Can private health insurance fill gaps in publicly financed coverage? Does it enhance access to health care or improve efficiency in health service delivery? Will it provide fiscal relief for governments struggling to raise public revenue for health? This book examines the successes, failures and challenges of private health insurance globally through country case studies written by leading national experts. Each case study considers the role of history and politics in shaping private health insurance and determining its impact on health system performance. Despite great diversity in the size and functioning of markets for private health insurance, the book identifies clear patterns across countries, drawing out valuable lessons for policymakers while showing how history and politics have proved a persistent barrier to effective public policy. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This book critically examines the progress made on macroeconomic stabilization and financial sector reform in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. It relates microeconomic experiences to the broader macroeconomic context of reform, and emphasises that macro reform is underpinned by micro and institutional reform, especially in the financial sphere.Key features include: bank and enterprise restructuring and the progress towards the resolution of banking and bad debt problems implications of bank and enterprise restructuring for corporate governance and company performance an evaluation of bank-enterprise relationships exchange rates and capital flows, with an analysis of the capital inflow problem and the performance of fixed exchange rate regimes in the post-stabilization phase of the transition detailed surveys of individual firm and bank behaviour and performance during the reform process. The book will be welcomed by scholars and practitioners interested in monetary and financial economics, the economics of transition and comparative economic systems.

This volume showcases the impact of the work of Douglass C. North, winner of the Nobel Prize and father of the field of new institutional economics. Leading scholars contribute to a substantive discussion that best illustrates the broad reach and depth of Professor North's work. The volume speaks concisely about his legacy across multiple social sciences disciplines, specifically on scholarship pertaining to the understanding of property rights, the institutions that support the system of property rights, and economic growth.

Edith Penrose has been one of the most significant economists of the second part of the twentieth century. Her contribution to the theory of the firm has reinvented and productively developed the classical tradition in economics, and informed the currently dominant, knowledge-based theory of the firm. This volume builds on a special issue of Contributions to Political Economy that celebrated forty years since Penrose's classic The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. It includes fifteen chapters by leading contributors on the aforementioned aspects of Penrose's work.

... a new twist on the eternal question of inequitable income distribution, though they focus on wealth (accumulated income) rather than income. The authors document the dramatic disparities in the distributions of income and wealth and describe the problems these cause. Their solution, the alternative distribution system, is quite simple: tax inheritance rather than estates. Individuals could inherit up to $1 million tax free. Each succeeding million would be taxed at progressively higher rates. This plan, they argue, would force an estate to be distributed among more people and would cuase beneficiaries to use inheritances more vigorously and creatively.' The authors do an excellent job of making obscure economic data understandable. "Booklist"

A physicist and an economist, writing for a broad audience and using real--not theoretical--data, answer the age-old question: How rich is too rich? In the process, they suggest some practical solutions to the problem of excessive wealth. They outline a way to deal with the too rich that will also create a healthier economy. Merging a hundred years of economic theory and research on wealth and income distributions with anecdotal evidence, Herbert Inhaber and Sidney Carroll create a framework with which to evaluate proposals to redistribute great wealth and income. The authors set forth an Alternative Distribution System, based on the fact that much of the income of the well-off, that upper 3 percent of the United States population with incomes exceeding $110,000 per year, is due to wealth. The ADS, an inheritance plan, would bring the distribution of the lower 97 percent and the upper 3 percent closer together. It would allow a partial correction of the disparity while adding to the total fairness of our society. This very readable text is complemented by a dozen tables that illustrate The Power of Compound Interest, United States Income Distribution, The Estimated Size of the Domestic Underground Economy, and more.

Inhaber and Carroll first describe the existence of an extremely unequal distribution of income and wealth, with enormous resources held by a small percentage of Americans at the top. Other chapters detail the law of income distribution, explain the difference between wealth and income, and explain previous theories of income and wealth distributions. In addition to defining and describing the rich, the authors devote a chapter to how the rich avoid income tax. The volume concludes with an examination of the Alternative Distribution System and how income would be altered by it. How Rich Is Too Rich? will enable the informed general reader to assess policies on wealth and income distribution that have been the subject of Congressional budget debates and best-selling books.

This pioneering work presents for the first time a comprehensive study of the role of Shanghai in the economic development of China. Shanghai experienced stagnation and setbacks in comparison with other big cities and provinces in South China with the open door policy of 1979 and other economic reforms. In terms of export volume, use of foreign capital and overall economic growth, Shanghai remained behind Guangdong and Jiangsu. The fundamental question of why Shanghai maintained a lead position in the national economy and how it was neglected in the Special Economic Zones established in early 1980 is examined herein. In addition, the benefits of trade reform, comparative advantage, and foreign direct investment in Shanghai's recent expansion is discussed.

