The Arab upheaval and the world's biggest financial crisis after the Great Depression were almost simultaneous in their occurrence. The Mediterranean economies now face a dual challenge of a political and financial restructuring in the light of a shaky economic pedestal on which they stand. In light of this socio-political and economic shift in both inland and in world markets, this book offers a thorough analysis on problems, prospects and the way ahead for the financial integration of the South-Mediterranean region. Several perspectives on financial integration and policy recommendations are put forward from a leading group of researchers specializing on the Mediterranean region.

With the cold war over and the Soviet empire dead, a new examination of American national policies and priorities is beginning. Most of the economic, political and military costs of the American empire, which exceed $1 trillion each year, are being questioned for the first time since World War II. Touted by George Washington as the infant empire, the United States expanded across the North American continent and at the turn of the twentiety century into the Pacific and Caribbean. At the end of World War II, it became the leader of the free world, a world empire of unprecedented power. However, by the 1980s, the strain of world leadership became apparent and signs of economic decline appeared, which is the inevitable fate of all empires. Jim Hanson undertakes this examination of imperial overstretch and decline and calls for a rechanneling of national energies into solving world-wide problems of war, environmental deterioration, and over-population. This historic-based and analytic critique of imperial America will interest scholars and students of American and world history, political and social science, economics, and foreign affairs.

What makes the German economy so resilient? This provocative book challenges the conventional wisdom as to what constitutes national wealth, arguing that it is long-term, balanced development rather than rapid growth and productivity that makes an economy successful. Interdisciplinary in approach, this is the first book in many years to take an organic view of the German economy, looking not only at the mix of business and economic policies but also at the sociocultural and psychological background to German economic development. Gazdar shows how Germany balances the priorities of wealth, welfare, and well-being, and describes Germany's uniquely resilient form of ecological sociocapitalism. He argues that the German way of running an economy gives the country a strong, long-term edge over the United States and Japan in the global competition for economic security.

Executives interested in strategic planning and international marketing, economists, cultural and business historians, and policymakers will find this insightful book invaluable toward understanding the unique model that Germany exemplifies. Gazdar claims that Germany's mastery of balance--between the private and public sectors, between the interests of employers and employees, and between economical and ecological priorities--will lead it to economic triumph. He also argues that unless the United States comes to a new consensus, one that encompasses social issues, vocational education, and the improvement of infrastructure, it will steadily lose ground to Germany.

One of the most important developments in macroeconomics during the last decade has been the introduction of the rational expectations approach. Before the introduction of this method, economists relied on a variety of ad hoc mechanisms which often led to errors in their predictions. Studies in International Macroeconomics explains the ways in which the rational expectations method deals with uncertainty. It presents stochastic models and applies them to curent issues such as exchange rate determination, the effects of the rise and fall in oil prices, and the impact of wage indexing on the economy.

It has long been recognized that productivity growth and the business cycle are closely interrelated. Yet, until recently, the two phenomena have been investigated separately in the economics literature. This book provides the first consistent attempt to analyze the effects of macroeconomic volatility on productivity growth, and also the reverse causality from growth to business cycles. The authors show that by looking at the economy through the lens of private entrepreneurs, who invest under credit constraints, one can go some way towards explaining persistent macroeconomic volatility and the effects of volatility on growth. Beginning with an analysis of the effects of volatility on growth, the authors argue that the lower the level of financial development in a country the more detrimental the effect of volatility on growth. This prediction is confirmed by cross-country panel regressions. The data also suggests that a fixed exchange rate regime or more countercyclical budgetary policies are growth-enhancing in countries with a lower level of financial development. The former reduce aggregate volatility whereas the latter reduce the negative effects of volatility on long-term productivity-enhancing investment by firms. The book concludes with an investigation into how the interplay between credit constraints and pecuniary externalities is sufficient to generate persistent business cycles and to explain the occurrence of currency crises.

This proceedings volume analyzes the impact of globalization on international financial flow as well as harmonized financial reporting. Featuring contributions presented at the 18th Annual Conference on Finance and Accounting held at the University of Economics in Prague, this book examines the economic consequences of the globalized world in the sphere of corporate and public finance, monetary systems, banking, financial reporting and management accounting. The global perspective is accompanied by local specific cases studies, including those from emerging markets. In addition, the combination of micro- and macroeconomic approaches provide insights on the behavior of all relevant stakeholders in the process and the results of dynamic pressures surrounding global capital markets and international investments. This book will serve as a useful resource for scholars and researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of finance, economics and accounting.

