'In this book, Simon Bowmaker offers a remarkable collection of conversations with leading economists about research in economics. He has selected a broad sample of the great economists of our time, including people whose perspectives span most of the major subdivisions of economics research, from micro to macro, from theoretical to empirical, from rationalist to behavioral.' - From the foreword by Roger B. Myerson, University of Chicago and 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics 'The Art and Practice of Economics Research is the book I wish I had when I was ''growing up'' as an economist. For anyone who is or wants to be an economic researcher, or anyone just interested in how economics ''works'', this is a terrific and inspirational resource.' - David K. Levine, Washington University in St. Louis 'It is hard to imagine an economist in the world who would not enjoy this book. It is fascinating, gripping, and full of the wisdom imparted by age and by scholarly life's ups and downs.' - Andrew J. Oswald, University of Warwick, UK 'Although each has followed his or her own road, these scholars share a passion for economics and a commitment to the research enterprise. The best economists lie sleepless, gripped by their questions.' - Joshua Angrist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'This is a wonderful book of interviews with some of the most respected economists in the world. It is full of insights into academic life, and clearly conveys the joy of doing economics research.' - Jon Levin, Stanford University 'The relaxed frame of the interviews gives interested parties exciting insights into the thoughts and concerns of leading economists and might well inspire some of the best young minds to continue with economics in their later lives.' - Ernst Fehr, University of Zurich, Switzerland The Art and Practice of Economics Research provides an in-depth look into the research methods of leading economists from across the United States and Europe. This innovative volume contains 25 interviews with practicing economists, presenting insightful personal accounts into an often-misunderstood field. Contributors to this volume were asked to reflect on their own experience in economics research, including their methods of working, the process of scientific discovery and knowledge creation, and the challenges of successfully disseminating their work. The unique and compelling interview format showcases each contributor's personal connection to his or her work, presenting a view of current economics research that is technical, comprehensive, and refreshingly human. Both students and current scholars in economics will find much to admire in this book's window into the inner workings of some of the brightest and best-known minds in the field. This volume also makes a great companion to the author's 2010 book, The Heart of Teaching Economics, which showcases the personal experiences of teachers and professors of economics.

Throughout history human beings have formed communities spontaneously with residences constructed haphazardly. Today a new type of community is emerging--one planned from the start regarding housing location, style, and governance. These Community Associations (CAs) have increased in number from 500 in 1960 to 205,000 in 1998. This book explores the issues surrounding this housing innovation and provides a history of community associations and their membership organization, the Community Associations Institute (CAI).

The book explores the process of trial and error in the design of CAs and how the CAI was set up to help them work. It opens with a consideration of the economics of land, housing, and community associations; explores the social, intellectual, legal background for CAs; and surveys their development in the United States. After considering the FHA's role, the book focuses on the development of the CAI .

The presence of transaction costs greatly modifies the traditional picture of the allocation of resources through the market. It gives rise to many phenomena inexplicable in the simple market view and to problems of government policy. Oliver Williamson has been a leading figure in this analysis. His interpretations of corporate governance and of the complementarity between internal controls and the market have been the most profound in the literature. It is good that his leading essays are now available in collected form.' - Kenneth J. Arrow, Stanford University, US'Oliver Williamson's contributions to economics are certainly among the most important of the past several decades, and their importance will be increasingly recognized as economists come to grips with all that he has accomplished. This collection provides an unparalleled view of those contributions, and it belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who wants to understand complex economic transactions.' - David Kreps, Stanford University, US 'This book provides a terrific opportunity to have a collection of Oliver Williamson's best papers on transaction cost economics all in one convenient volume.' - Paul L. Joskow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and MIT 'Williamson's work on transaction cost economics has shaped the thinking of all social scientists about organizations and institutions. This volume reprints many of his seminal papers on the subject, and is valuable both as commemoration and for reference.' - Avinash Dixit, Princeton University, US Transaction cost economics has and continues to be a fruitful area of research. There is still much to be done in the field with past research being used in conjunction with the vast number of contractual phenomena that have yet to be investigated in transaction cost economics terms. New challenges are posed by the need to move beyond the design of new contractual instruments (such as financial derivatives) to include an examination of the lurking hazards that attend contract implementation. This important collection brings together Professor Williamson's key papers on transaction cost economics. It will be of benefit to academics, scholars and practitioners with an interest in this progressive subject.

