Why do some nations and cities attain high levels of economic and social prosperity? What makes them so successful? The kinds of factors habitually cited in answer to these questions explain why nations improve their economic and social performance but not why a small group of nations (or cities) perform much better than the rest. Economists stress efficient markets, effective industries and functional factors like transport, health, education, and infrastructure. Political scientists emphasize honest and democratic government. This book argues that three further factors are key: paradoxes, patterns, and portals. To an unusual degree, the world's most prosperous economies and societies think and act paradoxically. At their core are enigmatic, puzzle-like belief systems that elicit cooperation via abstract patterns rather than personal connections. They are often accompanied by high levels of autodidactic self-directed learning and intense creation in the arts and sciences. These factors, when combined, facilitate large-scale interactions between strangers and, in so doing, they energize markets, industries, cities, and publics. Pattern-based political economies are especially prominent in the portal cities, regions, and nations that are concentrated along the world's maritime circumference in North America, East Asia, North-Western Europe, and Australasia. It is only by integrating additional cognitive, cultural, creative, and geographic elements that we can truly understand the successes of prosperous economies. This book represents a significant contribution to the literature on political economy, economic growth, and prosperity.

The growth of world trade has been stagnant in recent times; trade liberalisation now has been challenged. The recent rise of anti-globalisation calls for a better integration in East Asia. How should East Asia manage its openness? This book provides profound analyses on rules of origins, non-tariff measures, restrictiveness in services and investment. It gives insight into how East Asian countries should shape its trade, investment and industrial policies. This book helps to answer what kind of a better integration it should be, and how East Asia can realise it.

This collection of papers on financial instability and its impact on macroeconomic performance honours Hyman P. Minsky and his lifelong work. It is based on a conference at Washington University, St. Louis, in 1990 and includes among the authors Benjamin M. Friedman, Charles P. Kindleberger, Jan Kregel and Steven Fazzari. These papers consider Minsky's definitive analysis that yields such a clear and disturbing sequence of financial events: booms, government intervention to prevent debt contraction and new booms that cause a progressive buildup of new debt, eventually leaving the economy much more fragile financially.

Public Economics: A Concise Introduction provides a concise and non-technical overview of the role of government in the economy. Using the questions 'why?', 'what for?' and 'how?', the text initially surveys the place of the public sector in a market economy. It then considers the possible reasons which could justify government involvement. Next, the book examines the aims of state economic activity, and the instruments which a government has at its disposal. Lastly, the final chapter provides an illuminating tour of economic history and history of economic thought in relation to government economic activity. The book offers an international focus throughout, with examples taken from all over the globe. Readers are supported with a range of pedagogical features, including example boxes, chapter objectives and summaries, and end-of-chapter multiple choice and reflection questions. Public Economics: A Concise Introduction will be a valuable text for students on courses in public economics, welfare economics, public finance, public policy and related areas.

Public Economics: A Concise Introduction provides a concise and non-technical overview of the role of government in the economy. Using the questions 'why?', 'what for?' and 'how?', the text initially surveys the place of the public sector in a market economy. It then considers the possible reasons which could justify government involvement. Next, the book examines the aims of state economic activity, and the instruments which a government has at its disposal. Lastly, the final chapter provides an illuminating tour of economic history and history of economic thought in relation to government economic activity. The book offers an international focus throughout, with examples taken from all over the globe. Readers are supported with a range of pedagogical features, including example boxes, chapter objectives and summaries, and end-of-chapter multiple choice and reflection questions. Public Economics: A Concise Introduction will be a valuable text for students on courses in public economics, welfare economics, public finance, public policy and related areas.

