Transition economies offer a test case for concepts and theories, for broader ideas and for the methods of scientific enquiry, but also for the multiplicity of ideological interpretations. Designing the strategies for the transition processes and testing the theories relative to economic, social and political change constitute an unprecedented challenge to intellectual capacity of the scientific community. This volume brings together a team of leading international economists to address the major issues of transformation, institutional design, the redistribution paradigm and the macroeconomic decisions to be made.

The book "The Greek Economy and the Crisis. Challenges and Responses" targets all those who think about the present and future of this (culturally) long-lived small geographic region (Greece), to form a personal view of its social and economic problems. A society that repeats the same types of behaviour over the centuries does not do so due to random mistakes. It contains intrinsic forces that affect it. These should be understood, to allow us to delineate future developments. However, the manner in which the social and economic process is perceived must be comprehensive and multidisciplinary: Economics, politics, social psychology and organizational psychology are essential to this analysis. Thus, the book is useful to those seeking information for their professional, scientific and personal development, allowing them to shape their social attitude. It is also useful to those responsible for taking decisions at national, European or enterprise level, in relation to the social and economic problems of Greece.

This book shows that poverty is multidimensional and hence needs to be analyzed from a multidisciplinary point of view, which has to include economic, sociological, psychological, anthropological, philosophical, legal and evolutionary perspectives. It also presents the new ideas on poverty analysis that have become very popular in recent years - the participatory approach, the concept of empowerment, the notion of vulnerability and the distinction between chronic and transient poverty.

In recent years, there has been an increase in new forms of employment. Namely, thanks to the use of platforms in business and the emergence of the ""gig economy"", there are gradual changes in this domain. These include part-time, temporary, informal, and unpaid family work. This type of employment can be defined as any job, but only of short or uncertain duration. The experiences gained by the countries of the European Union, as well as the countries of the Western Balkans from the COVID-19 crisis, during which they used new technologies in work, should in the future make working systems even more adapted to the digital age. At last, whether working from home is the product of one's own choice or is the result of a pandemic or other environmental shock, the change in the way work is done is real and governments must understand the implications and take steps to position their economies accordingly.

Egypt experienced an economic shift from a managed economic strategy to one of market-oriented resource allocation starting in the 1970s, and in 1987 signed a stabilization program agreement with the International Monetary Fund. This is an overview of these structural changes experienced by the Egyptian economy in the 70s and 80s. The main tool to assess the effectiveness of the policies and to evaluate growth prospects under different policy scenarios is an integrated macroeconomic-energy demand-input/output model. Four different policy scenarios are explored.

This volume collects a selection of refereed papers of the more than one hundred presented at the InternationalConference MAF 2008 - Mathematicaland Statistical Methods for Actuarial Sciences and Finance. The conference was organised by the Department of Applied Mathematics and theDepartment ofStatisticsoftheUniversityCa'Foscari Venice(Italy), withthec- laborationofthe Department ofEconomics and StatisticalSciences ofthe University ofSalerno(Italy).Itwas heldinVenice, fromMarch 26to28,2008, attheprestigious CavalliFranchettipalace, alongGrand Canal, oftheIstitutoVenetodiScienze, Lettere ed Arti. This conference was the ?rst international edition of a biennial national series begunin2004, whichwas bornof thebrilliantbeliefofthe colleagues -and friends- oftheDepartmentofEconomicsandStatisticalSciences oftheUniversityofSalerno: the idea following which the cooperation between mathematicians and statisticians in working in actuarial sciences, in insurance and in ?nance can improve research on these topics. The proof of this consists in the wide participation in these events. In particular, with reference to the 2008 internationaledition: - More than 150 attendants, both academicians and practitioners; - More than 100 accepted communications, organised in 26 parallel sessions, from authors coming from about twenty countries (namely: Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA); - two plenary guest-organised sessions; and - aprestigiouskeynotelecturedeliveredbyProfessorWolfgangHa ]rdleoftheH- boldt Universityof Berlin (Germany)

Alfred Marshall has traditionally been listed alongside pioneering 'neoclassical' economists. In this volume, Neil Hart challenges this view, illuminating the ambiguities within Marshall's work, and exploring his reconciliation of two modes of thinking, equilibrium economics and evolutionary economics.

From Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller, a groundbreaking account of how stories help drive economic events-and why financial panics can spread like epidemic viruses Stories people tell-about financial confidence or panic, housing booms, or Bitcoin-can go viral and powerfully affect economies, but such narratives have traditionally been ignored in economics and finance because they seem anecdotal and unscientific. In this groundbreaking book, Robert Shiller explains why we ignore these stories at our peril-and how we can begin to take them seriously. Using a rich array of examples and data, Shiller argues that studying popular stories that influence individual and collective economic behavior-what he calls "narrative economics"-may vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises and other major economic events. The result is nothing less than a new way to think about the economy, economic change, and economics. In a new preface, Shiller reflects on some of the challenges facing narrative economics, discusses the connection between disease epidemics and economic epidemics, and suggests why epidemiology may hold lessons for fighting economic contagions.

