This book explores some aspects of the interface between technology, competitiveness and the role of multinational enterprises in the world economy. This group of essays stresses the role of asset creation and usage, rather than reliance on natural factor endowments as a basis for national competitiveness and examines the role of multinational enterprises as vehicles for technological transfer, and the efficient co-ordination of economic activity across national boundaries.

This book is a study of the economics of the large international firm, but is at the same time a study of one of the world's most important industries. International firms face difficult problems in attempting to deal with the conflicts between their own interest as world-wide economic organisations on the one hand, that of the countries in which they operate on the other, and with the conflicts of interest among the countries which are related to the international policies of the firms. The author analyses the underlying problems and points to possible solutions. When it was first published this was the first book by a professional economist to look widely at the economics of the international petroleum industry outside the industrialized countries.

Based on original fieldwork including interviews held with Japanese officials, this text provides important new insight into Japan and East Asian relations, principally through the close examination of changes in Japan's regional policy. Furthering discussions on Japan's new regional activism, Hayashi explores how Japan and East Asian relations have developed, how Japan's regional policy has changed, and why. In addition, the book challenges conventional views on Japanese foreign policy, arguing that it is not reactive but incrementally effective. The book incorporates three major case studies that provide detailed narratives and analysis of Japan and Washington's diverging ideological approaches, Japan's policies towards the East Asian financial crisis, and its policies towards East Asian regionalism.

There has been much written on the impact of international treaties like the Trade Related Aspects on Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which laments the failure of patent systems to respond to the interests of a diverse set of non-profit, public interest, and non-corporate entities. This book examines how patent law can accommodate what James Boyle terms a "politics," that is, "a conceptual map of issues, a rough working model of costs and benefits, and a functioning coalition-politics of groups unified by common interests perceived in apparently diverse situations."

A Politics of Patent Law provides a substantive account of the ways in which various types of participatory mechanisms currently operate in patent law, and examines how these participatory mechanisms can be further developed, particularly within a regional and international context. In exploring this, Murray highlights the emergence of constitutional law in international intellectual property law as being at the centre of the patent bargain and goes so far as to argue that the constitutional tradition in intellectual property law is as important as TRIPS. Ultimately, the book sets forth a "tool-box" of participatory mechanisms which would allow for, and foster third party participation in the patent process. This book will be of particular interest to academics, students and practitioners in the field of IP Law.

China is now among the top hosts for foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the world. This fact, combined with recent developments in internationalisation and economic growth in China, ensures a perfect opportunity to identify the determinants and impact of FDI in the largest transition economy in the world. Based on the latest official data, this book adopts a panel data approach to the analysis of the national and regional determinants of inward FDI in China and its impact on regional economic growth, labour productivity and international trade. The Chinese evidence shows that FDI, international trade and economic-growth are interrelated. This book will be welcomed by scholars of emerging economies, international business - especially those interested in FDI - and international trade as well as those specialising in the Chinese economy.

Fiscal policy is an incredibly important tool for governments across the world, with many countries facing dilemmas in crafting fiscal policies to meet changing demographic needs, greater demands for social welfare and sudden spending due to shocks such as terrorism. This important book looks at fiscal policy in the Asian Pacific economies and with a broad array of contributors will be a useful tool to students, researchers and professionals working in international economics and finance.

Over the past fifty years, crisis management has become essential to achieving and maintaining national security. This book offers a comparative analysis of the preconditions and constraints nine European states place on their participation in international crisis management operations and the important consequences of such decisions, and provides a theoretical framework to help the reader understand this complex decision-making process.