This book connects political economy perspectives with scenario planning for mapping out future trajectories of digital ecosystems. The focus is purposefully on digital ecosystems as it encompasses economic, political and social contexts on a global, national and local level. The diversity of political economy approaches allows the author to explore alternative meanings of digital ecosystem development, which is particularly useful for envisioning alternative futures. Often visions about the future of digital ecosystems suffer from a lack of imagination and confirmation bias which is favorable to the extrapolation of current trends. A wide range of political economy perspectives applied through positivist theorizing in this book shows different interpretations of developments in digital ecosystems. Scenario planning teams around the world have applied a collective imagination to show how future trajectories can be radically different from the current trends. The book outlines meta-scenarios for alternative futures of the political economy of digital ecosystems by reviewing and synthesizing the work of foresight teams. These meta-scenarios served as insights for developing four scenarios for European digital ecosystems through the workshops with high-level executives and experts. The scenarios identified the nature of EU cooperation and the development of digital infrastructure as key drivers. These four scenarios developed in the workshops are further operationalized in a specific context by exploring the implications for Estonia as well as for Chinese investments in European platforms. This exercise shows how scenarios of digital ecosystems can be used for stress-testing decisions and strategies. Decision-makers, students, scholars and other stakeholders in a wide range of industries ranging from academia to ride-sharing can use the scenarios for reframing different development trajectories and future-proofing their strategies. The scenarios can be further developed and modified for specific purposes and contexts as they are not written in stone.

This comprehensive two-volume collection presents key papers on the relationship between international trade and trade policy on the one hand, and poverty and inequality on the other. These relationships highlight the connections between the WTO and income distribution. The analytical and policy context of the volumes is laid out by the editor's introduction and by the first two articles of the collection. The selected papers in the first volume cover macroeconomic links, price links, general equilibrium modeling and, in the second volume, factor markets. Prominent in the second volume are readings on the effects of trade on labour markets in developed and developing countries. Some articles develop the theory of trade and income distribution, but most are empirical and quantitative, stressing the need to test theory and measure key effects before one can make useful policy statements. This book will be invaluable for graduate students, policy makers and professional applied economists.

This volume brings together the most innovative and important work on implicit contract theory, a key area of research which has developed over the past 20 years. Implicit contract theory is concerned with the workings of the macro-labour market over business cycles and focuses on a series of key questions including, how economists can explain unemployment levels and employment fluctuations during recessions in terms of rational economic behaviour, and, why wages do not fall to clear the market.

Rich and informative case studies throughout bring this book to life for professionals and students alike. Written by one of the leading competitive experts in the world. Tackles a complex issues in a lively and engaging way.

This book explores structural changes in Greenland's economy and labour markets due to the transformative effects of climatic changes and growing international attention. It offers multidisciplinary perspectives from economists, sociologists, and political scientists to demonstrate how the Greenlandic economy works. Due to an increasing focus on the Arctic area and Greenland in particular, the book seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of Greenland's labour economy, as well as the challenges that arise from the melting ice and internationalisation. It fills a substantive gap in the existing literature by compiling research on these critical subjects and exploring current and future opportunities for labourers. Today, Greenland is reliant on large financial subsidies from Denmark to provide for a large share of its national budget. This fuels Greenland's political ambition to gain greater independence from Denmark, which requires more private sector growth to develop a sustainable economy. This book thus contains an exhaustive introduction to important business development themes such as macroeconomics, markets, labour supply, labour market policies, and institutions and considers Greenland's colonial past, great Inuit heritage, and unique geography and nature to re-shape its economy and labour markets. Informed by a lucid writing style, each chapter casts light on different economic and social issues of Greenland. This is the first international book on Greenland's economy which discusses its geopolitical importance and prospects for the Arctic region. It will be a valuable point of reference for students and academics of economics, Arctic research and political economy.

