How many steps have you done today? How many emails answered? How much money have you spent this week And how many hours have you slept? Welcome to the numberdemic, where a deluge of figures, stats and data manipulate your every move. From the way you work, date and exercise to the products you buy and the news you read, numbers have worked their way into every part of our lives. But is life better this way? How are all of those numbers affecting us? With fascinating, sometimes frightening and sometimes shrewdly funny research, behavioural economists Micael Dahlen and Helge Thorbjornsen explain why we're so attached to numbers and how we can free ourselves from their tyranny. Along the way, you'll learn why viral videos (however inaccurate) become more convincing with every view; how numbers can affect the way we physically age, if we let them; why the more films you rate the less impressive you'll find them, and much more. Sharp, insightful and totally engaging, MORE. NUMBERS. EVERY. DAY. is your vaccination against a world obsessed with numbers. 'An entertaining and thought-provoking antidote to the tyranny of numbers in the modern world. By looking at the psychology of how we are tricked, goaded and often crushed by endless quantification, the authors present a winning case for weaning ourselves off number-dependence.' -Alex Bellos, author of Can You Solve My Problems? 'Everybody should read this book. A smart and insightful read that will totally change the way you think - and live.' -Thomas Erikson, author of Surrounded By Idiots 'Written in lucid, skillfully translated prose that puts the science into philosophical perspective, this shines a fascinating light on the modern-day obsession with numerical quantity over quality.' -Publishers Weekly 'In 31,234 words Dahlen and Thorbjornsen cast their four critical, and at times whimsical, eyes at our numbered existences revealing that consuming too much 'pi' might be bad for our health.' -Professor Scott Page, author of The Model Thinker

New information and communications technologies have revolutionized daily life and work in the 21st century. This insightful book demonstrates how telework has evolved in the last four decades, as technological developments have improved our capacity to work remotely. Based on a new conceptual framework, this book explores the global variations in telework, examining the effects on working conditions and individual and organizational performance. Breaking the traditional intellectual conception that telework is performed only in the home, this book surveys the full breadth of working environments, as technology allows employees increased working mobility. Contributors expose a profound ambiguity surrounding the effects of 21st-century telework, revealing that its advantages and disadvantages may simply be two sides of the same coin. This timely book is crucial reading for researchers of labour and employment interested in the evolution of contemporary telework and the influence of modern technologies in the workplace. Policy-makers will also benefit from this book's concrete policy recommendations to improve the practice of telework. Contributors include: S. Boiarov, P. D'Cruz, A. Dal Colletto, L. Gschwind, T. Harnish, K. Lister, A. Mello, J.C. Messenger, E. Noronha, A. Sato, O. Vargas

This detailed and perceptive book examines the extent and scope of how rules for accession to the WTO may vary between countries, approaching the concerns that some countries enter with a better deal than others. Dylan Geraets critiques these additional ?rules? and aims to answer the question of whether new Members of the WTO are under stricter rules than the original Members, whilst analysing the accession process to the multilateral trading system. Taking an integrated approach, the author combines the results of a Mapping Exercise of all 36 Protocols of accession with a legal analysis of the decisions by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body involving Protocols of Accession. In doing so, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the issue of Member-specific ?WTO-Plus? commitments in Protocols of Accession. Whilst addressing the institutional and historical aspects of the WTO accession process, it provides a vital update to the existing scholarship on WTO accession, offering coverage of all accessions including those of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Liberia. Accession to the World Trade Organization will be invaluable reading for academics interested in WTO accession practice, as well as lawyers, practitioners and government officials in the field of WTO accession.

This is the only book the general reader will ever need in order to understand the workings of money, banking, and finance as a citizen and consumer. Financial Market Meltdown: Everything You Need to Know to Understand and Survive the Global Credit Crisis makes the arcane world of finance easily understood in concrete terms. This is not simply a quick recap of the current crisis. It is a guide designed to develop a real and lasting understanding of money and finance—an understanding readers can use to come to their own conclusions regarding the 2008 meltdown and any further economic events. Financial Market Meltdown explains the nature and workings of money, credit, financial instruments, and markets, from the beginnings of integrated finance in Medieval Italy up to the panic of 2008. It then describes how the modern global financial ecology evolved through a series of historical accidents and how this limits what can actually be done to make the system "safe." Throughout, author Kevin Mellyn uses simple examples, analogies, and the "real" history of institutions to make abstract financial concepts concrete and comprehensible.

