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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Development economics
A role model for late industrializing countries, Taiwan provides unique and interesting development lessons for third world countries. Once a poverty-stricken, resource-poor, technologically backward nation, Taiwan has become the hub of a global production network in many high tech industries with increasing significance in the world economy. In ten outstanding essays, written by highly respected economists, this book analyzes Taiwan's postwar economic development path, providing a valuable case study of its structural transformation from a labor-intensive to a technology-intensive economy. The book addresses three major topics. First it recaptures the lessons of Taiwan's experience. Then it considers the role of foreign investment on structural transformation and globalization. Finally, it examines Taiwan's economy in a global perspective, evaluating its role in the world market from the past to the future and its evolution from a colony to a newly industrialized country.
This book analyses large-scale land investments for agricultural purposes in Africa's least developed countries from a law and economics perspective. Focusing on the effects of foreign land investments on host countries' local populations and the apparent failure of international law to create incentives to offset them, it also examines the legal and economic mechanisms to hold investors accountable in cases where their investment leads to human rights violations. Applying principal agent and contract theory, it elucidates the sources of opportunism and develops control mechanisms to ameliorate the negative effects. It shows that although judicial mechanisms fail to deliver justice, international law offers alternatives to safeguard against arbitrary and abusive state and investor conduct, and also to effectuate human rights and, thus, tackle opportunistic behaviour.
This book addresses two general questions that have arisen as a result of the uneven rise of the various Asian economies in contemporary times. First, to lift people out of poverty and to improve the quality of their lives, how do we institute policies that will ensure economic growth in the different regions of Asia? Second, what can we do to ensure that the economic growth we seek is sustainable so that the regional economic development that emerges is broad-based, inclusive, and environmentally conscious? Specifically, this edited book will provide a unified perspective on regional growth and sustainable development in Asia by focusing on the above two broad questions. The book will emphasize dynamic modeling and it will illustrate the role that sound theoretical and empirical modeling of an intertemporal nature can play in shedding light on salient public policy questions concerning regional growth and sustainable development. The specific topics to be addressed in this book include growth accounting, natural resource use and management, the regulation of environmental externalities, geographic information systems, and regional climate change. The individual chapters in this book will be written by international experts who are also active researchers in their respective fields. Therefore, this book is highly recommended to all readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date perspective on some of the most salient issues at the interface of regional growth and sustainable development in Asia.
Before the interstates, Main Street America was the small town's commercial spine and served as the linchpin for community social solidarity. Yet, during the past three decades, a series of economic downturns has left many of the great small cities barely viable. American Hometown Renewal is the first book to combine administrative, budgetary, and economic analysis to examine the economic and fiscal plight currently facing America's small towns. Featuring a blend of theory, applications, and case studies, it provides a comprehensive, single-source textbook covering the key issues facing small town officials in today's uncertain economy. Written by a former public manager, university professor, and consultant to numerous small towns in the Heartland, this book demonstrates the ways in which contemporary small towns throughout the nation are facing economic challenges brought about by the financial shocks that began in 2008. Each chapter explores a theme related to small town revival and provides a related tool or technique to enable small town officials to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Encouraging local small town officials to look at the economic orbit of communities in a similar manner as a town's budget or a family's personal wealth, examining its specific competitive advantages in terms of relative assets to those of competing communities, this book provides the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to conduct an asset inventory and apply key asset tools to devise a strategy for overcoming the challenges and constraints imposed upon spatially-fixed communities. American Hometown Renewal is an essential primer for students studying city management, economic community development, and city planning, and will be a trusted handbook for city managers, geographers, city planners, urban or rural sociologists, political scientists, and regional microeconomists.
This provocative volume is the first book to offer an extensive examination of the nature of poverty and its relationship to gender and ethnicity in five post-communist societies. As nations make the difficult transition from socialism to capitalism, the extent and nature of poverty tends to change and, because of this, the proportion of the population living in poverty tends to change. As a result, the proportion of the population living in poverty has increased sharply in these countries. The contributors contend that a "new poverty" is in the making and that the growing underclass is strongly related to ethnicity, as such an underclass is more likely to form if there is a sizeable Roma (Gypsy) minority. The question of whether gender interacts with poverty the same way ethnicity does is the subject of intense controversy and is addressed here in lucid, accessible prose. In this comprehensive analysis of the interaction between poverty, ethnicity, and gender in East European transitional societies, the contributors thoughtfully address the relevant issues and relationships and conclude that poverty has become deeper and increasingly long-term in Eastern European nations. Although it is clear that poverty increased in Eastern Europe during the market transition, the extent and nature of the changes have not yet been illuminated. Covering Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, the contributors analyze the interaction between poverty, ethnicity, and gender in an effort to explain the changing nature of poverty and the formation of an underclass in these countries. Roma (Gypsies) arise as the most likely candidates for membership in the new underclass, as they were alwayseconomically disadvantaged and the targets of discriminatory practices. On the other hand, however because they were often better educated than men during socialism, women may have been relatively advantaged, at least temporarily, during the market transition. Thus while poverty may be "racialized" during the transformation, it may not yet be "feminized." In this comparative assessment of social trends in this region, the contributors consider what they mean for the countries where they occur.
