The Freedom of Peaceful Action is the first installment of the trilogy The Nature of Liberty, which makes an ethical philosophic case for individual liberty and the free market against calls for greater government regulation and control. The trilogy makes a purely secular and nonreligious ethical case for the individual's rights to life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of happiness as championed by the U.S. Founding Fathers. Inspired by such philosophic defenders of free enterprise as John Locke, Herbert Spencer, and Ayn Rand, The Nature of Liberty shows that such individual rights are not imaginary or simply assertions, but are institutions of great practical value, making prosperity and happiness possible to the degree that society recognizes them. The trilogy demonstrates the beneficence of the individual-rights approach by citing important findings in the emerging science of evolutionary psychology. Although the conclusions of evolutionary psychology have been long considered to be at odds with the philosophies of individual liberty and free markets, The Nature of Liberty presents a reconciliation that reveals their ultimate compatibility, as various important findings of evolutionary psychology, being logically applied, confirm much of what philosophic defenders of liberty have been saying for centuries. Moreover, proceeding from the viewpoint of Rand, this work argues that the structure of society most conducive to practical human well-being is commensurately the most moral and humane approach as well. The trilogy's first installment, The Freedom of Peaceful Action, focuses on the secular, philosophic foundation for a society based on individual rights. Starting from a defense of the efficacy of observational reason against criticisms from Immanuel Kant and Karl Popper, it demonstrates how a philosophic position of individual liberty and free markets is the logical result of the consistent application of human reason to observing human nature. This installment demonstrates that any political system that wishes for its citizens to thrive must take human nature into account, and that an accounting of human nature reveals that a system of maximum liberty and property protection is the one must conducive to peace and human well-being.

The theory and applications of random dynamical systems (RDS) are at the cutting edge of research in mathematics and economics, particularly in modeling the long-run evolution of economic systems subject to exogenous random shocks. Despite this interest, there are no books available that solely focus on RDS in finance and economics. Exploring this emerging area, Random Dynamical Systems in Finance shows how to model RDS in financial applications. Through numerous examples, the book explains how the theory of RDS can describe the asymptotic and qualitative behavior of systems of random and stochastic differential/difference equations in terms of stability, invariant manifolds, and attractors. The authors present many models of RDS and develop techniques for implementing RDS as approximations to financial models and option pricing formulas. For example, they approximate geometric Markov renewal processes in ergodic, merged, double-averaged, diffusion, normal deviation, and Poisson cases and apply the obtained results to option pricing formulas. With references at the end of each chapter, this book provides a variety of RDS for approximating financial models, presents numerous option pricing formulas for these models, and studies the stability and optimal control of RDS. The book is useful for researchers, academics, and graduate students in RDS and mathematical finance as well as practitioners working in the financial industry.

This book explores the social consequences of digitization. The authors determine the problems, substantiate the perspectives, and offer recommendations for determining the role of human in modern digital society. The scientific concept "homo digital" is developed, and the essence of its formation in the process of evolution of "homo economicus" is studied. The transition from the post-industrial to the information society is also considered. The authors show that in the context of the digital economy the problem of economization (commercialization) of non-economic (non-profit) spheres and types of economic activity become more urgent; they are analyzed through the prism of the theory of time in economics. Based on this, the increase of the influence of the consumer society on the modern social environment is shown. The key role of human capital in formation of a new quality of economic growth in the digital economic environment is substantiated, and transformation processes in the structure and practice of application of human capital are analyzed. The idea of social justice is reconsidered through the prism of digital society as a social environment with equal opportunities but different competences and motives. Attention is paid to the modern Russian practice of influence of the digital economy on society on the whole and each human. Scientific and methodological recommendations for indicative evaluation of quality of economic growth in the conditions of digitization of Russia's economic system are offered, and the specifics of the problem of socio-economic differentiation of the Russian population in the conditions of technological progress are shown. Based on this, it is proved that the digital economy has a contradictory influence on society, increasing the accessibility of goods and services, in particular hi-tech ones, but also causing an urgent need for adapting to the new economic conditions. This adaptation is largely determined by capabilities of people, flexibility of their thinking, and ability for learning and development. Thus, instead of the expected provision of balance of society, its disproportions could grow in practice. Also, specific features of regional migration in modern Russia in the context of digitization are determined. The role of emotional intellect in formation of the critical thinking of a company's employees is outlined. Due to this, it is shown that so called "human factor", which is traditionally treated as a source of economic risks and costs, acquires a new role in the conditions of the digital economy - a source of value creation and reduction of risks of technological progress, due to justified opposition to unfavorable changes. Informal labor relations based on digital communications, as the highest form of evolution of these relations that is achieved in the conditions of Industry 4.0, is considered. The central role of higher education in the process of social adaptation to the conditions of Industry 4.0 is outlined. The economic and legal issues of the digital economy are considered - in particular, the issue of democracy in the digital society in the conditions of e-government.

