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.

Researchers are beginning to draw attention to the human side concerning the implications of the digital age. Cultural challenges faced by international virtual teams, management dilemmas relative to resource issues when dealing with cultural diversity, and human resource management challenges confronted by technical environments and nationally-qualified labor shortages are on the rise and need to be addressed as society enters a new era. Examining Cultural Perspectives in a Globalized World is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the promotion of new cultural models representative of the contemporary world and subject to digital transformation. While highlighting topics such as digital diversity, shared culture, and employee motivation, this publication explores increasing the relevancy of culture in the globalized 21st century as well as the methods of revising current HR management policies. This book is ideally designed for managers, human resources management, executives, sociologists, consultants, practitioners, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, and students.

Oil is the lifeblood of the global economy, and its misuse carries the risk of heavy economic and environmental penalties. This book is a collection of essays bearing on economic growth and environmental concerns for a world that will continue to be dependent on oil throughout the next century. Topics include the outlook for petroleum demand and supply, the potential for alternatives to a petroleum-based economy, the costs of controlling automobile emissions, the environmental costs of moving oil by tanker and pipeline, and competition issues in the production and distribution of petroleum products. The wide range of topics reflects the many different ways in which petroleum and use affect the quality of our lives. The essays are the end results of an initiative by the University of California Energy Institute and reflect careful research into the costs and benefits of the petroleum economy. Together, they offer new insights into the critical task of living with oil, for today and for the future.

In late 2008 the world was at a dangerous point. Governments and central banks had just about stopped the bleeding in their financial systems following the fall of Lehman Brothers, but they were unprepared for the recession that was to infect all parts of the global economy and become a truly global crisis. This book, first published as an eBook to coincide with the November 2008 G20 meeting in Washington, provides the views of some of the world's leading economists on what world leaders needed to do - act quickly in: / The financial sector to strengthen and coordinate emergency measures to staunch the bleeding / The real sector using fiscal stimulus to get the patient's heart pumping again / The global arena to empower the IMF and other existing institutions to deal with the crisis in emerging markets. Above all, though, the recommendation was to do no harm. The authors knew that the wrong outcome from this meeting could have damaged the world economy rather than repair it. Fortunately, much of their advice was heeded. And while events have moved on, policymakers and opinion formers today could still do with a refresher. The authors are: Alberto Alesina, Erik Berglof, Willem Buiter, Guillermo Calvo, Stijn Claessens, Paul De Grauwe, Wendy Dobson, Barry Eichengreen, Daniel Gros, Refet Gurkaynak, Takatoshi Ito, Vijay Joshi, Yung Chul Park, Raghuram Rajan, Dani Rodrik, Michael Spence, Guido Tabellini, David Vines, Ernesto Zedillo and Jeromin Zettelmeyer.

The definitive survey of the countries and territories of Western Europe, comprising expert analysis and commentary, up-to-date economic and socio-political data and extensive directory information. General Survey Essays by leading experts on the area cover issues of regional importance. Country Surveys Individual chapters on each country, comprising: an introductory survey, containing essays on the geography, history and economy of each country, including a chronology and map. an extensive statistical survey of economic and demographic indicators, including area and population, health and welfare, agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, industry, finance, trade, transport, tourism, communications media and education. a comprehensive directory of names and contact details covering the most significant political and commercial institutions. Regional Information a directory of research institutes specializing in the region bibliographies of books and periodicals covering the region.

The book assesses the most exciting experiment in modern economic history - the German currency union of 1990 - on three levels. Firstly the international consequences are analysed utilising different paradigms of monetary theory. These controversial results lead to a closer look at the relationship between monetary policy and production in Germany, and thirdly, the book concludes with a reconsideration of the old economic question, whether money matters, applied to the German case.

An examination of the future of economic policy in the next millennium, assessing the reasons for the shift to a more sceptical view of the role of government given the power of the financial markets and the impact of globalization. These contributions from within the political economy tradition emphasise the important lessons from the past about the varieties of forms of capitalism, the importance of public institutions and public policy and the limitations of the rival laissez-faire approach. The dangers of an unregulated and powerful financial sector for the real side of the economy are a particular focus of attention. Proposals to rectify the shortcomings of financial markets and shift the focus of policy to a greater concern for the poor and excluded are put forward. The message to the economic policy-makers of the future is that markets perform valuable economic and social functions, but perform these better when appropriately regulated and controlled.

