In this, the first of three volumes to be published by the CEU Press on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia, distinguished economists, legal scholars, political scientists and sociologists examine the emerging institutions of corporate governance in privatized firms in transition economies. They investigate the role of banks, investment funds, and pension funds, as well as the role and impact of residual state ownership. Each paper combines experience from advanced market economies with in-country empirical work in transition settings. Together these papers represent the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparative analysis yet undertaken of privatization struggles and their impact on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia.

In this, the second of three volumes to be published by the CEU Press on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia, distinguished economists, legal scholars, political scientists and sociologists examine the emerging institutions of corporate governance in privatized firms in transition economies. They look at the nature of control exercised by insiders in Central and Eastern European firms and the emergence of indigenous corporate governance institutions. The volume also addresses the role of foreign investors and the many issues involved in the design of corporate and securities law. Each paper combines experience from advanced market economies with in-country empirical work in transition settings. Together these papers represent the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparative analysis yet undertaken of privatization struggles and their impact on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia.

Microfinance in developing countries: Issues, policies and performance evaluation is a collection of studies by leading researchers in the field of microfinance. It discusses key issues that the rapidly growing microfinance industry currently faces. It offers interesting views and innovative analysis of topical matters concerning impact, performance, challenges and innovations in the microfinance realm. Issues relating to impact include measurement problems; the debate of multiple versus single assessment criteria; and the question of whether microfinance institutions are effective in delivering the microfinance promise. Issues relating to performance include the ongoing debate over the balance between social and financial performance; performance measures; and the controversy over mission drift. Issues relating to the challenges faced by the microfinance industry include the problem of over-indebtedness; improving agricultural microfinance; and assessing the role of local culture in the design of an effective microfinance sector. Lastly, topical issues relating to innovations include assessment of technological and financial innovations and the application thereof as well as the continued expansion of microfinance beyond microcredit in developing countries. Together these issues provide an overview of microfinance as it stands today and point to the direction in which it is heading.

...sober and extremely well-researched book.' - Inder Malhotra, Business World;This book examines the economic and technological basis for India's rise to power and the political factors that shape the nature of the power it will develop into. It shows that while India has concentrated on many of the scientific and technical capabilities that serve the needs of a rising power, it has not been able to achieve a balanced process of development. This imbalance feeds sub-national political discontent and undercuts the very power that India has sought to acquire, thus delaying her rise to power.

Computational Models in the Economics of Environment and Development provides a step-by-step guide in designing, developing, and solving non-linear environment-development models. It accomplishes this by focusing on applied models, using real examples as case studies. Additionally, it gives examples of developing policy interventions based on quantitative model results. Finally, it uses a simple computer program, GAMS, to develop and solve models.

This book is targeted towards university lecturers and students in economic modeling and sustainable development, but is also of particular interest to researchers at sustainable development research institutes and policy makers at international sustainable development policy institutions such the World Bank, UNDP, and UNEP.

Once the world's largest ODA provider, contemporary Japan seems much less visible in international development. However, this book demonstrates that Japan, with its own aid philosophy, experiences, and models of aid, has ample lessons to offer to the international community as the latter seeks new paradigms of development cooperation.

This book surveys Poland's move from being a post-feudal, backward, peripheral country to being a modern, capitalist, European state: from the partition of the commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania to the abolishment of 'second serfdom'; late industrialization to state socialism; post-partition fragmentation to post-Second World War westward dislocation; and from the 'Solidarnosc' movement to accession into the European Union. Could Poland really be considered an 'underdeveloped' nation throughout the last 200 years? What factors contributed to its 'backwardness'? Has Poland yet managed to catch up with the West? This book, the first overview of the modern economic history of Poland to be published in English, addresses these and many other questions crucial for developing our understanding of the economic history of modern Central-Eastern Europe. The economic development of Poland is analyzed through data and statistics, as well as through analysis of the ideas that paved the way for the politics of economic and social modernization.

As Africa entered the 1990s, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa declared the continent incapable of feeding at least one-fifth of its peoples. Africa is the only region in the world where per capita food production is actually declining. Even with imports, the average African gets only enough nourishment to meet 85 percent of the minimum daily calorie requirement. This book analyzes the contemporary food crisis in Africa from an historical perspective, using two West African case studies.

From the perspective of food production and entitlement, the volume traces the economic history of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde beginning with the slave trade, through the colonial and postcolonial periods to democratization and structural adjustment. Using the theory and methodology of political economy, the study argues that the way in which African societies have been integrated into the world market diverted resources from food production, exacerbated exploitation, thus affecting entitlement to the food produced. Conditions for national food dependency and the degradation of the environment ensued.

Over the past several decades, as the pace of globalization has accelerated, operational issues of international coordination have often been overlooked. For example, the global financial crisis that began in 2007 is attributed, in part, to a lack of regulatory oversight. As a result, supranational organizations, such as the G-20, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, have prioritized strengthening of the international financial architecture and providing opportunities for dialogue on national policies, international co-operation, and international financial institutions.

