This title was first published in 2003. Fields traces the origins of recent economic growth in Ireland over a long period of development. In doing so, he opens up an old debate with new data, interpretations and evidence that will force many to question existing truths about the role of religion in economic growth. The work is founded on an innovative methodology and unique primary and secondary resource material that has never been used in a study of this kind. This is timely as the area has a growing international market and addresses some recently ignored themes in the Social Sciences, in particular religion. Whilst concerned with global issues this text also focuses on one country which economists and sociologists as well as those in other Social Sciences areas will find of great interest.

Sustainable development is a concept that is receiving increasing attention from world decision makers. This timely volume contains a selection of both the seminal papers and a cross-section of current thinking. It will be invaluable to researchers, students and practitioners interested in this important topic. Part I presents early articles linking the macroeconomy with the environment. Part II contains general surveys of the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. Included in Part III are papers with mathematical models seeking to incorporate environmental variables into macroeconomic frameworks. Part IV focuses on the linkages between international trade and the environment. The final section examines progress on the greening of the system of national accounts - an important prerequisite for environmental-macroeconomic policy making.

This groundbreaking volume researches the lives of gecekondu settlers in the capital city of Turkey in order to understand how households cope with poverty and why some households are more successful than others in reducing their deprivation. It takes a critical stance towards existing conceptions such as household survival, livelihood and coping strategy and develops an alternative model based on four types of household response to poverty: income generation, income allocation, consumption and investment. In explaining household responses and their outcomes for poverty, the book demonstrates the role of different resources beyond income including social, economic and cultural capital. It emphasises broader structural factors such as labour market processes and state policies which influence the availability and/or benefit delivery capacity of household resources, and thereby moves beyond the dominant view which overemphasises the resilience of the poor. Gender divisions within the household are also examined. The book adopts an innovative method for measuring poverty. The new method combines 'objective' and subjective dimensions of deprivation to develop a unique way of addressing two central questions: what are those standards of living whose absence indicates deprivation, and how can the value of each standard of living be determined?

This book examines the extent to which spatial economic convergence has taken place in the European Union and analyses the effectiveness of regional policy. The authors examine the differing economic features of the European regions and provide an institutional background to regional policy at both the national and Union level. Theories of economic growth are discussed and assessed in terms of the relative performance of regional economies in Europe. The authors then analyse the extent to which economic convergence, for example in terms of income and employment, has materialized across regions using a variety of techniques including mean reversion and time varying parameter procedures. The analysis is both at the level of the entire EU area and at more disaggregate levels that look at specific regions of the Union and at specific sectors. The book offers an assessment of some of the key regional policy instruments used and pays particular attention to the role of infrastructure investment as a tool for enhancing regional growth. It also considers the extent to which some non-regional specific policies impact upon the development of regional economies and explores the implications of closer monetary ties between member states. This book will be of interest to academics and policymakers concerned with regional science, European studies and macroeconomics.

First published in 1987, Evolutionary Macroeconomics offers an evolutionary approach to macroeconomics as an alternative to contemporary new classical and Keynesian macroeconomics. In order to develop such an approach, an alternative view of the micro-foundations of macroeconomics is presented.

The book begins with a commentary on the state of macroeconomics and an evaluation of attempts to redevelop its underlying vision of economic behaviour. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of expectations and anticipations. The second part of the book presents a behavioural framework which is compatible with an evolutionary perspective on economic behaviour. The third part of the book discusses the implications of adopting an evolutionary approach to macroeconomic theory, empirical methods and policy design, culminating in a specific policy proposal to cure stagflation.

Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective brings together feminist economists and feminist political economists from different countries located in North America and Europe to analyze the strategic silence about gender in fiscal and monetary policy, and financial regulation. This silence reflects a set of assumptions that the key instruments of financial governance are gender-neutral. This often masks the ways in which financial governance operates to the disadvantage of women and reinforces gender inequality.

This book examines both the transformations in the governance of finance that predate the financial crisis, as well as some dimension of the crisis itself. The transformations increasingly involved private as well as public forms of power, along with institutions of state and civil society, operating at the local, national, regional and global levels. An important aspect of these transformations has been the creation of policy rules (often enacted in laws) that limit the discretion of national policy makers with respect to fiscal, monetary, and financial sector policies. These policy rules tend to have inscribed in them a series of biases that have gender (as well as class and race-based) outcomes. The biases identified by the authors in the various chapters are the deflationary bias, male breadwinner bias, and commodification bias, adding two new biases: risk bias and creditor bias.