The development of Islamic banking and finance (IBF) previously centred around three regions of the world: the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. However, in recent years, this has expanded, as interest in IBF has gained momentum in Australia, the USA, and Europe, especially in the UK. Several Western market players have established their own Islamic window or subsidiaries to cater to the need of growing Muslim populations in these regions. This book examines the recent developments in IBF, particularly in the context of Islamic social finance instruments, such as Islamic microfinance, halal education, takaful, mutual funds, and waqf. It covers the religiosity, spirituality, and tawhid index, which promotes social well-being and empowerment. The book is interdisciplinary, and theories, practice, and key issues are presented simultaneously, introducing new ideas and techniques to the IBF community. Moreover, the book examines topics such as innovation in Islamic social finance instruments, advanced techniques of risk mitigation in Islamic capital markets, marketing and the halal industry, and shari'ah-compliant instruments, which are critical to Islamic finance. The book is an essential reference text for academics and research students at the master's and doctorate levels in IBF.

The views of Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) on population, first published in his Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798, continue to be hotly debated, either acclaimed or opposed, as do his views on macroeconomics. There is a widely held view that his macroeconomics lacks coherence and is merely a collection of isolated jottings. This book challenges this view; it presents textual evidence that Malthus's macroeconomics constitutes a significant system of thought with considerable academic merit. It reawakens debate about the relative merits of Malthus and Ricardo as macroeconomists and contends that Malthus offers important macroeconomic ideas and policy proposals relevant to modern economic problems. It presents and analyses Malthus' ideas on topics such as the determinants of aggregate economic growth; the causes of general depression; the remedies for mass unemployment; the balance between laissez-faire and government intervention; the optimum division of expenditure between consumption, saving, and investment; the distribution of income between wages, profits, and rents; and the degree of economic inequality. Particular emphasis is given to his view that the pattern of distribution of wealth between the upper, lower, and middle classes is a major determinant or factor in the production of wealth, and that continued economic development depends on the growth of a large and affluent middle class. The radical nature of some of his ideas and policy proposals on the ownership and distribution of land is highlighted. An extensive treatment of Say's Law, incorporating aspects of the correspondence between Say and Malthus, addresses the question of whether Malthus showed that Say's Law is merely a truism and lacks any scientific relevance. The book also sheds new light on the nature of the influence of Malthus on Keynes. This combination of a search for textual authenticity and a critical assessment of the views of commentators on Malthus will be of significant interest to students and scholars of economic theory and the history of economics.

Pricing or benchmarking is a process of evaluating the performance of a financial company's products and services or systems, against other businesses, considered to be at the top of their field, by applying a measurement of "best in performance." This book includes contributions from the leading global experts in the field who tackle topics such as whether the Islamic financial system has been dependent on the LIBOR / EURIBOR in its benchmarking exercises to date, and thus, whether it will be affected negatively by the predicted non-existence of the LIBOR / EURIBOR from 2021 onwards. They also address the question of whether the Islamic financial system requires benchmarking of its products and services and consider the emergence of Shari ah-justified benchmarking in today's Islamic financial system. Additionally, they look at how benchmarking formulas should be adapted to ensure the satisfaction of customers within the principles of Maqasid al-Shari ah. It takes a legal and institutional approach to the subject, which readers will find particularly valuable, as there are various forms of Islamic finance institutions that do not conform to established models in the finance industry. Furthermore, there are emerging business models that will benefit from this line of investigation. This book offers a timely analysis of these issues and redresses the existing misconceptions and misinterpretations pertaining to benchmarking, in an Islamic finance context, and, as such, provides guidance and strategies for future directions. It will appeal to researchers of Islamic banking, finance, and insurance, as well as, practitioners, particularly standard setting bodies, regulators, and policy makers.

