great value from this work.

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The interplay between demand from the market, the role of users in shaping that demand, and the way in which these factors influence the innovation process has always been a complex one. This forward thinking book examines this interplay from a technological change perspective.The contributors explore the potential for rapprochement between economics, sociological and other social science disciplines in considering the allocation of resources and the making of decisions about technological change. The papers within this book represent a judicious blend of theory and empirical research and look at a broad range of innovations, markets and technologies in medicine, agricultural and food production, services and IT. Technology and the Market raises the question of the many 'visible hands' that are involved in linking technology and the market together.This book is recommended to academics and policymakers interested in demand-innovation interaction, scholars of industrial economics and the sociology of technology as well as entrepreneurs.Understanding user needs is now seen as one of the most important factors in the success of innovation and one of the raisons d'être of market research. This book attempts to move the boundaries to show the importance of how demand is detected or constructed by innovators.

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The ozone layer is threatened by chemical emissions, the climate is endangered from fossil fuels and deforestation, and global biodiversity is being lost by reason of thousands of years of habitat conversions. Global environmental problems arise out of the accumulated impacts from many years' and many countries' economic development. In order to address these problems the states of the world must cooperate to manage their development processes together - this is what international environmental agreements are designed to do. But can the world's countries cooperate successfully to manage global development? How should they manage it? Who should pay for the process, as well as for the underlying problems? This book presents an examination of both the problems and the processes underlying international environmental lawmaking: the recognition of international interdependence, the negotiation of international agreements and the evolution of international resource management. It examines the general problem of global resource management by means of general principles and case studies and by looking at how and why specific negotiations and agreements have failed to achieve their targets. The book, commissioned by UNCTAD to assist policymakers, especially in developing countries. It will also be of interest to practitioners in the areas of environmental economics and law and to scholars studying global environmental policy making and institution building.

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Deforestation and agricultural land degradation are major problems in developing countries. While they have attracted much attention, most analyses and policy recommendations examine them in isolation from their broader economic and policy setting. This path breaking and timely book takes an economy-wide approach to the analysis of developing-country resource degradation problems. The Open Economy and the Environment asks what globalization means for environmental quality and the use of natural resources in developing economies. The authors develop theoretical models that trace the effects of trade and trade liberalization on sectoral resource allocation, factor returns, income and welfare, as well as incentives to clear forest and degrade agricultural land. The models reflect important developing economy features including spatial distinctions between uplands and lowlands, open-access forest resources and the special features of domestic food markets. The authors also analyze representative economy submodels, explore empirical cases based on applied general equilibrium models of Asian economies, and examine welfare and environmental implications of migration, trade liberalization and development policy.Researchers and graduate educators in agricultural, development, environmental and international economics, will find the core subject matter of this book of great interest, as will economists specializing in Asian economies.

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The debate on the valuation of nature and the environment, sustainable national income and economic growth is one of prime importance in environmental economics. Economic Growth and Valuation of the Environment deals with the fundamental approaches to calculating sustainable national income and their implications for the valuation of the environment. Leading economists present their views on how the UN system of national accounts could be adjusted to include environmental impacts and the depletion of natural resources. The discussion centres on the appropriateness of national income as an indicator for welfare, and specific attention is paid to the question of how to value changes in environmental quality or emissions of pollutants.Centred around the topics raised by the seminal publications of Roefie Hueting, this book will be of great interest to environmental economists and students focusing on environmental and natural resource economics. Environmental policymakers will welcome the lively and up-to-date discussion of a range of policy issues.

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The Political Economy of Monetary Union presents an important collection of the most influential articles covering different areas in this expanding field.The volume brings together both the classical articles which have laid the foundations for the theory of optimum currency and the resulting empirical literature. Further papers focus on the issues of fiscal policy, the design and operation of the central bank in a monetary union and the problems of transition to monetary union.This authoritative volume is essential reading for all scholars, students and practitioners interested in the issues relating to economic and monetary unification.