The originality of the book is that its primary focus is on macroeconomic policies (fiscal and monetary) and financial governance from a feminist perspective with a focus on the gross domestic product and its fluctuations and growth, paid employment and inflation, the budget surplus/deficit, levels of government expenditure and tax revenue, and supply of money. The central findings are that the key instruments of financial governance are not gender neutral. Each chapter considers examples of financial governance, and how it relates to the gender order, including divisions of labour, and relations of power and privilege.

This book is key reading for anyone studying feminist economics, and should also be of interest to those researching macroeconomics, political economics and women 's studies.

Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective brings together feminist economists and feminist political economists from different countries located in North America and Europe to analyze the strategic silence about gender in fiscal and monetary policy, and financial regulation. This silence reflects a set of assumptions that the key instruments of financial governance are gender-neutral. This often masks the ways in which financial governance operates to the disadvantage of women and reinforces gender inequality.

This book examines both the transformations in the governance of finance that predate the financial crisis, as well as some dimension of the crisis itself. The transformations increasingly involved private as well as public forms of power, along with institutions of state and civil society, operating at the local, national, regional and global levels. An important aspect of these transformations has been the creation of policy rules (often enacted in laws) that limit the discretion of national policy makers with respect to fiscal, monetary, and financial sector policies. These policy rules tend to have inscribed in them a series of biases that have gender (as well as class and race-based) outcomes. The biases identified by the authors in the various chapters are the deflationary bias, male breadwinner bias, and commodification bias, adding two new biases: risk bias and creditor bias.

The originality of the book is that its primary focus is on macroeconomic policies (fiscal and monetary) and financial governance from a feminist perspective with a focus on the gross domestic product and its fluctuations and growth, paid employment and inflation, the budget surplus/deficit, levels of government expenditure and tax revenue, and supply of money. The central findings are that the key instruments of financial governance are not gender neutral. Each chapter considers examples of financial governance, and how it relates to the gender order, including divisions of labour, and relations of power and privilege.

This book is key reading for anyone studying feminist economics, and should also be of interest to those researching macroeconomics, political economics and women s studies.

2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of L on Walras, the brilliant originator and first formaliser of general equilibrium theory -- one of the pillars of modern economic theory. In advancing much derided practical solutions Walras also displayed more concern for the problems of living in a second best world than is common in modern pure theories of the invisible hand, efficient market hypothesis, DSGE macroeconomics or the thinking of some contemporary free market admirers all based on general equilibrium theory. This book brings contributions from the likes of Kenneth Arrow, Alan Kirman, Richard Posner, Amartya Sen and Robert Solow to share their thoughts and reflections on the theoretical heritage of L on Walras. Some authors reminisce on the part they played in the development of modern general economics theory; others reflect on the crucial part played by general equilibrium in the development of macroeconomics, microeconomics, growth theory, welfare economics and the theory of justice; others still complain about the wrong path economic theory took under the influence of post 1945 developments in general equilibrium theory.

This title was first published in 2003. Emerging Market Economies: Globalization and Development is the result of a comprehensive international research project co-ordinated within TIGER (Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research). It deals with economic, social and political implications of globalization for the development of emerging market economies and is authored by a host of international scholars from the USA, Chile, Tanzania, UK, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Romania, China and Japan. Kolodko et al examine the fundamental issues of the influences of globalization on the markets for capital, goods and labour and for the growth and development in emerging markets including post-communist countries. The study includes a number of comprehensive and compatible works which deal especially with the chances for and mechanism of catching-up on these emerging markets.