High unemployment has been one of the most disturbing features of the economy of the 1980s. For a precedent, one must look to the interwar period and in particular to the Great Depression of the 1930s. It follows that recent years have been marked by a resurgence of interest amongst academics in interwar unemployment. The debate has been contentious. There is nothing like the analysis of a period which recorded rates of un employment approaching 25 per cent to highlight the differences between competing schools of thought on the operation of labour markets. Along with historians, economists whose objective is to better understand the causes, character and consequences of contemporary unemployment and sociologists seeking to understand contemporary society's perceptions and responses to joblessness have devoted increasing attention to this his torical episode. Like many issues in economic history, this one can be approached in a variety of ways using different theoretical approaches, tools of analysis and levels of disaggregation. Much of the recent literature on the func tioning of labour markets in the Depression has been macroeconomic in nature and has been limited to individual countries. Debates from the period itself have been revived and new questions stimulated by modem research have been opened. Many such studies have been narrowly fo cused and have failed to take into account the array of historical evidence collected and anal sed by contemporaries or reconstructed and re- inter preted by historians."

The New Economic Diplomacy explains how states conduct their external economic relations in the 21st century: how they make decisions domestically, how they negotiate internationally and how these processes interact. Although the previous edition, published in 2011, was able to reflect the impact of the financial crisis and the immediate reaction to it, a lot has happened since then, and the atmosphere of economic diplomacy has darkened. To capture the emergence of new trends and the intensification of old ones, the salient features of this new edition are: The advance of China and other emerging powers at the expense of G7 governments, despite some setbacks; Much greater activity in negotiating regional and plurilateral trade agreements, while the multilateral system struggles; The persistence of problems exposed by the financial crisis, notably the long-running euro-zone crisis. The interaction between domestic and external forces: the balance has shifted towards the domestic axis, with international agreement more difficult to achieve. This edition goes further in comparing the practice of different players, to reflect the greater diversity of economic diplomacy. Based on the authors' work in the field of International Political Economy, it is suitable for students interested in the decision-making processes in foreign economic policy, including those studying international relations, government, politics and economics. It will also appeal to politicians, bureaucrats, business people, NGO activists, journalists and the informed public.

This book analyses the emerging jurisprudence of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and seamlessly knits together all the disparate texts, policies and judicial decisions into a single, coherent resource. The work is deliberately crafted to address the lack of a comprehensive resource on the subject, and guide lawyers, policy-makers, Community citizens, researchers, students and civil society organisations through the labyrinth of the Community's laws and policies. From a socio-legal perspective, it unearths political, socio-economic and legal structures that impinge on the integration cause on the one hand, and dilute the efficacy of the Community legal regime on the other hand. Also, it exposes contemporary terrorism and conflict in West Africa and the legal interventions that the Community has adopted to respond to these challenges. In sequence, it traces and expounds the legal development of the Community norms with respect to sources of law, human rights, supra-nationalism and laws of the member states, reference procedure, action for damages, freedom of movement, discrimination and competition policy.The book particularly evaluates the extent of the human rights jurisdiction of the Community Court of Justice, as well as jurisdictional limitations to the protection of Community rights either at national or Community level. Also, it sheds light on the jurisdictional chasm existing between Community law and member states' national laws, and offers proven constitutional, legislative and judicial solutions to plug the gap. It explains vividly the common market, free movement of goods and the impact of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on the entire ECOWAS free trade policy. In all these analyses, evaluation and examination of norms and policies, the work draws on the European Union's rich case law on similar points to explain recondite issues of law which may arise or have arisen from the application of any of the ECOWAS texts.

Renewed tensions between Russia and the West have fueled speculation that Moscow's apparent designs on the Arctic region could help stimulate a new cold war. Vladimir Putin's openly nationalistic ambitions, as demonstrated most vividly with his seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, might seem to justify such concerns. This book by a noted expert shifts the debate over Russia's strategy from what Moscow could do in the Arctic to the realities of what Putin's Russia likely will do. Buchanan challenges the widely held assumption that the Arctic is emerging as one of the most important strategic theaters in a potentially dangerous new cold war between Russia and the West. In fact, she explains that Putin's Arctic aspirations rely heavily upon continued international cooperation via commercial partnerships with Western energy firms and Eastern injections of capital-all of which could be at risk in a new cold war. Three main themes are intertwined throughout the book: Russian Arctic interests; Putin's vision to regain great power status; and the emerging narrative of a new cold war in the Arctic. Weaved together, they dovetail nicely to present a qualitative assessment of Russian Arctic strategy devoid of ideological biases. The unique departure for the book is that it makes the case that Russia's renewed great power ambitions under Putin are not the only explanation for Russian Arctic strategy. By exploring the broader context of Putin's actions, the book fills a gap in literature. It will be of interest both to specialists and to anyone interested in relations between Russia and the West as well as the numerous questions about how the Arctic region will be exploited-and who will do the exploiting.