This book offers the analysis of the relationship between the Cape Town Convention and national laws on secured transactions. The first part of the book considers why national implementation is so important in the case of the Cape Town Convention and identifies how innovative the Convention is as a uniform law instrument. The second part includes chapters on those states that are Parties to the Cape Town Convention, which analyse how the Convention is implemented under the domestic law. The third part includes chapters on those states that are not Parties to the Convention, which compare their national laws and the Convention to find unique features of the Cape Town Convention's rules. The fourth part discusses the meaning of Protocols on aircraft, railway rolling stock and space assets from the practitioner's point of view. As a whole, the book offers insights into the new stage of uniform private law and shows the need for further examination of the subject, which will be essential for international and national legislators, academics of comparative and international private law as well as practitioners who are the users of the uniform law regime.

This book presents a broad overview of risk management in the banking industry, with a special focus on strategic thinking and decision-making. It reveals the broader context behind decision models and approaches to risk management in the financial industry, linking the regulatory landscape for capital management and risk to strategic thinking, together with behavioral and cultural assessments.

Modern economics is like a metropolitan area. Economists' ideas about business and markets are like the magnificent buildings of the city centre. Yet most growth and prosperity is in the suburbs - lately many of economics' greatest successes have been outside the traditional boundaries of the discipline. In the study of law, economic ideas have been the intellectual focus and "law and economics" has become a major field. In the study of politics, economists and political scientists using economics-type methods are uniquely influential. In sociology and history, economics has had a smaller but growing influence through "rational choice sociology" and "cliometrics". The influence of the economists type thinking in other social sciences is bringing about a theoretical integration of all the social sciences under one overarching paradigm. The chapters of the book illustrate the intellectual advances that account for this unified view of economies and societies.

This book explores financial stability issues in the context of East Asia. In the East Asian region financial stability has been a major concern ever since the Asian crisis of 1997/98, which still looms large in the collective memory of the affected countries. The global crisis, which had its starting point in 2007, only served to exacerbate this concern. Safeguarding financial stability is therefore a major goal of any country in the region. Diverging cultural, political and economic backgrounds may however pose different stability challenges and necessary cooperation may be complicated by this diversity. Against this backdrop the contributions of this book by leading academics from the fields of economics and law as well as by practitioners from central banks shed light on various financial stability issues. The volume explores the legal environment of central banks as lenders of last resort and analyzes challenges to financial stability such as shadow banking and the choice of exchange rate regimes. Case studies from China, Japan and Indonesia are contrasted with experiences from Europe.

Restructuring economies in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere are abandoning their hostility to foreign enterprises and adopting policies to attract international investment. This book examines corporate experiences in Chile, one of the first nations to move successfully from a statist economy to an open market system using privatization, debt conversion, and liberal trade and investment policies. Drawing from research on over seventy foreign corporations, the book compares investment strategies used to assess risk and exploit business opportunities under conditions of fundamental economic change. Case studies describe how and why firms selected different financing, management, employment, production, and marketing approaches in establishing or expanding their operations.

After a brief historical review, the book examines key policy decisions in the 1980s that shaped Chile's new economy. Case studies are then analyzed by sector, covering mining and energy, nontraditional exports (forestry, fishing, and agribusiness), banking and insurance, and other industries including computers, telecommunications, chemicals, electrical goods, automotive products, foods and beverages, and pharmaceuticals. Summary chapters relate these learning experiences to broader strategic issues such as ownership and control, financing methods, technology transfer, trade policy, labor relations, taxation, regulatory reform, and coordinating global corporate operations. This book presents cumulative learning experiences useful for business executives and public officials who must develop new foreign investment strategies, as well as scholars and students interested in the role of foreign investment in developing countries.

This 12-country comparative volume examines the impact of economic structural adjustment programmes on grassroots civil associations and the implications for political liberalization and democratization in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The authors look at the impact of economic reform upon women's groups, human rights organizations, social welfare non-governmental organizations, unions and business associations. They challenge the assumption that economic reform will automatically lead to greater democratization.

The book analyses the institutions of the European financial market supervision and the challenges of financial markets. The current European supervisory structure for financial markets represents a major development in European supervisory history. Its operation however has to be explored and analysed critically. Has it gone far enough to provide a sufficiently comprehensive and resilient system to reduce or mitigate systemic risks and handle financial crises? Some claim it has gone too far already. Fresh and rigorous critical legal and economic analysis from an independent scholarly perspective are needed to assess whether the institutional design of the European supervisory architecture has proved itself to be an efficient and effective model. This book discusses many dimensions of the structure and workings of the European system from various angles providing different dimensions. The book makes an important contribution to the limited literature on financial market supervision.