Libman and Vinokurov discuss the evolution of post-Soviet regional integration as a prominent case of 'holding-together regionalism' - integration of countries originally belonging to a single political entity. They provide a detailed account of the economic, political and social aspects of the interaction of post-Soviet countries, studying both formal regionalism and informal linkages between companies and individuals. The book pays particular attention to the political economy of this process, assessing both the reasons for the ineffectiveness of post-Soviet regionalism until recently and the driving forces of its persistence. It investigates migration flows, mutual trade and investments, as well as interaction in key sectors of infrastructure, such as telecommunications, transportation, agriculture and power utilities.

This book provides an account of the principal phases in the development of the English banking system, and goes on to analyse the financial structure of the economy of the UK. The book focuses in detail on the regulatory and supervisory aspects of the UK banking system, and the interactions between the structural aspects of the banking and supervisory system.

This text addresses the understanding and alleviation of poverty, inequality, and inequity using a unique and broad mix of concepts, measurement methods, statistical tools, software, and practical exercises. Most of the book's measurement and statistical tools have been programmed in DAD, a well established and widely available free software program that has been tailored especially for income distribution analysis and is used by scholars, researchers, and analysts in nearly 100 countries worldwide. It requires basic understanding of calculus and statistics. There are examples and exercises using real data.

As the shock of the 2008 European financial crisis begins to subside, it is time for scholars to step back and analyze the crisis's causes and effects from a multidisciplinary vantage point. Europe in Crisis examines the current state of the European economy, society, and polity, both on the theoretical and political levels, by placing special emphasis on its current crisis. With important contributions from heterodox economists and radical social and political scientists, this innovative new edited collection seeks to evaluate past efforts and policies (mainly since World War II), criticize the failed neoclassical/neoliberal perspectives, and offer alternative strategies and policies to Europe's socioeconomic impasse and misery.

The collection considers several aspects of the transformation of the former state socialist countries: social and economic outcomes; forces in the transformation process; problems of consolidation of the new regimes; and alternative scenarios. Comparisons are made between the successful central European countries now members of the European Union with those of the former Soviet Union. The impact of the collapse of the USSR and the course of transformation is considered on China, Cuba, and North Korean. The book also contemplates the alternative types of society that might replace state socialism, particularly state capitalism and market socialism.

Labour: A Heterodox Approach provides a theoretical reconstruction of the labour and job market by examining it in a rich historical context. It explores the fundamental implications of the theories of consumption and growth and aims at solving the difficulties raised by the dominant economic theories (neoclassical, Keynesian, supply side) by taking into account the dimension of the historical conflict of the labour market and the public intervention that results from it, such as the construction of a specific legal framework that is to say, labour law. The work focuses on providing a description of conflict and intervention, the market's leading characteristics, and demonstrates that they can be interpreted by introducing two major remedial hypotheses in economic fundamentals. It also contributes to solving several theoretical controversies and highlights the two main perspectives on the economic regulation of the labour market.

This book is the outcome of the international symposium on 'Economic Integration in Asia and India' held in Tokyo, Japan, on Decemeber 8, 2005.
In the flow of globalization in the world economies, the regional economic integrations which have been progressing institutionally in the EU and Americas are now substantially under way among countries in Asia, including Japan, Korea, China and the ASEAN countries. India has also taken steps on the passage towards economic integration. India's full-scale participation in the Asian market will affect other East Asian countries, which in turn will also have manifold influences on India. This book aims to trigger a wider examination of Asian economic integration.

Macroeconomics: Big Things Have Small Beginnings addresses economic issues that students are likely to hear about in the media due to their far-reaching consequences. The text focuses on the interconnectedness of economics, underscoring how large issues can be traced back to small origins, as well as how the welfare of individual economic agents and aggregate social benefits are not mutually exclusive. The book begins by introducing students to the concept and study of macroeconomics. Additional chapters address the measurement and structure of the national economy and various aspects of national income accounting, including productivity, output, employment, consumption, savings, investment, and government spending. Students read about long-run economic growth, money and prices, the IS/LM/FE and AD/AS models, and open market macroeconomics. Closing chapters examine business cycles, unemployment, and inflation. Each chapter includes a Food for Thought section that poses engaging questions and inspires critical thinking. Designed to help students recognize economic principles in everyday life, Macroeconomics is an ideal introductory textbook for courses within the discipline.