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Which kinds of growth lead to increased employment and which do not? This is one of the questions that this important volume attempts to answer. The book explores the complex relationships between innovation, growth and employment that are vital for both research into, and policy for, the creation of jobs.Politicians claiming that more rapid growth would remedy unemployment do not usually specify what kind of growth is meant. Is it, for example, economic (GDP) or productivity growth? Growing concern over 'jobless growth' requires both policymakers and researchers to make such distinctions, and to clarify their employment implications.The authors initially address their theoretical approach to, and conceptualization of, innovation and employment, where the distinction between process and product innovations and between high-tech and low-tech goods and services are central. They go on to address the relationship between innovation and employment, using empirical material to analyse the effects that different kinds of innovations have upon job creation and destruction. Finally, the volume summarizes the findings and addresses conclusions as well as policy implications.This book will be of great interest to those involved in research and policy in the fields of macroeconomics (economic growth and employment), industrial economics and innovation.

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This book presents an authoritative collection of the most important papers previously published by leading scholars in the field of trade policy and its reform.Included are sections on early contributions to the theory of reform, world welfare and trade reform, and reform with quotas and tariffs.

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This outstanding collection spanning three decades comprises a superb selection of Charles R. Plott's work in experimental economics. Market Institutions and Price Discovery contains papers which define problems, create laboratory methodology and produce the first results in many areas of experimental economics.Primarily, the volume attempts to explain what is learned from applications of experimental methods, using examples taken from the first stages of the early experimental literature. It goes on to include the first applications of newly developed laboratory methods to matters of national policy, and progresses to examine institutions such as the posted price and to other more complex institutions including opportunities for conspiracy.The focus then shifts to explore the process through which markets find a price, and then discusses the double auction which has enabled experiments to be used to study more complex environments than the single market experiments that existed formerly. The principles of stability are then used in an attempt to learn more about the dynamics of how markets adjust.This pathbreaking volume will be of enormous interest to academics, scholars and researchers involved in experimental economics, the methodology of economics, political theory, and political economy.

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There has been an explosion in the literature and research on environmental and resource economics in recent years. This major annual publication provides a cutting-edge survey of current research by the leading experts in the field. The latest Yearbook includes contributions on: economics and the land use-environment link issues in the economics of water use the economics of residential solid waste management population and the environment subsidiarity, federalism and the environment transboundary pollution and international cooperation environmental valuation and standard economic theory.

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The last twenty years have witnessed a tremendous increase in industrial collaboration in research and development (R&D) both in Europe and the world at large. Firms have increasingly opted for collaboration in an effort to deal with the uncertainties that stem from rising research costs, rapid technological change and the development of a network economy. Governments have been quick to support this trend in order to promote competitiveness and, in the European context, to foster cohesion. The contributions collected in this volume focus explicitly on cooperative R&D in Europe. The first part of the book offers empirical evidence on the extent, scope and direction of this collaboration and explores the motives and problems of the participating firms, as well as the perceived benefits they have enjoyed. The second part deals with the difficult policy issues that diverse national R&D regimes create for successful cooperative research and international convergence. The extensive survey results of European firms allow the authors to compare collaborative research policies in various EU countries and contrast the policy design that has emerged in the EU with that of the USA.This book offers the most comprehensive account of collaborative industrial research in Europe and explores both the business strategies that have motivated it and the public policies that have promoted it. Academics, graduate students, government agencies and European institutions involved in science and technology policy and R&D management will find this volume to be invaluable. It will also be of great practical use to companies interested in forming strategic technical alliances.

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Firm Size, Innovation and Market Structure uses evolutionary dynamic theory, non-linear mathematics and computer simulation techniques to explore the relationship between firm size, innovation and market structure.The book begins by reviewing the connection between these variables from a theoretical and an empirical point of view, and goes on to illustrate how analytical tools may be used in order to explore Schumpeterian propositions regarding firm size, innovation and the specific role of idiosyncratic events.In the concluding chapter, Mariana Mazzucato focuses on the US automobile industry from 1900-1997, and uses empirical evidence in order to determine whether or not there is a relationship between market share instability and stock price volatility, and to what degree the relationship is connected to industry specific factors.This innovative new book will prove invaluable to researchers, lecturers and scholars of industrial organisation, technology and market structure.

