This book assesses the 2008-2009 financial crisis and its ramifications for the global economy from a multidisciplinary perspective. Current market conditions and systemic issues pose a risk to financial stability and sustained market access for emerging market borrowers. The volatile environment in the financial system became the source of major threats and some opportunities such as takeovers, mergers and acquisitions for international business operations. This volume is divided into six sections. The first evaluates the 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis and its impacts on Global Economic Activity, examining the financial crisis in historical context, the economic slowdown, transmission of the crisis from advanced economies to emerging markets, and spillovers. The second section evaluates global imbalances, especially financial instability and the economic outlook for selected regional economies, while the third focuses on international financial institutions and fiscal policy applications. The fourth section analyzes the capital market mechanism, price fluctuations and global trade activity, while the fifth builds on new trends and business cycles to derive effective strategies and solutions for international entrepreneurship and business. In closing, the final section explores the road to economic recovery and stability by assessing the current outlook and fiscal strategies.

The Politics of Global Debt is a detailed political analysis of the origins and consequences of the `global debt crisis' which emerged in the early 1980s. It assesses both `imperialist' and `New Right' interpretations of the crisis, and also presents a series of case studies of the effects of external debt upon Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. The book focusses upon the `sovereign debt' of states, and its management, and examines the ways in which global economic structures, inefficient policies, weak institutions, and corrupt political leaders contribute to a global debt crisis which has both international and domestic roots.

To what degree are trade liberalization, productivity, and economic growth correlated? Can economic policies designed to encourage competition and curtail industry protection result in large-scale improvements, such as increased innovation and reduced unemployment?

After 20 years of economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), economic performance is still lagging behind many regions of the world. Even in those countries that are the most advanced in implementing reforms, including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, industries with low productivity growth and high market power continue to dominate. Moreover, the termination of the Multi-Fiber Agreement and the negotiations concerning further liberalization of trade in agricultural products (under the framework of the World Trade Organization) put these and other countries under pressure of fierce competition from emerging nations.

Recent empirical evidence on the impact of reforms in a number of developing countries shows that such persistence of inefficiency and market power is specific to MENA. Showcasing in-depth analyses from Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey (with comparative data from Asia and Latin America), this book focuses on the dynamics of firm entry and exit to help explain the low productivity of the region. The results suggest a number of policy recommendations designed to foster competition, which, in turn, would contribute to innovation, productivity growth, and improved return on capital investments. The book not only reveals important correlations among policy and market factors in MENA, but suggests fruitful areas of research in other developing regions of the world.

This text provides an integrated treatment of financial and operating strategies to exchange rate variability. The book analyzes theory and evidence on strategies for firms in handling exchange rate variability. The choice of price setting currency, when and how to adjust prices, the limitations of hedging and segmentation of national markets are some of the issues analyzed. The book investigates the impact of EMU. The non-technical presentation also makes it well suited to MBA students, practitioners or researchers who want an accessible synthesis of research in this area of economic theory and practice.

This book is about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This region is generally perceived as having experienced the most disappointing growth performance over the last couple of decades of any region in the world with the possible exception of Sub-Sahara Africa. Despite the regions immense endowment of natural resources, its per capita income is often viewed as having stagnated. At the same time, most economies of the region have been characterized by extremely high volatility, a condition only partly attributable to the fluctuating price of oil.
*MENA region has not been as comprehensively covered as other regions of the world (i.e., Latin America, East Asia, South Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa)
*The prominence of the MENA region in the global energy markets and the world political system makes this a necessary read
*Topics of interest are wide ranging and diverse, ranging from dictatorships, civil wars, terrorism and water shortages, to more economic problems arising from volatile oil prices, barriers to trade and foreign investment, dominance of public enterprises, and low skill work forces

Written especially for portfolio managers, financial analysts, and corporate economists, this volume considers the practical implications of government economic policies. The contributors illustrate how incentives and disincentives affect economic behavior and the performance of the economy through an in-depth discussion of monetary, fiscal, and international economic issues. In addition, the authors present a unique top-down approach that enables the reader to trace the impact of government policies through the economy and thereby discover the investment strategies most likely to be successful within a given policy context.

