This book explores the relations between the EU and the BRICS in the areas of politics, economic development, trade and security. The contributions cover topics such as the position of the EU and BRICS in the global order and the EU as a "normative power," as well as the evolution, characteristics and institutionalization of BRICS and the roles of its member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. The book will appeal to researchers and scholars interested in the rise of BRICS and the resulting challenges and opportunities for the European Union and Global Governance.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the nature and determinants of finance and trade and their relationship with Africa's competitiveness. Investment is examined in its various forms (financial vs. physical), and sources (private, public, domestic and FDI), as well as its relation to the size of domestic markets and export potential. The dimensions of trade related to financial development, trade costs, development of value chains and regional integration are also studied. The capacity of finance and investment to boost Africa's competitiveness is assessed to inform continent-wide economic policy.

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.

In recent years much has been made of the sucess of developing countries, particularly in East Asia, which have achieved economic growth by manufacturing goods which are then exported to developing economies.
"Manufacturing for Export in the Developing" "World" looks at a number of countries which have tried to affect a similar transition. It combines case studies of five countries with an introduction that considers the overall contact and conclusions. The book uncovers serious potential difficulties in maintaining the pace of manufacturing for export in the developing countries, and shows that there is no simple relationship between import liberalization and manufacturing for export.

This book examines the global and domestic factors that have influenced the decline of South African manufacturing. Quantitative and econometric techniques are used to analyse the macroeconomic conditions that derive improved performance within the manufacturing sector. Empirical evidence is used to set out policy recommendations that would allow the South African National Development Plan to meet its objectives. This books aims to bring together analysis of industrial policy, competition policy, and merger remedies to produce a framework on how to preserve a competitive environment and support output, investment, and employment growth. It is relevant to those interested in African, development, and labour economics.

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.

Why has the United States established a new technology transfer regime, and how does it actually perform? Lee and his contributors see it as a set of new game rules in which government, industry, and the academic community are allowed--authorized, in fact--to interact and collaborate toward the goal of successful technological innovation. Their book--thus far unique in its field--reports on the empirical research that examines how various independent components of the system interact and collaborate. In doing so the authors provide data and information on which policy assumptions are valid and which aren't, which rules are helpful and which are hindrances, and how the various players in this game assess its future. The result is an important contribution to the literature that explores the interface of business, government, and society--essential reading not only for academics, but also for corporate management concerned with business strategy and policy.

Lee and the contributors point out that as technologies grow in complexity, companies often target their internal resources on core competencies and utilize outside sources for supporting knowledge or technology. As universities step into the marketplace, trying to make money through aggressive commercialization of their intellectual property, they face conflict of interest problems within their walls, as well as complex and often unfathomable intellectual property negotiations with the corporations with whom they deal. Their third major point is that with declining R&D budgets but increasingly tough competition, American faculty members are troubled by the collision of two powerful but not necessarily complementary motives: the need for external funding for research and the need to preserve academic freedom and intellectual autonomy. How these issues and problems are dealt with is carefully and readably explored in this volume, which will contribute significantly to the ongoing debate.

The book offers a detailed introduction to contemporary Chinese culture industry development. It starts with an analysis of the historical aspects and the contextual background rooted in the Reform & Opening-up policy. The second part discusses the development from the perspective of reality and introduces the different production modes for the country's most influential culture industries, since these are a unique feature of culture industry development in China. Lastly, the book clearly shows the strengths and weaknesses of culture industry development in China by comparing it with that of other countries against the backdrop of globalization.

Bringing the analysis of Brazil's economic performance up to date, Baer's classic text remains the only book in English to provide a thorough historical, statistical, and institutional description of the Brazilian economy. After touching on such issues as Brazil's exporting economy prior to the 1930s, the impact of external shocks, and the historical struggle to bring inflation under control, the book turns to contemporary issues. The changing nature of Brazil's international trading and investment links, the past role of state enterprises and the process of privatization, the agricultural sector, environmental issues, and the economics of the health delivery system are thoroughly examined.

Offering a full statistical and institutional description of Brazil's economy, this book includes a review of the major controversies surrounding such issues as the high degree of concentration in the country's income distribution, the causes of inflation, the impact of various stabilization programs, and the influences of the state in the economy. Scholars, students, international institutions dealing with development, and corporate officers dealing with Latin America will welcome this up-to-date, definitive book on one of the world's largest economies.