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The economic and social impact of international education is substantial with many educational institutions now dependent on the recruitment of overseas students for their survival. The authors of The Global Market for Higher Education discuss this industry from a strategic and services marketing perspective and suggest a model to explain how to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage. The book draws on more than ten years of research with students and educational institutions in a number of countries, using both secondary and primary data to develop the model. The results presented suggest that an institution's internal resources are key determinants of its appropriate strategy. The authors also suggest that decision makers and education marketers take account of the appropriate market literature when developing international plans and considering new international markets.This book will prove a valuable contribution to the literature and resources for academics and students, university and college administrators, government officials and policy makers focused on higher education as well as recruitment and marketing offices of higher education institutions themselves.

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With increasing interest in the distribution of income generated by movements towards more inequality, this three-volume set presents an essential collection of previously published articles by leading scholars, which provide a key to understanding this important and controversial area. Volume I considers the problems of measurement and description and explores theories explaining the shape of distribution; it investigates explanations of the upper tail in terms of hierarchies and organisations and presents research on the dynamics of incomes. Volume II considers the determinants of an individual?s income on the one hand and analyses the factors influencing the entire distribution on the other. Non-labour income and policies that influence distribution are discussed in volume III.This collection will be of great interest to economists, statisticians and policymakers concerned with understanding the complex determinants of income distribution and inequality in our societies.

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The 1997 financial and economic crisis in East Asia provided the catalyst for an important reappraisal of the Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) sector across the region. In this timely book, a distinguished group of contributors discusses the role of SMEs in the globalisation of the East Asian economies, and assess how the financial crisis has impacted on them. They focus on a number of key aspects of SMEs in the region, including: financing issues the role of entrepreneurship the diffusion of technology in the region Chinese small businesses SME requirements for information technology the opportunities afforded by electronic commerce regional labour markets and their impact on SMEs. Globalisation and SMEs in East Asia will appeal to academics and researchers of Asian economies and studies, globalisation and those interested in industrial organisation.

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Analysing how price expectations are formed is essential since the dynamics of market prices are mainly driven by the agent's belief concerning the future values of prices and by the uncertainty characterising these values. This is a difficult task as prices are highly volatile in most markets and expectational behaviour is heterogeneous and unstable. This volume discusses the concept of rationality of expectations from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view, and on individual and collective levels. Concerning the first aspect, the book focuses on how agents collect and process information and how market opinion is formed. Concerning the second aspect, the book presents studies based on individual price expectations and on the 'consensus' revealed by survey data. To appreciate the degree of generality of expectational behaviour, the contributors analyse price expectations in a variety of markets, periods and countries. Great attention is paid to financial markets which have represented the main field of analysis of expectations over the last ten years. Four main lessons stem from the works presented in this book. First, if the REH in the muthian sense seems now invalidated, this result does not mean that there is not rationality in price expectations: on the one hand, expectations may be economically rational in the sense of the advantage-cost analysis, and, on the other hand, the exchange of information between agents through the market may involve some mimetic rationalities. Second, it appears important to take into account the individual nature of expectations both at the theoretical and empirical levels: generally, the heterogeneity is not neutral in reaching an economic equilibrium or in estimating expectational processes. Third, expectational behaviour change over time: both the processes and the parameters which intervene in these processes are time-varying, especially according to the volatility of the variables. Fourth, a combination of these three basic processes appears to be successful in explaining the dynamics of expectations, although the expectational process is rather extrapolative (destabilising) when the horizon is short and rather regressive and adaptive (stabilising) when the horizon is long.

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Dr Harryson develops the principle of 'know-who' - first propounded and practised by Japanese companies but now increasingly championed by multinationals. Case studies are used from companies such as Kodak, Ericsson, IBM and Philips to highlight the networking patterns deployed by these companies and to ultimately confirm or deny the relevance of 'know-who' management. The book explains why, in a world where knowledge and intellectual value is widely acknowledged as crucial, companies can achieve both innovativeness and productivity through 'know-who'. By enhancing our understanding of 'know-who' based management of knowledge and innovation, the author suggests new approaches to dealing with the knowledge economy and to solving the paradoxical organizational needs of creative invention and rapid innovation. This approach is based on new networking patterns and new ways of using the results of extra-corporate networking such as: gathering global market intelligence in cooperation with R&D staff internal networks promoting the diffusion of external and internal knowledge aligning R&D staff with marketing and production by internal 'know-who' mechanisms Written by a leading management consultant, the theories discussed will be essential reading for business managers, international scholars and researchers of R&D, innovation and the knowledge economy.