The first section of the book focuses on monetary issues and explores issues related to inflation, likely government intervention mechanisms to control inflation, variants of the monetarist model, interpreting the demand curve, and the development of a portfolio strategy designed to take advantage of anticipated changes in financial variables. The next group of chapters looks at supply-side economics and analyzes the effects of the economic incentives and constraints imposed by government. Particular attention is paid to the effects of taxation policies on equity values, economic growth, and savings. In the third section, the contributors present a supply-side view of selected international economic issues including the relationship between tax rate reductions and foreign exchange rates and the trade balance. The concluding section examines the portfolio strategies that can be derived from the analyses presented in previous chapters. An indispensable resource for finance executives, this book will also be of significant value to graduate students in economics, financial management, and business programs.

'... a most stimulating essay, by an economist who is a leading authority in his field ... a most welcome addition to the literature on economic development.' Terence J.Byres, British Book News '... a perceptive and challenging contribution to the economics of technology transfer and industrialization.' Michael Hobday, The Economic Journal.

This book addresses three big economic challenges from a dynamic perspective: European integration, economic growth, and global climate change. In the light of the recent crises of the European Union (EU), the first part of the book deals with challenges to the real, monetary and fiscal integration of the EU and required institutional adjustments. The second part of the book addresses fundamental challenges of advanced market economies like economic growth and changes of technologies. The final part focuses on the global challenge of climate change from an economic perspective and discusses policy strategies for a successful mitigation of climate change.

Economic globalization has intensified since the 1980s and created faster channels of international interdependence and an accelerating technology race. In this new asymmetric world economy the EU is facing a dynamic and flexible US system which takes advantage of the global quest for foreign direct investment. Innovation policies in the EU - in particular in Germany - are found to be rather inadequate. There are also new theoretical challenges where a "structural macro model" and a Schumpetrian model of innovation and full employment are presented as new approaches. Besides theoretical challenges the increasing global dynamics raise new problems of international policy coordination which could lead to unsustainable economic globalization.

East Asian countries are now pursuing greater formal economic institutionalization, weaving a web of bilateral and minilateral preferential trade agreements. Scholarly analysis of "formal" East Asian regionalism focuses on international political and economic factors such as the end of the Cold War, the Asian financial crisis, or the rising Sino-Japanese rivalry. Yet this work pays inadequate attention to the strategies of individual government agencies, business groups, labor unions, and NGOs across the region. Moreover, most studies also fail to adequately characterize different types of trade arrangements, often lumping together bilateral accords with minilateral ones, and transregional agreements with those within the region. To fully understand this cross-national variance, this book argues that researchers must give greater attention to the domestic politics within East Asian countries and the U.S., involving the interplay of these subnational players. With contributions from leading country and regional trade specialists, this book examines East Asian and American trade strategies through the lens of a domestic bargaining game approach with a focus on the interplay of interests, ideas, and domestic institutions within the context of broader international shifts. With respect to domestic politics, the chapters show how subnational actors engage in lobbying, both of their own governments and through their links to others in the region. They also trace the evolution of interests and ideas over time, helping us to generate a better understanding of historical trends in the region. In addition to scholars of East Asian and comparative regionalism, this book will be of interest to policy-makers concerned with international trade and U.S.-Asia relations, and those interested in understanding the rich trade institutional landscape that we see emerging in the Asia-Pacific.

Over the past two years, the world has been preoccupied with the Asia crisis, its contagion and its economic impact. The social dimension of the turmoil has only recently become the point of focus for debates and investigations by national and international organizations. This book is the first serious academic contribution to this important dimension and contains extensive research, sound analysis and concise presentation by national and international experts on such issues as poverty, education, training, health, nutrition and employment for a number of major economies in Asia and Oceania affected by the crisis.