Prevailing characteristics of the global economic systems, such as the increasing power of financial institutions, changes in the structure of global production, decline in the authority of nation-states over their national economy, and creation of global institutional setting, e.g., global governance have created the conditions for a naturally evolving process towards enabling national epistemic communities to create institutions that comply with global rules and regulations can control crises.

In this context, transfer of technical knowledge from the larger organizations and its global epistemic communities to member communities is becoming a policy tool to "convince" participants in the international system to have similar ideas about which rules will govern their mutual participation. In the realm of finance and banking regulation, the primary focus is on transfer of specialized and procedural knowledge in technical domains (such as accounting procedures, payment systems, and corporate governance principles), thereby promoting institutional learning at national and local levels. In this volume, the authors provide in-depth analysis of initiatives to demonstrate how this type of knowledge generated at the international organization level, is codified into global standards, and disseminated to members, particularly in the developing world, where the legal and regulatory infrastructure is often lacking.
They argue that despite the challenges, when a country intends to join the global system, its institutions and economic structures need to move toward the global norms. In so doing, they shed new light on the dynamics of knowledge transfer, financial regulation, economic development, with particular respect to supporting global standards and avoiding future crises. "

Comprised of chapters that explore the impact of the global crisis on emerging economies and firms and their response to it. The ways in which the leading emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China are dealing with the challenges of the crisis are complemented by the methods applied by countries and firms in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book provides a theoretical framework to explain the formation and growth of economic agglomerations and industrial clusters from the viewpoint of spatial economics, and goes on to present current examples of clustering and policy in different economies, through the case studies such as the automobile cluster in China; the technopolis in Austin, Texas; the automobile clusters in India; Japan's industrial cluster policy; the industrial cluster in the Greater Bangkok, Thailand; and the electronics cluster in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Can sustainable economic development be achieved without strong environmental protections? Bringing together theoretical issues in development economics and a wide range of empirical evidence, this book examines this question and explores ways that environmental sustainability has been--and might be--incorporated into existing theories of economic development. Protection of the environment is an essential part of development, and the best chance for achieving long-term sustainable development is to systematically incorporate environmental issues into key aspects of economic development paradigms. To show this, Desta makes use of theoretical approaches, draws policy implications, and illustrates each point with in-depth case studies from developing countries.

Although economists have attempted to discern the factors that contribute to sustainable economic growth since the 18th-century, development economics did not emerge as a legitimate discipline until after World War II. By the 1980s, the view that environmental concerns pose economic constraints had given way to the belief that environmental and development issues are interwoven. This book integrates existing economic development theories and environmental issues in a comprehensive, user-friendly way. It pulls together and makes understandable a wide range of current thinking and historical development, concluding each chapter with a case study that shows the workings of these ideas in practice.

The essays in this book examine Zimbabwe's macroeconomic and structural adjustment experiences since independence. Part One analyzes the impact on economic growth, inflation, employment and labor markets. Part Two deals with financial liberalization, and the financial turmoil and currency crisis experienced in the wake of reforms. Part Three examines trade liberalization and its impact on investment and income distribution. Part Four gives sectoral perspectives on the agricultural, manufacturing, and health sectors.

The contributors to this collection examine the progress and impact of the "new poverty strategies" which have governed the policies of development agencies over the past decade. While in some areas progress has been impressive, in others it has been hampered by persisting inequalities, civil conflict, institutional gaps, and turbulence in the international financial system. In light of this, The New Poverty Strategies proposes a range of new policies and donor initiatives designed to achieve greater success in poverty reduction in the new century.

The book assesses the lessons which can be drawn from reforms in Central Europe for the later reformers in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. It considers the impact of banking reform on macroeconomic stabilization and the suitability of German-type universal banks; the role of banking regulation and the advantages of 'narrow banks' during transition; the cleaning-up of bad debts; bank privatization and reform of the payments system. Five chapters follow which review the experience of some of the 'second-wave' countries: Estonia, Georgia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

One of the key issues for the prosperity of our societies in a globalised economy is to connect public policies together to achieve maximum results. Policy-makers and practitioners in key public and private agencies need to learn how to collaborate, to create joint-decision processes, to evaluate the effects of new governance partnerships and to become more efficient in the use of engagement tools. This book develops a conceptual map for this new area of practice and provides leading cases from different OECD countries to help practitioners plan for this form of innovation.

Foreign trade is a key factor in the development strategy of Third World countries. The development of world trade as a whole has not, however, led to an improvement in the relative position of the developing countries. Despite efforts to promote and liberalize world trade, serious quota and tariff barriers in world markets--often a violation of the principles advocated and accepted in international forums on world trade--still exist for many Third World countries. Specific issues such as import controls, export subsidies, foreign trade and payments, negotiating strategies, and industrial protectionism are explored as are the broad theoretical aspects of the role of trade in Third World development.