As the rural township, village and private enterprises are becoming more significant in the Chinese economy, this text focuses on the comparison of the rural (non-state) and state firms in terms of performance. The analysis is based on the empirical results from estimating various production functions applied to cross-section and panel data. Both aggregate and firm-specific efficiencies are examined in the case studies, exploring potential sources of efficiency differentials such as ownership, scale, factor intensity, location and economic reforms. Special attention is also paid to the regional comparison of industrial development and performance. The implications of the findings in the book for economic and reform policy are thus highlighted.

Although economic growth is amongst the oldest of debates in Economics, there has been little advancement in growth theory since the classic works of Solow. As such, clear-cut answers to the context-specific determinants of growth, especially for developing countries, are rare. Bridging the Gap Between Growth Theory and Policy in Asia: An Extension of the Solow Growth Model adds to the works of Solow by showing how his original model can be extended and used for policy, discussing issues in growth econometrics, including the theoretical underpinnings of growth models, and some of the important challenges in empirical studies on economic growth. This simpler manual will be highly useful for applied economists, policy makers, and graduate students.

This book presents an in-depth study on and summary of the current practice and theories for the construction of eco-cities in China in the context of the country's rapid urbanization. It argues that by 2020, 60% of China's population will live in cities. And the evolution from "green cities" to "eco- cities", and subsequently to "smart cities" is crucial to China's sustainable development. The book presents a feasible and objective quantitative evaluation system for the sustainable and healthy development of eco-cities. It summarizes the Chinese experience in building eco- cities as the coordinated development of economy, society, resources and environment, with the goal being "to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable". This is essential to achieving a number of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the book defines the current stage of development Chinese cities have reached in terms of ecological construction, and offers guidance on selecting suitable urban ecological construction modes and improvement approaches. It provides a valuable reference source and guidebook for research on and the practice of eco-city construction. Accordingly, it will help other countries around the world, especially the developing countries, to benefit from China's successful experience.

In this book, the focus in on how developing economies in Southeast Asia ride on the wave of globalization that brings about benefits and economic growth with expanding trade and investment linkages. The central concept used in this study is production networks and industrial clusters. With examples from Indonesia and Malaysia (electronics industry), Singapore (biomedical science industry), and Thailand (automotive industry), the book explains how the production networks and industrial clusters have played crucial roles in their industrial development.

The disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the end of the cold war and the trend of economic developmental "miracles" in disparate regions of the globe have brought a vast transformation to the political, economic, and security configurations of the world. Gone is the bipolar world of superpower rivalry, replaced by new international patterns and trends.

Nowhere is the transformation more striking than in East and Southeast Asia, the region which includes China, Japan, the "four tigers" of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, and the emerging powers of Southeast Asia. The regional transformation in turn has extended beyond the region itself, profoundly affecting global politics and international relations.

"Asia's New World Order" traces the overall political, economic, and security developments of the region. The contributors look beyond the customary fixation on great powers to examine developments in the lesser powers, and to search for unforeseen policy implications and directions for the United States.

This book uses electricity-sector reforms to question some of the preconceived ideas concerning the MENA region and to provide a broader analysis of related political economy issues. It presents potential further developments of MENA's electricity-sector reforms, taking into consideration the region's unique constraints and opportunities, and discusses the practical limits of reform and deregulation. Specifically, it examines the relationship between reforms and oil prices from a new perspective and presents alternatives to the Single Buyer Model. Complementing existing research on electricity-sector reforms in other emerging markets, the book provides a new analytical framework for assessing reforms that can be easily applied to other markets and sectors.

This book approaches the issue of rural-urban inequality through fieldwork conducted in a specific township (Zuogang) in Qinggang County, part of Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China. Presenting painstaking fieldwork in a single location, it successfully illuminates fundamental aspects of the reality and the complexity of rural-urban inequality that cannot be found in macro-level studies, most of which are prepared by economists. The book offers a unique combination of rigorous economic analysis with insightful social and anthropological analysis, as well as revealing interviews with local government officials. This approach provides a rich tapestry of rural perceptions of rural-urban inequality. With in-depth analysis and empirical evidence on questions concerning the development and root causes of urban-rural disparities, the book significantly enriches our understanding of the widely discussed issue of rural-urban income inequality, but from the unique perspective of rural China.