This book is a spin-off from an award-winning published dissertation microfilmed and recorded into ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and Thomson Gale PowerSearch electronic libraries worldwide. Informative materials in this phenomenological qualitative study supported and complemented through quantitative analyses are also accessible in the library of the United States Congress. Pedagogically, this book enhances and contributes to scholarly knowledge. Doctoral learners or students obtaining their terminal degrees will find this book helpful. Various theories were conceptualized from over 12, 000 literature materials garnered and collated from electronic libraries. Starting from germinal socioeconomic theories-Adam Smith invisible hand theory (1776/1776b), Ricardo (1964) substitution theory, and seminar stakeholders' theories were conceptualized and expounded in alignment with how affordable housing affects middle-income population in Abuja, Nigeria. Within the context of this book, middle income population was nebulously defined; however, research shows that the lack of affordable housing affects middle income earners worldwide. How technological situational happenstances are imperatively, significantly, and inextricably intertwined with the real estate industry is congruently explained. Effective and efficient communication, management, leadership, infrastructures, and economic variables are at the core of affordable housing in Abuja. Literature review used in conceptualizing and crafting this book illuminates the need for stakeholders to be engaged collaboratively, synergistically, and seamlessly in filling the gap that will result in affordable housing in Abuja. The stakeholders' engagement infilling the housing gap could be horizontal or vertical. Stakeholders are the governmental agencies, financial institutions and the private sector. The collaborative efforts of the stakeholders and its significance to leadership remain the centerpiece of this book. Corresponding efforts of the stakeholders internally and externally in filling the housing gap in the sub-Saharan African cities are equally advocated. Housing in Sub-Saharan African Cities published 2007 in the United States remain a bestseller that supports and complements this current book.
The Report predicts that the coming five years will witness the five countries keep improving in national innovative competitiveness, with China and Russia maintaining their strong growth momentum, India growing at a moderate rate, and Brazil and South Africa gradually picking up speed and climbing out of the trough. It estimates that the five countries' national innovative competitiveness will be keeping steady growth by 2030. The General Reports part presents a comprehensive analysis of the current status and achievements of STI cooperation between China and other BRICS countries and proposes priority areas of BRICS STI cooperation to provide valuable decision inputs for the BRICS countries to accelerate the improvement of their national innovative competitiveness. The Country Reports part respectively analyzes and makes predictions on the national innovative competitiveness of the BRICS countries based on a survey of their STI development and STI cooperation within the BRICS framework. The Thematic Reports part focuses on four thematic areas closely related to STI, i.e. digital economy, financial inclusion, energy, and agriculture, and offers detailed analysis of the STI development and potential of the countries in relevant areas, providing additional inputs for a further understanding of the national innovative competitiveness of the BRICS countries.
Seavoy insists that development economics is a failed discipline because it does not recognize the revolutionary difference between subsistence and commercial social values. Seavoy demonstrates that commercial labor norms are essential for producing assured food surpluses in all crop years and an assured food surplus is essential for sustaining the development process. The commercialization of food production is a political process, as in the term political economy. If peasants have a choice, they will not voluntarily perform commercial labor norms. Central governments must overcome peasant resistance to performing commercial labor norms by various forms of coercion. The most historically effective coercions are deprivation of peasant control of land use by foreclosure and eviction for excessive subsistence debts. Landless peasants are forced to become supervised paid laborers. Coercion is most effective when it is linked to money rewards for peasants who voluntarily transform themselves into yeomen cultivators or farmers. These commercially motivated cultivators and storekeepers become the resident commercializing agents in peasant villages who administer the central government's coercive and inducement policies. Based on extensive examples and field observation, this book is designed for use in courses that explore problems of economic development. Scholars and government policy makers will find the analysis equally provocative.
