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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Development economics
The linkage of development aid to the promotion of human rights, democracy and good governancewas a striking departure in the post-cold war foreign policies of Northern "donor" governments. Uniquely, this book provides a systematic and comparative investigation of policies and practices in the 1990s to promote political reform in Southern '"ecipient'"countries by four donors, the governments of Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union.The use of both carrot and stick ( that is democracy assistance and aid sanctions) is examined andsharp criticism of current practice offered.
From Industrial Districts to Local Development introduces a set of papers representing the main contribution of the 'Florence school' to the recent literature on industrial districts. The authors illustrate that the revitalisation of the concept of industrial districts, returning to Alfred Marshall's nineteenth-century writings, is rooted in an unconventional interpretation of the economic development of Tuscany after the Second World War.Models of industrial organisation and empirical investigation of industrial tendencies are featured, and Alfred Marshall's concepts of the advantages of the geographical agglomeration of specialised small firms in industrial districts are reintroduced. The authors extend the analysis of purely economic effects of agglomeration, including social, cultural and institutional foundations of local development, and current case studies are presented. This book will appeal to scholars, lecturers and researchers focusing on industrial economics, development economics and economic geography. Its references to Italian political experiences will also be of interest to policymakers in both developed and developing countries.
Capitalism has long been idealized as a symbol of success, power, and free enterprise. In reality, while capitalism has brought wealth and success to some people, many others are rapidly losing opportunities to make a living as globalization transfers more and more control over local resources to distant powers. Today there is a growing sense that something is wrong with a system that treats people as mere components of the production process, focusing on efficiency to such extremes that services to citizens of even wealthy nations are neglected. The eleven anthropologists, economists, and researchers represented in this volume address this disparity of global capitalism and offer surprising solutions to the present effects of the burgeoning ""global marketplace"" on some of today's struggling communities. The essays, ranging in subject matter from the preservation of traditional fishing communities in New England to the effects of NAFTA, emphasize the need to reestablish grassroots development and locally focused use of resources and champion the concerns of contemporary poor and working-class people. In its consideration of possible alternatives to the profoundly damaging effects of uncontrolled global capitalism, Communities and Capital offers a new perspective that balances the power and success of capitalism with a recognition of its costs.
How do industrial firms in developing countries contend with and survive acute shortages of physical infrastructure? Sumila Gulyani examines the impact of inadequate power and freight transportation on the costs and competitiveness of Indian automobile firms and the innovative coping strategies that firms devise. Using in-depth, firm-level surveys and supply chain analysis, this study provides a unique perspective into the infrastructure problem and possible solutions. It identifies unconventional approaches and solutions that firms and governments can use to improve industrial access to infrastructure.
This book offers a labour perspective on wage-setting institutions, collective bargaining and economic development. Sixteen country chapters, eight on Asia and eight on Europe, focus in particular on the role and effectiveness of minimum wages in the context of national trends in income inequality, economic development, and social security.
Development Models, Globalization and Economies compares and critiques the different economic models available in today's global market place. The US or Anglo-Saxon model is often portrayed as the best, yet Europe has a well-known Social Model, and Asia has enjoyed success in the past wherein the 'Asian Economic Miracle' was highly vaunted before their crash. But now Asia, especially China, is again on a roll. The book analyzes how these models have influenced both regional and global development, and finally engages in discussions upon alternatives and the search for the 'grail'
This edited volume examines the flaws in the Washington Consensus.
The missing link identified is the relationship between market and
government. The East Asian Miracle showed that the market and
government are complementary, particularly with regard to economic
development. However, the nature of this relationship has not been
fully clarified. This book assesses development strategies and
policy issues in the context of individual and/or regional
economy's history and political-economic reality. The relationship
may be conditional to these two factors. With these perceptions in
mind, the book focuses on the role and significance of government
in economic development in pursuit for new development
strategies.
The debate between modernization theory and dependency theory has been waged for decades without either being fully accepted. Billet attempts to bridge the gap in that debate by evaluating the underlying causes of economic discontent in the developing world. The author's evaluation is based on a theoretical and empirical analysis of the interrelatedness of external forms of development capital and the implications of these patterns not only for modernization and dependency theorists but also for the least developed countries of the world. The purpose of this analysis is two-fold: (1) to evaluate the degree to which modernization and/or dependency theory is applicable to the experiences of developing countries; and (2) to evaluate why external capital flows have resulted in an overabundance of economically discontented developing countries.