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Choice Modelling is a technique that has recently emerged as a means of estimating the demand for environmental goods and the benefits and costs associated with them. The aims of the book are fourfold: to introduce the technique in the environmental context to demonstrate its use in a range of case studies to provide insights into some methodological issues to explore the prospects for the technique. The authors contributing to the book show that choice modelling offers considerable potential for the evaluation of environmental goods and services. Its flexibility to cope with a wide range of applications is well demonstrated. The technique also presents numerous challenges to practitioners. A number of these are addressed in the book.Informed and innovative, this book will prove indispensable to all scholars, researchers and practitioners in the areas of environmental studies and environmental economics.

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Given the increase in large scale mergers throughout the world, this book addresses the growing problem of restricted competition through collusion and the perennial debate surrounding the use of government subsidies for industries to further national interests.The aims of the book are threefold; firstly, to elucidate the antecedents of competition policy in the US and Europe and to demonstrate how far a convergence of principles has developed. Secondly, to outline the theory of industrial organisation as a major tool to devise an appropriate policy, and thirdly, to discuss the practice of competition policy in the US, individual European countries and the EC as a whole, in terms of collusion, mergers and vertical restraints. Manfred Neumann comprehensively explores the economic arguments that justify the need for competition policy. He considers the historical development of competition policy and the relationship between competition policy and the objectives of governmental policy as a whole. In conclusion, he argues that competition policy should be regarded as a constituent part of economic and social policy.This enlightening and comprehensive book will be of great value to students, researchers and practitioners of law, corporate strategy and industrial and political economics.

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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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In this path-breaking book, Richard Zerbe introduces a new way to think about the concept of economic efficiency that is both consistent with its historical derivation and more useful than concepts currently used. He establishes an expanded version of Kaldor-Hicks efficiency as an axiomatic system that performs the following tasks: the new approach obviates certain technical and ethical criticisms that have been made of economic efficiency; it answers critics of efficiency; it allows an expanded range for efficiency analysis; it establishes the conditions under which economists can reasonably say that some state of the world is inefficient. He then applies the new analysis to a number of hard and fascinating cases, including the economics of duelling, cannibalism and rape. He develops a new theory of common law efficiency and indicates the circumstances under which the common law will be inefficient.The book will be of great interest to scholars, students, and practitioners interested in the concept of economic efficiency and how it should be applied to law and economics.

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This major reference work provides a thorough and up-to-date survey and analysis of recent developments in the economics of telecommunications. The Handbooks serve both as a source of reference and technical supplement for the field of telecommunications economics. Volume I reviews the traditional literature to bring readers up to date on the current treatment of telecommunications economics. The coverage includes: demand, supply, costs, market structure, regulation, interconnection and universal service. Volume II is concerned with future developments that will arise in the digital era. The coverage includes: internet, electronic commerce, mobile voice and data transmission, point-to-point and multi-point communication, regulation, satellite services and universal service in the information age. Volume III examines the structure within which modern communications companies operate and evolve, and how corporations must account for multiple objectives associated with both national economic and social policy. The volume draws useful lessons from the recent corporate experience of major international telecommunications companies. The contributors explore the interaction of diversity in national approaches with the continuing need for international cooperation and coordination, which continues to be an important area of debate.The Handbooks are written at a level intended for professional use by economists, advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and will also prove useful to policy analysts, engineers and managers within the industry.

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This book is an important addition to the emerging body of new work on capital. Its primary contribution is in analysing capital investment choice as a process. The understanding of this process requires some modification and significant extension to the standard neo-classical economic tools.Capital and Uncertainty is a non-mathematical text, modernizing and adding to the existing thought in this area, with insights from game theory, rational choice under uncertainty and new institutional economics. Dr Runge also draws upon 25 years of business experience in setting out a thorough and immensely practical exposition of the risk/return trade-off and how major capital investment decisions are made within firms.Topics studied include: the nature of capital investment decisions entrepreneurship and the market order capital investment choice processes capital investment models capital decisions: choices between strategies Economists, industrial organisation specialists, business academics and practitioners alike will all find this book of immense interest and use.