This title was first published in 2003. Schumpeter first put forward the premise that the incessant turbulence of an economy in motion, carrying out new combinations of products, production methods with new technologies and the opening of new markets, is capable of explaining patterns of economic growth and change. Focusing on US industrialized urban areas, this volume tests this theory empirically. Localized employment 'churn' - registered as job creation/destruction dynamics - is used to account for variations in US metro-regional economic productivity performances during the 1986-1999 period. The results suggest that the employment turnover and replacement dynamics have large and significant positive effects on localized productivity growth independent of a variety of industrial restructuring processes occurring simultaneously. While employment churn effects are robust across US Census regions, they do not exert a uniform influence on metro-regional productivity performances across time. Until 1996, job creation and destruction dynamics often cancelled each other out as metro-regions underwent continued industrial restructuring. Since 1996, however, positive effects on metro-region productivity growth have been consistently strong. In addition to a strong positive effect on productivity of the emergence of a localized IT sector, both an expanding service sector share of regional employment and a rising public spending share of regional output exert powerful downward pressure of localized productivity growth rates.

This title was first published in 2002: The Commodity Protocols of the EU have become a major focus of conflict with the USA. This illuminating volume reviews the significance of the banana, rum and sugar Protocols for the Commonwealth Caribbean, while placing them in the context of the Lome and Cotonou Agreements. In an era of transition in the international trading environment, it provides an interesting case study of the implications for some of the smaller economic players in the world economy of these global changes. Timely and thought-provoking, this study will be of critical interest to students, academics and professionals in the field of development economics and European studies.

This title was first published in 2000. This work provides a new insight into china's township and village enterprises (TVEs). It views the governance structure of TVEs as effectively combining the comparative advantage of local government officials in external management and of dual firm managers in internal management to overcome imperfections in both market and government during the transitional period. Through extensive field investigation analysis and case studies, this work shows that the governance structure of TVEs has been evolving during the past fifteen years. To adapt to the changing environment, TVEs have continuously innovated firm contractual form from a government official dominant fixed-wage form to a partnership style profit-sharing form, then to a privatization oriented fixed-rent form. This work develops a complete model to explain how the central government's partial reform efforts in market liberalization have become the driving force to induce the contractual form innovation, and to explicate how heterogeneity in firms' technical structures and in local economic settings may affect local government's decisions regarding contractual form innovation. Using the author's unique data set, the model simulations predict that the development in the whole market system will result in the diffusion of contractual form innovation and lead to an 'induced privatization' in this sector. The following empirical studies show this to be a powerful prediction and the progress toward such 'induced privatization' can be expected in China in near future. This research work provides a rich empirical study on China's institutional transition towards a market system. It explains how a bottom-up endogenous, instead of top-down exogenous, property rights reform can be realized in transitional economies. This work will serve as a valuable reference for researchers and students in economics, economic development and institutional economics - and especially for those interested in research.

First published in 1977, this is an applied economics text, in which the basic theory of any introductory economics couurse is applied to a whole range of UK macro- and micro-economic policy issues. The book is designed specifically for first and second year university students, with the aim of demonstrating the relevance of theory to policy, how theory can be applied to policy problems and, in the process, to improve their understanding of the theory itself.

This title was first published in 2000. An essential collection of studies which examine the many aspects of the Indian economy from trade relations and exchange rate mechanisms to privatization. The text looks at the issue of poverty and income distribution and advances the problems and issues associated with the Indian economy.

Macroeconomics is widely praised for its ability to present theory as a way of evaluating key macro questions, such as why some countries are rich and others are poor. Students have a natural interest in what is happening today and what will happen in the near future. Macroeconomics capitalizes on their interest by beginning with business cycles and monetary-fiscal policy in both closed and open economy. After that, Gordon presents a unique dynamic analysis of demand and supply shocks as causes of inflation and unemployment, followed by a dual approach to economic growth in which theory and real-world examples are used to compare rich and poor countries.

This title was first published in 2003. The greatest challenge facing China today is to curb the growing economic divide between urban and rural people. Achieving this requires that the rural economy in general, and rural industries in particular, transform rapid growth into sustained development. However, policy makers are struggling to modernise rural industries, such as the cattle and beef industry, especially in a way that contributes to rural incomes.A This book provides a systematic, detailed and up-to-date analysis of how institutional and policy reforms impact on rural and industry development in China. Academics, policy-makers and others will find that this case study offers new insights into China's rural economy, institutional change and transition process. It will also be of interest to those concerned with ways to develop livestock industries in a way that benefits rural communities.