While the Singaporean economy has experienced one of the highest rates of growth in the world over the past three decades, questions have recently been raised about the sustainability of the Singapore development model and its continued relevance in the global economy. This book is a compilation of specially written essays by a select group of leading international scholars. The authors analytically examine a number of related issues pertaining to national competitiveness, structural and macroeconomic concerns and policy options for the Singapore economy in order for it to sustain its economic viability in the global economy. Specifically, the volume aims to: * identify key trends and strategic issues that policymakers and businesses need to be aware of in a highly competitive and technologically sophisticated global economy * highlight what exactly it means to be 'competitive' in the new global economy * hypothesise how to position Singapore in the new global economy for it to remain a thriving and prosperous nation. As the title of the book suggests, while the focus is on Singapore, there are many lessons to be gleaned for other countries in Asia and elsewhere. Scholars of Asian studies, international economics, development economics, public policy and international business economics should find this book of great value, as should policymakers and other policy analysts.
In addressing humanitarian crises, the international community has long understood the need to extend beyond providing immediate relief, and to engage with long-term recovery activities and the prevention of similar crises in the future. However, this continuum from short-term relief to rehabilitation and development has often proved difficult to achieve. This book aims to shed light on the continuum of humanitarian crisis management, particularly from the viewpoint of major bilateral donors and agencies. Focusing on cases of armed conflicts and disasters, the authors describe the evolution of approaches and lessons learnt in practice when moving from emergency relief to recovery and prevention of future crises. Drawing on an extensive research project conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute, this book compares how a range of international organizations, bilateral cooperation agencies, NGOs, and research institutes have approached the continuum in international humanitarian crisis management. The book draws on six humanitarian crises case studies, each resulting from armed conflict or natural disasters: Timor-Leste, South Sudan, the Syrian crisis, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, and Typhoon Yolanda. The book concludes by proposing a common conceptual framework designed to appeal to different stakeholders involved in crisis management. Following on from the World Humanitarian Summit, where a new way of working on the humanitarian-development nexus was highlighted as one of five major priority trends, this book is a timely contribution to the debate which should interest researchers of humanitarian studies, conflict and peace studies, and disaster risk-management.
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.
Change manifests itself in all facets of the economy. This important collection of previously published essays illustrates how the evolutionary approach can reveal not only where change comes from, and how it happens, but also where it will lead. The Evolving Economy covers a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the biological foundations of economic behavior to the co-evolution of firms, markets, and institutions. Ulrich Witt's individualistic approach synthesizes elements familiar from the writings of Veblen and Schumpeter on economic evolution. A conceptual debate on what the notion of evolution means in the economic context is as much emphasized as is the discussion of concrete hypotheses explaining why and how evolutionary economic change comes about. Offering an outline of a paradigm focusing on endogenous economic change, this book will be of great interest to economists and economic historians. Sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists will also find this work invaluable as it presents an encompassing assessment of the role of Darwinian thought for understanding human behavior and societal evolutio
The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the international development policies of ten Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU between 2004 and 2007. The contributors offer the first thorough overview of the 'new' EU member states' development cooperation programmes, placing them in a larger political and societal context.
Within thirty years of its humble beginnings, Taiwan was listed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as one of ten newly industrialized countries (NICs). This book charts how and why such growth took place, and discusses areas of Taiwan's experience that might be useful in helping other countries achieve economic growth and improve their living standards.The second edition includes additional chapters and updated information and statistics.The author, one of the chief architects of Taiwan's economic development, worked with the government for forty years. Here, he draws on his extensive experience. He has held important positions such as Economics Minister, Finance Minister, and Minister without Portfolio dealing with, among other inter-ministerial problems, the Science and Technology Program. Presently, he is the Senior Advisor to the President. He has been involved in the development of economic, fiscal, monetary, industrial, international trade, manpower, science and technology policies.
Both international trade and investment by East Asian countries have become significantly regionalized. To support this development further, efforts for regional integration have flourished in the forms of bilateral and regional free trade agreements and the ASEAN+3 and East Asia Summit processes, among many others. This book is a compilation of papers and discussions originally presented at the international symposium held during the recent global financial crisis. The symposium aimed to shed light not only on the usual economic aspect but also on other aspects of the multidimensional phenomenon called "regional integration." Thus, in this volume the authors explore the relationship between the U.S. influence and East Asian regionalism, the characteristics of East Asian integration, and the politics of inclusion/exclusion in the integration process. In addition, they point out some "missing links" in integration efforts such as cooperation in the areas of logistics, finance, trade in services, infrastructure and human resource movement. Since the global financial crisis did not deter integration efforts (rather, it has encouraged them), this book serves as a guide for future East Asian integration in terms of what to expect and what is to be done.