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Models of the Chinese Economy is an authoritative and comprehensive book which will enable readers to gain a more thorough understanding of this important economy. The authors focus on economic modelling of the current Chinese economy for forecasting and policy simulation purposes. Dynamic computable general equilibrium, gravity, models of exchange rate determination and a VAR model are employed with which to provide both medium- and long-term forecasts of China's economic growth and structural change. All the models have been specially designed to capture the institutional features of the Chinese economy and the authors also emphasise the opening of the economy and relations with other countries. The impact on the Chinese economy of such factors as the flow of foreign direct investments, trade liberalisations, tariff cuts and other external shocks are addressed and analysed through model simulations.This book will be welcomed by international agencies interested in the economic development of China, China analysts, academics, and graduate students.

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Over the past twenty years European labour markets have seen the simultaneous rise of unemployment and working-time flexibility. While unemployment generates widespread concern about social exclusion, the reorganisation of flexible working-time has been greeted with more ambivalence. The concept of Transitional Labour Markets (TLMs) is an attempt to address and analyse the factors and policies that can prevent high levels of unemployment and exclusion from paid work.This book addresses three key questions: Can working-time flexibility integrate more people into paid employment? Can working-time flexibility prevent unemployment? Is it possible for the barriers between core and peripheral employment to become more permeable in the way advocated by the concept of TLMs? Drawing on both quantitative longitudinal panel study data and qualitative case study material, the authors (whose expertise is drawn from the fields of economics, sociology and law) provide an original perspective on the nature and implications of TLMs in Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Britain, Germany, France and The Netherlands. This will be essential reading for both academics and policymakers in the field of labour market policy.

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This book demonstrates alternatives to the lecture and chalkboard approach that dominates the teaching of economics, providing a range of innovative teaching techniques and examples aimed at engaging undergraduates in the learning of economics.The editors provide a brief history of the teaching of economics in higher education, as well as a review of current undergraduate teaching practices. Some of the field's leading educators then demonstrate alternative practices in three main sections: 'Active and Cooperative Learning', 'Writing, the Internet, and Discovery Through Sampling', and 'Examples from the World Around Us'. The topics in the twelve chapters of the book have been carefully selected based on their high potential for adoption by other instructors. Detailed, 'hands-on' examples are included within each chapter, illustrating how suggested approaches can be used in different courses and classroom situations at the undergraduate level. Also included are lists of 'Dos' and 'Dont's' to guide instructors through the successful implementation of activities.This book will be of great practical value to teachers of economics as well as administrators responsible for undergraduate instruction.

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Behavioral finance is the study of how psychology affects financial decision making and financial markets. A valuable resource for both academics and practitioners, this authoritative collection brings together the main works in both psychology and finance, dealing with the debate between proponents of the behavioral school and advocates of the efficient market school. The first volume contains works written by leading psychologists that underlie behavioral finance, focusing on general issues in asset pricing theory, and the studies on over-reaction and under-reaction. The second volume contains key works that develop and extend these themes. Topics include the psychology of prediction, reactions to corporate announcements, the term structure of interest rates, the equity premium, and options prices. The final volume is devoted to the psychology of decisions by individuals, both investors and corporate managers.

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Over the last decade, economists have increasingly recognized the role of meta-analysis and value transfer in synthesizing knowledge and efficiently exploiting the existing pool of knowledge. Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment explores the potential significance of using these techniques, particularly in environmental economics.Both meta-analysis and value transfer constitute major research tools which efficiently use knowledge previously acquired from other studies. The book focuses on the potential role and usefulness of these tools in environmental economic research, and goes on to address their validity, relevance and applicability. A future agenda for research is also illustrated.Combining methodological analysis with a variety of case studies - on aircraft noise, environmental policy in European space and urban energy policy, amongst others - the contributors present an illuminating examination of the utilization of meta-analysis and value transfer.The insightful techniques highlighted in this book will prove invaluable in the field of environmental economics. Policymakers in various areas including the environment and planning will also find this state-of-the-art study interesting and informative.

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This book examines Japanese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world economy over more than five decades. It provides a unique focus on the internationalisation experience of selected industries, such as forestry, textiles, electronics, motor vehicles, steel and services as well as case studies of individual firms. Roger Farrell considers the theoretical explanations for Japanese FDI and particular motivations which have been an ongoing rationale for FDI, including: energy and resource security the theme of retaining market access the relocation of manufacturing to retain international competitiveness withdrawal after the bubble economy the new phase of investment in the 2000s. Japanese Investment in the World Economy is distinctive in that it examines overseas investment by firms in the primary, manufacturing and services sectors over the period in which the Japanese economy became the second largest in the world. The book provides a succinct overview of Japanese FDI of interest to professionals and students of business, economics, international relations, politics and Japanese culture.