Islam encourages business and financial transactions as a way of securing the basic needs for all human beings, but these need to be conducted in accordance with the principles contained in the Qur'an and Sunnah. However, these legal concepts are not classified subject-wise, and the verses on commercial law, like all other topics, are scattered throughout the Qur'an, making it difficult for readers to gain a full understanding of the topic. This, therefore, is the first comprehensive book to demystify Islamic contract law and specifically Islamic financial contracts, and to examine its roots and history. The book is written in a clear style to allow for a greater understanding of the more challenging and misunderstood areas pertaining to Islamic business and financial contracts. It also contributes a series of chapters which address the market niche and need, concerning Shariah compliance for Islamic financial products and services. The book is divided into 16 chapters in order to provide a holistic and thorough overview of Islamic law of contract. It covers the objections and misconceptions surrounding Islamic business and financial contracts. It also includes the key features and guiding principles of Islamic law of contract and offers technical know-how, illustrating the concept of formation of a contract, as well as the essential elements of a valid contract. The authors also offer a discussion on the system of options under Islamic business and financial contracts and potential solutions to breach of contracts. The book will serve as a handy reference for scholars and students of Islamic business and finance and Islamic commercial law and will also be beneficial for practitioners as well as legal and judicial officers. It will open new doors for further research in the field of Islamic financial contracts.

In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and international institutions took steps to contain the harmful consequences on citizens' lives and health, as well as the economy. In the short term, the goal was to limit the spread of the virus and the effects of the restrictions on the economy and, in the longer run, to prevent the appearance of new cases, facilitate the end of social restrictions, reboot the economy, and return to a path of sustainable growth and development. This is an economic and legal exploration of the impact of the pandemic, in the Polish context, examining Polish society and the economy as well as the response of the Polish authorities to the pandemic. The choice of Poland as the subject of the research is justified by its specificity. On the one hand, Poland is a country undergoing systemic transformation with access to European and transatlantic institutions. On the other hand, in recent years, it has evolved towards a hybrid democracy and is currently diverging away from the EU project. The book presents Poland's legal and institutional response to the pandemic, analysed through the prism of common European values and Poland's international commitments. It signposts the financial solutions adopted by the EU in the aftermath of the outbreak to assess how they will be used in combatting the short and longer-term consequences of the pandemic in Poland. The book is an introduction to original research, shaped by the novelty of the subject matter, and as such, will be essential reading for students and researchers of economics, law, and international relations.

Macroeconomic Theory and Policy is the second collection of Richard G. Lipsey's essays and contains material that has previously remained unpublished or has not been widely available. The book considers the macroeconomic issues of unemployment, inflation and policies to combat inflation, the Keynesian macroeconomy and supply side economics.The book begins with a new autobiographical introduction to the intellectual development, personal achievements and the fields of interest of Richard G. Lipsey and is then divided into five parts. Part one considers the Phillips Curve, wage rates and profits. The second part discusses the various theories of the causes of inflation and explores issues such as the depreciation of money, monetarism and cost-push versus demand-pull inflation. Part three looks at anti-inflation policies, focusing on incomes policies, credit and monetary policy and wage-price controls among other issues. Keynesian macroeconomics is evaluated in the fourth section, as well as inflation and the national income model. The final part considers supply-side economics. Macroeconomic Theory and Policy is an essential reference companion to the work of Richard G. Lipsey, one of the most important economists of our generation.

The book provides a meticulous analysis of economic development and concomitant problems in China since the late 1970s and advances suggestions on further economic modernisation and transition from both theoretical and practical angles. Based on theories from development economics and solid empirical studies, the authors, two renowned Chinese economists, provide a perceptive analysis of the Chinese development model in the post-Mao era. They shed light on questions that have perplexed many: How can China sustain the rapid growth of the past 40 years? Is there a unique "China path" to economic progress? They argue compellingly that China's development model has to switch from a manufacturing-driven one to a brand-new approach, centring on scientific and technical innovation and the integration of its existing economic structure into an increasingly complex global economy. Such transformation will help overcome the "middle-income trap" while addressing other institutional and economic challenges. The book will appeal to students, scholars and policymakers interested in the Chinese and global economies, as well as transnational studies in the post-COVID-19 world. General readers willing to obtain a grasp of Chinese economic development from the insider's perspective will also find it useful.