The Chinese triangle of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan constitutes one of the most dynamic regions in the world economy. Since the late 1970s, these three societies have experienced increasing economic integration; however, studies aimed at analyzing and explaining this integration have often overlooked the very important role social institutions have played in the shaping of this process. To fill this gap, this book adopts a systematic institutional approach designed to examine the different patterns of institutions in the three countries and to discuss how such social institutions as the economy, gender, social networks, and the Chinese diaspora have exerted a profound impact on all three societies. The chapters, taken together, argue that different patterns of institutional configuration have led to divergent paths of development, and that this divergence will have significant implications on the prospects for Chinese national reunification in the twenty-first century.

The Introductory chapter provides a historical discussion on the origins and the transformation of the Chinese triangle during the second half of the twentieth century. The remainder of the volume is broken into four topics considered crucial for understanding the transformation of the Chinese triangle: economic transformation, gender, social networks, and the Chinese diaspora. As globalization impacts the Chinese triangle, studies that consider the issues from the perspective of social institutions will be increasingly important to understanding the area as it develops in the world economy.

This book incorporates a selection of eight revised papers presented at the Conference on ! DegreesManaging Economic Crisis in Southeast Asia!+/-, organized jointly by the Saw Centre for Quantitative Finance, NUS Business School and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, in January 2010. The chapters deal with the management of the 2008-09 economic crisis in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and the region as a whole. They represent an analysis of the impact of the economic crisis and the stimulus packages that were swiftly put in place by the governments to mitigate the economic recession and to pave the way for a quick recovery. The success of the monetary and fiscal policy measures in engendering a strong economic recovery in these countries is also discussed in considerable depth. The book, with contributions from experts on the topics covered, will be extremely valuable to businessman, analysts, academics, students, policymakers and the general public interested in seeking a greater understanding of the sub-prime crisis that led to the global economic recession.

Digital Economy: Impacts, Influences and Challenges provides information about the socioeconomic aspects of the Digital Economy. This set of 18 essays covers the effects of Digital Economy on business transactions, technology and culture, as well as on education. It also covers various aspects of global production, trade, and investment and the effects of Internet. The chapters review best practices from concept to development, through implementation and evaluation. This book is one of the few books that looks at the digital economy from a socio economic angle, offering perspectives from scholars and practitioners of digital economics around the world.

This comprehensive literature review presents key contributions to the topic of regional economic advantage. It helps the reader to understand how regions build advantage for industrial development through the use of endogenous and exogenous resources, how regional industrial development can be supported by place-based policy, and how the form and mechanisms of regional advantage change over time in a path dependent manner. Also analysed is research on industrial districts and new industrial spaces, as well as regional clusters and innovation systems, along with more recent discussion of global development impulses and evolutionary perspectives on regional development. Written by three experts in the field, this important review is an essential resource for those studying, researching or practicing in this area.

Transforming Socialist Economies presents - for the first time - an account of the initial attempts to transform the centrally planned economies of Czechoslovakia and Poland into modern capitalist economies.Both countries have adopted 'shock therapy' aimed at the fastest possible transition but with disappointing results. Poland appears to be on the brink of permanent depression and political paralysis. Czechoslovakia is only now beginning to show the first signs of economic recovery and faces the prospect of partition. In seeking to explain these disappointing results, Dr Myant critically analyses recent economic performance and past attempts at economic reform. He shows the weaknesses in the theory behind 'shock therapy', considers the political processes that led to its adoption and analyses its impact on the economy, on relations in the workplace and on political life. The result is a provocative and enlightening view of economic reform which will be essential reading for economists and political scientists.

This lucid, up-to-date book takes a fresh look at the application of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to environmental problems ranging from wildlife protection to global warming. Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment is structured into two parts. Part one provides a critical up-to-date account of the theory and practice of CBA as applied to the environment. Part two focuses on a number of specific case studies, in particular ozone damage to agricultural crops, wilderness land use, recreation and nitrate pollution. The application of CBA to the greenhouse effect is used to illustrate the limitations of the method. The book summarizes the major problems CBA faces in environmental application. This book will be highly relevant for the growing number of undergraduate and post-graduate courses in environmental economics and management, as well as being of interest both to academics researching in these areas, and to other professionals concerned with project appraisal and the environment.

The progression of the independent states that were created after the collapse of the Soviet Union has become a prevalent area of research as these countries continue to make infrastructural strides. These regions possess vastly desirable natural resources including oil, gas, and minerals, causing this section of the world to have rising global importance as they continue to improve their economy, educational systems, and tourism industries. Economic, Educational, and Touristic Development in Asia is a pivotal reference source that provides a thorough examination of the contemporary progression of several recently formed countries within Central Asia. While highlighting topics such as hospitality marketing, anti-corruption reform, and entrepreneurship, this publication explores the technological, educational, and security enhancements being made in these areas, as well as how this region can strengthen its prosperity by strategically utilizing their globally-coveted natural resources. This book is ideally designed for economists, higher education faculty, provosts, chancellors, scholars, practitioners, policymakers, business professionals, marketers, restaurateurs, hotel managers, tour developers, travel agencies, government officials, strategists, educators, researchers, and graduate students.