This set re-issues books originally published between 1971 and 1999 and reflects the growing importance of International Business as a serious academic discipline. The books selected include works by James Ahiakpor, Christopher Bartlett, Yves Doz, John H Dunning, Paul W Beamish, Candida Brush, Beat Burgenmeier, Jean-Louis Mucchielli and Alan Rugman, Edith Penrose, Nigel Thrift, Michael Taylor, Peter Enderwick, Howard Cox, Jeremy Clegg, Grazia Ietto-Gillies, Stanley Paliwoda and Peter Turnbull among others. They provide a new generation of scholars with access to some interesting ideas from some of the earlier pioneers in the field and examine topics such as: Multinational entrepreneurship The Finance of International Trade Multinational joint ventures Transnational corporations Global corporate strategy Research in international marketing.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Globalisation impacts almost all aspects of life. It is often said that change is accelerating, and that the nation state is increasingly anachronistic. This book challenges that consensus, arguing that globalisation is neither an historic nor technological inevitability; rather, globalisation and technological change are as old as capitalism itself. Jonathan Michie makes the case for a new, more realistic approach to economics. He argues that the reduced power of national governments is a result of the free-market reforms of globalisation created in the 1980s era of Thatcher and Reagan, which led to the 2008 global financial crisis and recession. The free-market 'capitalism unleashed' form of globalisation is neither inevitable nor desirable - it is possible to develop a new global green deal for economic progress, being socially and environmentally sustainable. Michie demonstrates that capital has become unproductive with increased speculation and tax evasion, and that taxing wealth is necessary to create a new era of globally sustainable development. Key features include: in-depth coverage of globalisation written in a concise and accessible style disputes the consensus that globalisation is an historic or technological inevitability focus on current issues such as unproductive capital, a result of increased speculation, tax evasion and avoidance advocates policy proposals for global regulation, taxation and corporate diversity argues the need for a new global green deal for social and environmental sustainability and makes a clear case for an improved and more realistic approach to economics. The Advanced Introduction to Globalisation will be a challenging yet engaging read for policy makers, academics and advanced students of economics, management and business, politics and environmental studies. This book sets out an alternative worldview which will interest anyone concerned with our future global prospects.

The book is a key reading which provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the contemporary Asian economy. The book focuses on the structural changes that are rapidly transforming the regional economic landscape in the 21st century. It highlights the concomitant challenges that have arisen, and further discusses prospects and potentialities of Asian economies given this new economic environment. The book also looks at broader social issues that are both the cause and result of these new and complex economic dynamism in Asia. Understanding the Asian economy cannot be achieved without understanding the new interrelationships and complexities that have evolved from this context, which continue to be driven by drastic changes in technological, demographic, and social structures, among others. Each of the chapters are titled based on "issues" and are framed in present continuous tense, intended to capture and emphasize the progressiveness of this new dynamism that are transforming the region in a fundamental way.

This book examines Shanxi piaohao-private financiers from the Chinese hinterland-in the economic and business history of late imperial China, forming the original theory of Chinese hinterland capitalism. Deepening the existing understanding of capitalist dynamics at work in the families and financial institutions of late imperial China, the book foregrounds the expansionist role played by Shanxi piaohao in transforming China's market and trade from an agrarian empire to a modern nation state. In a departure for economic history, it also focuses on the histories of the people and their lifeworlds behind financial institutions, which have previously been erased by universal capitalist narratives. Persistent binary oppositions between coastal areas and hinterland; state and market; and institutions and families are each transcended in recounting the local histories of global capital in the marginalized countryside and borderlands of China. Based on a wealth of archival material and correspondence with Shanxi piaohao offices and branches, Chinese Hinterland Capitalism and Shanxi Piaohao will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese and economic history, anthropology, and postcolonial studies more generally.

One consequence of China's economic growth has been a massive increase in migration, both internal and external. Within China millions of rural workers have migrated to the cities. Outside China, many Chinese have migrated to other parts of the world, their remittances home often having a significant impact within China. Also, China's increasing links to other parts of the world have led to a growth in migration to China, most interestingly recently migration from Africa. Based on extensive original research, this book examines a wide range of issues connected to Chinese migration.