This unique work treats economic growth and development in terms of a theory which is applicable to an economy in the post-industrial, developing, and emerging stages. The author uses the theory to analyze and study the growth of an economy through these three stages of development within the framework of the business cycle in disequilibrium. This work has taken on special importance in light of the changing world situation, including the changes in the former Soviet Union, the peace process in the Middle East, and renewed concern for developing and emerging countries.

The rapid development of Asian countries has met with mixed reactions among economists. Most economists understand that a genuine development is underway; but, since the process has been a complex one, each has been able to apply favorite explanations to the situation. In Eastern Asia, regional interdependence has been important to developing countries. This work discusses the interaction between the regional economies through trade and foreign direct investment, relating interaction to economic growth and development.

This book analyses the role of local content (LC) policy in the economic development of five resource-rich countries: Brazil, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia and the UK. The authors situate LC policy within a framework of sustainability in the form of industrial diversification and innovation-led growth, and examine how effective LC policies are in facilitating sectoral and economy-wide catching up. Structured in five chapters, the book begins with an introduction and then presents an overview of LC definitions and situates LC policies within a framework of economic development. The third chapter compares specific examples of LC development and highlights variations in practice as well as learning across case countries. The fourth chapter focuses on macro-economic, micro-economic and institutional challenges conditioning LC development and the ability of LC policies to assist innovation-led growth. The authors conclude by examining what the future holds for LC policies and their role in promoting economic growth and addressing the wider social, political and economic challenges in resource-rich countries.

This volume fills a gap in the literature by analyzing basic issues in development economics as they affect a particular type of Third World nation - small island economies. Using practical examples from the Caribbean Basin and the South Pacific, the authors examine in depth structural and employment issues, demographic and socioeconomic issues, and environmental and natural resource issues. Their aim throughout is to identify and assess the particular and unique development problems faced by small island economies so that effective policies can be derived that will more accurately reflect socioeconomic realities in these areas.

Following an introductory overview, the authors discuss the role of staple exports in the economic well being of small island economies as well as issues relating to manufacturing and service sector activities and the structural and employment impacts of tourism. In Part Two, they turn to an exploration of demographic and socioeconomic issues including the effects of urbanization on the development process, the implications of migration from and between small island nations, the brain drain problem, and the relationship between criminal activity and development. Part Three shifts the focus from people-oriented issues to concerns related to agriculture and resource utilization. Separate chapters address agriculture in the developmental mix, the use of fisheries, forest resources, minerals, and conservation issues. The final section looks at the international considerations raised by the study and outlines the policy implications of the authors' findings. Students of development economics, international trade, and finance will find this an invaluable contribution to the greater understanding of the specific development problems faced by small island economies.

This book is the second 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 second volume present latest research findings and breakthroughs in the areas of General Management, Human Resource Management, Marketing, SMEs, and Entrepreneurship. The contributors are both distinguished and young scholars from different parts of the World.

One result of the Asian economic crisis has been to shatter the belief that Asian ways of management are superior to Western ways. Now, just to survive, Asian firms have come to rethink their entire way of managing, and in his latest book, Richter, assisted by his contributing authors, gives a sharply focused analysis of how they are doing it. Emerging questions are how do Asian firms adjust to the new economic realities? and How do they develop their management style?

There are plenty of new opportunities in Asia to play the new game, but they must be grasped and productively channeled. Richter and his contributors conclude that in the end, the Asian economic crisis, or catharsis, may well be a blessing in disguise. It provides an opportunity to completely review the way things stand in Asia. Like entrepreneurs who built the Asian economies, today's firms have the opportunity to lead a revival if they can redirect their businesses. This is an important resource for professionals in all multinational organizations and for academics and their upper-level students of international business.

This book discusses the use, economic importance and impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in public and private Sudanese universities. The author provides an in-depth analysis of the economic impact of ICT from the demand perspective as well as from the public-private perspective. This book also examines the status, pattern, structure, trend and determinants of the demand for ICT in public and private Sudanese universities. It investigates the economic impacts of the uses of ICT, the potential opportunities and challenges that ICT is expected to create for public and private Sudanese universities, and explains the role of ICT in facilitating the production, creation and transfer of knowledge in Sudanese universities.