This powerful study suggests that strategic pragmatism has enabled Japan to use Western theories and doctrines more comprehensively and thoroughly than the West. The authors contend that Japan's success depends, in part, upon three factors: the ability to recognize a need for action; the ability to respond to such a need even under less than optimal technological conditions, cutting across theoretical and ideological lines; and the ability to adjust or correct action as soon as failure is recognized. By comparing Japan's policies and structure to patterns prevailing in major Western countries, Japan's `secret' can be translated into concepts familiar to the West. This brilliant and provocative book…is a tour de force that argues that Japanese-type economic policies can be duplicated in other capitalist states and that it is a mistake to believe that such policies can only evolve in the unique environment of Japanese culture and society. Foreign Affairs Japan's rise to economic power has been the focus of much attention and speculation in the West. This powerful study suggests that strategic pragmatism has enabled Japan to use Western theories and doctrines more comprehensively and thoroughly than the West. The authors contend that Japan's success depends, in part, upon three factors. The first is the ability to recognize a need for action. Next, the Japanese are able to respond to such a need even under less than optimal technological conditions and can cut across theoretical and ideological lines. Finally, they are ready to adjust or correct action as soon as failure is recognized. Western countries should look at the global significance of Japan's economic performance and learn from their model of action. By comparing Japan's policies and structure to patterns prevailing in major Western countries, Japan's 'secret' can be translated into concepts familiar to the West. Economists, government officials, and business policy makers will find this new approach to Japan's success a worthwhile study. Strategic Pragmatism opens with an explanation for Japan's economic performance. The book then presents the interesting way in which Japan makes functional cuts across doctrines. There is a chapter addressing adaptation and how Western economic concepts are incorporated into Japanese policy. Goal attainment includes such topics as neo-classical infant industry protection and mercantilist aspects in the policy of industrial development. Pattern maintenance is followed by integration, and then the relation of structure and action. Finally the authors develop a model demonstrating how Japan derives a sense of direction from the nature of the changing problems to be solved--the heart of strategic pragmatism.

This book examines new classical macroeconomics from a comparative and critical point of view that confronts the original texts and later comments as a first dimension of comparison. The second dimension appears in a historical context, since none of the new classical doctrines can be analyzed ignoring the parallelism and discrepancies with the theory of Keynes, Friedman or Phelps. Radicalism of new classical macroeconomics has brought fundamental changes in economic thought, but the doctrines got vulgarized and distorted thanks to the mass of followers. Nowadays, economic theory and policy, trying to find their ways, have a less clear relationship than ever. Therefore, this volume is aimed at mapping and reconsidering the policy instruments and transmission mechanisms offered by the new classicals. Its central question points to the real nature of new classical macroeconomics: what consequences are grounded by the assumptions new classicals used. Moreover, issues raised by automatic fiscal stabilizers and fiscal reforms are analyzed as well, even if they were out of the range of classical texts. The book draws a picture of new classical macroeconomics stressing the analogies with Keynesian countercyclical policies, instead of the discrepancies commonly held.

How are the economic policies which developing countries adopt selected and how do they change? Who are the key players in economic development policies? Professor Anil Hira answers these questions head on by suggesting new ways of looking at how ideas affect economic policy. He first traces the way that ideas become wedded to interest groups over time, and he interprets the debate over economic development policy as a series of changes in idea-interest networks, often marked by crises. He then looks closely at economic idea entrepreneurs. Through concrete case studies of networks in Latin America, with a focus on Chilean economic policy, Hira explains not only how ideas are introduced, but which ones win out in the economic policy process and why. He introduces the concept of economic knowledge networks to understand groups of economists wedded to certain sets of ideas, such as neoliberalism or structuralism. Economic knowledge networks extend beyond Latin America and can be found in such diverse places as Indonesia and Egypt. Hira identifies the characteristics of these groups and shows how they create political action through their organizational activities and ideas. Hira not only sheds light on how ideas affect economic policy, but also provides an inside story on the groups responsible for the new economic revolution that is sweeping Latin America and transforming the regional economy. An important resource for scholars, students, and policy makers involved with international political economy, emerging economies, and Latin American studies.

