The Annual Report objectively reflects the whole year's progress of politics, economy, society, culture, system, environment, innovation and reform, as well as the problems, challenges and countermeasures in traditional special economic zones and new special economic zones. It analyses China's Special Economic Zones, including overall review on the whole year's development state of the reform experimental zone and part of new special economic zones, which focuses on analyzing the transformation of special economic zones, use of resources, the sustainable development, economic and social development, social security and technical innovation from the aspects of present situation of development, the comparative analysis, and policy suggestions and puts forward development suggestions for each specific issue.

Emerging markets have long posed a challenge for finance. Standard models are often ill suited to deal with the specific circumstances arising in these markets. However, the interest in emerging markets has provided impetus for the adaptation of current models to new circumstances and the development of new models. During recent years, much new research has been devoted to emerging markets. This important collection presents key articles in this literature. Topics include: the properties of emerging market equity returns; diversification benefits; market integration and segmentation of emerging markets; the financial and real effects of the financial liberalization process that many countries embarked upon; the late nineties crises and the debate regarding contagion; and microstructure in emerging markets. The collection will be of interest to academics in international finance, international economics and development economics and to practitioners and policymakers alike.

Subregional economic cooperation has been an important yet relatively unexplored aspect of the quest by central and eastern European states to make the transition from integration in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance to full EU membership.Martin Dangerfield provides a comprehensive and in-depth study of what has clearly been the most important initiative in this respect - the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). He examines the origins, aims, objectives and structure of CEFTA as well as assessing the main results of the cooperation so far. Analysis is included on both the economic and political impact of CEFTA and its role as a pre-accession instrument to the EU. Martin Dangerfield discusses integration-deepening in the CEFTA context, the debate over institutionalization and the CEFTA enlargement process. The final part of the book examines the future viability of CEFTA in the context of the process of eastward expansion of the EU. This book will be a valuable addition to the existing literature in the area, appealing to academics and researchers in European and transition studies.

The author analyses how finance flows can be guided towards low-carbon value generation and growth. He investigates the arrangements between actors in the innovation system and policy measures such as technology push, demand-pull and regulation with regard to their influence on private investments. The case studies include innovation intermediaries, energy service contracting for LED lighting and renewable energy project finance. The results show that barriers to low-carbon innovation inhibit the financing for companies, projects and infrastructure. Also, transparent structures which focus on risk and return facilitate private investments and, finally, both science, technology and innovation policies and regulation are needed to spur private finance.

Authoritarian Neoliberalism explores how neoliberal forms of managing capitalism are challenging democratic governance at local, national and international levels. Identifying a spectrum of policies and practices that seek to reproduce neoliberalism and shield it from popular and democratic contestation, contributors provide original case studies that investigate the legal-administrative, social, coercive and corporate dimensions of authoritarian neoliberalism across the global North and South. They detail the crisis-ridden intertwinement of authoritarian statecraft and neoliberal reforms, and trace the transformation of key societal sites in capitalism (e.g. states, households, workplaces, urban spaces) through uneven yet cumulative processes of neoliberalization. Informed by innovative conceptual and methodological approaches, Authoritarian Neoliberalism uncovers how inequalities of power are produced and reproduced in capitalist societies, and highlights how alternatives to neoliberalism can be formulated and pursued. The book was originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.

This book offers a new understanding of innovation in the built environment. The ways meaning of innovation is constructed has important implications for policymakers, project managers, academics and students. Through a longitudinal research study into innovation in firms and projects, the book addresses some key themes, challenges and concerns that practitioners face when managing innovation in the built environment. It examines the key drivers for innovation in the construction, engineering and infrastructure firms and projects. In particular, the questions of how and why innovation becomes recognised and sustained over time are explored. Different theoretical perspectives are considered to explain different aspects of innovation. This includes sensemaking, organisational and individual identity, storytelling and narration. The book has practical implications for how organisational activities become labelled as 'innovation' and for what purpose. It shares some lived stories of innovation as mobilised by practising managers. The connectivity between the formal narratives of innovation at the policy level and the lived narratives of innovation articulated by practitioners is explored. Combining the theory with practice, this book presents an insightful view on the implications of innovation in the business world today.