Combining impartial analysis with reliable facts and figures, this fully revised and updated 19th edition provides up-to-date commentary on these vast North American nations. General Survey Essays by leading experts analyse topics of regional importance, including: - US-Canadian integration, immigration, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in North America. Country Surveys Each country is dealt with in greater detail within its own section. Country chapters include: - a chronology of political events - essays covering key socio-political and economic themes, including: recent political developments; foreign policy; constitution; the economy; energy policy; agriculture; trade; health and social policy - additional essays examining timely subjects such as US-Chinese economic competition, religion in US politics and the US Judicial system - historical, political and economic surveys of each of the US states and Canadian provinces and territories - statistical surveys of economic and demographic indicators - comprehensive directory sections covering public affairs, the economy and society, which provide contact details and other useful information for the most significant institutions in the region. Detailed results of the presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections held in the USA in November 2016 are also included.

The book addresses the management of privatization in post-communist countries and is aimed at defining and analyzing contextual and organizational characteristics of privatization in these transitional economies to build effective business concerns that behave competitively. While privatization has recently become popular and widely used in former socialist countries, its organizational requirements have often been overlooked. The book demonstrates salient features as well as dynamic relationships among various organizational properties of privatized firms. The volume includes both conceptual foundations and practical suggestions for transformation from a command economy to a market economy from a managerial and organizational perspectives. Additionally, it includes examples of privatization in Eastern and Central Europe. It will appeal to students, policy makers, and managers of privatization in post-communist countries.

This book presents an outstanding body of research on theoretical and practical aspects of the various applications of privatization in post-communist countries. A thorough analysis of strategy, structure, behavior, and process of transformation from a command to a market economy is discussed. The volume presents illustrative cases from Eastern Europe and provides a wide range of critical issues including planning, restructuring industrial organization, technology management, and human resource management based on personal experience of the authors or extensive studies on privatization in former socialist countries. It is an excellent source for further understanding the reasons for successes or failures of a variety of privatization applications.

As global great power competition intensifies, there is growing concern about the geopolitical future of Antarctica. This book delves into the question of how can we anticipate, prepare for, and potentially even shape that future? Now in its 60th year, the Antarctic Treaty System has been comparatively resilient and successful in governing the Antarctic region. This book assesses how our ability to make accurate predictions about the future of the Antarctic Treaty System reduces rapidly in the face of political and biophysical complexity, uncertainty, and the passage of time. This poses a critical risk for organisations making long-range decisions about their policy, strategy, and investments in the frozen south. Scenarios are useful planning tools for considering futures beyond the limits of standard prediction. This book explores how a multi-disciplinary focus of classical geopolitics might be applied systematically to create scenarios on Antarctic futures that are plausible, rigorous, and robust. This book illustrates a pragmatic, nine-step scenario development process, using the topical issue of military activities in Antarctica. Along the way, the authors make suggestions to augment current theory and practice of geopolitical scenario planning. In doing so, this book seeks to rediscover the importance of a classical (primarily state-centric) lens on Antarctic geopolitics, which in recent decades has been overshadowed by more critical perspectives. This book is written for anyone with an interest in the rigorous assessment of geopolitical futures - in Antarctica and beyond.

The book examines the problems that Nixon faced during his presidential term, focusing on economics but the role of politics is also highlighted. The convergence of the gold-dollar crises, oil crises and Watergate imbroglio posed a unique political and economic threat to global stability.

The dramatic story of Hitler and Stalin's marriage of convenience has been recounted frequently over the past 60 years, but with remarkably little consensus. As the first English-language study to analyze the development, extent, and importance of the Nazi-Soviet economic relationship from Hitler's ascension to power to the launching of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, this book highlights the crucial role that Soviet economic aid played in Germany's early successes in World War II. When Hitler's rearmament efforts left Germany dangerously short of raw materials in 1939, Stalin was able to offer valuable supplies of oil, manganese, grain, and rubber. In exchange, the Soviet Union would gain territory and obtain the technology and equipment necessary for its own rearmament efforts.