Outlining important policy requirements for Bangladesh to become an upper middle-income country, the book presents research work conducted during the project "Changing Labor Markets in Bangladesh: Understanding Dynamics in Relation to Economic Growth and Poverty," sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada. Bangladesh has experienced remarkable economic growth rates over the last decade. The country has recently been upgraded from a low-income country (LIC) to a lower-middle-income country (LMIC) as per the World Bank's classification system. By 2024, the country also aspires to graduate from the United Nation's list of least developed countries (LDC). The 7th five-year plan sets an ambitious target of 8 percent growth in GDP by 2020. There are also steep development targets to be achieved under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. All these will require an enormous leap forward from the current level of economic growth rate and sustaining it in the future. The situation also calls for considerable structural change in the economy, facilitating large-scale economic diversification. Rapid expansion of labor-intensive and high-productivity sectors, both in the farm and nonfarm sectors, is thus crucial for Bangladesh. Further, this should take place in conjunction with interventions to enhance productivity, jobs and incomes in traditional and informal activities where there are large pools of surplus labor. Given its relevance for Bangladesh and applicability to many other developing countries, the book offers a unique and pioneering resource for researchers, industry watchers as well as policy makers.
The Wine Value Chain in China: Global Dynamics, Marketing and Communication in the Contemporary Chinese Wine Market presents information on China and its role as a relevant player in the international wine industry, both as supplier and consumer. The book provides new insights into the global dynamics of the wine industry, expanding the knowledge of academics, practitioners, and students on the growing demand for wine in China. Special attention is paid to the supply and demand changes, their impacts on Western wine supply chains, and new market opportunities. The book contributes the latest research findings to increase the understanding of the context of wine consumption in China and the most suitable marketing and communication approaches. The book aims to provide academics with the most adequate methodological tools to study a novice market, with both conceptual and empirical chapters included. The book covers a range of topics, including the behavior of Chinese consumers and their attitudes towards wine, the cultural context of wine in China, the characteristics of the wine supply chain in China and its development, the impact of China on Western wine supply chains, wine marketing and communication in China, wine branding in China, including counterfeiting, wine education in China, the links between wine, food, luxury, and Western products in China, and wine tourism.
Globalization and its relation to poverty reduction and development are not well understood. This book explores the ways in which globalization can overcome poverty or make it worse. The book defines the big historical trends, identifies the main globalization processes - trade, finance, aid, migration, and ideas - and examines how each can contribute to economic development. By considering what helps and what does not, the book presents policy recommendations to make globalization more effective as a vehicle for shared growth and poverty reduction. It will be of interest to students, researchers, and anyone concerned with the effects of globalization on international development.
This book brings together perspectives of development economics and law to tackle the relationship between competition law enforcement and economic development. It addresses the question of whether, and how, competition law enforcement helps to promote economic growth and development. This question is highly pertinent for developing countries largely because many developing countries have only adopted competition law in recent years: about thirty jurisdictions had in place a competition law in the early 1980s, and there are now more than 130 competition law regimes across the world, of which many are developing countries. The book proposes a customized approach to competition law enforcement for developing countries, set against the background of the academic and policy debate concerning convergence of competition law. The implicit premise of convergence is that there may exist one, or a few, correct approaches to competition law enforcement, which in most cases emanate from developed jurisdictions, that are applicable to all. This book rejects this assumption and argues that developing countries ought to tailor competition law enforcement to their own economic and political circumstances. In particular, it suggests how competition law enforcement can better incorporate development concerns without causing undue dilution of its traditional focus on protecting consumer welfare. It proposes ways in which approaches to competition law enforcement need to be adjusted to reflect the special economic characteristics of developing country economies and the more limited enforcement capacity of developing country competition authorities. Finally, it also addresses the long-running debate concerning the desirability and viability of industrial policy for developing countries. The author would like to acknowledge the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for its generous support. The work in this book was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. HKU 742412H).