There are many different types of convergence within economics, as well as several methods to analyse each of them. This book addresses the concept of real economic convergence or the gradual levelling-off of GDP (gross domestic product) per capita rates across economies. In addition to a detailed, holistic overview of the history and theory, the authors include a description of two modern methods of assessing the occurrence and rate of convergence, BMA-based and HMM-based, as well as the results of the empirical analysis. Readers will have access not only to the conventional econometric approach of convergence but also to an alternative one, allowing for the convergence issue to be expressed in the context of automatic pattern recognition. This approach is universal as it can be adapted to a variety of input data. The lowest aggregation level study investigates regional convergence through the case of Polish voivodships, where convergence towards the leader is tested. On a higher level of aggregation, the authors examine the existence of GDP convergence in such groups as the EU28, North Africa and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Caribbean, South-East Asia, Australia and Oceania, or post-socialist countries. For each group, the real convergence is tested using the two above-mentioned approaches. The results are widely discussed, broadly illustrated, interpreted, and compared. The analysis allows readers to draw interesting conclusions about the causes of convergence or the drivers behind divergence. The book will stimulate further research in the field, but the research was conducted from the point of view of individual countries.

This book provides an in-depth look at the primary foundations of economics explored through the lens of the Pawnee Department of Parks and Recreation. Each episode of the hit television series, Parks and Recreation, includes material to help an eager learner understand the basics of one of the most fascinating fields of study. Whether you've wondered how economists determine specialization or why fast-food restaurants continue to pop up around your neighborhood, the same situations have occurred in Pawnee. Each chapter highlights key scenes or major episodes that demonstrate how the characters experience economics in exactly the same way the rest of us do. This text primarily builds on the debates that take place between Leslie, Ron, and their co-workers, while also exploring key questions such as whether governments should try to help people through direct intervention or sell off all the swings to private corporations and let businesses handle day-to-day decisions. Learn how incentives can make Jerry appear to be a more productive employee short-term, but end up causing chaos. Do you wonder what it would be like to live in the early 1800s? Thankfully Leslie has already done that for us. This book is a must-read for anyone looking for a fun way to learn the principles of economics, including as a supplementary text, and for all fans of Parks and Recreation. Take the advice of Tom and Donna and treat yo' self to this key read.

This book provides an in-depth look at the primary foundations of economics explored through the lens of the Pawnee Department of Parks and Recreation. Each episode of the hit television series, Parks and Recreation, includes material to help an eager learner understand the basics of one of the most fascinating fields of study. Whether you've wondered how economists determine specialization or why fast-food restaurants continue to pop up around your neighborhood, the same situations have occurred in Pawnee. Each chapter highlights key scenes or major episodes that demonstrate how the characters experience economics in exactly the same way the rest of us do. This text primarily builds on the debates that take place between Leslie, Ron, and their co-workers, while also exploring key questions such as whether governments should try to help people through direct intervention or sell off all the swings to private corporations and let businesses handle day-to-day decisions. Learn how incentives can make Jerry appear to be a more productive employee short-term, but end up causing chaos. Do you wonder what it would be like to live in the early 1800s? Thankfully Leslie has already done that for us. This book is a must-read for anyone looking for a fun way to learn the principles of economics, including as a supplementary text, and for all fans of Parks and Recreation. Take the advice of Tom and Donna and treat yo' self to this key read.

Public enterprises have played a central part in the development of all mixed economies in the post-war period, but they are now in a crisis phase. Privatisation has pushed back the level of public enterprise almost throughout the world. Where public enterprises remain, they are being brought under significant reforms. Originally published in 1991, this book presents a comprehensive critique of public enterprise, analysing why its performance has fallen far short of expectations. Part one is concerned with the establishment of public enterprises: the case for them, the circumstances in which they emerged, the extra enterprise objectives attached to them, and the decisions on their investment feasibility and capital structure. Part two looks at the working of public enterprises: the state of their financial performance, the peculiarities of pricing, the determination of targets which they should meet, the continuous monitoring and evaluation of their operations. Macro concerns are the focus of Part three. Among the issues addressed are the level of indirect taxation and subsidisation implicit in the pricing structures of public enterprises, the links between public enterprise and the public exchequer and the implications of their operations for distributional equity. In Part four the extent to which privatisation can solve the problems of public enterprise is discussed. The book ends with some broad conclusions on the future of public enterprise. Throughout, the approach is analytical, but the arguments are supported by extensive examples from both developed and developing economies.