Over the past decade India has been undertaking a programme of economic reform, and at the same time the economy has been growing at a high rate. As part of the reform programme, and in line with prevailing economic thinking, India has been privatising its large, ungainly public sector. One assumption underlying this programme is the dogma that public sector enterprises are doomed to inefficiency, and that competitive market forces can be relied on to make firms more efficient once they are privatised. But is this really true? Combining rigorous data analysis with case studies to provide a balanced evaluation of the process of deregulation and privatisation within the overall context of economic reforms, the author demonstrates, remarkably, that, contrary to the prevailing view, private sector firms do not outperform public sector firms across all sectors. He also shows that revenue-raising considerations have weighed more heavily with the government than efficiency objectives. Overall, this study of the reform process in India, with its unique longstanding mix of private and public sectors, will be of great interest to all those studying reform and transition worldwide.

This book provides deep insight into the flow of foreign direct investment from Asia to Europe. It assesses the topic of trade and investment from the reverse direction, considering Asian countries as the capital investors in the EU countries. Each chapter analyses either the international trade or investment of one or more Asian countries in correlation with one or more European states. The book analyses a significant number of countries, which are included in various economic associations, such as the Visegrad Group, the Three Seas Initiative, the European Free Trade Association, or are states from the same geopolitical region - for instance, the Iberian Peninsula, Baltic States, and Nordic countries. It examines Indian outward foreign direct investment trends in the UK before and after Brexit, based on select case studies, to emphasize the impact of Brexit, as well as to encourage trade and investment among Asian and European countries before and during COVID-19, to highlight the influence of the pandemic on the target country's economy. The authors use a variety of analytical methods in the book, such as numerical presentations, econometric analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, an examination of time-series dynamics, the modelling of functions, and semi-structured interviews with company executives. The regional perspectives bring new and useful insights to the topic, and the case study approach allows for a wider exploration of the research questions as well as their theoretical evolution. The book provides a "big picture" for economists, researchers, business analysts, and PhD students of economics, international trade, and business.

Why do poor countries give aid to others? This book critically examines how aspirations for providing aid have coexisted with experiences of receiving aid and have transformed the practice of giving aid, with particular reference to the experiences of Japan and China. It highlights the historical sources that explain the pattern and strength of foreign aid that these new donors provide. The book has systematically examined the situation unique to middle income countries that are receiving and giving aid simultaneously. It sheds light on the endogenous elements embedded in the socio-economic conditions of emerging donors, as well as their learning process as aid recipients. This book examines not only the perspectives of recipients, but also those of donors: Japan in the case of China, and the USA and the World Bank in the case of Japan. By bringing in the donor's perspective, we come to a holistic understanding of foreign aid as a product of interaction between the various agents involved. The book provides not only an in-depth case study of Japan from a historical perspective, but also stretches its scope to cover contemporary debates on "emerging donors," including China, India and Korea who have received substantial amount of aid from Japan in the past. This book connects the often separated discussion of Japanese aid and the way it developed in relation to outside forces. In short, this book represents the first attempt to empirically examine the "life of a donor" with a clear focus on the origins, struggles, and futures of non-western donors and their impact on established aid regime.

This unique book provides a comprehensive survey of the major economic issues that have helped shape the modern world. It includes discussions of the latest research findings in the international economic development literature and scrutinises some of the most important debates in contemporary economics. Brian Snowdon examines the many controversies relating to long-run growth and development, problems of transitions from socialism to capitalism, international competitiveness and the impacts of globalisation. To shed light on these critical issues Brian Snowdon interviewed eleven leading economists who are featured in this book: Daron Acemoglu, Alberto Alesina, Padma Desai, William Easterly, Stanley Fischer, Janos Kornai, Michael Porter, Dani Rodrik, Jeffrey Sachs, Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Jeffrey Williamson. Globalisation, Development and Transition provides an all-encompassing guide to the contemporary literature on economic development and related fields, as well as an extensive and up-to-date list of references. It will be an essential resource for all scholars and students of economics, especially those with an interest in economic growth and development, economic history, trade and globalisation, and the economics of transition.