This volume brings together contributions from a diverse group of authors each of whom have worked extensively on privatization and related reforms, such as restructuring and bankruptcy, in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), sometimes referred to as the Former Soviet Union, and South East Europe (SEE). A chapter on Chinese state enterprise reforms and privatization has been included in this volume due to China??'s importance economically and politically, its successful reform program to-date and its unique approach to reforms. The volume is largely a retrospective of the ten or so years of reform from 1990 to 2000, focused on privatization in the transition countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the peaceful revolutions in Poland and in then Czechoslovakia (now the Czech and Slovak Republics), the break-up of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Russian Federation. Most of the contributors to this volume worked closely with the leading reformers in Government during this period to assist them in designing and implementing their privatization programs. One of the contributors was directly involved in the process as a leading reformer in his country, as a Deputy Minister of Economy and as Director of its Privatization Agency. For the most part, sufficient time has passed to allow the authors to now treat their subject objectively. Serbia and China are unique in comparison to the other countries discussed in this volume, as their state enterprise reform and privatization programs are still on going. China started earlier than the other transition economies, but continue to the present time, due to what someanalysts have described as a more gradualist approach to reforms that the other transition economies. Serbia was a late reformer due to the break-up of Yugoslavia, the conflict in the region and its years of isolation. Also, Serbia had to deal with the legacy of socially owned enterprises, not state-owned enterprises as in the other transition economies. Serbia is now in the process of trying to determine how to wind-up its program.
While the volume is primarily a retrospective, the overview chapter provides lessons learned on banking and infrastructure reforms and the concluding chapter on lessons learned is forward looking. There is still much to do in many of these countries, especially in the CIS and SEE, the Asian transition economies such as Viet Nam and eventually in North Korea and Cuba. The concluding chapter draws concrete lessons from the earlier experience that could be of value to these countries. As such, this volume is a unique contribution to the current academic literature on the transition economies and on privatization.
*Original articles by experts on their subjects
*One of the contributors was directly involved in the process as a leading reformer in his country

This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the Mauritian economy and its financial system. The author investigates the pre- and post- crisis financial and economic environment of Mauritius thoroughly and looks to the future potential development of the economy. Chapters feature in-depth analysis of such aspects as the banking sector, the stock market, monetary policy, capital structure, the hedging practices of Mauritian firms, and the housing market in Mauritius, among others. Moreover, the author not only builds a credit risk model for Mauritian bankers, but also develops a financial stability model to provide the reader with a full account of the Mauritian economy. The author ends with a chapter dedicated to a 2030 vision for Mauritius. This book will be of interest to researchers, students, policy-makers, central bankers and economists who wish to explore an example of an upper-income developing economy in depth.