The book provides an in-depth analysis of the governance of Africa's natural resource sectors (oil, biofuels, forestry, fisheries, minerals) and new insights for readers as they navigate the burgeoning research on global governance initiatives and regional/national strategies that seek to improve the governance of the continent's natural resources.
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.
The primary objective of this book is to advance the state of the art in specifying and ?tting to data structural multi-sector dynamic macroeconomic models, and empirically implementing them. The fundamental construct upon which we build is the Ramsey model. A most attractive feature of this model is the insights it provides into the dynamics of an economy in tr- sition to long-run equilibrium. With some exceptions, Ramsey models are highly aggregated - typically single sector models. However, interest often lies in understanding the forces of e- nomic growth across multiple sectors of an economy and on how policy impacts likely play out over time. Such analyses call for moredisaggregatedmodelsthatcanbe?ttocountryorregional data.Thisbookshowshowto: (i)extendthebasicmodeltom- tiple sectors, (ii) how to adapt the basic model to account for policy instruments, and (iii) 't the model to data, and obtain equilibrium values both forward and backward in time from the data points to which the model is initially 't
Much has been said about the proliferation of eGovernance projects
in developing countries and their impact on local communities. In
this book, Shirin Madon draws on 18 years of research in India in
which time many changes have occurred in terms of development
ideology and in governance reform for achieving development
goals.
Examining cutting-edge issues of international relevance in the ongoing redesign of the South African local government fiscal system, the contributors to this volume analyze the major changes that have taken place since the demise of apartheid. The 1996 Constitution and subsequent legislation dramatically redefined the public sector, mandating the development of democratic local governments empowered to provide a wide variety of key public services. However, the definition and implementation of new local functions and the supporting democratic decision-making and managerial capabilities are emerging more slowly than expected. Some difficult choices and challenges commonly faced by developing countries must be dealt with before the system can evolve to more effectively meet the substantial role envisioned for local governments. The contributors outline these choices and challenges, consider options for meeting them, and review the implications of different decisions. Their analyses also highlight the interrelationships among the elements of the local fiscal structure, and emphasize the often-ignored challenge of how to define an appropriate fiscal decentralization implementation strategy in an environment where local governments are extremely diverse in terms of needs, resources and capacities. Though the research, much of it based on newly collected data, is specific to South Africa, the approach provides a model for other countries facing similar fiscal decentralization policy challenges. Applied public finance and policy academics, policymakers in developing countries, researchers and program managers in international development organizations, and students interested in local government finance in developing countries will find this timely and comprehensive volume a valuable addition to their libraries.
...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.
Volume 28 of the Advances in International Management focuses on the opportunities and challenges for multinational enterprises that consider emerging economies as their destinations or their homes. Chapters in this volume examine the rise of home-grown multinational enterprises in emerging economies and the challenges they face when they enter developed markets. They also analyze the co-evolution of and the dynamic interaction between market institutions and business organizations in emerging economies. The volume provides a forum for thought-provoking ideas, empirical research, and discussions, and is ideal for researchers and doctoral students whose work touches emerging markets.
The collection of original contributions in this volume of "Research in Economic Anthropology" addresses two recurrent themes in economic anthropology. These are the process of economic development and the basis on which economic integration takes place. The development theme is divided between papers that are concerned with the social and demographic impact of development, and those that examine the recent post-socialist transition. The integration theme is represented by articles that examine the symbolic foundations of economic integration, and by contributions that focus on the moral basis of integration and continuity. With respect to both themes theoretical issues are discussed, and detailed ethnographic cases are drawn from Asia, Europe, Russia, Latin America, and the U.S.
This book takes a multi-disciplinary critique of economics' first principles: the fundamental and inter-related structuring assumptions that underlie the neo-classical paradigm. These assumptions, that economic agents are rational, self-interested individuals, continue to influence the teaching of economics, research agendas and policy analyses. The book argues that both the theoretical understanding of the economy and the actual working of real-world market economies diminish the scope for thinking about the relation between ethics, economics, and the economy. It highlights how market economies may "crowd out" ethical behavior and our evaluation of them elides ethical reflection. The book calls for a more pluralistic and richer approach to economic theory, one that allows ample room for ethical considerations. It provides insight into understanding human motivations and human flourishing and how a good economy requires reflection on the ethical relations between the self, world, and time. |
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