Modern Asian economic history has often been written in terms of Western impact and Asia's response to it. This volume argues that the growth of intra-regional trade, migration, and capital and money flows was a crucial factor that determined the course of East Asian economic development. Twelve chapters are organized around three main themes. First, economic interactions between Japan and China were important in shaping the pattern of regional industrialization. Neither Japan nor China imported technology and organizations, and attempted to "catch up" with the West alone. Japan's industrialization took place, taking advantage of the Chinese merchant networks in Asia, while the Chinese competition was a critical factor in the Japanese technological and organizational "upgrading" in the interwar period. Second, the pattern of China's integration into the international economy was shaped by the growth of intra-Asian trade, migration, and capital flows and remittances. While the Western impact was largely confined to the littoral region of China, intra-Asian trade was more directly connected with China's internal market. Both the fall of the imperial monetary system and the rise of economic nationalism in the early twentieth century reflected increasing contacts with the Asian international economy. Third, a study of intra-Asian trade and migration helps us understand the nature of colonialism and the international climate of imperialism. In spite of the adverse political environment, East Asian merchant and migration networks exploited economic opportunities, taking advantage of colonial institutional arrangements and even political conflicts. They made a contribution to national and regional economic development in the politically more favourable environment after the Second World War, by providing the valuable expertise and entrepreneurship they had accumulated prewar. The character of the international order of Asia, governed by Western powers, especially Britain, but shared also by Japan for most of the period, was "imperialism of free trade", although it eventually collapsed by the late 1930s.
Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Silk Road Economic Belt component of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative at Kazakhstan in 2013. OBOR is a development strategy and framework that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily in Eurasia. It consists of two main components, the land-based 'Silk Road Economic Belt' (SREB) and ocean-going 'Maritime Silk Road' (MSR). This book studies the equilibrium or balance between overland and maritime trade routes of OBOR.This book has two major sections. The interpretive section examines contemporary media narratives related to the OBOR initiative and how contemporary commentators appropriate narratives about historical events related to the maritime Silk Road to interpret current policy agendas and legitimize diplomatic or economic exchanges. In terms of institutional studies, the chapters related to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will look at the issues facing the Bank in its quest in forming a new world platform for multilateral development financing.The other section, the empirical case study of the publication highlights the fact that Euro-China High Speed Rail (HSR) and Central Asia-China HSR are not viable at the moment as passenger volume is not sufficient to justify the HSR line. This section examines the overland route of the OBOR and looks at recent Chinese HSR history and conventional sub-high speed rail technology development, and identifies technical & economic criteria determining the appropriate technology for a certain line. The chapter in this section will use the developed criteria to analyze the various rail linkage projects currently under study in the OBOR framework, highlight the economic, bureaucratic and geo-political challenges that these projects likely face and lay down conditions that will determine the outcome of these projects.
The future for all the nations of the world, whether diverse- or single-commodity countries, is bound up in effective economic development. In particular, an understanding of the relationship between a government and its private business sector is becoming an increasingly important factor in the management of economic growth. This work presents the results of a study that focuses on efforts to stimulate private industrial investment in the manufacturing sector of the Saudi Arabian economy. The conclusions help to shed light on the interplay of government-business relationships not only in Saudi Arabia, but in other developing countries as well. The study, conducted in 1986, included a series of interviews with manufacturing executives, government officials, and chamber of commerce members. Wahib Soufi and Richard Mayer begin their analysis with an overview of government and business in Saudi Arabia, assessing the role played by Islamic law and the need for diversification. They follow this by sketching a conceptual framework for examining government-business relationships, and outlining issues relevant to promoting industrial development. A set of three chapters explore the results of the survey data, detailing the perceptions of the Saudi private business sector, comparing business and government perceptions, and finally, evaluating the effect of communications, expectations, and perceptions on the government-business relationship. The concluding chapter reexamines these conclusions on the basis of information available three years after the initial study, and is followed by a selective bibliography. This important study will be a valuable resource for corporate managers and government officials involved in economic planning, and a useful reference tool for college courses in business and economic policy and for public and academic libraries.