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This innovative book uses a little-known methodological research tool to study ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS), the subject of the book, is a novel and interesting social phenomenon which seems to constitute a more ecologically rational and socially inclusive form of economic activity. LETS is a system for exchanging goods and services without the use of formal, legal tender. Unlike barter, LETS members buy and sell using their own nominal currency units, but the currency in which trade is conducted is purely a means of exchange, not a commodity in itself or a store of value.The authors of this book examine LETS, and in particular they discuss whether LETS can be viewed as an aspect of the 'greening' of citizenship, with the potential to contribute to the transition to, and maintenance of, a more sustainable society. They describe the part LETS can play in raising environmental awareness; offering more sustainable practices of production and consumption and helping to create in the community the preconditions for sustainability.In their study of LETS, the authors use Q methodology, (a qualitative methodology for the systematic study of subjectivity and shared discourses) and at the same time they evaluate its usefulness for social scientific environmental research. They find that it is a powerful methodological approach which is consistent with many of the core principles, values and aims of ecological economics. They also conclude that Q has the potential to contribute to environmental policy analysis and the creation of a more participative, democratic and effective form of environmental policy making.This book will be of great interest to all social scientists interested in social movements, environment and citizenship, and in particular those wanting to understand the application of Q methodology for social science research.

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In today's political climate, when sustainable development is the perceived goal for farming and forest communities throughout the globe, the experiences of early Canadian settlers force a re-examination of many of the assumptions about the processes through which wilderness has been civilised. The Frontier Environment and Social Order examines the development of civil society within the forest frontier of Upper Canada, using the letters of Francis Codd, a young English doctor, who settled in the Ottawa Valley in 1846 as the textual basis. The letters provide detailed evidence about frontier development: clearing the forest, establishing farming communities, and bringing civil institutions to a developing country.This period was one of intense social and environmental transformation as immigrants began the difficult task of settling a new land. The backdrop to Francis Codd's life in Canada was dramatic, but the detailed observations he provides bring the process of settlement to life. Codd became one of the cornerstones of local society and his letters and the memoirs of his contemporaries document the privations and struggles of the time. They also present new evidence on the establishment of a relationship between nature and culture at a time when ideas of wilderness and civilisation were being forged through civil society and its myths.This fascinating book will appeal to environmental social scientists and economists, historians, geographers and migration specialists as well as the interested reader.

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Beyond the New Public Management is an important book which provides a comprehensive analysis of current conceptual debates in public management and governance; and critically reviews attempts made over the last two decades to apply the 'new public management' model in developed and developing countries.The book brings together a number of outstanding specialists who examine the range of ideas and concepts of the new models of reform, paying particular attention to the 'new public management' model and to strategies of good governance. It evaluates progress made by governments and aid donors in putting these ideas into practice. Using case studies from both the developed and developing world, it emphasises the extent to which public management and governance reforms are being applied throughout the international arena. The examples used focus on the problems of policy and institutional transfers between the industrialised world and developing countries. Multidisciplinary in its approach, the book draws on literature and research from management studies, political science, sociology, economics and development studies; and points to issues likely to dominate the future research agenda.This thoughtful and wide-ranging book will be essential reading for academics, students and practitioners of public management, public policy, governance and development.

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Potential new entrants to the European Union from Central and Eastern European countries face many challenges to achieve financial convergence with the existing EU nations. Using detailed case studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and analysis of cross country data from these regions, Financial and Monetary Integration in the New Europe looks at the key issues for applicant countries as they negotiate the terms of their membership in the European Union.Of major concern to these countries is the financial sector and its implications for economic growth and the conduct of macroeconomic policy. The book examines, in particular, monetary and exchange rate policies, banking regulation and financial market efficiency. The overall impact of building a market driven financial system on economic development is also explored. This volume illustrates that overall, transition countries have made great strides in transformation to market economies and that most have experienced significant economic growth. However, there is still some institution building to be completed and outstanding policy issues to be resolved.Financial and Monetary Integration in the New Europe will be of great interest to EU and CEE policymakers and will prove useful reading to those concerned with EU expansion and CEE economic development.

