This comprehensive and lucid study, first published in 1985, reconstructs the history of Western Marxist theories of the breakdown of capitalism. It provides a critical reading of theories of breakdown, with their conflicting interpretations of a single text, their invulnerability to empirical defeat, and their retreat from class analysis, as events in the history of ideas. This study traces the sources of theoretical conflict in a series of historical and epistemological issues that shift over time and generate new conditions for speculations concerning the fate of the system. In seeking to understand that durability of the concept of breakdown, the author raises important questions about the social conditions and consequences of theoretical work and the status of critical thought in society. This title will be of interest to students of history and economics.

This book puts forward a new perspective on the planned economies of communist Eastern Europe, demonstrating in detail how economic practice in such countries was shaped by the interplay among planners, managers and Party apparatchiks. Based on extensive original research, including interviews with former employees of industrial enterprises, the book argues that shortages, chronic over-capacities and erroneous planning decisions were present from the very beginning, rather than the consequences of later plan mistakes. They were the natural outcome of a profound conflict between leaders' attempt to adapt the basic laws of economics to their ideology and interests, and the requirements for rational bureaucracy of an increasingly sophisticated economy. The book discusses the evolution of and debates about the planned economy, considers the practice of plan development and implementation, and provides very detailed examples of how the planned economy actually worked at the level of the factory, at the point where plans and managers interacted with workers and production.

Gendering Postsocialism explores changes in gendered norms and expectations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The dismantlement of state socialism in these regions triggered monumental shifts in their economic landscape, the involvement of their welfare states in social citizenship and, crucially, their established gender norms and relations, all contributing to the formation of the postsocialist citizen. Case studies examine a wide range of issues across 15 countries of the post-Soviet era. These include gender aspects of the developments in education in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Hungary, controversies around abortion legislation in Poland, migrant women and housing as a gendered problem in Russia, challenges facing women's NGOs in Bosnia, and identity formation of unemployed men in Lithuania. This close analysis reveals how different variations of neoliberal ideology, centred around the notion of the self-reliant and self-determining individual, have strongly influenced postsocialist gender identities, whilst simultaneously showing significant trends for a "retraditionalising" of gender norms and expectations. This volume suggests that despite integration with global political and free market systems, the postsocialist gendered subject combines strategies from the past with those from contemporary ideologies to navigate new multifaceted injustices around gender in Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

Since the beginning of China's economic reform in 1978, private manufacturing firms have played an indispensable role in, and have made a remarkable contribution to, the country's economic development. This book, based on extensive original research, explores the current development challenges for Chinese private manufacturing firms as China's integration with the global economy deepens. At the heart of the book are rich, nuanced empirical case studies of private manufacturing firms in the footwear and electrical equipment industries based in the city of Wenzhou, which was where private enterprise in China was pioneered in the 1980s. Particular subjects considered include the competition situation, the interaction of foreign and indigenous firms in both domestic and international markets, and the facilitating role of industrial development areas.

This book unites diverse heterodox traditions in the study of endogenous money - which until now have been confined to their own academic quarters - and explores their similarities and differences from both sides of the Atlantic. Bringing together perspectives from post-Keynesians, Circuitists and the Dijon School, the book continues the tradition of Keynes's and Kalecki's analysis of a monetary production economy, emphasising the similarities between the various approaches, and expanding the analytical breadth of the theory of endogenous money. The authors open new avenues for monetary research in order to fuel a renewed interest in the nature and role of money in capitalist economies, which is, the authors argue, one of the most controversial, and therefore fascinating, areas of economics. Providing new theoretical and empirical grounds for the construction of a general, policy oriented theory of money, this thought-provoking collection will appeal to academics, researchers and students interested in monetary economics. It will also be welcomed by monetary policymakers and central bank officials.

For most economists, 'Austrian economics' refers to a distinct school of thought, originating with Mises and Hayek and characterised by a strong commitment to free-market liberalism. This innovative book explores an alternative Austrian tradition in economics. Socialist in spirit but too diffuse to be described as a single school of thought, it shares a common conviction that the market, while possibly a good servant, is a very poor master. Demonstrating how the debate on the economics of socialism began in Austria long before the 1930s, this unique book analyses the work and impact of many leading Austrian economists. Beginning with the Austro-Marxist theorists Otto Bauer and Rudolf Hilferding and moving through to the new generation of social democratic economists, most prominently Kurt Rothschild and Josef Steindl, The Alternative Austrian Economics provides insight into the history and evolution of socialist economics in Austria. Offering a previously underrepresented discussion of a century of Austrian socialist economics, this engaging book will prove to be of great value to Marxian and heterodox economists, historians of economic thought and political scientists interested in political economy.