Explores popular economic development strategies in midsize Canadian urban areas. Roads to Prosperity: Economic Development Lessons from Midsize Canadian Cities explores the relative prosperity of midsize Canadian urban areas (population 50,000 to 400,000) over the past two decades. Communities throughout North America have strived for decades to maintain and enhance the prosperity of their residents. In the areas that are the focus of this research, the results of these efforts have been mixed-some communities have been relatively successful while others have fallen further behind the national averages. Midsize cities often lack the resources, both internal and external, to sustain and enhance their prosperity. Policies and strategies that have been successful in larger urban areas may be less effective (or unaffordable) in smaller ones. Roads to Prosperity first examines the economic structure of forty-two Canadian urban regions that fall within the midsize range to determine the economic specializations that characterize these communities and to trace how these specializations have evolved over the time period between 1991 and 2011. While urban areas with an economic base of natural resource or manufacturing industries tend to retain this economic function over the years, communities that rely on the service industries have been much more likely to experience some degree of restructuring in their economies over the past twenty years. The second part of the book looks at a number of currently popular economic development strategies as they have been applied to midsize urban areas and their success and failures. While there appears to be no single economic development strategy that will lead to greater prosperity for every community, Sands and Reese explore the various factors that help explain why some work and others don't.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 presents how far we have come towards reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This seventh edition of the annual report also looks at the trends since 2015 and impact of COVID-19 on the progress. It uses the latest available data and inputs from custodian agencies of the United Nations system other international agencies and is prepared by the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs
While oil price fluctuations in the past can be explained by pure supply factors, this book argues that it is monetary policy that plays a significant role in setting global oil prices. It is a key factor often neglected in much of the earlier literature on the determinants of asset prices, including oil prices. However, this book presents a framework for modeling oil prices while incorporating monetary policy. It also provides a complete theoretical basis of the determinants of crude oil prices and the transmission channels of oil shocks to the economy. Moreover, using several up-to-date surveys and examples from the real world, this book gives insight into the empirical side of energy economics. The empirical studies offer explanations for the impact of monetary policy on crude oil prices in different periods including during the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008-2009, the impact of oil price variations on developed and emerging economies, the effectiveness of monetary policy in the Japanese economy incorporating energy prices, and the macroeconomic impacts of oil price movements in trade-linked cases. This must-know information on energy economics is presented in a reader-friendly format without being overloaded with excessive and complicated calculations. enUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
At a time when governments and civil society organizations are putting ever-greater stock in social innovation as a route to transformation, understanding what characterizes social innovation with transformative potential is important. Exciting and promising ideas seem to die out as often as they take flight, and market mechanisms, which go a long way towards contributing to successful technical innovations, play an insignificant role in social innovations. The cases in this book explore the evolution of successful social innovation through time, from the ideas which catalyzed social and system entrepreneurs to create new processes, platforms, projects, and programs to fundamental social shifts in culture, economics, laws, and policies which occurred as a result. In doing so, the authors shed light on how to recognize transformative potential in the early stage innovations we see today. This comparison of multiple historical cases across problem domains creates a map of social innovation over time - shifting our thinking on both current issues and established programmes. From the American national parks and the joint stock company to the intelligence test and the financial derivatives that led to the 2008 crash, this book acts as a useful reflection and a cautionary tale, looking back to gain insight and inform the vibrant discussion of social innovation's future. This book pushes theoretical and methodological boundaries of the field through approachable narratives, making it an ideal resource for social innovation students, scholars, instructors, and practitioners. Contributors include: E. Alexiuk, N. Antadze, J. Blacklock, S. Geobey, D. McCarthy, K. McGowan, M.-L. Moore, P. Olsson, O. Tjornbo, F. Westley
East Naples' contemporary history is not special, or unique: its processes shaped a mostly grey suburb nestled in the immediate vicinity of the great southern city, sharing its limits and feeding its needs. An imaginary tourist would search in vain for the ancient natural landscape, formerly a splendid threshold between coastal and marshy ecosystems, now humiliated by the sedimentary accumulation of bricks, fumes, oil and poisons generated by the main actors of the area's contemporary history - manufacturing and housing. Across the globe, peripheral areas have experienced the same deep environmental changes under the processes of energy transitions, economic development and urbanisation. The historian must interrogate the human choices, the material context and the different perceptions of nature, health or production that led to these changes as part of an environmentally-focused perspective on two of modernity's distinctive global processes: industrialisation and deindustrialisation. The resultant narrative of relations between human choices and East Naples' environmental limits is marked by the transition from an actual swamp to a metaphorical one, an ambiguous space characterised by chaos and disorder, hostility and risks, but also resistance, dignity and hope. This book reconstructs the discursive and physical factors that created the East Naples 'swamp', from the late eighteenth century to the present, analysing hygienist thought and urbanisation, industrialisation and deindustrialisation, ecological risks and urban requalification attempts.
This book is the first of the two volumes featuring selected articles from the 14th Eurasia Business and Economics conference held in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2014. Peer-reviewed articles in this first volume present latest research breakthroughs in the areas of Accounting, Corporate Governance, Finance and Banking, Institutional and International Economics, and Regional Studies. The contributors are both distinguished and young scholars from different parts of the World. |
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