'Korea owes its rise to the ranks of the most prosperous nations, largely, to its investment in human resources. Yet, significant gaps remain that block further improvements in the lives of its workers and citizens. This book is as authoritative and comprehensive as it is insightful on the strengths of the Korean system and the challenges Korean policymakers face. In this respect, this book is not simply a telling of the Korean condition but rather of every nation aspiring to prosperity.' - Anil Verma, University of Toronto, Canada 'This book is a compedium of information on the evolution, development and practice of employment relations in South Korea. It records the dynamism that enables the tripartite actors in S. Korea to respond to changing economic and political development, as well as the tremendous industrialization that the country has witnessed in recent decades. The social partners have not only played an active role in shaping public policy, as well as the behaviour and interaction between them and the State. These have enormously contributed to industrial peace, industrialization and economic growth and development. This is a book that is surely to serve not only the academic community and the social partners in Korea, as they evaluate their own role, strategy and desirable changes so as to build on achieved success. For students of comparative employment relations, the book is a useful case study, and I commend it to the international employment relations community.' - Tayo Fashoyin, Retired Professor of Comparative Employment Relations; Former Director in the ILO, Geneva, and Former Secretary of ILERA The Evolution of Korean Industrial and Employment Relations explores current employment and workplace relations practice in South Korea, tracing their origins to key historical events and inevitable cultural adaptation in one of Asia?s ?'miraculous? democracies'. This volume challenges common but dated misconceptions of Korean industrial relations fixated on an economically successful but politically turbulent past. As Korea?'s employment relations continue to evolve, the accommodations made by companies and labor provide powerful insights for leaders in developing economies worldwide striving for prosperity, stability, and democratization. This book focuses on current realities both social and economic to uncover the potent challenges facing employers and workers in a slow-growth era of union decline. Lee and Kaufman provide a wide-ranging and global perspective authored by established and up-and-coming scholars both in and outside Korea in fields such as labor law, sociology, industrial relations, and labor economics. Up-to-date evaluation, data and analysis provide a modern and innovative perspective on employment and industrial relations practice. Scholars of global and specifically Asian industrial relations, human resource management and modern comparative labor relations will find this book of value. Policy makers and CEOs in emerging economics will benefit from the modern and innovative perspective on employment and industrial relations practice, including CEOs managing workplaces in South Korea. Contributors include: J.R. Bellace, C. Brewster, H.-G. Chang, Y.-K. Choi, F.L. Cooke, V.L. Doellgast, M. Gunderson, J.-J. Hur, I. Jun, B.E. Kaufman, D.-B. Kim, D.-O. Kim, H. Kim, H.-T. Kim, T.A. Kochan, H. Kwon, R. Lansbury, B.-H. Lee, K.-S. Lee, S.-H. Lee, S.-M. Lee, Y.-M. Lee, D. Lewin, Y. Nho, K.W. Park, M.J. Park, K.-P. Roh, P. Sheldon, P.B. Voos

This book seeks to address critical issues and challenges in Africa and the emerging trends for the future. Authors from varied disciplines will examine and offer insight into what knowledge already exists in a specific topic area and what that may mean for the future of Africa. Despite several idealistic efforts towards a united Africa, the term remains a hypothetical concept symbolizing a desired federal state on the continent. This book plays an important role in shaping policies on the future of Africa through a deconstructive interrogation of present trends. It provides a valuable resource in varied fields of study and is highly relevant to the emerging contexts in Africa. The audience of this book includes students and policymakers, key players in Africa, political parties, trade unions, NGO's, and general audiences looking to examine and understand the future trends in Africa.

Advances in digital technologies continue to impact all areas of life, including the business sector. Digital transformation is ascertained to usher in the digitalized economy and involves new concepts and management tools that must be considered in the context of management science and practice. For business leaders to ensure their companies remain competitive and relevant, it is essential for them to utilize these innovative technologies and strategies. The Handbook of Research on Digital Transformation Management and Tools highlights new digital concepts within management, such as digitalization and digital disruption, and addresses the paradigm shift in management science incurred by the digital transformation towards the digitalized economy. Covering a range of important topics such as cultural economy, online consumer behavior, sustainability, and social media, this major reference work is crucial for managers, business owners, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana examines the political economy surrounding the use of enslaved laborers in the capital of Spanish imperial Cuba from 1762 to 1835. In this first book-length exploration of state slavery on the island, Evelyn P. Jennings demonstrates that the Spanish state's policies and practices in the ownership and employment of enslaved workers after 1762 served as a bridge from an economy based on imperial service to a rapidly expanding plantation economy in the nineteenth century. The Spanish state had owned and exploited enslaved workers in Cuba since the early 1500s. After the humiliating yearlong British occupation of Havana beginning in 1762, however, the Spanish Crown redoubled its efforts to purchase and maintain thousands of royal slaves to prepare Havana for what officials believed would be the imminent renewal of war with England. Jennings shows that the composition of workforces assigned to public projects depended on the availability of enslaved workers in various interconnected labor markets within Cuba, within the Spanish empire, and in the Atlantic world. Moreover, the site of enslavement, the work required, and the importance of that work according to imperial priorities influenced the treatment and relative autonomy of those laborers as well as the likelihood they would achieve freedom. As plantation production for export purposes emerged as the most dynamic sector of Cuba's economy by 1810, the Atlantic networks used to obtain enslaved workers showed increasing strain. British abolitionism exerted additional pressure on the slave trade. To offset the loss of access to enslaved laborers, colonial officials expanded the state's authority to sentence deserters, vagrants, and fugitives, both enslaved and free, to labor in public works such as civil construction, road building, and the creation of Havana's defensive forts. State efforts in this area demonstrate the deep roots of state enslavement and forced labor in nineteenth-century Spanish colonialism and in capitalist development in the Atlantic world. Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana places the processes of building and sustaining the Spanish empire in the imperial hub of Havana in a comparative perspective with other sites of empire building in the Atlantic world. Furthermore, it considers the human costs of reproducing the Spanish empire in a major Caribbean port, the state's role in shaping the institution of slavery, and the experiences of enslaved and other coerced laborers both before and after the beginning of Cuba's sugar boom in the early nineteenth century.