This book provides a systematic presentation of new microeconomic theories of imperfect information. Each chapter explores a particular type of informational asymmetry and reviews major papers. Wherever possible the theories are compared with experimental evidence. An extensive bibliography is included. Part I, statics, begins with an examination of how imperfect price or quantity information on the buyer's side provides new explanations of phenomena such as price dispersion and sales or resale price maintenance. A thorough discussion of private value auctions and common value auctions follows. Subsequent chapters investigate the links between uncertainty about personal characteristics and job signaling, incomplete insurance coverage, and credit rationing by banks. Part II, dynamics, relates the dynamics of collusion, predation, and market efficiency to the transmission, pooling, and aggregation of private information. Game theoretic findings and their implications for antitrust policy are included.

This book presents the theory and practice of product lifecycle management, chiefly focusing on modern approaches suitable for digitalized enterprises. In addition to describing adaptive methods for advanced product creation using big data analytics, it presents economic and mathematical models for managing product lifecycles based on the application of recent methods (e.g. digital design and automated intelligent systems) to control pre-production and production processes. Given its scope, the book appeals to researchers, economic analysts and entrepreneurs alike.

There are many textbooks for business students that provide a systematic, introductory development of the economics of financial markets. However, there are as yet no introductory textbooks aimed at more easily daunted undergraduate liberal arts students. Introduction to the Economics of Financial Markets fills this gap by providing an extremely accessible introductory exposition of how economists analyze both how, and how well, financial markets organize the intertemporal allocation of scarce resources. The central theme is that the function of a system of financial markets is to enable consumers, investors, and managers of firms to effect mutually beneficial intertemporal exchanges. James Bradfield uses the standard concept of economic efficiency (Pareto Optimality) to assess the efficacy of the financial markets. He presents an intuitive, and introductory, understanding of the primary theoretical and empirical models that economists use to analyze financial markets, and then uses these models to discuss implications for public policy. Students who use this text will acquire an understanding of the economics of financial markets that will enable them to read, with some sophistication, articles in the public press about financial markets and about public policy toward those markets. The book is addressed to undergraduate students in the liberal arts, but will also be useful for undergraduate and beginning graduate students in programs of business administration who want an understanding of how economists assess financial markets against the criteria of allocative and informational efficiency.

The development of alternative forms of energy supply since the mid-1970s has brought with it a range of new issues and concerns, ranging from nuclear waste disposal to land use planning for energy efficiency. This latest volume in the acclaimed Energy Policy Studies series brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers to examine the relationship between energy and planning policy, with emphasis on urban and regional impacts.

Like other volumes in the series, the articles included focus on the social, political, and economic dimensions of energy technology, resources, and use. The emphasis on issues of technological scale, resource allocation, environmental impact and quality, and urban and regional studies makes this a unique contribution to the literature.

Contents: "Creating Land-Energy Transitions," by Andrew F. Huston, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; "Land Use Planning for Energy Efficiency," by Susan E. Owens, Cambridge University; "Nuclear Waste Landscapes," by Barry Solomon, U.S. Energy Information Administration; "Economic Development, Growth and Land Use Planning in Oil and Gas Producing Regions," by Robert L. Mansell, University of Calgary; "The Land Use Focus of Energy Impacts," by M. J. Pasqualetti, Arizona State University; "Energy Use and Land Use," by Stephen Lonergan, McMaster University; and a concluding essay by J. Barry Cullingworth, University of Delaware.

First published in 1986. The free market is often associated with liberty and individualism, and this connection has been made for more centuries than is generally realised. This essays collected in this book trace the development, importance and influence of the market as a dominating component of the shared human life from classical antiquity to the present. The authors, from various backgrounds, keep constantly in view the moral and political questions raised by the role of markets, as well as laying out succinctly what can be known or deduced about the actual operation of the market in Western and other cultures. This book will be of interest to students of economics and history.

This book focuses on the changing gender patterns of work in a global retail environment associated with the rise of contemporary retail and global sourcing. This has affected the working lives of hundreds of millions of workers in high-, middle- and low-income countries. The growth of contemporary retail has been driven by the commercialised production of many goods previously produced unpaid by women within the home. Sourcing is now largely undertaken through global value chains in low- or middle-income economies, using a 'cheap' feminised labour force to produce low-price goods. As women have been drawn into the labour force, households are increasingly dependent on the purchase of food and consumer goods, blurring the boundaries between paid and unpaid work. This book examines how gendered patterns of work have changed and explores the extent to which global retail opens up new channels to leverage more gender-equitable gains in sourcing countries.

