Following Frederick Jackson Turner's lead, most economic historians assume the West and its people were shaped by economic determinism. This study proposes a different path. The federal government, Malone claims, opened the frontier before waves of settlers arrived by constructing a network of roads and making improvements to rivers and harbors. The book begins by analyzing federal transportation expenditures from 1800 to 1860 and then moves on to look at early federal improvement programs and their effects on determining the direction of settlement in the New West. Settlement in the New West states—Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota—accelerated after the government's projects were constructed. The tracking of internal improvement expenditures in sparsely settled regions shows the federal government had a significant role in initiating growth prior to the more widely acknowledged railroad developments after mid-century.

This proceedings volume highlights important points of achieving a balanced and sustained growth path from diverse economics and finance perspectives, touching on a wide array of economic and social analyses in India. Featuring contributions presented at the 2018 International Conference on Economics and Finance (ICEF-2018) held at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa, India, the enclosed papers explore topics such as inflation dynamics, information transmission in post-recession era, leverage effect and volatility asymmetry, structural change and economic growth and reforming tax systems, among others. The Indian economy today is remarkable and, not surprisingly, it is growing very rapidly. It has emerged as the fastest growing major economy in the world as per the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and it is expected to be one of the top three economic powers of the world over the next 10 to15 years, backed by its strong democracy and partnership. At the backdrop of impressive progress of the Indian economy during the last two decades, the question that remains to be answered is does India still have a long way to go before it is functioning well as a market economy? This book critically examines the performance of the Indian economy at the national, state and sectorial levels. Featuring contributions from leading academicians, scholars and practitioners from Asia and the rest of the world, this book is an asset to students, professors, scholars, practitioners and policy makers in the areas of India economics, finance and sustainable development.

This volume contains eleven essays dealing with the question of how to face the current challenges of globalization. * The essays included in this volume were originally presented at the Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland, on the occasion of the Sixth World Congress of the International Society for Universal Dialogue (ISUD) * Presents Keynote addresses or prize-winning papers from the Congress * Central theme explores the need to rethink our concepts of nature, culture, and freedom in an age of increased globalization * Topics examined range from global justice, international law, and human rights to ecoterrorism, cultural relativism, and the challenges of autonomy * Introduced by Steven V. Hicks, past President of the ISUD, who discusses the issues of cultural conflict and crisis in the aftermath of Nietzsche's philosophy

I: Grundlagen.- 1 Einleitung.- 1.1 Bedeutung des Themas.- 1.2 Ziele und Aufbau der Arbeit.- 1.3 Begriffsdefinitionen.- 1.3.1 Rating, Ranking, Screening.- 1.3.2 OEkologieorientierte Informationen, oekologieorientierte Daten.- 1.3.3 OEkologieorientierte Berichterstattung.- 1.3.4 OEko-Rating.- 2 OEkologieorientierte Bewertungen als Grundlage oekologieorientierten Handelns.- 2.1 Informieren, Bewerten, Entscheiden, Handeln.- 2.2 Alternativen, Umweltzustande, Ziele und Praferenzen als Determinanten einer Bewertung.- 2.2.1 Ziele und Kriterien.- 2.2.2 Praferenzen.- 2.2.3 Umweltzustande.- 2.2.4 Alternativenraum.- 2.2.5 Bewertungen durch Nutzenfunktionen.- 2.3 Delegation von oekologieorientierten Bewertungen im Rahmen eines OEko-Ratings.- 2.3.1 Delegation als Metaentscheidungsproblem.- 2.3.2 Informationsoekonomische Aspekte.- 2.3.3 Agency-Problematik.- 3 Die Bewertung von OEko-Rating-Ansatzen.- 3.1 Bewertungsziele.- 3.2 Bewertungskriterien.- 3.3 Zielbeziehungen.- II: Bisherige oeko-Rating-Ansatze.- 1 Kurzbeschreibung bestehender OEko-Rating-Organisationen.- 1.1 OEkom.- 1.2 CSH.- 1.3 Eco-Rating International.- 1.4 Hamburger Umweltinstitut.- 2 Vergleich und Analyse eingesetzter Verfahren.- 2.1 Treffsicherheit.- 2.1.1 Alternativenraum.- 2.1.2 Ziele.- 2.1.3 Praferenzen.- 2.1.4 Umweltzustande.- 2.2 Kosten.- 2.3 Transparenz.- 2.4 Verfalschende Anreize.- 3 Zusammenfassende Wurdigung bestehender OEko-Rating-Ansatze.- III: Handlungsorientiertes oeko-Rating.- 1 Ziel der Weiterentwicklung.- 2 Verbesserung der Zielorientierung.- 2.1.1 Arten von Zielen.- 2.1. Arten von Kriterien.- 2.2 Zusammenfassung.- 3 Verbesserung der Praferenzgerechtigkeit der Aggregation.- 3.1 Das zugrundeliegende Aggregationsproblem.- 3.2 Arten von Praferenzen.- 3.3 Nutzwertanalysen: Die Wahl der Praxis.- 3.3.1 Vorgehensweise.- 3.3.2 Pramissen und geeignete Bewertungssituationen.- 3.4 Nutzwertanalyse zweiter Generation: Die theoretische Weiterentwicklung.- 3.4.1 Vorgehensweise.- 3.4.2 Pramissen und geeignete Bewertungssituationen.- 3.5 Scoringverfahren auf der Basis unscharfer Logik.- 3.5.1 Modellierung nicht-linearer Zusammenhange: Das Beispiel Steuerungstechnik.- 3.5.2 Fuzzy Logic: Die Philosophie.- 3.5.3 Fuzzy Control: Die Anwendung.- 3.5.4 Beispiel.- 3.5.5 Pramissen und geeignete Bewertungssituationen.- 4 Aufbau eines handlungsorientierten oeko-Ratings-Ein Ablaufschema.- Iv: Fallstudie.- 1 Analyse der Entscheidungssituation.- 2 Beschreibung und Abgrenzung der Bewertungsaufgabe.- 3 Aufbau des Bewertungsmodells.- 3.1 Instrumentalziel-/Kriteriengenerierung.- 3.2 Feststellung der Praferenzen/Strukturierung.- 3.3 Umsetzung durch Wertfunktionen.- 4 Bewertung.- 5 Analyse des OEko-Ratings der Fallstudie.- V: Zusammenfassung.- Exkurs A: Erweiterung Fuzzy Logic.- 1 Weitere Operatoren.- 2 Verallgemeinerung auf den n-Faktorenfall.- 3 Parametrisierte Operatoren.- 4 Weitere Defuzzifizierungsmethoden.- Exkurs B: Skalentypen, Skalentransformationen.