Latin America's experience with regional economic integration has been only slightly shorter than that of Europe. In fact, the first attempt at integration started as early as 1960, with the creation of LAFTA - the Latin American Free Trade Area (subsequently replaced by LAIA - the Latin American Integration Association). LAFTA, composed of 11 countries, sought, unsuccessfully, to create a free trade area in 12 years. In 1969, the Andean pact, which sought, also unsuccessfully, to create a sub-regional free trade area, was set up. Recently the Presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay signed the Treaty of Asuncion aimed at creating a common market as from 1st January, 1995. This common market, MERCOSUR, will be completed by 2006. In comparison with the earlier and unsuccessful attempts at integration, and despite challenges and problems, both internal and external, MERCOSUR is working, and trade between the member States is increasing. Furthermore, as with the case of the European Union (EU), serious attempts (notably between Argentina and Brazil) are being made to co-ordinate economic and monetary policies. The most important evidence of these moves is the introduction of hard currencies, the reduction in the size of the public sector and the privatization of State assets. These are clearly exciting times for Latin American integration. In this book, the first in a new series of books on International Economic Integration, the authors examine the experience of MERCOSUR in the Latin American integration progress. After an analysis of the history of the moves towards integration in South America, the case of each Member State and the Associate Country is examined and perspectives for the future are assessed.

This book represents the revised and enlarged results of a research projeet whieh recieved fmaneial support from the "Wissenschaftsforderung der Sparkassenorganisation e.V." and was originally published in German (Menkhoff 1996). As the issue of monetary poliey instruments for EMU is one whieh is inherently international, the publieation of an English edition is a logieal step. I whish to thank the Deutscher Sparkassenverlag, whieh published the German edition, for eneouraging work on this subsequent projeet. The major innovation in the English edition is the inc1usion of several new seetions, i.e. 3.2.4, 3.3.4, 3.3.5, 3.4.3 and 3.5. These new analyses, together with changing institutional eireumstanees and the addition of new literature have also resulted in a large number of minor ehanges through outthetext. The book is a contribution, from a German perspeetive, to the diseussion about monetary poliey instruments of the future European Central Bank. The main instruments are analyzed from the point of view of effieieney; in addition, the need to harmonize often divergent sets of national poliey instruments means that an emphasis on the additional goal of fair eompeti tion is of partieular relevanee. Last but not least, the explieit linking of EMU to the eoneept of subsidiarity has wide-ranging eonsequenees for monetary poliey instruments."

Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest and least integrated region of the world, now has 15 stock markets. Adventure Capitalism examines the economic and political forces behind this trend and discusses the potential consequences of financial market integration for developing countries. Using a political economy approach, it finds that financial globalization presents a formidable challenge for African policymakers, but is also an opportunity with a range of benefits.

This book is devoted to analyzing contemporary capitalism both in Japan and in the world economy by using the theoretical framework of the French regulation theory and by revisiting the theory of civil society in postwar Japan. The Japanese theory of civil society proposed unique thinking about "freedom and equality" and "human rights" in the postwar era but could not help to come up with effective concepts for an economic analysis of that capitalism of the period. On the other hand, the regulation theory born in the 1970s is well known by its definition of postwar capitalism as Fordism, based on the elaboration of a new conceptual framework, but it soon proved unable to directly explain Japan's experience by that central concept of Fordism. Inspired by consideration of Japanese civil society and also by the regulationist framework, the author has forged new analytical concepts such as "companyism" to understand Japanese capitalism including the recent "lost decades", and he elaborates more carefully the concepts of "growth regime" and "institutional change" to grasp the dynamics of the world economy including today's neoliberal trend. The original benefits of the book consist in 1) reviving a Japanese theory of civil society in the postwar period, 2) applying the regulation theory to the analysis of contemporary Japan, and 3) offering theoretical reflections on the conception of the world economy. Consequently, the author pays special attention to the relationship between the political and the economic as well as regulationist tools and the theory of civil society's perspective. The principal message of the book is that capitalism or the market economy must be supported by a sound civil society.