The US is facing enormous challenges as it enters the second decade of the twenty-first century. Some of these major issues are environmentalism and its claim of global warming; the danger from terrorism generated by Islamic fundamentalism; and affordable, quality health care. Additionally, education in America remains an unresolved dilemma contributing to America's lack of economic competitiveness. Andrew Bernstein argues that the US government is pushing the nation toward socialism in its attempt to resolve America's problems. The government's increasing control of the banking industry, its massive bailouts of auto makers, and its proposal of emissions legislation are also examples of the expansion of government's power. Bernstein argues that whatever the intentions of the government, or its illusions about the workability of its proposals, morally upright and practical solutions can only come from moving to the opposite end of the political-economic spectrum: the establishment of laissez-faire capitalism. In Atlas Shrugged, and in her non-fiction works, Ayn Rand developed a systematic body of thought, a comprehensive philosophy she dubbed "Objectivism." This philosophy has been neglected by most professional intellectuals, but it is now beginning to be seriously studied in academic philosophy departments. Objectivism provides the moral and philosophic validation of the political-economic principles of individual rights and free markets. Analysis of today's gravest social and political issues within this philosophic framework, as undertaken by Bernstein in this volume, constitutes a unique way of identifying rational solutions to these pressing issues.

The people of the Middle East face puzzling political realities as they enter the new millennium. Robust Western-style democracies have not yet emerged in the Middle East, yet at the same time, many Middle Eastern countries have experienced an important increase in political liberties in the last two decades. Economic Development and Political Reform addresses critical trends in the Middle Eastern political economy in the 1980s and 1990s and builds upon the cross-regional political science literature concerning political and economic reforms in the developing world. The book argues that external capital has had a decisive impact on economic and political development in the region. The author focuses mainly on Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Kuwait and also considers important developments in other Middle Eastern countries. He demonstrates that Middle Eastern states lacking substantial exogenous revenues - including oil and foreign aid - have experienced severe fiscal crises and have been forced to pursue neo-liberal economic strategies. By contrast, those states with greater exogenous resources have undergone milder economic crises and developed more populist economic models. Providing new theoretical perspectives on Third World political and economic reform, this innovative volume will be of particular interest to political economists, international governmental and developmental organizations, international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations in this region.

Originally published in 1977. This book provides the first concise non-technical account of what the main kinds of regional problems are, how they arise, and the kinds of policy which have been used to tackle them in the UK, USA and Western Europe. The book starts with a discussion of why "regional problems" really are situations which call for special action, followed by a short preliminary classification of problem regions (including those in the less developed countries), then on to a more detailed survey of the origins and experience of selected problem regions in the more developed market economies. The authors focus on four broad kinds of problem region; agricultural regions, coal mining regions, old textile regions, and so-called "congested" regions. They conclude with a selective survey of regional policies in these more advanced economies, distinguishing and comparing the main trends and the different national styles.

Since the early 1980s, Korea's financial development has been a tale of liberalization and opening. After the 1997 financial crisis, great strides were made in building a market-oriented financial system through sweeping reforms for deregulation and the opening of financial markets. However, the new system failed to steer the country away from a credit card boom and bust in 2003, a liquidity crisis in 2008, and a run on its savings banks in 2011, and has been severely tested again by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Financial liberalization, clearly, has been no panacea. This study analyzes the deepening of and structural changes in Korea's financial system since the early 1980s and presents the empirical results of the effects of financial development on economic growth, stability, and the distribution of income. It finds that, contrary to conventional wisdom, financial liberalization has contributed little to fostering the growth and stability of the Korean economy and has exacerbated income distribution problems. Are there any merits in financial liberalization? The authors answer this query through empirical examinations of the theories of finance and growth. They point to a clear need to further improve the efficiency, soundness, and stability of Korean financial institutions and markets.