This Palgrave Pivot presents experiments that reveal core dynamics of trade in a complex system. Monetary trade is stripped of all its complications and placed in agent-based models, a complexity research tool capable of reproducing emergent behaviour and evolution. Included are ground-breaking repeatable experiments exploring the impact of evolutionary prerequisites empirically present in markets. Isolating the core dynamics of trade results in very simple agent-based models. However, decades of complexity research demonstrate that even the simplest systems result in emergent behaviour that is extremely difficult to anticipate. Readers who are only familiar with the linear-system theories and models used to train almost all undergraduate economics students might be surprised to witness price detaching from supply and demand, and extreme poverty and wealth arising in trade systems populated by agents with equal ability and opportunity. Watch as empirical evolutionary prerequisites are introduced and price patterns characterising two different markets - asset markets and speculative markets - emerge irrespective of supply and demand. In addition to laying the groundwork of monetary trade in a complex system, more complicated models feature mortal reproductive agents. Including 'living' populations in economic models reveal how the complexity characteristics of our market economy are impacting impoverishment and starvation. This book invites anyone interested in economics to join the growing ranks of people who are fascinated by the insights offered by complexity research.

The book provides an authoritative study on Special Economic Zones. The scope of the articles will include new theories, methods and discoveries in SEZ study, and specifically provide recent achievements in Special Economic Zones. The volume's content is aimed at economics undergraduates, postgraduates, economics researchers in social science institutions and the government. The implementation of Special Economic Zones provides an easy approach to complete modernization in developing countries like China, and the reader can obtain some important sources of data, as well as major results in this area.

This innovative textbook contains everything students need to know on an intermediate microeconomics course. Combining classic theory and models with the latest developments, it gently guides learners through the topics and helps them to become increasingly independent. Mathematical understanding is a crucial part of mastering the subject, but can be tricky to obtain. Consequently, numerical tools and engaging exercises are expertly woven into the broader, conceptual discussion of economic theory. This process is progressive and incremental, with steps explained in great detail in the opening chapters to help students gain mathematical fluency and confidence. A microeconomics textbook that is essential reading for any intermediate level course at university. Although primarily aimed at two-semester undergraduate modules, the comprehensive and accessible writing style means that it is also suitable for certain postgraduate and one-semester courses. The author provides helpful notes on how to adapt the book to your course. Accompanying online resources for this title can be found at bloomsburyonlineresources.com/intermediate-microeconomics. These resources are designed to support teaching and learning when using this textbook and are available at no extra cost.

We need buildings for housing and for the other services they provide for us and our activities. Our demands stimulate supply, creating a market. As the market supplies and services these buildings it makes demands on national resources, changes regional economies and populations, affects the quality of life and creates costs and benefits. Planning professionals set out to regulate the market, sometimes removing imperfections, sometimes creating them. Their policy decisions need to take account of the likely changes in industry, technology, life styles and expectations and the demands they will generate. Because there are never sufficient resources to meet these demands, hard decisions have to be taken. It is essential that the decision makers are as well-informed as possible. This text describes how the market operates, giving a picture of the economics of development, use and management of the built environment. The author pays particular attention to the issues and options for the future, with a view to improving decision-taking in planning.

This book explores new topics in modern research on empirical corporate finance and applied accounting, especially the econometric analysis of microdata. Dubbed "financial microeconometrics" by the author, this concept unites both methodological and applied approaches. The book examines how quantitative methods can be applied in corporate finance and accounting research in order to predict companies getting into financial distress. Presented in a clear and straightforward manner, it also suggests methods for linking corporate governance to financial performance, and discusses what the determinants of accounting disclosures are. Exploring these questions by way of numerous practical examples, this book is intended for researchers, practitioners and students who are not yet familiar with the variety of approaches available for data analysis and microeconometrics. "This book on financial microeconometrics is an excellent starting point for research in corporate finance and accounting. In my view, the text is positioned between a narrative and a scientific treatise. It is based on a vast amount of literature but is not overloaded with formulae. My appreciation of financial microeconometrics has very much increased. The book is well organized and properly written. I enjoyed reading it." Wolfgang Marty, Senior Investment Strategist, AgaNola AG

Upon its publication in 1989, this was the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of the Latin American School of Development and an invaluable guide to the major Third World contribution to development theory. The four major strands in the work of Latin American Theorists are: structuralism, internal colonialism, marginality and dependency. Exploring all four in detail, and the interconnections between them, Cristobal Kay highlights the developed world's over-reliance on, and partial knowledge of, dependency theory in its approach to development issues, and analyses the first major challenges to neo-classical and modernisation theories from the Third World.