The book discusses the nature of Marxist theory of crisis and applies it to the global financial crisis which began in 2007. Is the contemporary crisis simply the usual periodic upturn and downturn or is there something more fundamental? Is there a structural crisis of capitalism, from which there is no immediate solution? Is capitalism managed and does it have a strategy? Is the financial crisis representative of a failure in capitalism itself to subject banks and other financial institutions to the overall economy? The book discusses Marx's view on crises, as well as ideas on money and finance. It considers the different modern Marxist ideas on the causes of crises - falling rate of profit, disproportionality and underconsumption. It goes into detail as to the nature of the present crisis, its course and causes in a spirited and independent manner. Apart from the United States, it considers the situation in the two countries, in which protests erupted: Iran and Greece. They are taken as examples of the effect of the crisis on the country, the society and the economy as well as its politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critique.

This volume examines how joint ventures work in practice. Drawing on extensive personal experience and using case study examples where appropriate, the author analyses the various stages, discusses the problems of partner selection, implementation and control and points out the various benefits and pitfalls. He draws out the implications for improving practice and discusses how the experience of joint ventures affects the theory of the multinational enterprise.

In this book leading contributors look at the development of the evolutionary approach to international business, the internationalization of service industries and the implications of the changing face of Europe for international business in the 1990s. Providing an excellent blend of theory, analysis and case-study material, this volume is a vital resource for students of international business and related fields.

The growth and impact of the multinational enterprise (MNE) in the post war period is one of the most important phenomena of our time. This volume, originally published in 1981 provides a comprehensive and detailed review of both the theoretical and policy issues at a time when the subject had reached a watershed, after the controversies of the 1970s. The book provides a balanced discussion of major themes such as the development of modern theories of international production; the impact of the MNE on the nation-state and the structure of the international market; the response of governments and the appropriate framework for policy measures; and the historical context and likely future of the MNE.

The book focuses on the major environmental implications stemming from the growth of the multinational enterprise in a multiple currency world; the international transfer of technology; industrial relations and labour utilization in foreign-owned firms in the UK; multinational companies and trade union interests; foreign direct investment, the balance of payments and trade flows; the multinational enterprise and developing countries; government policy alternatives and the problem of international sharing and a case study of a multinational enterprise in Europe. A survey of the background to the multinational enterprise and concluding summaries ensure that this book is one of the most widely embracing volumes available on the subject.

Aimed at senior undergraduate and post-graduate students following courses in International Business and Industrial Relations this book examines the labour market effects of multinational business. In reflecting the complexity and dynamism of developments in this area, the book makes clear the need to underpin analysis of the labour market effects of multinational business with conceptual understanding of the theory of multinational enterprise.

This book considers the question of the impact of multinationals on Sweden. Based on extensive original research the book examines the benefits and drawbacks of multinationals for Sweden. It relates the Swedish case of multinationals to theories of multinational enterprise and to theories of industrial change. It reviews the extensive debate within Sweden on the question and discusses the policy options available to Sweden. It argues that the mix within a multinational and the spatial distribution (either at home or abroad) of production, research and development, marketing and central functions is important in determining whether a multinational has a beneficial or adverse effect on a country like Sweden. As a small open economy which is considerably affected by movements in international trade Sweden provides the rest of the world with a unique example of the impact of multinational enterprises in terms of both outward and inward foreign direct investment.

Is the transnational coporation (TNC) an engine of growth capable of eliminating international economic inequalities or a major obstacle to development through a massive drain of surplus to advanced countries? This book presents five different perspectives on the role of TNCs: Neo-Classical Global Reach Neo-Imperialist Neo-Fundamentalist Internationalization of capital The author looks at their effect on local labour and capital, and considers the future prospects for TNC involvement in the Third World. The book provides an excellent comparative analysis of TNCs and will appeal to students in development studies and international economics.

This book examines the international technology transfer process and the role of both multinationals and host-country governments in that process, with emphasis on the experience of the more developed countries. It explores a range of issues and presents much original thinking and research findings. It discusses in particular the strategies of the multinationals, assessing how far they are willing to accept technology transfer to external partners (as opposed to subsidiaries which they can control). It also examines how far technical transfers are successful from the viewpoint of the firm and countries involved, arguing that governments are most likely to succeed in attracting multinational transfers if they are aware of and accommodate to some degree multinationals' preferences.

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.