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Space plays a central role in environmental and resource economics and yet spatial economics has received surprisingly little attention in the literature. This collection of Charles Kolstad's writings on spatial environmental and resource economics from the past two decades aims to fill this gap.The book includes the author's most important work on a variety of topics, including the Hotelling model of spatial competition, as applied to resource economics, jurisdictional tax competition, particularly in the context of resource taxes, and environmental regulation, both theoretical and empirical. This unique collection from one of the world's leading authorities in environmental economics will be welcomed by scholars and students of natural resource economics, environmental management, agricultural and energy economics.

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This volume brings together the most significant articles which have appeared over the past three decades analyzing the application and effects of price discrimination. Discrimination is a pervasive marketing practice that survives despite the attempts of regulators to limit or eliminate its use; it is widespread also in oligopolistic and imperfectly competitive markets. It is a practice used by firms in pricing their products over product dimensions such as space, time and quality, and it affects the ability of firms to compete in other firms' markets or to protect their own. This collection of articles by leading authors in the field highlights what we know of the motivations for and the welfare implications of price discrimination. It also presents a blueprint for further work in this important area.

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Top European and American scholars contribute to this cutting-edge volume on little-researched areas of environmental and resource economics. Topics include spatial economics, poverty and development, experimental economics, large-scale risk and its management, organizational economics, technological innovation and diffusion and many more.The common thread is the language and methodology of economics, yet the work aims to reach an audience wider than academia; others such as researchers and policymakers, in the public sector, professional staff in research institutes and think tanks, and environmental consultants will all benefit from an awareness of these crucial issues which, if not considered now, will become the problems of the future.

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The learning region offers a new perspective on the dynamics of change which shape the economy. This book examines the transformation of the modern economy into one in which knowledge is the most important resource and learning the most important process for economic growth.In the modern economy, successful firms, as well as governments, are those which have control over and access to flows of information and knowledge of technologies, markets, and organizational and managerial practices. In order to examine this, the authors apply innovation, industrial network and institutional theories to the many factors which together constitute learning regions: regional innovation policy, geographical clusters of collaborating firms and the role of research centres in the innovative potential of regions. They find that the learning region paradigm opens new possibilities for research and policy and use case studies in Germany, Holland and Belgium to illustrate these possibilities. The authors also examine European Union and regional government policy on innovation and regional development. Finally, they examine inter-firm and intra-firm collaboration and regional business and innovation systems. This innovative new book will prove invaluable to regional scientists, economic geographers and regional planners.

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Urban Planning and Management presents a collection of key articles on different aspects of sustainability in urban planning and management whilst simultaneously illustrating the conflicting arguments about whether and how sustainability should be achieved.Part I covers the factors determining the life and death of cities and what is required to achieve sustainable development. In Part II issues of whether cities should be compact or dispersed and concepts of sustainable development in third world cities and societies are explored. Parts III and IV examine design as an integral part of producing a sustainable urban policy and energy use. Part V deals with Local Agenda 21 issues and Part VI looks at town planning. Part VII discusses transport as both a product and determinant of sustainable urban planning and management. Parts VIII, IX and X examine the sustainable provision of other services including waste collection, recycling schemes and water. In Part XI sustainability is shown as occurring within, and constrained by, legal, property rights and management practices.

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The Handbook on Contingent Valuation is unique in that it focuses on contingent valuation as a method for evaluating environmental change. It examines econometric issues, conceptual underpinnings, implementation issues as well as alternatives to contingent valuation. Anna Alberini and James Kahn have compiled a comprehensive and original reference volume containing invaluable case studies that demonstrate the implementation of contingent valuation in a wide variety of applications. Chapters include those on the history of contingent valuation, a practical guide to its implementation, the use of experimental approaches, an ecological economics perspective on contingent valuation and approaches for developing nations.The Handbook also contains:<>P discussions of underlying theory both contingent valuation and conjoint analysis comparisons of real and hypothetical data using experimental approaches an examination of survey structure issues developing country focus critical essays concerning the ethical basis of contingent valuation. This new reference book will be warmly welcomed by academics in environmental economics, environmental professionals in government, consulting firms and NGOs. Graduate and undergraduate students in economics, environmental studies and environmental policy will also find this an ever valuable resource.