This title was first published in 2003.Wolfgang Stolper was one of the first Western economists to serve as an adviser in the government of an independent African country. In 1960 he was brought in by the Nigerian government to help shape Nigeria's first post-independence development plan. His remarkably candid diaries chronicle his struggles and frustrations with officials, interference, waste and corruption at the heart of a government and unfolds the extraordinary story of his warmth and friendship with a country and its people. Brutally frank, compelling and disarmingly thoughtful, Inside Independent Nigeria brings to light one of the most exceptional documents on post-independence Nigeria, and delivers a fascinating picture of a pivotal era in the development of Western economic planning in Africa. No student or researcher of African political history, economics or development studies will want to be without this utterly riveting book.

This title was first published in 2002. NGOs are receiving increasing international attention and resources from policy makers, donors, academics and others. The New Policy Agenda accepts NGOs as agents for social welfare alongside the state and as fostering democracy in the Developing World. Astonishingly, however, there have been very few studies and no books on NGO field workers. This study of field workers in Bangladesh, provides excellent insights into this neglected field. Bangladesh is an excellent example as, since independence in 1971, it has been a 'donor-dependent' country, both financially and functionally, and since the 1980s has concentrated this funding towards NGOs rather than to the state. The book shows how field workers are seen simply as implementers, carrying out directions given by their superiors and never being consulted on how best to achieve their goals. The book examines four types of NGOs - international, national, regional and small/local - in a number of sample locations. It compares the benefits and facilities provided by each NGO to their field workers, then explores the socio-economic background of both field workers and their mid-level managers and examines the interactions between these two groups and between field workers and their clients. It also looks at the field workers' personal and professional lives and problems and details their opinions on their NGO's activities and policies and on development . The findings show that NGO managers and donors lack knowledge of the realities in the field and do not realise how certain policies, such as their positive discrimination of women, can have negative results. It proposes that NGO field workers should be more active in policy making and puts forward several recommendations for changes in the management and structure of future NGOs.

This title was first published in 2002.Bringing together an inspiring mix of US and African contributors, this book explores the dynamics of the unfolding globalized economic, political, socio-cultural and environmental systems. Featuring incisive international commentary on the causes and consequences of poverty in the Third World it presents a powerful study of the strategies by which Third World governments and civil society can overcome poverty by insinuating themselves more creatively into the global order. The result is one of the defining works so far produced on the tensions between globalization and development.

This title was first published in 2003. Nurul Islam, currently head of economic and social policy at the FAO/UN and a key advisor at the International Food Policy Research Institute, has been a renowned expert on economic development for the past thirty years. Over that time he has researched and written about a wide range of economic development issues, focussing mainly on policy. For the first time ever, his most important writings have been brought together in this volume, reflecting not only Professor Islam's own views on particular issues, but also providing a unique overview of the key debates and discussions taking place among academic economist and policy analysts over the past three decades. The collection is divided into three main sections: trade and aid, development strategy, and food security, the section on food security being the most recent. It discusses food security in a broad sense, covering issues of availability and growth in food production, access or entitlement of individuals or households to basic food, and variability in food supplies and prices. In the section on Development Strategy, Professor Islam highlights how theoretical argument has veered away from organized 'development planning' models which proved so important in the 1960s. He questions the role of models and policies throughout the decades and, following articles written in the 1970s or 80s, he includes articles he has recently completed, assessing the previous ones from his current perspective. In the final section, on Trade and Aid, he follows the academic debate on trade and exchange rate policies in developing countries from the 1960s to the progress of the WTO forums of today. This is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking volume. No matter whether the subject in question was examined in the 1960s or currently, Professor Islam provides a challenging and insightful analysis, and even the earliest articles retain relevance and will be of continuing interest.