The pursuit of wealth has captivated people's attention for centuries. Yet, as a topic of social research, the way in which wealth is accumulated and unequally distributed has largely been neglected, remaining hidden beneath data on income inequality. Wealth aims to address this blind spot in the academic discourse. In accessible prose, Yuval Elmelech explains how personal wealth differs fundamentally from other conventional measures of socioeconomic status and why it has become increasingly important to our understanding of social mobility and stratification. Crucially, Elmelech presents a dynamic sociological framework of wealth attainment that illuminates the effects of cumulative advantages and disadvantages over the course of an individual's life, and across generations. He describes how these advantages and disadvantages are in turn shaped by a complex interplay of multiple markets, changing demographic landscapes, and persistent inter-group wealth disparities. Blending theoretical approaches with empirical evidence and macro-level contexts with micro-level processes, this book is an astute guide for thinking about wealth as a key determinant of social and economic wellbeing and for interrogating the role of wealth accumulation in social inequality.

Modern macroeconomics is in a stalemate, with seven schools of thought attempting to explain the workings of a monetary economy and to derive policies that promote economic growth with price-level stability. This book pinpoints as the source of this confusion errors made by Keynes in his reading of classical macroeconomics, in particular the classical Quantity Theory and the meaning of saving. It argues that if these misunderstandings are resolved, it will lead to economic policies consistent with promoting the employment and economic growth that Keynes was seeking. The book will be crucial reading for all scholars with an interest in the foundations of Keynes's theories, and anyone seeking to understand current debates regarding macroeconomic policy-making.

This book examines the linkages between exchange rates and India's merchandise trade since the 1990s. It looks at India's trade in the post-liberalisation period through its two main components: commodities and trading partners, and provides a bird's eye view through aggregate analyses accompanied by a historical narrative of the evolution of trade and exchange rate dynamics. Presenting a comprehensive analysis of bilateral and product-specific trade, the book explores the impact of exchange rate on labour intensive sectors and charts out major development. It also offers compelling evidence to suggest that if some commodities are identified as integral to India's export plans, then the impact of exchange rate must be weighed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prior to a market intervention. This timely volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of economics, business and finance, development studies, trade, business, and industry as well as practitioners, think-tanks, and policy makers.

Thorstein Veblen and Hyman Minsky are seminal thinkers who place great importance on the interaction between processes that link finance and financial markets with economic and social evolution. This book makes a contribution to the recontextualisation of the habitual, non-evolutionary and laissez-faire macroeconomic theory and policy, thus exposing the relevant contribution of the macro-theories of Veblen and Minsky. The book starts with an elucidation of Veblen's cultural theory of insufficient private demand, waste and financial fragility and instability. It shows how speculative and parasitic leverage engenders solvency illusions and risk, pecuniary efficiency, low quality liability structures and socially destructive boom-bust cycles. Minsky's creative destruction liquidity processes and coordination failures of cash flow escalate the aforementioned path-dependent developments and explosive dynamics of capitalist economies. The main themes of the book are the cultural, evolutionary and holistic vision of macroeconomics, the evolving habits of mind, routines and financial institutions, the speculative, manipulated and unstable financial markets, as well as the financial macroeconomic destabilizing effects of pecuniary and parasitic consumption and investment. This book will be of great interest to researchers, intellectuals and students pursuing economics and finance.