At a time of momentous shifts in the balance of world economic forces epitomized by the current oil price boom, the weakening US dollar and the global credit crunch; the meteoric rise of the Arabian peninsula cannot be understated. Neither, therefore, can their planned monetary union. As key suppliers of the world's oil and gas the Gulf states have accumulated vast wealth: taken together their sovereign wealth funds are by far the world's largest and the influence of these funds is becoming increasingly apparent. This book provides a thorough analysis of the scheduled 2010 monetary union. Its findings are based on both primary research and a detailed empirical analysis of the region's economies spanning 1980-2006. It assesses the region against Optimal Currency Area criteria, the European Criteria, highlights outstanding preparations and considers the underlying economic and political factors that may aid or indeed delay the launch date. Critically this book argues that the present dollar-peg exchange rate regimes are no longer optimal. The future Gulf dinar is likely to seek a more independent path. The ramifications of this - a potential Islamic anchor currency and an alternative oil-invoicing currency - are also considered in some detail.

First published in 1967, The Soviet Middle East provides an analysis of the economic and political status of the national republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, which were, at the time of the book's initial publication, a part of the Soviet Union. The authors analyse their economic achievements, as well as their rapid progress in health and education, comparing their situation with that of their non-Soviet neighbours and indeed with the rest of the USSR. They seek to define the relevance of the Soviet planning system and Soviet ideology to the development of these countries, and also to contextualise their study in terms of the problems of other developing countries and the political stability of the Soviet Union as a multi-nation state. Written by two leading authorities on the Soviet Union, this reissue will be welcomed by students of Soviet and Middle-Eastern history, and by all those interested in the political, social and economic development of Communist republics.

Trade, Markets and Welfare brings together a selection of Kelvin Lancaster's seminal work on trade under monopolistic competition and oligopoly with differentiated products, as well as recent extensions to the analysis of markets in which the characteristics of products can be varied freely. Professor Lancaster argues that protection can sometimes improve world welfare, that there can be mutual trade gains between absolutely identical economies, and that entries of an additional firm may sometimes increase industry profits. The selection also includes some of Professor Lancaster's earlier works on trade and papers on several topics related to the theory of economic policy, including second best theory, wages policy, and a simple dynamic game model of capitalist growth. Trade, Markets and Welfare complements the first volume of Kelvin J. Lancaster's selected essays - Modern Consumer Theory - by expanding applications of consumer choice theory into new areas.

This edited collection assesses the level of financial integration in the European Union (EU) and the differences across the countries and segments of the EU financial system. Progress in financial integration is key to the EU's economic growth and competitiveness and although it has advanced substantially, the process is still far from completion. This book focuses on the pace of financial integration in the EU with special emphasis on the new EU Member States and investigates their progress in comparison with 'old' EU countries. The book is the first of its kind to include and evaluate the effects of the global financial crisis on the process of EU financial integration. In particular, the book's contributors address the issue of whether a high degree of financial integration contributed to the intensification of the financial crisis, or whether a low level of integration prevented countries and financial industries from some of the negative effects of the crisis. Although most of the chapters apply contemporary econometric tools, the technical part is always reduced to indispensable minimum and the emphasis is given to economic interpretation of the results. The book aims to offer an up to date and insightful examination of the process of financial integration in the EU today.

China has enjoyed heroic growth rates in the last twenty five years of reform and transition, pulling more people out of poverty more quickly than at any other time in human history. Nonetheless these successes have had costs: today China is faced with increasing environmental difficulties and there is a dangerous level of inequality of income and wealth leading to large numbers of often violent disputes and demonstrations in the countryside. This book discusses the very latest issues relating to China's remarkable economic growth. It provides comprehensive coverage of these issues, including economic, political-economic, environmental and philosophical questions, presenting material in as non-technical a way as possible. The issues discussed reflect key concerns within China itself at present. These focus not just on how to sustain fast rates of economic growth but also on how to solve the problems resulting from it, problems including widening levels of income equality, new forms of environmental degradation to include water shortages, health issues, governance dilemmas and new problems for the banking, strategic industrial and agricultural sectors. This book not only encompasses the current socio-economic situation in China, accepting its strengths while highlighting dilemmas, but also provides suggestions for policy. As such, it reflects a growing recognition in China that the attainment of both continued strong economic growth and a greater degree of social harmony are mutually interdependent: that one will not be achieved without the other.