Can the experience of the 1980s in Latin America be analyzed and evaluated to shed light on prospects for the 1990s? The central objective of this volume is to survey the development experience of the Latin American region in the 1980s and explore prospects for the coming decade. In this context, themes of crucial importance for the region are examined, including democratic consolidation, income distribution, the environment, hyperinflation, and the debt problem. Although socioeconomic and political aspects are emphasized, issues of equity and the environment are of special importance. Case studies of Peru, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Cuba provide fresh information on these issues in specific countries. The book focuses on the problem of development at a critical juncture in the evolution of the region. Not surprisingly, the contributors express differing points of view, but have in common the sense of the urgency of development problems that face Latin America.

Central issues concerning the region's economy are the focus in the first part of the book. In the second part, key issue areas for the future are discussed. Of central concern in an exploration of the prospects for Latin America is the sustainability and improvement of democratization which proceeded in the 1980s. On the whole, the authors are not optimistic. The immense economic difficulties faced by the region--the debt overhang, the large and continuing overflow of financial and real resources, hyperinflation in some countries--will not be easy to manage. Although there are no guarantees that income distribution will be improved, among the positive developments foreseen for the 1990s are improved economic management, the addressing of environmental issues, and greater attention to issues of women's rights. This book should serve as a useful and timely guide to a complex region for both students and policymakers.

The analysis of the transfer paradox has evolved primarily in the context of traditional static models. However, given developments in the policy arena as well in the discipline itself, there is a need for further developments in the theoretical analysis of foreign aid. For example, the impact of aid on saving, investment and growth calls for an intertemporal framework. Development spatial economics calls for introduction of the spatial dimension to the analysis of foreign aid. Similarly, the potential role of aid in conflict resolution, in improving the environment, in public good (infrastructural) provision, in the globalization process, and in the establishment of good governance are some of the issues that also need serious attention.
On the empirical side, the issue of the effectiveness of aid; the determinants of aid; the allocation criteria for aid; the relationship between aid and trade, and aid and poverty remain as important as ever.
This volume contains a comprehensive analysis of foreign aid from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, written by leading researchers in the field.
* Divided into two parts: Theory of Aid and Empirical Studies on Aid
* Examines aid practices in a variety of countries and under a variety of conditions

"This book focuses on the different challenges and opportunities for social transformation in India, Myanmar and Thailand, by centering communities and individuals as the main drivers of change. In doing so, it includes discussions on a wide array of issues including women's empowerment and political participation, ethno-religious tensions, plurilingualism, education reform, community-based healthcare, climate change, disaster management, ecological systems, and vulnerability reduction. Two core foundations are introduced for ensuring broader transformations. The first is the academic diplomacy project - a framework for an engaged academic enquiry focusing on causative, curative, transformative, and promotive factors. The second is a community driven collective struggle that serves as a grassroots possibility to facilitate positive social transformation by using locally available resources and enabling the participation of the resident population. As a whole, the book conveys the importance of a diversification of engagement at the grassroots level to strengthen the capacity of individuals as decisive stakeholders, where the process of social transformation makes communities more interconnected, interdependent, multicultural and vital in building an inclusive society."

This volume gathers together a collection of essays integrated by two central themes: the comparative economic performance of different economic systems (centralized socialism, reformed socialism, competitive socialism), and the transition from socialism to capitalism under newly established pluralistic political systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Most of the essays are based on the first-hand experience of the author in stabilizing an economy in an early stage of hyperinflation and in transforming it into a competitive capitalist market economy.

Containing expert contributions from a variety of scholars working in these areas of research, this book explores contemporary concerns in economic development and globalization as well as examining how the issues have changed since Ajit Singh first began working on these subjects.

China and India have both received a great amount of focus from the foreign investors. However, there are acute differences in the implementation of the economic reforms; China made rapid progress in the manufacture of high technology products, whilst India progressed in the development of high technology. This book explores the contrasts between China and India in attracting, utilizing and related issues and discusses the challenges faced by the foreign investors.

Investment in Latin America is continuously developing in complex patterns due to the region's increasing role in the global economy. The Handbook of Research on Economic Growth and Technological Change in Latin America helps readers to better understand the importance of Latin America in today's global economy. The book discusses the developments of investments involving Latin American Multinational Corporations ("Multilatinas") within the region. This investment is having profound influences on the state of business, government, and technological development in Latin America, which are all explored in this reference publication for use by researchers, scholar-practitioners, business executives, students, and academicians.

Distinguished by its breadth of coverage and in-depth discussions of key topics, this book looks at the implications of environmental factors for economic policy-making. As well as chapters on damage and benefit analysis, monitoring and enforcement of environmental regulation, and the special problems of developing countries and the environment, it also includes a review of relevant microeconomic theory, an introduction to the history of environmental policy and legislation, and case studies of approaches to development versus preservation dilemmas and regional cost benefit analysis.