For more than five decades, Fundamentals of Private Pensions has been the most authoritative text and reference book on retirement plans in the United States. The ninth edition is completely updated and reflects recent developments in retirement plans including the passage of the US Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), the widespread shift toward hybrid and defined contribution plans, and a burgeoning economics and finance research literature on retirement and retirement plans. The volume is organized into eight main sections so the reader may use the volume as a text, a research tool, or a general reference.
Section I (Chapter 1) introduces the historical evolution of the pension movement and the underlying forces that shaped its progress. Section II (Chapters 2 and 3) explains how employer-provided pensions fit into the patchwork of the U.S. retirement income security system, especially Social Security. The section also includes a discussion of the economics of tax incentives and their effect on retirement plan offerings and the structure of the benefits provided. Section III (Chapters 4 through 9) lays out the economic role of retirement plans--their design, workforce incentives, plan finances, production of adequate retirement income, possibilities for phased retirement, and the risk of outliving pension assets. Section IV (Chapters 10 through 13) examines the various forms of defined benefit and defined contribution plans, including hybrid plans, in terms of their structure, requirements, and operations. Section V (Chapters 14 through 20) lays out the regulatory environment in which plans operate; this extensive material has been especially updated to reflect PPA, and the reams of associated guidance and implementing regulations. Section VI (Chapters 21 through 25) explores the funding and accounting rules under which private defined benefit plans operate; this section also reflects the new PPA rules. The penultimate section (Chapters 26 through 28) includes a complete revamping of chapters on risk management and investments applicable to retirement plans. The section describes modern portfolio theory and its broad implications for retirement investing, and in two separate chapters, specific implications for defined benefit and defined contribution plans. The final section (Chapter 29) concludes the text with a discussion of the future of retirement plans in the United States and around the world--a particularly timely subject in light of the extreme financial volatility experienced in 2008 and the pending retirement of the baby boom generation.

Offering a coherent, developed critique of neoliberal health policies that have become the common denominator of "health reforms" on a global level, this work questions whether these major "reforms" are driven by the health needs of the wider population or, in fact, by nonhealth considerations such as financial and political concerns of governments and global institutions. It presents the key issues facing health professionals today and explores the barrage of policies that threaten to deny them the right to deliver quality health care. The book's use of a common analytical framework produces a consistent critical analysis of different situations in various countries, making its approach wholly unlike previous studies of the topic of modern healthcare. Providing an alternative to the prevailing orthodoxy that has captured the global health agenda since 1978, it offers hope and support campaigners, students, academics, medics, and administrators.

In today's business environment, companies either properly manage the complex world of legal and corporate risk or suffer the consequences. The wrong decision can kill a company-but how can those responsible for risk management keep on top of company needs? In this guide, author Bryan E. Hopkins discusses the numerous areas of legal and corporate risk that managers and their company counsels face. Hopkins provides agreements, forms and checklists needed to implement a sound legal risk management program and mitigate, shift and prevent legal and corporate risk through careful management. Managers and practitioners will also find practical and detailed information on how to identify legal risk and use legal and corporate risk management contracts and checklists. Written by an international lawyer and corporate counsel with decades of experience in risk management, Agreements, Forms and Checklists for Risk Managers seeks to help you deal with processes and procedures needed to protect any organization in today's complex and hostile business environment.