In ten years 80 per cent of the legislation related to economics, maybe also to taxes and social aff airs, will be of Community origin." This declaration has been largely quoted, paraphrased and deformed by different authors, creating a persistent myth according to which 80% of the legislative activity of the national legislatures would soon be reduced to the simple transposition of European norms". This book addresses the topic of the scope and impact of Europeanization on national legislation, as a part of the Europeanization debate which raises normative concerns linked to the "democratic deficit" debate. The state of the art shows that there are many assumptions and claims on how European integration may affect national legislation and, more generally, domestic governance but that there is a lack of solid and comparative data to test them. The aim of the book is to give a solid and comparative insight into Europeanization focusing on effective outcomes in a systematic way. This book analyzes the period 1986-2008 and includes an introduction, a global overview of European legislative activities which set the background for Europeanization of national legislatures, 9 country contributions (8 EU member states + Switzerland) including systematic, comparative and standardized data, tables and figures, and a conclusion with a comparative analysis of the European and domestic reasons for Europeanization. All national contributions conclude that Europeanization of national legislation is much more limited than assumed in the literature and public debate. It is limited to 10 to 30% of laws (depending on the country), far less than the 80% predicted by Jacques Delors and mentioned daily by medias and public opinion leaders to demonstrate EU domination on member states. Beside that general statement, the various chapters propose a deep insight on EU constraint over national legislation, providing much information on the kind of laws and policies that are Europeanized, the evolution of this process through time, the impact of Europeanization on the balance of powers and the relations between majority and opposition at national level, the strategies developed by national institutions in that context, and many other issues, making the book of interest to academics and policy-makers concerned with Europeanization and national legislation.

Circular Economy (CE) is considered as one of the important strategies in addressing Sustainable Development Goals. Practicing Circular Economy provides an overview of CE, covering its evolution, describing the key concepts, programs, policies, and regulations. It illustrates several business opportunities over a hundred hand-picked case studies that encompass numerous sectors, various scales of operations and geographies. Another unique feature of the book is the activities listed in each chapter to invoke thoughts, frame assignments, and generate discussions. Each chapter lists key additional reading materials and takeaways. Aimed at mid- and senior-level managers, policy makers, investors, entrepreneurs, consultants, researchers, professors, and academic students involved in the subject of environmental management and sustainability, this book: Introduces the evolution of CE to clarify the key concepts and introduce some of the important global programs and initiatives CE economy with case studies Gives a global overview of adoption of CE covering countries such as India, Japan, Korea, China, EU, North America, Australia, and several more Includes information on methodologies followed, tools, and knowledge resources for practicing CE Provides insight to the business models with numerous case studies covering product design, manufacturing, and services and the role of innovation and financing Presents a comprehensive overview of opportunities in CE in sectors such as textile, steel, agriculture, and food Covers newly emerging paradigms of CE such as regional circular economy, circular supply chains, and sustainable procurement and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CE Practicing Circular Economy is thus an important resource for every circular economy practitioner and especially to those who aspire to make a career in circular economy.

Circular Economy (CE) is considered as one of the important strategies in addressing Sustainable Development Goals. Practicing Circular Economy provides an overview of CE, covering its evolution, describing the key concepts, programs, policies, and regulations. It illustrates several business opportunities over a hundred hand-picked case studies that encompass numerous sectors, various scales of operations and geographies. Another unique feature of the book is the activities listed in each chapter to invoke thoughts, frame assignments, and generate discussions. Each chapter lists key additional reading materials and takeaways. Aimed at mid- and senior-level managers, policy makers, investors, entrepreneurs, consultants, researchers, professors, and academic students involved in the subject of environmental management and sustainability, this book: Introduces the evolution of CE to clarify the key concepts and introduce some of the important global programs and initiatives CE economy with case studies Gives a global overview of adoption of CE covering countries such as India, Japan, Korea, China, EU, North America, Australia, and several more Includes information on methodologies followed, tools, and knowledge resources for practicing CE Provides insight to the business models with numerous case studies covering product design, manufacturing, and services and the role of innovation and financing Presents a comprehensive overview of opportunities in CE in sectors such as textile, steel, agriculture, and food Covers newly emerging paradigms of CE such as regional circular economy, circular supply chains, and sustainable procurement and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CE Practicing Circular Economy is thus an important resource for every circular economy practitioner and especially to those who aspire to make a career in circular economy.

Featured on NPR and PBS's SciTech Now, and in Fast Company, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal The inside story of the new race to conquer space For the outsize personalities staking their fortunes on spaceships, the new race to explore space could be a dead end, a lucrative opportunity--or the key to humanity's survival. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos take center stage in this fast-paced narrative as they attempt to disrupt the space economy and feed their own egos. We meet a supporting cast of equally fascinating entrepreneurs, from the irrepressible British mogul Richard Branson to the satellite internet visionary Greg Wyler. Tim Fernholz's fly-on-the-wall reporting captures an industry in the midst of disruption. NASA seeks to preserve its ambitious space program, traditional aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin scramble to adapt to new competitors, lobbyists tussle over public funds, and lawmakers try to prevent this new space race from sparking global conflict. Fernholz spins this high-stakes marathon into a riveting tale of rivalry and survival.

Debt as Power is a timely and innovative contribution to our understanding of one of the most prescient issues of our time: the explosion of debt across the global economy and related requirement of political leaders to pursue exponential growth to meet the demands of creditors and investors. The book is distinctive in offering a historically sensitive and comprehensive analysis of debt as an interconnected and global phenomenon. -- .