In this book . . . Nicolas Vandeput hacks his way through the maze of quantitative supply chain optimizations. This book illustrates how the quantitative optimization of 21st century supply chains should be crafted and executed. . . . Vandeput is at the forefront of a new and better way of doing supply chains, and thanks to a richly illustrated book, where every single situation gets its own illustrating code snippet, so could you. --Joannes Vermorel, CEO, Lokad Inventory Optimization argues that mathematical inventory models can only take us so far with supply chain management. In order to optimize inventory policies, we have to use probabilistic simulations. The book explains how to implement these models and simulations step-by-step, starting from simple deterministic ones to complex multi-echelon optimization. The first two parts of the book discuss classical mathematical models, their limitations and assumptions, and a quick but effective introduction to Python is provided. Part 3 contains more advanced models that will allow you to optimize your profits, estimate your lost sales and use advanced demand distributions. It also provides an explanation of how you can optimize a multi-echelon supply chain based on a simple-yet powerful-framework. Part 4 discusses inventory optimization thanks to simulations under custom discrete demand probability functions. Inventory managers, demand planners and academics interested in gaining cost-effective solutions will benefit from the "do-it-yourself" examples and Python programs included in each chapter.

The growing centrality of risk management in pro-market governance raises important questions regarding how risks are produced, and why? Who and what is included in, and excluded from, risk management, and why? And, what is the relationship between the rise of risk management and neoliberalism? Drawing on various political economy approaches, this volume addresses these questions by examining - both analytically and empirically - diverse meanings and practices of risk management across a range of scales and themes ranging from austerity to climate change to housing and debt. The authors investigate the relationship between shifts in contemporary capitalism and the ways in which neoliberal forms of risk management have emerged, been reproduced and normalized, and, transformed historically.

The emergence of China since 1979 has been a hallmark in the global economy, not only in the past but also in this century. This comprehensive book provides an analytical view of the remarkable economic development of the most exciting economy in the world. China's impressive economic growth has propelled it from being one of the poorest countries in the world to becoming its third largest economy. It is a complex economy with a mix of characteristics resulting from being both a transition economy and a developing country, which also points to the challenges that it still faces. This book explains China's remarkable transformation from a centrally planned to a more market-oriented economy through examination of the institutional reforms necessary to support such marketisation and eventual global integration. Although no book will be able to be completely comprehensive given the scale of the economy and the remarkable pace of transformation over three decades, this study highlights the key areas giving an overview of the major developments in China's economy, enabling its prospects of continuing growth to be assessed. With topical discussion incorporating recent data and developments, this book will be a stimulating read for academic researchers, postgraduate students in economics, international business, Chinese and area studies, as well as anyone interested in understanding the Chinese economy.

A Financial Times Book of the Year A ProMarket Book of the Year "Superbly argued and important...Donald Trump is in so many ways a product of the defective capitalism described in The Great Reversal. What the U.S. needs, instead, is another Teddy Roosevelt and his energetic trust-busting. Is that still imaginable? All believers in the virtues of competitive capitalism must hope so." -Martin Wolf, Financial Times "In one industry after another...a few companies have grown so large that they have the power to keep prices high and wages low. It's great for those corporations-and bad for almost everyone else." -David Leonhardt, New York Times "Argues that the United States has much to gain by reforming how domestic markets work but also much to regain-a vitality that has been lost since the Reagan years...His analysis points to one way of making America great again: restoring our free-market competitiveness." -Arthur Herman, Wall Street Journal Why are cell-phone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question, but the search for an answer took one of the world's leading economists on an unexpected journey through some of the most hotly debated issues in his field. He reached a surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition. In the age of Silicon Valley start-ups and millennial millionaires, he hardly expected this. But the data from his cutting-edge research proved undeniable. In this compelling tale of economic detective work, we follow Thomas Philippon as he works out the facts and consequences of industry concentration, shows how lobbying and campaign contributions have defanged antitrust regulators, and considers what all this means. Philippon argues that many key problems of the American economy are due not to the flaws of capitalism or globalization but to the concentration of corporate power. By lobbying against competition, the biggest firms drive profits higher while depressing wages and limiting opportunities for investment, innovation, and growth. For the sake of ordinary Americans, he concludes, government needs to get back to what it once did best: keeping the playing field level for competition. It's time to make American markets great-and free-again.