This is the story of how a small island on the edge of Europe became one of the world's major tax havens. From global corporations such as Apple and Google, to investment bankers and mainstream politicians, those taking advantage of Ireland's pro-business tax laws and shadow banking system have amassed untold riches at enormous social cost to ordinary people at home and abroad. Tax Haven Ireland uncovers the central players in this process and exposes the coverups employed by the Irish state, with the help of accountants, lawyers and financial services companies. From the lucrative internet porn industry to corruption in the property market, this issue distorts the economy across the state and in the wider international system, and its history runs deep, going back the country's origins as a British colonial outpost. Today, in the wake of Brexit and in the shadow of yet another economic crash, what can be done to prevent such dangerous behaviour and reorganise our economies to invest in the people? Can Ireland - and all of us - build an alternative economy based on fairness and democratic values?

'Dr Donghyun Park is a prominent and rare economist in Asia who can combine frontline economic theories, lively data, and real-time policy analyses. Capitalism in the 21st Century is a masterful book by Dr Park, providing a comprehensive understanding of heterogenous trajectories of economies around the globe and more fundamental mechanisms of the modern capitalistic system. This is a 'must-read' for those who are interested in comparative economic systems, global economy, and international development.'Yasuyuki SawadaChief Economist, Asian Development BankProfessor of Economics, University of Tokyo'Donghyun Park makes clear that capitalism gets a bad rap, in large part because of too much emphasis on capital as in financial engineering, and too much emphasis on capitals as in government protectionism. Park argues a compelling case that genuine capitalism, which is about entrepreneurship, is necessary to solve the big problems most people face around the globe.'Adam S PosenPresident, Peterson Institute of International EconomicsGlobal capitalism is currently suffering from an unmistakable malaise, epitomized by wide and growing inequality that is eroding popular support for capitalism. Such anti-capitalist sentiment, coupled with a growing anti-globalization mood, delivered Brexit in a UK referendum and swept Donald Trump to the US presidency. In Capitalism in the 21st Century, internationally well-regarded economist Dr Donghyun Park articulately explains why more capitalism is needed to tackle global problems such as climate change and inhumane poverty. While defending capitalism against its unfair demonization, the author makes a positive case for entrepreneurial capitalism, which creates wealth and jobs as well as drives human progress. According to the author, reforming the financial industry, which has become a self-serving leviathan, and more fundamentally, tweaking the economic role of the government, which stifles growth-promoting entrepreneurship, are critical to restoring the vitality of capitalism. The book is explicitly written in such a way that the general reader without any background in economics or finance can easily understand it.Related Link(s)

'Dr Donghyun Park is a prominent and rare economist in Asia who can combine frontline economic theories, lively data, and real-time policy analyses. Capitalism in the 21st Century is a masterful book by Dr Park, providing a comprehensive understanding of heterogenous trajectories of economies around the globe and more fundamental mechanisms of the modern capitalistic system. This is a 'must-read' for those who are interested in comparative economic systems, global economy, and international development.'Yasuyuki SawadaChief Economist, Asian Development BankProfessor of Economics, University of Tokyo'Donghyun Park makes clear that capitalism gets a bad rap, in large part because of too much emphasis on capital as in financial engineering, and too much emphasis on capitals as in government protectionism. Park argues a compelling case that genuine capitalism, which is about entrepreneurship, is necessary to solve the big problems most people face around the globe.'Adam S PosenPresident, Peterson Institute of International EconomicsGlobal capitalism is currently suffering from an unmistakable malaise, epitomized by wide and growing inequality that is eroding popular support for capitalism. Such anti-capitalist sentiment, coupled with a growing anti-globalization mood, delivered Brexit in a UK referendum and swept Donald Trump to the US presidency. In Capitalism in the 21st Century, internationally well-regarded economist Dr Donghyun Park articulately explains why more capitalism is needed to tackle global problems such as climate change and inhumane poverty. While defending capitalism against its unfair demonization, the author makes a positive case for entrepreneurial capitalism, which creates wealth and jobs as well as drives human progress. According to the author, reforming the financial industry, which has become a self-serving leviathan, and more fundamentally, tweaking the economic role of the government, which stifles growth-promoting entrepreneurship, are critical to restoring the vitality of capitalism. The book is explicitly written in such a way that the general reader without any background in economics or finance can easily understand it.Related Link(s)

The aim of this book, first published in 1939, is to provide a comprehensive description of the protectionist system that had been in force in Britain since 1931. It explains the principles and difficulties involved in framing and administering a customs and excise tariff, which has both revenue and political purposes. The problems of tariff negotiating are discussed, and trade agreements made are summarized.