Presenting new and innovative perspectives on macroeconomics at the national and international levels, the editors bring together contributions on a wide range of topics including: current issues of globalization; transitional economies; inequality; unemployment; national and international debt; and the relationship of macroeconomic policies to the environment. The contributors draw on expertise in a variety of areas to provide insight into debates on macroeconomic policy in the US and Europe, as well as in developing and transitional economies. Themes explored include: * disequilibrium in the macroeconomy: analysis of the roots of instability and crisis in national and global systems * the evolution of macroeconomic institutions to stabilize and guide economic growth * the paradoxes of globalization, the dangers of unrestricted financial flows, and the impacts of globalization on national institutional coherence * macro and institutional strategies for the transitional economies of Russia and Eastern Europe * distributional and equity issues, including employment, housing, and homelessness * the impact of macroeconomic policy and debt on the environment * long-term growth and its relationship to well-being and environmental sustainability. This collection is a valuable resource for researchers and students of macroeconomics, presenting numerous case studies and examples which bring to life some of the theoretical debates that will determine the future of macroeconomics. Policy professionals in a variety of fields including politics, political economy, and international relations will also find much of interest in this enlightening volume.

The US housing bubble and the ensuing financial crisis and recession, as well as the ongoing slow recovery, have prompted a renewal of interest in the business cycle theory associated with the Austrian school of economics. Over the last thirty years, Austrian economists have extended and refined that theory while also deploying Austrian insights in other areas of monetary theory and macroeconomics. In this volume, a number of macroeconomists influenced by the Austrian school demonstrate its explanatory power by applying those ideas to a variety of historical and contemporary issues. Several of the papers focus on the differences between the US and Canadian experiences during the early 21st century, while other contributors offer critical extensions of Austrian monetary and business cycle theory. The volume also includes empirical applications to the housing boom and bust, and several papers consider the place of Austrian macroeconomics within the school's approach to political economy and public policy more generally. "Studies in Austrian Macroeconomics" shows the breadth and depth of modern macroeconomics in the Austrian tradition.

Africans Investing in Africa explores intra-African trade and investment by showing how, where and why Africans invest across Africa; to identify the economic, political and social experiences that hinder or stimulate investment; and to highlight examples of pan-African investors.

Gordon maintains that the United States must implement policy measures to reduce the large amounts of capital it is borrowing from the rest of the world--a problem she attributes, mainly, to low private savings rates and high federal budget deficits. She explains how the United States became a debtor nation, describes the changes in global capital markets that occurred in the 1980s, and analyzes the extent of global capital requirements, the drop in the U.S. savings rate, and the policy measures that could be taken to raise it. Unlike most discussions that focus on faulty international trade practices as a cause of U.S. deficits, Gordon places a large share of the responsibility on U.S. macroeconomic policies. Concise, readable, lucid, Gordon's book will be useful to professionals in banking and finance, and to academics and upper-level students of international business, finance, and economics.

This book extends Thirlwall's original model and adapts its implications to the current problems of the developed and emerging economies. In this context, this book combines theoretical models and empirical applications to unveil new results consistent with the balance of payments constrained growth. The book provides an alternative to orthodox growth theory which neglects the importance of the balance of payments as a constraint to growth.

Outbursts of regional conflict within national boundaries have characterized recent years. Sub-national states--including parts of the Soviet Union, India, Canada, and Yugoslavia--dissatisfied with their central governments, seek forms of independence to pursue autonomous development paths. These region/state conflicts have occurred in nations at all levels of development (Canada and Indonesia, France and Papua New Guinea), under diverse economic systems (the USSR and Canada, Yugoslavia and Spain), and across political systems (federations such as India and unitary states such as Italy). Bookman's study develops methods whereby both state and region can evaluate the region's potential to sustain economic growth autonomously--filling the gap in current perceptions of inter-regional relations. Bookman introduces the concept of discontinuous development to facilitate the analysis of sub-national regions that have varying levels of development. The volume's emphasis on high-income regions within both agricultural and industrial nations and on the economic basis of conflict makes it a unique contribution that assesses the viability of regions as autonomous entities. The major part of the volume studies empirical evidence from India and Yugoslavia, especially timely in light of present ethnic and religious conflicts in both countries.

The volume is divided into three sections: Foundations; Discontinuous Development and Inter-regional Conflict; and Empirical Evidence from India and Yugoslavia. The first section presents a theoretical framework for issues internal to regions, as well as regions relative to the nation. It also outlines four ways of studying inter-regional conflict which are explored in the empirical chapters. Part 2 analyzes eight high-income regions characterized by discontinuous development and relates their experiences to the four hypotheses presented earlier. The last section contains empirical chapters testing the model in the context of India and Yugoslavia. The final chapter contains a full discussion of the hypotheses pertaining to secession, and offers some suggestions concerning the possibilities of secession as the outcome of inter-regional conflict. The explosive consequences of recent trends make it imperative that scholars in development economics, political economy, political science, and macroeconomics as well as policy makers comprehend the inter-regional economic and political relationships behind these conflicts.