In How Language Informs Mathematics Dirk Damsma shows how Hegel's and Marx's systematic dialectical analysis of mathematical and economic language helps us understand the structure and nature of mathematical and capitalist systems. More importantly, Damsma shows how knowledge of the latter can inform model assumptions and help improve models. His book provides a blueprint for an approach to economic model building that does away with arbitrarily chosen assumptions and is sensitive to the institutional structures of capitalism. In light of the failure of mainstream economics to understand systemic failures like the financial crisis and given the arbitrary character of most assumptions in mainstream models, such an approach is desperately needed.

A masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free-market economics Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt's bestselling Economics in One Lesson has popularized the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can't explain why they often fail so badly-or what we should do when they stumble. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, "When someone preaches 'Economics in one lesson,' I advise: Go back for the second lesson." In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free markets. Economics in Two Lessons explains why market prices often fail to reflect the full cost of our choices to society as a whole. For example, every time we drive a car, fly in a plane, or flick a light switch, we contribute to global warming. But, in the absence of a price on carbon emissions, the costs of our actions are borne by everyone else. In such cases, government action is needed to achieve better outcomes. Two-lesson economics means giving up the dogmatism of laissez-faire as well as the reflexive assumption that any economic problem can be solved by government action, since the right answer often involves a mixture of market forces and government policy. But the payoff is huge: understanding how markets actually work-and what to do when they don't. Brilliantly accessible, Economics in Two Lessons unlocks the essential issues at the heart of any economic question.

War Movies and Economics: Lessons from Hollywood's Adaptations of Military Conflict applies ongoing research in the relatively new genre of economics in popular media to Hollywood's war movies. Whether inadvertently or purposefully, these movies provide numerous examples of how economic principles often play an important role in military conflict. The authors of the chapters included in this edited collection work to illustrate economics lessons portrayed in adaptations such as Band of Brothers, Conspiracy, The Dirty Dozen, Dunkirk, Memphis Belle, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Spartacus, Stalag 17, and Valkyrie. Aspects of these stories show how key economic principles of scarcity, limited resources, and incentives play important roles in military conflict. The movies also provide an avenue for discussion of the economics of public goods provision, the modern economic theory of bureaucracy, and various game-theoretic concepts such as strategic moves and commitment devices. Where applicable, lessons from closely related fields such as management are also provided. This book is ideal reading for students of economics looking for an approachable route to understanding basic principles of economics and game theory. It is also accessible to amateur and professional historians, and any reader interested in popular culture as it relates to television, movies, and military history.

This book analyses the conception of economic development in modern regions, which has gone through a fundamental change since the early 1980s. Regions are today increasingly looked upon as independent market places that are connected via interregional and international trade and not as administrative units embodied in a national state. Two complementary theoretical frameworks explain the specialization of economic activity at the regional level. The traditional approach assumes that the comparative advantages of regions depend upon differences in the supply of lasting resources. In contrast the new complementary framework called the New Economic Geography, assumes that the dynamic interaction between geographical market potentials and rational firms in its own way creates the comparative advantage of regions. The contributors to this book examine the policy implications of the complementarity of the competing views in a variety of geographic and functional contexts. The first set of papers examines the effect of regional policy on firm locational decision-making. This leads to another set evaluating a variety of regional policy efforts. New and different methodological approaches are examined in another set of papers. The final part of the book focuses on new concepts. Economists, geographers and readers interested in regionalization, trade and development will find this book informative.

Traditional economic and financial theory is being challenged because normative, prescriptive models derived from it are not predicting the behavior of successful producers, investors, or consumers as well as anticipated. Economists and psychologists are documenting anomalies at the individual level, in financial markets, and in natural economic settings. This opens the larger question of the importance of psychological, sociological, and other phenomena for financial and economic behavior. It even raises the issue of what economic rationality really is. This book surveys and examines the increasing evidence of economic anomalies. It argues for an eventual, comprehensive behavioral framework for economics and finance, but in the interim, indicates how the tendency to use rules of thumb might be taken into account to improve predictions about decision making.

The book is aimed at those, including business executives and students, with intermediate-level preparation in economics or finance. Part I, however, is accessible to those with only an introductory course. Part II should prove useful to professionals in economics and finance who seek a solid introduction to this area. The presentation speculates about possible applications of a behavioral analysis to past and present public policy issues. It closes with guidelines for decision making that suggest how, in the absence of a comprehensive behavioral theory of economics and finance, to improve prediction about decision making by taking into account the heuristics, or rules of thumb, used by decision makers and the biases that those heuristics involve.