This open access book presents the most current research results and knowledge from five multidisciplinary themes: Vulnerability of Arctic Environments, Vulnerability of Arctic Societies, Local and Traditional Knowledge, Building Long-term Human Capacity, New Markets for the Arctic, including tourism and safety. The themes are those discussed at the first ever UArctic Congress Science Section, St. Petersburg, Russia, September 2016. The book looks at the Arctic from a holistic perspective; how the environment (both marine and terrestrial) and communities can adapt and manage the changes due to climate change. The chapters provide examples of the state-of-the-art research, bringing together both scientific and local knowledge to form a comprehensive and cohesive volume. Except where otherwise noted, this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

This book provides a very broad and representative selection of the scholarly literature found in learned journals on the subject of government-business relations in the age of industry, the period since 1870. It covers all the arenas of business-government interaction.

A groundbreaking look at complexity theory and its implications in the world of finance
Complexity theory tells us that processes with a large number of seemingly independent agents-such as free markets-can spontaneously organize themselves into a coherent system. In this fascinating book, Edgar Peters brings together scientific theory, the artistic process, and economics to show how the randomness and uncertainty of complexity theory can be applied to financial markets. Written in an engaging and accessible style, this is a thoughtful, conceptual look at the way free markets are, by their nature, continually evolving complex systems. Expanding on previous explorations of chaos theory, Peters draws on real-life examples ranging from the Asian crisis to America's love of conspiracy to show that complexity and randomness are necessary for the free markets to operate in a competitive manner.

This book responds to an increasingly pluricentric, reflexive, and flexible society as a result of globalization and economic liberation from the bureaucratic-political system. The third industrial revolution saw citizens, companies, and the economy acting in functional networks rather than in static ones, making top-down governing ever more difficult. Despite this, society systems created in the wake of the second industrial revolution linger on and must adapt to the globalized, digitized reality in order to stay necessary and relevant. Through a theoretical discussion and four empirical cases studying governance and innovation systems, this volume is the first to describe the causes behind the impasse Western society seems to find itself in and suggests inclusive economic and democratic structures working in a bottom-up fashion as a way out. By understanding local circumstances as well as the innovative power of inclusive and participative structures, we can begin to pave the way to legitimate governance and growth. This book adds to the academic literature on democracy, governance, economy, and innovation systems for researchers and scholars of political science, social science, and economics.

What is the nature and role of competition in markets and politics? This book examines the institutional dimension of markets and the rules and institutions that condition the operation of market economies. Particular attention is paid to the the role of the state, specifically the role of governments in shaping and maintaining the economic constitution of their societies.

With regions and nations having formally fulfilled the ex ante conditionality, this book provides a first overall review of RIS3 policy processes, aiming to assess the consistency of the concept of smart specialization from an applied, policy-oriented perspective. Moving from the theory of design to the practice of implementation, the reflections and case studies in this volume reveal strengths and weaknesses in the way concrete strategies have been conceived and implemented, enabling reflections on the future of the concept in a more general sense. In many cases, smart specialization strategies turn out to be new variants of regional development policies, embracing the importance of a place-based approach. However, the approach's potential to add distinctive value will stem from its capacity to turn innovation and knowledge into tools for local development by harnessing them for wider territorial development goals. By helping regions to identify and leverage untapped resources through new processes, smart specialization-based policies may help to reconcile cohesion and competitiveness objective. Consequently, new approaches appear most promising where institutional, administrative and political conditions allow the setup of genuinely new processes and where their focus is on territorial assets in a comprehensive manner rather than mere industrial renewal. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