As customers or consumers, we expect quality products and quality services, getting value for our money. For producers or service providers, it is a challenge to satisfy customers and also take care of other stakeholders. In the last few decades we have seen several quality models and frameworks. Organizations see another challenge in implementing those frameworks effectively. Three basic parameters of quality are products (technology), processes and people. With availability of products and processes, the challenge is to align people for quality programme. This book provides the tools to meet different challenges. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) uses mechanics of mind to achieve the excellence. It is an add-on to the previous approaches using processes and statistics. This book gives superchargers - persuasion for quality by tapping motivational needs, use of right beliefs and behaviors to support continual improvements, holistic and integrated structure for quality management system and several NLP tools for projects, services and for product manufacturing. Using simple language and not requiring any prerequisite in NLP, this book is a practical guide of how we can use NLP for quality programme, which may be a new initiative or revival of existing quality programme.

This proceedings volume examines the effects of transport on socio-economic development including innovation, public health and cultural behavior. Featuring contributions presented at the 2017 TranSopot Conference in Sopot, Poland, the enclosed papers are divided to provide emerging research in transport sustainability, innovation, structure, and in municipal transport economics. Collectively, the contributions provide not only the theoretical background for transport analysis but also empirical data and practical applications. Researchers in the transport sector strive to explore the nuances of various aspects of transport economics, which are connected on many levels. The sustainability of transport fits into a wide perspective of the sustainable economy. It treats the activities of individuals, companies and local, regional and national governments as means of achieving economic and social ends. Conversely, transport sustainability has a certain burden on society as it may generate external costs in the form of congestion, pollution and negative health effects. Many of these adverse effects might be counteracted by transport innovations, both the technical ones and the organizational ones. These innovations, while their main goal might be to increase the efficiency of the transport entities, should also fit into the desirable trend of responsible economic design thinking. These general ideas of transport research naturally have to influence the research in various branches of transport ranging from the road transport to railway. Lastly, there is the municipal transport, in which goals of different stakeholders are often contradictory which leads to highly complicated decision problems. Featuring case examples on topics as bike sharing, green travel, compact cars, freight transport and electric cars, this book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students in the fields of transport economics, innovation, and sustainability.

The book presents a coherent description of distributed manufacturing, providing a solid base for further research on the subject as well as smart implementations in companies. It provides a guide for those researching and working in a range of fields, such as smart manufacturing, cloud computing, RFID tracking, distributed automation, cyber physical production and global design anywhere, manufacture anywhere solutions. Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing anticipates future advances in the fields of embedded systems, the Internet of Things and cyber physical systems, outlining how adopting these innovations could rapidly bring about improvements in key performance indicators, which could in turn generate competition pressure by rendering successful business models obsolete. In laying the groundwork for powerful theoretical models, high standards for the homogeneity and soundness of the suggested setups are applied. The book especially elaborates on the upcoming competition in online manufacturing operations and respective control procedures. By outlining encapsulation and evolving decision-making principles, Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing fully conceptualizes the view of manufacturing networks as sets of loosely coupled interacting smart factory objects. Moreover, the book provides concrete approaches to a number of future fields, where distributed manufacturing might be applied. Both researchers and professionals will profit from the authors' broad experience in Distributed Manufacturing and Fractal Enterprise implementations, where they initiated and completed a number of successful research projects: within the global Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) scheme, within the European Research Area frameworks as well as national contexts, and both in industry and at leading research institutions. This background ensures well-founded theory on one hand and valuable practical results on the other in a fascinating area that is still under intensive research. Readers will acquire essential insights as well as useful guidance for categorizing and specifying extended distributed manufacturing solutions and their professional implementations.

Using network models to investigate the interconnectivity in modern economic systems allows researchers to better understand and explain some economic phenomena. This volume presents contributions by known experts and active researchers in economic and financial network modeling. Readers are provided with an understanding of the latest advances in network analysis as applied to economics, finance, corporate governance, and investments. Moreover, recent advances in market network analysis that focus on influential techniques for market graph analysis are also examined. Young researchers will find this volume particularly useful in facilitating their introduction to this new and fascinating field. Professionals in economics, financial management, various technologies, and network analysis, will find the network models presented in this book beneficial in analyzing the interconnectivity in modern economic systems.

This work examines the relationships among engineering leadership, technological change, and economic development. Specifically, it reviews the role and contribution of engineers--through their education and work--in the pursuit of excellence and effectiveness in our increasingly pervasive technological development. The relationship between the rate of technological development, technological diffusion, and success in its application, and the role or position of engineers in industry and government is interdependent. Frankel concludes that while the United States continues its dominance in basic scientific research and technology development, the growing lag in developing and applying technology in a timely and effective manner is largely a result of the lack of engineers in senior decisionmaking positions in industry and government.

This work will be of interest to practicing engineers, practicing managers, and scholars and students of economics and technology development.

This fifth English volume of The China Economy Yearbook is based on a symposium held in autumn 2009 titled Analysis and Forecast of China's Economic Situation, organised by the Analysis and Forecast Project Group for China's Economic Situation of the Institute of Economics, China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The contributing authors are experts and scholars from various government sectors, scientific research organisations, and institutes of higher learning. The chapters included provide in-depth analyses of China's economic situation in 2009 and forecasts for 2010, focusing in particular on issues arising from current economic performance, while economic trend forecasts and solutions are proposed based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis.