This book explores the relations between the EU and the BRICS in the areas of politics, economic development, trade and security. The contributions cover topics such as the position of the EU and BRICS in the global order and the EU as a "normative power," as well as the evolution, characteristics and institutionalization of BRICS and the roles of its member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. The book will appeal to researchers and scholars interested in the rise of BRICS and the resulting challenges and opportunities for the European Union and Global Governance.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the nature and determinants of finance and trade and their relationship with Africa's competitiveness. Investment is examined in its various forms (financial vs. physical), and sources (private, public, domestic and FDI), as well as its relation to the size of domestic markets and export potential. The dimensions of trade related to financial development, trade costs, development of value chains and regional integration are also studied. The capacity of finance and investment to boost Africa's competitiveness is assessed to inform continent-wide economic policy.

This monograph compares two trade agreements among three important economic regions, namely, the Korea-EU free trade agree (FTA) and the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The two new types of agreements came into effect in the 2010s. They not only create more favorable trade and economic conditions in these regions but also produce spillover effects to bring about more comprehensive conditions in other area. First, the quantitative research for both agreements using the CGE model and a tentative analysis of the Japan-EU EPA in the analysis show that both have already created positive impacts on all three economies by lifting or reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers. Such positive impacts are also expected to be felt by SMEs in these countries that are involved. Additionally, the high level of tariff and non-tariff liberalization in the two current agreements will make positive impacts on the negotiation of other FTAs and on WTO reform. The advantages of the FTA and EPA dealt with in this book are not restricted to these economic effects. As the agreements are comprehensive, they will create more favorable social conditions not only in these economic regions but in other areas of Asia as well.

Internalization theory, despite criticism of its empirical deficiency, has dominated the industrial organization approach to the multinational enterprise and its foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions. Liu improves the empirical foundations of internalization theory, through the elaboration of the FDI signaling framework, which holds that a firm's direct foreign investment influences the perceptions of less-informed market participants. The signaling concept is derived from the premise that a firm's intangible assets in know-how cannot be correctly priced in a market with asymmetric information, and this motivates the firm's decision to undertake FDI. If the premise is correct, the firm's decision is based on inside information, and the firm's action reveals that information to the market. The firm's FDI internalization is evidence of management's confidence in its intangible assets, and its action may further influence market perceptions. The hypotheses generated along this line of analysis are subjected to investigation, and the evidence supports the FDI signaling proposition. Moreover, the study represents an indirect test of internalization theory. As a result, internalization is transformed from a untested theory to an empirical result.

The book deals with the key aspects of social and economic inequalities developed during the transition of the formerly planned European economies. Particular emphasis is given to the latest years available in order to consider the effects of the global crisis started in 2008-2009.

In this engaging, clever, and provocative account, Attila Marjan offers a disquieting analysis of the complex challenges Europe faces in the global marketplace.

Marjan, an expert at the center of the European project, surveys global trends, common pressures, and the organizational difficulties of the European Union (EU). In his view, Europe is failing to meet growing and changing global economic competition and will continue to lag behind other world powers because of population trends, energy insecurity, and the institutional disorder of the EU. Marjan finds that in order to compete in the global market, Europe will have to adopt much more flexible economic and social models.

Eleonora Poli analyses how ideas and material interests have come to determine the evolution of antitrust policies in the USA, EU, Japan and BRICS. She argues that three major economic crises together with market globalisation have changed governments' perceptions of market competition, giving rise to a neo-liberal global phase.

This book brings together a good mix of academics and practitioners for a discussion that focuses on how to change financial practice and the academic field of finance in order to understand the current financial crisis and deal with future turbulent financial times. The volume is based on contributions by prominent academics and practitioners from Europe, Asia and the USA. The book contains several essays, most prominently by Maurizio Murgia, an internationally renowned European corporate finance scholar, and Robert E. Krainer, a senior professor with banking and business cycles research interest from University of Wisconsin-Madison. This book also deals with pedagogical, empirical and theoretical considerations in light of the crisis.

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) will have far-reaching consequences for participating nations. This book contains a unique and editorially neutral collection of key arguments favouring and opposing membership. The economic and policy implications are evaluated by distinguished economists, whilst the impact upon national sovereignty and the world of work is debated by prominent MPs and representatives of business and trade union organisations. The text provides an unbiased, comprehensive and 'readable' resource for specialist students and a general readership.

The LGBT+ community has experienced a stunning development in a short period of time: yesterday marginalized, stigmatized, and criminalized, now champions of creativity, diversity and innovation in a highly competitive world. In addition, corporate social responsibility and ethical demands for inclusivity have become economic directives that every organization would like to attain. The struggle of recognition is not over yet, but in workplaces and markets, gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and queer individuals have become symbols of diversity and economic power - true GaYme Changers developing the global economy faster and for the better. Illustrated by fascinating stories around individuals, companies, nonprofits and a fast-growing cohort of organizations, Jens Schadendorf has traced the LGBT+ community and an increasing number of their allies from across the globe to discover the start of a revolution. Supported by up-to-date research, he shows that investment in LGBT+ inclusion delivers a powerful return. Always - even in times of hostility, resistance and crisis - it is economically and ethically beneficial for companies and societies and every human being, to let LGBT+ members develop into dynamic forces, rooted in new forms of cooperation and learning for ga(y)me changing results.

This volume brings together business, government and academic representatives from the United States, Pacific and Asian nations to address issues of regional economic cooperation in the Pacific Basin. The contributors focus particularly on cooperation in five areas: development, commodities, technology, human resources, and issues and directions. Their papers explore both the broad questions of cooperation in regional economic development and more practical concerns such as appropriate technology, political constraints, and foreign aid. Invaluable supplemental reading for courses in economic development and comparative economics, "Pacific Cooperation and Development" provides important new insights into the dynamics of economic development in an increasingly critical global market.

The financialization of the economy has brought a number of interrelated problems which have contributed to growing income and wealth inequality. Askari and Mirakhor assert that it is time to make a bold change by putting our financial house in order and on a better path, advocating for a fundamental reform of the financial system.

The author examines the rise of the BRICs and the supposed decline of the United States. Focusing on the boom years from 1992 to 2007, and the crisis years after 2008, he argues that there are limits to the rise of the former and that the extent of US decline has been greatly exaggerated.

This study quantifies the relationships between the economies of the Unites States and Japan on an industrially disaggregated basis. It links two large-scale econometric models of the U.S. and Japan in the framework of the world model system (Project LINK). These models are useful not only for forecasts and aggregate policy studies, but also for detailed investigation of industrial changes and trade policy on sectoral output employment, trade balance, and inflation in both countries. The interactions with other parts of the world are also taken into account. Applications to policy changes and exchange rate variations illustrate the potential of the model system and provide a powerful insight into the operation of two closely integrated economies. A pioneering effort to link quantitatively the relationships between the economies of the United States and Japan, this volume will be of interest to economists and policymakers here and abroad.

The author argues that we should not be diverted by the East Asian 'meltdown', which is a predictable outcome of global dynamics. Of real concern, however, is the 'hidden crisis', which has been inadvertently engineered by neoliberal economists who dominate the world's financial institutions. They are the global crisis makers, who have convinced governments to abandon strategic leadership and to impose crippling deflationary policies. By employing the innovative theoretical and empirical work published in his recent series of remarkable books, Graeme Snooks shows how this threat to progress and liberty can be overcome.

The Mexican expropriation of British and American properties in March 1938 marked the first time any oil-producing country successfully stood up to foreign companies who claimed to own oil properties in that country and who had the support of their respective governments. Totally reliant on overseas oil at a time when war seemed imminent, British officials responsible for policy toward Mexico immediately emphasized the importance of preventing other oil-exporting nations from following Mexico's lead. Washington also sought to make an example of Mexico--one that would guarantee respect for U.S. businesses operating abroad.

Although both Washington and London wanted to return to the pre-expropriation status quo, Washington was unwilling to work with London to achieve this goal, and Washington's attitude paralleled its reaction to British efforts to get U.S. support on certain defense issues during this critical period. The resulting Anglo-American strife over how to handle Mexico was also consistent with Anglo-American commercial competition and the oil rivalry in Mexico early in the century.

This volume, the fifth instalment of the classic Report on the European Union series, offers at once an economic and intellectual historical perspective on the creation of the euro and its 20 first years, a comprehensive review of the current and future challenges of the euro area, including a critical look at the different options for the reform of its governance and institutional architecture and finally a close look at the "new euros", i.e. the ambitious projects that could instil a new life into the stalled European project. It covers a wide range of key economic and social topics such as monetary and fiscal policy, tax competition, the EU budget, structural policy, inequality, gender equality, post carbon economy, well-being advancement and democracy. Weakened by a decade of economic crisis and shaken by the awakening of populism, the European project faces three disintegrations: democratic disaffection, monetary and financial fragmentation and territorial dislocation. If EU member states want to escape those looming risks, they must, as they always have in the last five decades, reinvent Europe in order to save it.

This encompassing study traces the issues of international cartels from the early days of World War II through the occupation of Germany and Japan. It focuses attention on the Justice Department's Economic Warfare Section as it utilized its resources in uncovering economic and strategic information that could be used in the war effort, such as the selection of economic bottlenecks for bombing. Maddox examines how cartels such as I. G. Farben, Carl Zeiss, the Steel Cartel and others worked to harm U.S. strategic interests, and he details how cartel agreements allowed the Japanese to acquire critical technologies and strategic materials. Using newly released Justice Department records, this thorough investigation of decartelization captures the debate over implementation of the policy issues.

These exposures by both the Justice Department and the Kilgore Committee ultimately helped stimulate debate over the economic treatment of enemy nations in the postwar period. Despite an Allied decision in Potsdam to apply decartelization and deconcentration policies to Germany and Japan, the decartelization policy ran into difficulty in Germany with blatant attempts by the American Military Government to subvert it. Events in Japan followed a similar path. After first taking on the zaibatsu and other cartel-like business practices, policy would be reversed.

This volume deals with the role and impact of technology on the economy and society. The papers on corporate dimensions address the impact of patents, determinants of innovative activities, differential behaviour of multinationals, industrial groups and other firms with regard to innovations and technology. In contrast, the papers on social dimensions chiefly deal with the role of technology in reducing inequality. The majority of the papers employ econometric techniques and other statistical methods, and many are based on primary data. The studies emphasise the importance of innovations (especially patents) and human capital in influencing productivity across Indian states, the significance of patenting in determining the efficiency of firms, the role of business groups in promoting innovations, differences in the technological characteristics of multinational and domestic firms, and how mergers and acquisitions can promote R&D. The papers on social dimensions analyse how innovative activities can shape employment, the impact of technology on poverty, the socioeconomic characteristics of mobile phone ownerships, use of information and communications technologies at educational institutions, and the influence of Synchronous Technologies in reducing access to teaching programmes. The studies show that those Indian states that have invested in human capital and technology experienced higher labour productivity. Further, the studies establish a positive correlation between R&D spending and employment. Lastly, they demonstrate that the adoption of agriculture-related technologies can have a significant impact on rural poverty and consumption expenditures.

Economics, Dominique reminds us, is a social science, with prescriptions that are statistical in character but inherently polemical. In contrast to the laws of the natural sciences, economic statements, meaningful as well as meaningless, can be transformed into a vehicle for the promotion of false consciousness, as when the polemical prescriptions of social sciences are used to promote unavowed interests. The axiomatization of economics in the early 1950s, though well-intended, has produced two negative consequences: the equation of science and mathematical formalism by some, and a total lack of concern for experimentation on the part of others. These translate into excessive abstraction, empirical irrelevance, and a total lack of social purpose.

Dominique argues that excessive abstraction is causing economics to gradually lose its social usefulness. This state of affairs has, in turn, led the general public to accept at face value the prescriptions of an untested orthodoxy, such as unfettered globalization, as genuinely scientific. In the era of unfettered globalization, the top 20 percent of the world's income earners have become richer while the bottom 80 percent have become impoverished and environmental degradation has gone unabated. Dominique argues that, according to the scientific theory of economics, the top quintile must pay the costs and the bottom four quintiles ought not bear alone the brunt of globalization. To reverse this outcome, the bottom 80 percent must become pro-active in economic policy formulation. A challenge to contemporary development and economic policy that will be of interest to economists, public policy makers, the international business community, and social activists.

Development Corruption in South Africa examines governance matters with a focus on corruption. This rich empirical body on governance variables and governance performance is a welcome addition to South African government literature.

Multinationality, or the degree of internationalization, has favorable financial results and implications. Highly valued by the market as a hidden asset, multinationality is related to earnings management, systematic risk, capital structure, and growth opportunities as measured by the investment opportunity set. Riahi-Belkaoui examines the performance results of a multinational strategy and concludes that multinationality can be quantified and does play a significant role in keeping a firm healthy and growing. His book is a far-reaching examination of the data and a persuasive argument for why firms should make multinationality a critical part of their overall business strategy.

Riahi-Belkaoui presents research results supporting multinationality. He confirms that the market reacts more favorably the larger (smaller) cash flows are (accruals), and he shows that the preference of cash flows over accruals will increase under conditions of high multinationality and high reputation. He argues that the level of multinationality affects net income and net worth and thereby, political costs and risk. Analyzing the association between multinationality and systematic risk as measured by the market model beta, he finds that systematic risk is positively related to the level of multinationality after controlling for corporate reputation and other factors. He examines the role of multinationality and profitability as determinants of the investment opportunity set and considers whether a firM's investment opportunity is associated with corporate financing. Finally, he investigates whether disclosure policy, level of economic risk, and the nature of the alignment of financial and tax accounting explain differences in financial analysts' forecast error internationally. The book concludes with a model of the determinants of the investment opportunity set of multinational firms.

This book is devoted to the analysis of the three main financial crises that have marked this century: 2001 Argentina's defaulting on its external debt, the American subprime crisis in 2008, and the current European debt crisis in Europe. The book pursues three major objectives: firstly, to accurately portray these three financial crises; secondly, to analyze what went wrong with mainstream economic theory, which was unable to foresee these types of economic turmoil; and thirdly, to review macroeconomic theory, re-evaluating Keynes' original contribution to economic analysis and pointing out the need to rebuild macroeconomics with a view to studying economic illness rather than trying to prove the non-existence of economic problems.

This study combines lessons drawn from events and experiences of developing countries and examines them in relation to Jan Kregel's ideas on economics and development. The contributors provide in-depth analysis on: financial stability and crises, monetary systems, banking, global governance, employment, inflation and political economy