This book offers a fresh take on a major question of global debate: what explains the rise in economic fraud in so many societies around the world? The author argues that the current age of fraud is an outcome of not only political-economic but also moral transformations that have taken place in societies reshaped by neoliberalism. Using the case of Uganda, the book traces these socio-cultural and especially moral repercussions of embedding neoliberalism. Uganda offers an important case of investigation for three reasons: the high level of foreign intervention by donors, aid agencies, international organisations, NGOs and corporations that have tried to produce the first fully-fledged market society in Africa there; the country's reputation as having adopted neoliberal reforms most extensively, and the intensification of fraud in many sectors of the economy since the early 2000s. The book explores the rise and operation of the neoliberal moral economy and its world of hard and fraudulent practices. It analyses especially the moral-economic character of agricultural produce markets in eastern Uganda. It shows that neoliberal moral restructuring is a highly political, contested and conflict-ridden process, predominantly works via recalibrating the political-economic structure of a country, and deeply affects how people think and go about earning a living and treat others with whom they do business. The book offers an in-depth, data-based analysis of the moral climate of a market society in motion and in so doing offers insights and lessons for elsewhere in the Global South and North.

Post-communist transformation differs from any previous experience of societies in transition by its scope, speed, international framework and complicity. It contains elements of democratization, marketization, nation building, and the creation of a new international environment in the framework of globalization. The contributors give an internal perspective of these highly complicated processes in a comparative form and using a multidisciplinary approach.

This text offers an unorthodox account of why and how global capitalism has entered a phase of unsustainable crises of accumulation and legitimacy, and examines the different exit strategies open to Latin American countries.

This book provides new insights and research studies on how developing countries come to terms with the nationalisation policies of Gulf economies that provide employment for their nationals. Focusing on regions and countries that have traditionally been overlooked, it includes studies on labour migration from Egypt to the Middle East and from the Philippines to Lebanon, migrant experiences and policy prospects in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and Indian migration to the Gulf. The book fills a critical gap in migration research by studying migration from various Indian states, such as Tamil Nadu, Telugu-speaking states (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It also explores the unexpected phenomenon of demographic windows of economic opportunity (not documented in demographic literature) observed in a few Arab countries due to older migrant expatriates returning to their home country; the impact of international out-migration on intergenerational educational mobility among children in migrant-sending households in Kerala; and forced migration of Kerala Muslims to the Gulf.

Developmental Macroeconomics: Access to Demand, the Exchange Rate and Growth offers a new approach to development economics and macroeconomics. It is a Keynesian-structuralist approach to economics applied to middle income countries that emphasizes the strategic role of demand in creating investment opportunities that are essential to economic development. It also explores crucial links between short-term full employment and financial stability with medium term growth. While this book emphasizes the central role played by the exchange rate it does not ignore other macroeconomic prices (the interest rate, the inflation rate and the profit rate). It develops a group of concepts and models and blends them together in the model of the tendency to the cyclical overvaluation of the exchange rate in developing countries. According to this model, the exchange rate tends to be chronically overvalued. In so far that this is true the exchange rate ceases to be just a short-term problem to be treated by macroeconomics and becomes central to development economics and should be crucially oriented to manage the exchange rate and keep it competitive at the industrial equilibrium level. The book closes with the presentation of new developmentalism - a national development strategy based on the system of models previously discussed that is both an alternative to old national-developmentalism and to liberal orthodoxy or the Washington consensus.

Mainstream research has rationalized China's stock market on the basis of paradigms such as the institutional approach, the efficient market hypothesis, and corporate valuation principles. The deviations from such paradigms have been analyzed as puzzles of China's stock market. Girardin and Liu explore to what extent, in the perspective of Chinese cultural and historical characteristics, far from being puzzles, these 'deviations' are rather the symptoms of a consistent strategy for the design, development and regulation of a government-dominated financial system. This book will help investors, observers and researchers understand the hidden logic of the design and functioning of China's modern stock market, taking a political economy view.

American manufacturing is in obvious crisis: the sector lost three million jobs between 2000 and 2003 as the American trade deficit shot to record highs. Manufacturers have increasingly decentralized productive responsibilities to armies of supplier firms, both domestically and abroad. Many have speculated as to whether or not manufacturing is even feasible in the United States, given the difficulties. Josh Whitford's book examines the issues behind this crisis, looking at the emergence of a 'new old economy', in which relationships between firms have become much more important. Whitford shows that discussion of this shift, in the media and in the academic literature, hits on the right issues - globalization, de-industrialization, and the outsourcing of production in marketized and in network relationships - but in an overly polarized way that obscures as much as it enlightens. Drawing on the results of extensive interviews conducted with manufacturers in the American Upper Midwest, Whitford shows that the range of possibilities is more complex and contingent than is usually recognised. Highlighting heretofore unexamined elements of constraint, contradiction, and innovation that characterize contemporary network production models, Whitford shakes received understandings in economic and organizational sociology, comparative political economy, and economic geography to reveal ways in which the American economic development apparatus can be adjusted to better meet the challenges of a highly decentralized production regime.

The global ubiquity of informal economic activities has turned informality into a key policy question, not least in international peace- and state-building. This book explores a core aspect of economic informality: its resilience despite comprehensive international anti-informality operations. Using Kosovo as an illustrative case, Danielsson suggests that to understand the resilience of informality, two distinct areas of practice need to be studied in conjunction rather than separately. The first concerns the professional practices enacted by international organisations in their attempts to formalise the informal economy in Kosovo. The second area of practice concerns the everyday informal economic practices of social agents in Kosovo. To study these areas of practice at their junction, Danielsson uses Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic power and argues that in post-conflict Kosovo, the distinct practices have become interwoven and co-constitutive of a novel ordering and meaning of informality. The resilience of the informal thus plays out through - while undermining and reinforcing the need of - the international anti-informality operations. Including scholarship from global governance, global political economy and social theory, this book's original perspective on informal economies and power will appeal to scholars and professionals located in peace studies, development studies, and the field of international relations.

Economic theory and a growing body of empirical research support the idea that economic freedom is an important ingredient to long-run economic prosperity. However, the determinants of economic freedom are much less understood than the benefits that freedom provides. Economic Freedom and Prosperity addresses this major gap in our knowledge. If private property and economic freedom are essential for achieving and maintaining a high standard of living, it is crucial to understand how improvements in these areas have been achieved and whether there are lessons that can be replicated in less free areas of the world today. In this edited collection, contributors investigate this research question through multiple methodologies. Beginning with three chapters that theoretically explore ways in which economic freedom might be better achieved, it then moves on to a series of empirical chapters that examine questions including the speed and permanence of reform, the deep long-run determinants of economic freedom, the relationship between voice and exit in impacting freedom, the role of crises in generating change, and immigration. Finally, the book considers the evolution of freedom in China, development economics, and international trade, and it concludes with a consideration of what is necessary to promote a humane liberalism consistent with economic freedom. Economic Freedom and Prosperity will be of great interest to all social scientists concerned with issues of institutional change. It will particularly appeal to those concerned with economic development and the determinants of an environment of economic freedom.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the neoliberal ideas that arguably caused the damage have been triumphant in presenting themselves as the only possible solution for it. How can we account for the persistence of neoliberal hegemony, in spite of its obviously disastrous effects upon labor, capital, ecology, and society? The argument pursued in this book is that part of the persistence of neoliberalism has to do with the archaic and obscure political theology upon which of much of its discourse trades. This is a political theology of chance that both underwrites and obscures sacrificial devotion to market outcomes. Joshua Ramey structures this political theology around hidden homologies between modern markets, as non-rational randomizing 'meta-information processors', and archaic divination tools, which are used in public acts of tradition-bound attempts to interpret the deliverances of chance. Ramey argues that only by recognizing the persistently sacred character of chance within putatively secularized discourses of risk and randomness can the investments of neoliberal power be exposed at their sacred source, and an alternative political theology be constructed.