By 1999, Russia's economy was growing at almost 7% per year, and by 2008 reached 11th place in the world GDP rankings. Russia is now the world's second largest producer and exporter of oil, the largest producer and exporter of natural gas, and as a result has the third largest stock of foreign exchange reserves in the world, behind only China and Japan. But while this impressive economic growth has raised the average standard of living and put a number of wealthy Russians on the Forbes billionaires list, it has failed to solve the country's deep economic and social problems inherited from the Soviet times. Russia continues to suffer from a distorted economic structure, with its low labor productivity, heavy reliance on natural resource extraction, low life expectancy, high income inequality, and weak institutions. While a voluminous amount of literature has studied various individual aspects of the Russian economy, in the West there has been no comprehensive and systematic analysis of the socialist legacies, the current state, and future prospects of the Russian economy gathered in one book. The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy fills this gap by offering a broad range of topics written by the best Western and Russian scholars of the Russian economy. While the book's focus is the current state of the Russian economy, the first part of the book also addresses the legacy of the Soviet command economy and offers an analysis of institutional aspects of Russia's economic development over the last decade. The second part covers the most important sectors of the economy. The third part examines the economic challenges created by the gigantic magnitude of regional, geographic, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of Russia. The fourth part covers various social issues, including health, education, and demographic challenges. It will also examine broad policy challenges, including the tax system, rule of law, as well as corruption and the underground economy. Michael Alexeev and Shlomo Weber provide for the first time in one volume a complete, well-rounded, and essential look at the complex, emerging Russian economy.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Wilfried Martens is one of the most distinguished politicians to come from Belgium in the last ffty years. In his long poli- cal career, he has always fought for the implementation of his goals with passion and deep conviction. What has to be mentioned frst in this context is his s- cessful advocacy of federalism in his home country, Belgium. Already in his time as chair of the CVP youth league from 1967 to 1972, groundbreaking manifestos on Belgium's federali- tion were written under his auspices. Later on, as President of the CVP, he succeeded in negotiating the Egmont Pact, whose essential elements form part of today's federal Belgian C- stitution. He served as Prime Minister for more than a decade, and in this role he convinced the regions and linguistic groups of his country, which were often at odds with each other, of the necessity for cooperation and solidarity.

Have you ever wondered how prices are determined, or why you bought a specific quantity of something? The answers to these and other questions, as well as the theories guiding decisions by consumers and producers, are explained in Microeconomics— a southern African perspective.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to microeconomics theory, offering traditional theories of consumer and producer behaviour set against a contemporary southern African background.

This second edition of Microeconomics – a southern African perspective provides a comprehensive and current introduction to microeconomic theory for the southern African context, while retaining the original ethos from the first edition. It addresses traditional theories of consumer and producer behaviour as prescribed in most introductory microeconomic modules and answers questions around how consumers and producers interact in the market, looking specifically at the choices made by producers in their endeavour to produce optimally.

Suitable for introductory semester-based courses in microeconomics, it facilitates learning through activities and self-evaluation exercises at the end of each chapter, with feedback to activities and answers to the exercises at the end of the book. The study of economics provides the tools for analysis and a framework for thinking that can aid you in making more informed decisions when faced with economic problems, making it suitable for economics students or those requiring an understanding of the economy within a specific financial field.

This book explores the issue of poverty reduction within mainland Southeast Asia with a specific focus on the impact of the private sector and tourism. Covering Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan, the book discusses how success in poverty reduction has come about largely through innovation in the private sector, foreign investment and the move toward more market based economic policies as opposed to foreign aid, or interventions by international development programs, to reduce poverty in the region.

Two systems of governance, capitalism and democracy, prevail in the world today. Operating simultaneously in partially distinct domains, these systems rely on indirect governance through regulated competition to coordinate actors; inevitably, these systems influence and transform each other. This book rejects the simple equation of capitalism with markets in favor of a three-level system, a model which recognizes that markets are administered by regulators through institutions and governed by a political authority with the power to regulate behavior, punish transgressors, and redesign institutions. This system's emergence required the sovereign to relinquish some power in order to release the energies of economic actors. Rather than spreading through an unguided natural process like trade, capitalism emerged where competitive pressures forced political authorities to take risks in order to achieve increased revenues by permitting markets for land, labor, and capital.

Identifying factors which stimulate regional growth and international competitiveness and using them for forecasting are the aims of this book. Departing from the theory of comparative advantages and their impact, the author demonstrates that such an approach has to be based on a sound theoretical foundation and on appropriate, advanced econometric methods. He proposes the use of heuristic optimization techniques, Monte Carlo simulation experiments and Lasso-type estimators to avoid bias or misleading findings, which might be the result of applying standard regression methods when key assumptions are not satisfied. In addition, the author demonstrates how some heuristic optimization-based methods can be used to obtain forecasts of industrial production in Russia and Germany founded on past observations and some leading indicators.