The tropics is an area of enormous opportunity and potential. The countries situated between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are largely developing in nature. There is huge interest in the types of business investments made in Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and the Amazonian tropical belts. These tropical regions continue to face opportunities and challenges in attracting foreign direct investments as well as the need to complement and/or compete with larger economies external to the tropics. This book provides an empirical assessment of the key sociocultural, economic, environmental, and political factors that influence the business dynamics of organizations operating within the tropics. It will address but is not limited to topics such as attracting businesses to the tropics, facilitating smooth, stable conditions for business operations and sustainability, national institutions, and regulations that shape the way business is done, and the increasing deployment of new technologies and entrepreneurial innovations which are defining the global tropics as a distinct business region. It will offer readers a key focus for developing a deeper understanding of the factors and frameworks that influence and shape business activity in the area. While the primary audience for the book consists of academics and students from the fields of economics (environmental economics, developmental economics), business, international trade, tourism, and area studies, it will also provide a practical resource for government policy analysts wanting to fully appreciate some of the key economic and business issues facing the region.

Issues relating to the size of firms in manufacturing are central to the discussion of development strategies. This book offers an interpretation of growth trajectories in selected Asian economies in terms of the size-structure of enterprises in the manufacturing sector of these economies. The book presents a comparative survey of distribution of enterprises by size across Asia, including India, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh and Vietnam. A broad survey of official data on the size structure of manufacturing helps to identify three distinct patterns of manufacturing sector development and makes the connection between enterprise development and the overall impact on the economy. The book goes on to investigate the problem of the peculiar dual size structure of manufacturing in India, with its two modes at the low and high end of the size distribution and conspicuous 'missing middle', and the effect that this has on the economy. This pattern is contrasted with the 'East Asian, model with a more even size distribution, and the more recent experience of the newly developing countries of Asia with size distribution skewed to the right. It is an important contribution to studies on Asian Economics and Manufacturing Industries.

This book examines the process of Poland 's accession negotiations to the European Union between 1998-2003. An empirical study based on Robert Putnam 's two-level game model, it charts the influence and role of key domestic actors and groups on the negotiations especially in three critical, controversial, areas - areas where EU accession threatened to bring about a profound transformation to Polish life - agriculture, with particular emphasis on direct payments and production quotas; the purchase of real estate by foreigners; and the free movement of labour.

This book demonstrates the complex interaction between the domestic and international level of negotiations and furthermore, shows how critical this link can be to negotiation outcomes at the international level. It reveals how susceptible Poland 's negotiation process was to domestic pressure, particularly public opinion and interest groups.

Drawing heavily on qualitative analysis such as press releases, news wires, policy documents, as well as quantitative analyses, such as the use of opinion polls, and supported by in-depth, unrestricted interviews with key Polish decision-makers, this book examines the dynamics of policy formation in Poland and shows how this translated into the final conditions of accession.

Migration of workers within and across national boundaries is an important issue in an age of increasing levels of innovation and invention which economizes cost and helps large scale production. This book analyses the implications of migration for the levels of unemployment and distinguishes between unemployment which can be attributed to government policy and that which can be generated by a particular behavior of employers and workers. The discussion also includes the issue of foreign workers' effects on unemployment levels - a salient issue in today's climate. With impressive clarity and a scholarly approach, Bharati Basu succeeds in explaining and analysing and important yet complicated topic. This book will be of use to students, academics and professionals interested in labor economics, industrial studies and international business.