It is through a gradual evolution, rather than by grand design, that the somewhat fragmented economic policies of the EU now appear to be heading towards a rather more robust and coherent economic governance. EU Economic Governance and Globalization considers the following crucial question as the EU enters its final stage of institution-building; will the economic institutions of the EU push ahead to reform its rigid national economies and open them up to globalization and international competition?Focusing on telecommunications, air transportation, currency competition, taxation, eastern enlargement and transatlantic relations, the contributors to this book question whether EU standards, regulatory regimes, and policies are flexible enough to bring about a dynamic and open economy. This book will be of interest to scholars of European and regional studies and international political economy, as well as policy analysts and policymakers.

This book builds on the Marx-Keynes-Schumpeter (MKS) approach to understanding the evolution of capitalism. It does so by focusing on current frameworks that study macro-dynamical systems in the tradition of the Classical, the Neoclassical and the Keynesian interpretation of the working of modern capitalist economies, and of the societies that are built upon them. The distinguished authors concentrate on different paradigms of economic conjecture in terms of their applicability to labor market problems and their implications for growing capitalist economies. They present material clearly related to current macroeconomic research which goes beyond the New Consensus macroeconomics, and which can also be related to the discussion between practitioners and politicians on the reform of both financial and labor markets. A Future for Capitalism will prove a challenging and thought provoking read for heterodox economists and broad-minded mainstream macroeconomists with a special interest in alternatives to general equilibrium macroeconomics. Contents: Introduction Part I: Stabilizing an Unstable Economy: The Challenge in Place 1. Real Financial Market Interactions and the Choice of Policy Measures Part II: Classical Unbalanced Growth and Social Evolution 2. Income Security within the Bounds of the Reserve Army Mechanism 3. Segmented Labor Markets and Low Income Work 4. Atypical Employment and Smooth Factor Substitution Part III: Unemployment and Welfare Issues in Models of Endogenous Growth 5. Economic Growth with an Employer of Last Resort: A Simple Model of Flexicurity Capitalism 6. Economic Policy in a Growth Model with Human Capital, Heterogenous Agents and Unemployment 7. Public Debt, Public Expenditures and Endogenous Growth with Real Wage Rigidities Part IV: The Road to Full-Employment Capitalism 8. Flexicurity: A Baseline Supply Side Model 9. Factor Substitution, Okun s Law and Gradual Wage Adjustments 10. Skill Formation, Heterogeneous Labor and Investment-driven Business Fluctuations 11. Leashing Capitalism: Monetary Fiscal Policy Measures and Labor Market Reforms Some Useful Stability Theorems References Index

A candid assessment of why the job market is not as healthy as we think Don't trust low unemployment numbers as proof that the labor market is doing fine-it isn't. Not Working is about those who can't find full-time work at a decent wage-the underemployed-and how their plight is contributing to widespread despair, a worsening drug epidemic, and the unchecked rise of right-wing populism. In this revelatory and outspoken book, David Blanchflower draws on his acclaimed work in the economics of labor and well-being to explain why today's postrecession economy is vastly different from what came before. He calls out our leaders and policymakers for failing to see the Great Recession coming, and for their continued failure to address one of the most unacknowledged social catastrophes of our time. Blanchflower shows how many workers are underemployed or have simply given up trying to find a well-paying job, how wage growth has not returned to prerecession levels despite rosy employment indicators, and how general prosperity has not returned since the crash of 2008. Standard economic measures are often blind to these forgotten workers, which is why Blanchflower practices the "economics of walking about"-seeing for himself how ordinary people are faring under the recovery, and taking seriously what they say and do. Not Working is his candid report on how the young and the less skilled are among the worst casualties of underemployment, how immigrants are taking the blame, and how the epidemic of unhappiness and self-destruction will continue to spread unless we deal with it.

The rapidly increasing importance of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan both in Asia and in the world economy, represents a trend that is set to continue into the 21st century. This book provides an authoritative assessment of the 20th century performance of these countries, and in particular the factors contributing to the acceleration of Asian growth in the latter part of the century. The contributors look at Asia within a global perspective and detailed comparisons are drawn with Australia and the USA. Contributions from leading experts offer a comprehensive review of the procedures necessary to establish valid international comparisons for countries with very different economic histories and levels of development. These include methods of growth performance measurement and techniques of growth accounting. The Asian Economies in the Twentieth Century will be an indispensable new tool for policy analysts, international agencies and academic researchers.