In the aftermath of the devastating economic depression suffered for almost a decade, Modeling Economic Growth in Contemporary Greece assesses the conditions shaping the Greek economy's restart, discussing the effect of institutions on the business environment and highlighting the factors which are critical for achieving sustainable economic growth. The intrinsic properties of the Greek economic and business environment imply that there are country-specific factors responsible for the performance of the Greek economy, which is differentiated from its European counterparts. Despite being a member of the European Union since 1981 and one of the twelve first countries who adopted the euro, Greece has not been able to converge in crucial macroeconomic indicators with the early euro area Member States. The European stimulus package to support post COVID-19 recovery appears as a unique opportunity for Greece to develop a long-term vision and materialize reforms that will unlock the economy's true potential. This latest book in the Entrepreneurship and Global Economic Growth series is centred around the determinants of and obstacles to Greece's sustainable economic growth, presenting the macroeconomic and external environment and the dynamics of Greek economy and focuses onto internal conditions shaped by country-specific characteristics affecting labor and product markets' efficiency and the performance of institutions and production factors.

This book examines alternative economic policies for the European Union in the aftermath of the rejection of the European Constitution. The subject range includes macroeconomic policy and the European Constitution, EU financial integration, the reform of European regional policy, assessment and alternative proposals on European structural policies and labour market policies in the European Union.

Economists increasingly agree on the nature of the development and social policies needed to halve poverty over the next ten years. A similar convergence is nowhere in sight in the case of macroeconomic policies. Disagreements in this area remain significant, exacerbated by rising financial instability and a string of banking and currency crises that impacted negatively on poverty, growing macro imbalances in some industrialized countries and the rapid development of difficult-to-regulate international financial markets. This volume presents a pro-poor macroeconomic policy allowing countries to recapture policy space, help promote growth, reduce inequality and diminish poverty in a sustainable way.

In this book export demand and supply are modeled simultaneously using a new proxy for globalization. Empirical estimates for the United States, Canada, and Germany show that the countries differ as to the price elasticities of demand and supply and the effects of globalization. However, the elasticity of exports to world production equals unity throughout, which is in line with constant returns to scale, but lower than the values found in previous studies that do not distinguish between growth and globalization.

China's explosive economic growth since 1988 has not resulted in an equal increase of income among all Chinese citizens. The authors explore a range of reasons for the disparity and base their conclusions on strong empirical evidence--especially the 1996 survey conducted by the State Statistical Bureau.

Analyzing the Gross National Product (GNP) and other national economic statistics is one way to look at the financial well being of a country. Another more revealing and more interesting way is to analyze the variety and amount of goods and services consumed by citizens, businesses, and the various levels of government. The "Handbook" presents a systematic and statistical portrait of consumption and wealth, allowing readers to better understand America's economic, political, and cultural landscape. This handbook focuses on the latest statistical information available on U.S. spending habits by exploring a wide range of economic, demographic, and geographic variables.

This book arose from our conviction that the NNS-DSGE approach to the analysis of aggregate market outcomes is fundamentally flawed. The practice of overcoming the SMD result by recurring to a fictitious RA leads to insurmountable methodological problems and lies at the root of DSGE models failure to satisfactorily explain real world features, like exchange rate and banking crises, bubbles and herding in financial markets, swings in the sentiment of consumers and entrepreneurs, asymmetries and persistence in aggregate variables, and so on. At odds with this view, our critique rests on the premise that any modern macroeconomy should be modeled instead as a complex system of heterogeneous interacting individuals, acting adaptively and autonomously according to simple and empirically validated rules of thumb. We call our proposed approach Bottom-up Adaptive Macroeconomics (BAM). The reason why we claim that the contents of this book can be inscribed in the realm of macroeconomics is threefold: i) We are looking for a framework that helps us to think coherently about the interrelationships among two or more markets. In what follows, in particular, three markets will be considered: the markets for goods, labor and loanable funds. In this respect, real time matters: what happens in one market depends on what has happened, on what is happening, or on what will happen in other markets. This implies that intertemporal coordination issues cannot be ignored. ii) Eventually, it s all about prices and quantities. However, we are mostly interested in aggregate prices and quantities, that is indexes built from the dispersed outcomes of the decentralized transactions of a large population of heterogeneous individuals. Each individual acts purposefully, but she knows anything about the levels of prices and quantities which clear markets in the aggregate. iii) In the hope of being allowed to purport scientific claims, BAM relies on the assumption that individual purposeful behaviours aggregates into regularities. Macro behaviour, however, can depart radically from what the individual units are trying to accomplish. It is in this sense that aggregate outcomes emerge from individual actions and interactions.

A topical insider view of causes and consequences of financial crises since the Mexican collapse of 1995. The book includes a detailed exploration of recent and ongoing firestorms, including the near meltdown of the global financial system and the euro crisis, and suggests ways to save the international financial and monetary system.