The global reach of imperialism makes it both an important and a complex topic that requires a multi-country perspective and a comparative framework. This four volume series collects together many of the most influential articles on the topic and offers a broad choice of themes, geographies and interpretations of the impact and importance of empires, their making, their rule and their demise. Each volume takes up a different theme such that the reader has access to the perspectives of both coloniser and colonised in a variety of settings across the full range of modern empires. Classic articles are well represented as are recent scholarly trends in the field. All four volumes are edited by leading scholars in the field, and the series constitutes an inclusive reference resource for libraries, students and academic researchers interested in every aspect of modern history.

This book highlights the main features of the economic, commercial, political, fiscal and financial systems of each of the ASEAN countries from a domestic and an international point of view. Moreover, it analyses the most relevant international treaties signed by ASEAN's members. Published after the 50th anniversary of ASEAN to promote the association, the book is a valuable tool for practitioners who are interested in developing economic activities or investments in this area.

This book tackles the perplexing problem of how to capture the qualitative differences that exist in entrepreneurship at any given point in time or across time, by presenting a novel qualitative index: Entrepreneurship Quality Index (EQI). This comprehensive composite index is based on recognized interactions among different factors affecting intensity and types of entrepreneurial activity, which in turn is impacting the well-being. It brings qualitative differences in entrepreneurship depending on time and space into calculation of the composite index. Besides, EQI is the missing piece of the entrepreneurship puzzle, and the quality of entrepreneurship is a significant factor that shows why less developed countries do not achieve higher levels of economic growth, despite their high rate of entrepreneurial activities. This book does a masterful job in explaining the diversity of existing perspectives, their contributions, and their shortfalls. It applies rigorous tools of mathematical statistics and quality engineering, such as Bayes' rule, maximum likelihood estimation, six sigma algorithm, and standardization equation, to derive and introduce EQI, as a novel operations research model. It offers a number of important ideas and insights as to how the quality of entrepreneurship can be measured more accurately. It also illustrates the proposed approaches showing their efficacy across time. The proposed solutions are logical and empirically sound; they represent an important leap in thinking about the quality of entrepreneurship. Its contribution is crucial and timely - one that will be well recognized by researchers worldwide. They give a much-needed framework along with the necessary tools to evaluate and measure entrepreneurial activities.

Contemporary law and economics has greatly expanded its scope of inquiry as well as its sphere of influence. By focussing specifically on a comparative approach, this Handbook offers new insights for developing current law and economics research. It also provides stimuli for further research, exploring the idea that the comparative method offers a valuable way to enrich law and economics scholarship. With contributions from leading scholars from around the world, the Handbook sets the context by examining the past, present and future of comparative law and economics before addressing this approach to specific issues within the fields of intellectual property, competition, contracts, torts, judicial behaviour, tax, property law, energy markets, regulation and environmental agreements. This topical Handbook will be of great interest and value to scholars and postgraduate students of law and economics, looking for new directions in their research. It will also be a useful reference to policymakers and those working at an institutional level. Contributors: G. Bellantuono, Y.-c. Chang, R.K. Christensen, E. Colombatto, T.F. Cotter, A. Foddis, N. Garoupa, D.J. Gerber, W.J. Gordon, V.P. Hans, K.A. Houghton, K.-C. Huang, R. Ippoliti, A. Jolivet, A. Kreis, E. Marelli, N. Mercuro, T.J. Miceli, H.T. Naughton, I.P.L. Png, G.B. Ramello, F. Revelli, M. Signorelli, H.E. Smith, J. Szmer, T.S. Ulen, Q.-h. Wang, P.K. Yu

The public sector provides services to the public and does not expect to acquire financial gain; hence, the practices from the private sector could not be used efficiently without modification, bearing in mind that the main scope of the public organization is to provide quality services to the citizens. Knowledge management can acquire and transfer knowledge in order to succeed in this effort and to confront challenges that exist in the modern knowledge economy. Therefore, knowledge management can play a vital role in the reorganization of the public sector and its necessary organizational change. Knowledge Management Practices in the Public Sector is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of improving the quality of public services through the implementation of knowledge management in public organizations. While highlighting topics including intellectual capital, risk assessment, and organizational strategy, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, ICT consultants, public sector workers, public administrators, government officials, researchers, scholars, and students.