This comprehensive and lucid study, first published in 1985, reconstructs the history of Western Marxist theories of the breakdown of capitalism. It provides a critical reading of theories of breakdown, with their conflicting interpretations of a single text, their invulnerability to empirical defeat, and their retreat from class analysis, as events in the history of ideas. This study traces the sources of theoretical conflict in a series of historical and epistemological issues that shift over time and generate new conditions for speculations concerning the fate of the system. In seeking to understand that durability of the concept of breakdown, the author raises important questions about the social conditions and consequences of theoretical work and the status of critical thought in society. This title will be of interest to students of history and economics.

As we struggle with the legacy of the crisis and with the prospect of accelerating environmental degradation, it is time to ask not what we can do for capitalism but what capitalism can do for us, as citizens of a democratic society. In Civic Capitalism, Colin Hay and Anthony Payne build on their influential analysis of the crisis of the Anglo-liberal growth model to set out a coherent account of the steps required to build an alternative that is more sustainable socially, economically and environmentally. They argue that it is time to move on from the Anglo-liberal model of capitalism whose failings were so cruelly exposed by the crisis. They outline a new model that will work better in advanced capitalist societies, showing how this might be acheived in Britain today. They call this civic capitalism the governance of the market, by the state, in the name of the people, to deliver collective public goods, equity and social justice. This reverses the long ascendant logic of Anglo-liberalism in which citizens have been made to answer to the perceived logics of the capitalism they have been made to serve. The crisis shows us that we can no longer be driven by the perceived imperatives of the old model and by those who have claimed for far too long and, as it turns out, falsely to be able to discern for us the imperatives of the market. It is now time to ask what capitalism can do for us and not what we can do for capitalism.

The Future of Capitalism After the Financial Crisis: The Varieties of Capitalism Debate in the Age of Austerity contains thirteen world leading political economists writing from within eight different countries who critically analyze the current crisis tendencies of capitalism both globally and in particular countries. Given the likelihood of an increasingly crisis prone future for capitalism, it is important not only to rethink capitalism in its current manifestations or varieties. It is also important to rethink research methods and conceptual frameworks in preparation for understanding an increasingly rocky future in which capitalism itself could go the way of the many species that in the past were endangered only to become extinct. More and more titles of books and articles are suggesting that capitalism or perhaps civilization itself is endangered if we do not make radical changes in the near future. This book breaks with academic path dependency and attempts to open new vistas of political economy and of multidisciplinary analysis that are crucially important if our thought processes are to be effective in a world in jeopardy. The varieties of capitalism (VoC) debate itself came into being as the Soviet Union unraveled. It drew in scholarship from a cross-section of Marxian and heterodox political economy. The key argument of VoC was that if capitalism was the only global option then those on the Left must get involved in policy discussions on how capitalist economies can be fashioned to become competitive as well as progressive. However, the financial crisis has seen policy across the advanced economies veer toward competitiveness coupled with austerity. The lesson for the Left is that alternatives to capitalism must be sought in the here and now.

First Published in 1968. This is a study of the impact of the First WorId War on the role of government in the economy of a country which was the prototype of modern industrial society and focuses on the economic control and social response during 1914 to 1919.

Neoliberalism is a doctrine that adopts a free market policy in a deregulated political framework. In recent years, neoliberalism has become increasingly prominent as a doctrine in Western society, and has been heavily discussed in both academia and the media. In The Origins of Neoliberalism, the joint effort of an economist and a philosopher offers a theoretical overview of both neoliberalism's genesis within economic theory and social studies as well as its development outside academia. Tracing the sources of neoliberalism within the history of economic thought, the book explores the differences between neoliberalism and classical liberalism. This book's aim is to make clear that neoliberalism is not a natural development of the old classical liberalism, but rather that it represents a dramatic alteration of its original nature and meaning. Also, it fights against the current idea according to which neoliberalism would coincide with the triumph of free market economy. In its use of both history of economics and philosophy, this book takes a highly original approach to the concept of neoliberalism. The analysis presented here will be of great interest to scholars and students of history of economics, political economy, and philosophy of social science.