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In recent decades the world economy has been characterized by deepening and widening integration. Throughout this time, there have been concerns that this process may foster the geographical concentration of industries, a view substantiated by contributions to the new economic geography. In this book, Barbara Dluhosch opposes this position and presents an entirely different view of the consequences of globalization.Barbara Dluhosch carefully identifies and analyses the main pillars of the new economic geography. She then presents an essentially new approach focusing on the decline of communication costs, and introduces cost competition and technological choice, which have largely been neglected. In doing so, she arrives at fundamentally different conclusions and provides new insights into the consequences of regional integration and the process of globalization. Finally, the policy implications of this are critically evaluated by drawing on experiences of European economic integration.

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As governments and the wider public become increasingly concerned about environmental problems, the necessity for competent environmental policies is growing. The contributors to this highly original book attempt to demonstrate how the use of Q methodology can result in the development of more effective, socially sensitive, environmental policy options.The book highlights the history of Q methodology, a technique for systematically studying the subjectivity of individuals, and provides a brief yet comprehensive account of its theory and a detailed guide to the various stages of a Q study. The methodology is then applied, to explore the discourses concerning the relationship between society and a diverse range of environmental issues including, environmental protest, civil aviation policy, forest policy and land use options.The authors demonstrate how the use of Q methodology offers a methodical insight into the public conceptualisation of environmental issues, thus providing improved frameworks for identifying environmental topics and facilitating policy dialogue. They emphasise the deconstructive advantages of Q methodology as a means of re-examining controversial issues and providing policymakers with a more authentic understanding of the beliefs of stakeholders, prior to developing policies. This analytical approach, the book argues, is more 'democratic', as it provides a greater recognition of socio-political attitudes than the findings of conventional polls and surveys.This definitive book will prove a much needed addition to the empirical literature on environmental attitudes and will be invaluable reading for ecological economists, environmental policymakers and organisations, and students, researchers and practitioners of Q methodology.

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In this fully revised second edition of a well-regarded and popular text, Patrick McNutt presents more ideas and challenges to all those interested in political economy and public choice. The author evaluates a range of public choice concepts including rent-seeking, voting and voter behaviour, and the growth of government and bureaucracy. New material in this second edition includes: the introduction of a moral choice set and a new methodology for the treatment of the concept of fairness a positive theory of rent-seeking with empirical estimates the issue of legal barriers to entry and related themes; in particular how a legal barrier can affect consumer welfare a critical evaluation of the exchange and allocation of economic power and income inequality in developing countries an overview of the global political economy which identifies the contribution of public choice.

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In this book, internationally renowned scholars, including two Nobel Laureates, have been drawn together to celebrate Arnold Heertje's rich contribution to the field of economics. Their essays reflect his influence in the areas of economic theory and policy. In particular, they follow in the tradition of his work on oligopoly and price theory, welfare theory and policy, growth theory, environmental economics, technical change and the history of economic thought and methodology.The contributors offer penetrating insights into the structure and functioning of different types of market structures and the character of technical change. In addition, they address current topics such as the recent problems in East Asian economies, the money supply in the European Monetary Union and economic development. Finally, they pay tribute to Arnold Heertje's work on the history of economic thought, discussing the writings of David Ricardo, the German historical school, Herbert Robinson, Alfred Marshall and Herbert Foxwell.This book will attract economic theorists, and scholars and students who are interested in the history of economic thought or in empirical subjects such as the policy implications of studies of labour markets, property rights and European Monetary Union.

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The Economics of Demand-Led Growth is a collection of specially written essays that develop and apply the theory of demand-led growth.Long-run growth is usually portrayed as a supply-determined process. The contributions to this volume, however, are rooted in the theory of demand-led growth. In addition to general discussions of the role of demand in the long-run, the volume contains essays in the Kaldorian and Kaleckian traditions, and a section on the relationship between demand-led growth and structural change. The conclusion reached is that current neglect of the role of demand in analyses of long-run growth is unwarranted. This book will prove indispensable to academic economists and graduate students in economics for its contributions to the field of macrodynamics and, in particular, its development of non-neoclassical approaches to macrodynamics.

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