This book is about the causes and consequences of economic inequality in the advanced market economies of today. It is commonplace that in market systems people choose their own individual economic destinies, but of course the choices people make are importantly determined by the alternatives available to them: economic disparity arises mainly from unequal opportunity. Yet this merely begs the question; from whence do the vast existing inequalities of opportunity arise? This book theorizes power and social class as the real crux of economic inequality. Most of mainstream economics studiously eschews questions involving social power, preferring to focus instead on "individual choice subject to constraint" in contexts of "well-functioning markets". Yet both "extra-market" power structures and power structures arising from within the market system itself are unavoidably characteristic of real-world market-based economies. The normal working of labor and financial markets engenders an inherent wealth-favoring bias in the distribution of opportunities for occupational choice. But that bias is greatly compounded by the economic, social, political and cultural power structures that constitute the class system. For those power structures work to distribute economic benefit to class elites, and are in turn undergirded by the disparities of wealth they thus help engender. Inequality and Power offers an economic analysis of the power structures constituting that class system: employers' power over employees; the power of certain businesses over others; professionals' power over their clients and other employees; cultural power in the media and education systems; and political power in "democratic" government. Schutz argues that a "class analysis" of the trend of increasing economic inequality today is superior to the mainstream economic analysis of that trend. After considering what is wrong with power-based inequality in term of criteria of distributive justice and economic functionality, the book concludes with an outline of various possible correctives. This book should be of interest to students and researchers in economics, sociology, political science and philosophy, as well as anyone interested in the theories of social class.

The Japanese economy is beginning to show signs of recovery after years of stagnation/deflation, but many Japanese policymakers warn that this economic growth may be sluggish: slower than in the United States and certainly slower than in other East Asian countries. Japan faces significant economic problems, including an aging population, a large fiscal deficit, and the need to adjust to the IT economy and to competition with the rest of East Asia. A slow growth scenario would greatly reduce opportunities for new productive investment and would make it increasingly difficult to provide for Japan's growing social needs. The authors of this book argue that Japan can and should grow more rapidly, and examine the reasons for the sluggish performance of the Japanese economy. For example, some Japanese economic sectors, particularly in distribution and finance, have failed to take advantage of new information and communications technology to accelerate the growth of productivity, as has happened in other countries, such as the US. Production function studies and econometric model simulations suggest that with appropriate policies the Japanese economy can grow more rapidly and deal with its future problems. The book posits a number of policy proposals which would help to accelerate Japan's economic growth This book will be of interest to students of the Japanese economy, macroeconomics and international economies, and also to policymakers and professionals interested in Japan's economy.

Heterodox Macroeconomics offers a detailed understanding of the foundations of the recent global financial crisis. The chapters, from a selection of leading academics in the field of heterodox macroeconomics, carry out a synthesis of heterodox ideas that place financial instability, macroeconomic crisis, rising global inequality and a grasp of the perverse and pernicious qualities of global and domestic macroeconomic policy making since 1980 into a coherent perspective. It familiarizes the reader with the emerging unified theory of heterodox macroeconomics and its applications.

The book is divided into four key sections: I) Heterodox Macroeconomics and the Keynes-Marx synthesis; II) Accumulation, Crisis and Instability; III) The Macrodynamics of the Neoliberal Regime; and IV) Heterodox Macroeconomic Policy. The essays include theoretical, international, historical, and country perspectives on financial fragility and macroeconomic instability.

This book explores the problems of fiscal policy as an instrument of economic and social development in the modern environment, primarily focusing on the transition economies of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. Evaluating the transformational experience in these countries, this work meets a need for a critical analysis in the aftermath of the 1990s market liberalization reforms, of current trends and to outline the roadmap for future development.

Although most traditional economic theory puts the individual at the centre of analysis, more recent approaches have acknowledged the importance of a wider sense of identity as a determinant of individual behaviour. Whether it is ethnicity, religion or gender, group membership is a central part of human life. This book presents new advances in areas which consider both the individual and the group when measuring inequalities and well-being. The first part of the book covers topics such as relative deprivation and happiness, domains where even economists have now recognized the importance of reference groups in the assessment of individuals' well-being. The second part is devoted to the concept of polarization, a growing field of inquiry among economists. The third part looks at income and wage intra-generational mobility, while the fourth part reports on recent advances in measuring the significant differences between and within groups. The book concludes with several chapters devoted to poverty and social exclusion, stressing in particular the need for a multidimensional approach to these topics. This collection offers a fresh look at the way individual well-being should be measured, by emphasizing the role of reference groups and the idea of polarization, as well as stressing the impact on well-being of changes over time to the relative position of individuals. This book should be of interest to graduate students and researchers working in the field of development economics, inequality and poverty.