The Soviet Economy is a well informed work which seeks to acquaint students with the structure and problems of the economy of the USSR, analysing the practical and theoretical problems within the institutional structure of the Soviet system.

This book serves as a one-stop source for comprehensive information on the entertainment industry, providing a historical overview of the economics of the field, a series of short biographies of the impact makers, and an extensive annotated bibliography of more sources for in-depth research. Entertainment Industry: A Reference Handbook casts the spotlight on the evolution of the entertainment industry over the entire span of the 20th century, covering everything from vaudeville to radio and from sports to television and movies. It explores how the entertainment industry stands apart from other high-dollar, big-business enterprises with regard to how its economy is sustained, and it serves as a handy source for more in-depth information that general readers will find fascinating. An extensive annotated bibliography guides reader through their research, while a historical overview of the economics of the industry, a series of short biographies of the impact makers in the industry, and sources of more current information makes this work essential reading for anyone seeking comprehensive and specific information about the entertainment industry.

Firm Size, Innovation and Market Structure uses evolutionary dynamic theory, non-linear mathematics and computer simulation techniques to explore the relationship between firm size, innovation and market structure. The book begins by reviewing the connection between these variables from a theoretical and an empirical point of view, and goes on to illustrate how analytical tools may be used in order to explore Schumpeterian propositions regarding firm size, innovation and the specific role of idiosyncratic events. In the concluding chapter, Mariana Mazzucato focuses on the US automobile industry from 1900-1997, and uses empirical evidence in order to determine whether or not there is a relationship between market share instability and stock price volatility, and to what degree the relationship is connected to industry specific factors. This innovative new book will prove invaluable to researchers, lecturers and scholars of industrial organisation, technology and market structure.

Through a deep examination of what has become known as the 'Preston Model', this book explores an innovative approach to local economic development that utilises economic democratisation to realise both social and economic objectives. The first part of the book examines the main strands of the Preston Model framework and what makes it different to other urban regeneration schemes: the combination of local anchor institution procurement to generate and retain local wealth, and the development of cooperatives to fill gaps in local supply chains. The chapters in this section consider the Preston Model as viewed through different lenses: politics and society, community, economics, democracy, trade unionism, language and communication, education and transferability. The second part explores the influences and applications of the Preston Model, in theory and practice, in selected locations and various circumstances worldwide. This includes discussion of key ideas such as economic democracy, social enterprise and the creation of capacity for cooperative self-government, alongside essays on prominent international examples of similar approaches, which can inform and in turn be informed by the Preston Model. This book is essential reading for those interested in regional and national policy, economic democracy and alternative economic and political ideas.

Efforts to combine the outstanding economic performance in the decades following the Second World War with social security appear to be endangered half way through the first decade of the 21st century. This book draws together an international team of contributors, including Douglass North, Harold Demsetz and Michael Piore to assess the current world order.

This book addresses the prospects and challenges concerning both soft and hard infrastructure development in Asia and provides a framework for achieving Asian connectivity through regional infrastructure cooperation towards a seamless Asia. Key topics included are: - demand estimates of national and regional infrastructure in transport, electricity, information and communication technology, and water and sanitation; - empirical results on the costs and benefits of regional infrastructure for economies and households; - the impact of infrastructure development on the environment and climate; - sources and instruments of infrastructure financing; - best practices and lessons learned from the experiences of the Asian region and other regions; and - experiences of public-private partnership projects. This insightful book will serve as a definitive knowledge product for policymakers, academics, private sector experts and infrastructure practitioners interested in the regional and national infrastructure demand, investment and benefits in the region. Concerned officials from private and public sectors, and other experts involved in environmental and natural resources studies will also find this compendium invaluable. Contributors: R. Adhikari, N. Banik, B.N. Bhattacharyay, H. Dick, M. Fujimura, K.-C. Fung, A. Garcia-Herrero, J. Gilbert, T. Hertel, M. Kawai, R.M. Nag, F. Ng, J. Nunez-Ferrer, P.J. Rimmer, S. Stone, A. Strutt, W. van der Geest, F. Zhai, Z. Zhang

Airbnb, gaming, escape rooms, major sporting events: contemporary capitalism no longer demands we merely consume things, but that we buy experiences. This book is concerned with the social, cultural and personal implications of this shift. The technologically-driven world we live in is no closer to securing the utopian ideal of a leisure society. Instead, the pursuit of leisure is often an attempt to escape our everyday existence. Exploring examples including sport, architecture, travel and social media, Steven Miles investigates how consumer culture has colonised 'experiences', revealing the ideological and psycho-social tensions at the heart of the 'experience society'. This first critical analysis of the experience economy sheds light on capitalism's ever more sophisticated infiltration of the everyday.