However, by the summer of 1941, Stalin's well-calculated plan had gone awry. Germany's continuing reliance on Soviet raw materials would, Stalin hoped, convince Hitler that he could not afford to invade the USSR. As a result, the Soviets continued to supply the Reich with the resources that would later carry the Wehrmacht to the gates of Moscow and nearly cost the Soviets the war. The extensive use in this study of neglected source material in the German archives helps resolve the long-standing debate over whether Stalin's foreign policy was one of expansionism or appeasement.

These essays explore interactions between North and South, and South and South in trade, technology and finance, focusing on the interests of the South and particularly the poor. Many theoretical deficiencies are revealed in the "conventional" neo-classical approach; the consequences are often deleterious to Southern interests, while the poor are neglected. A review concludes that the South should adopt a bargaining approach to North-South negotiations. In trade, technology and finance, considerable benefits would arise from closer South-South relations.

After successful transition from a socialist to market economy, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are faced with the challenge of how to catch up with the EU15. This book provides the first systematic analysis of how Central and Eastern Europe has been restructuring from a knowledge-based economy perspective. It is an essential reference for understanding processes that are shaping present and future growth of the eastern part of the enlarged EU.

The European Union can be perceived as an enormous bilateral and multilateral process of internal and external negotiation. This book examines negotiations within member states, between member states, within and between the institutions of the Union and between the EU and other countries. It also analyzed processes, actors and interests. This book is, therefore, a unique probe into the relatively unknown arena of negotiation processes in the European Union.

In this volume we collected some of the papers that were presented at the RIEB (The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration) International Conference at Kobe University on March 25 and 26, 2000. The contributions invited for presentation all dealt with specific aspects of the conference topic "Trade Policy: Political Economy and Dynamic Issues." In the meantime the papers collected in this volume have been revised, and some of them have been published in professional journals. This volume thus contains published as well as hitherto unpublished contributions. We are grateful to all the authors and the conference participants, espe cially to those who cheerfully served as discussants and chairpersons. Our thanks also go to our colleagues at the RIEB for their encouragement, and especially to the RIEB's Director, Professor Shoji Nishijima for his support of the project. We are also grateful to Professor Arye Hillman at Bar-Han University, who kindly read parts of the manuscript and supplied useful com ments and suggestions. In the editorial process we were fortunate to be able to rely on an excellent and able team: we are extremely grateful to Minako Okuno, Yuji Fujinaka, Tetsuya Saito for their outstanding work and to Shinya Horie who undertook the pains taking job and completed the camera-ready copy for publication. We are also grateful to Professor Charles Noussair of Emory University who kindly supplied suggestions."

Regionalism and World Order assesses the origins, significance and likely evolution of the trend towards regionalism within the world order. It analyses how states have been responding to the end of US hegemony and assesses the extent to which new regional blocs are emerging and their nature. These questions are analysed through detailed case studies of the three most advanced regions of the world economy - the Americas, the European Union, and East Asia - firstly from the standpoint of the 'core' state or states, and secondly from that of the 'peripheral' states.

The goal of the volume is to provide some background on the various financial market segments of the Asian Pacific region. An understanding of institutional detail (size and scope) of the relevant markets affords a view that lends or detracts from the credibility of intermarket comparisons. An exposure and understanding of institutional detail supplies information that may bear on the statistical results of the empirical analysis. The vital roles played bycapital markets of pricing capital, issuing new shares, providing a liquidity-creating secondary feature, serving as a vehicle for asset transfer, and providing a linkage to international capital markets are as important to emerging markets as to developed countries.

International Economics is unique despite the existence of numerous books of the same title. It is true that no one volume can capture the entire state of the art of the subject, but individuals can apply their own perspectives to identify crucial issues in the development of the field. Therefore, rather than instructions to prepare "surveys" of subfields within international economics, the contributors to this book were informed as follows: Your essay should present an affirmative but constructively critical look at your subject. It is not meant to be a survey. Rather, your task is to pinpoint crucial areas of development, to offer a critical evaluation of what's going on in the field and where it might go. Your contribution would be your own personal statement of how you see things. It should be written at the professional level. Beyond these general guidelines, you may develop your essay as you see fit. How much of "international economics" should be assigned to each author and how many contributions the book should have, required careful consideration. Traditionally, international economics has been divided into pure theory and monetary theory, suggesting a simple division of the field; but this dichotomy has been overturned by the emergence of litera ture that overlaps both theories. An opposite approach would have been to separate international economics into twelve to fifteen areas, each with a contributor. This procedure divides the field into too many parts and, consequently, overlapping threads of development would be ignored."