This volume fills an important gap in the existing economic literature. While much has been written about Japan's pre-1990s institutions and economic performance, this text is unique in its forward-looking orientation - trying to understand not only the institutional and structural changes that have already reshaped Japan in the 1990s, but to identify the critical trends and institutional changes that will mould Japan's new economy over the next decade.

This book examines EU Eastern Partnership taking into account geopolitical challenges of EU integration. It highlights reasons for limited success, such as systematic conflict of EU External Action. In addition, the book analyses country-specific issues and discusses EaP influence on them, investigating political, economic and social factors, while seeking for potential solutions to existing problems. The reluctance of the Eastern countries to the European reforms should not reduce political pro-activeness of the EU. The authors suggest that EaP strategies should be reviewed to be more reciprocal and not based solely on the EU-laden agenda. This book is one of the good examples of cooperation between scholars not only from EaP and EU countries, but also from different disciplines, bringing diversity to the discussion process.

A provocative analysis of how government presence in the workplace has caused diminishing profits for American businesses and has led to increased levels of unemployment. As more and more workers are being placed on unemployment, the need for bold and immediate action is necessary. Sinas lays out a viable solution to our unemployment crisis, and takes the government to task for its increasingly destructive intervention in the workplace.

Since graduating from Michigan State University with a Master's Degree in Labor and Industrial Relations, he has directed human resources departments in both union and non-union environments, with complete HR management responsibilities for domestic and foreign operations. He currently directs the human resources consulting services for The PR Companies, which own and operate businesses involved in human resources outsourcing, recruiting, staffing, and business coaching.

Sinas provides hundreds of clients with solutions to their human resources issues and guides them through the myriad of employment laws and regulations. He has conducted extensive training in the areas of employment law; regulatory compliance; performance management; effective supervision; and employee recruitment. He has been the keynote speaker at various trade associations, industry groups, client companies, Chambers of Commerce and human resource seminars.

One of the primary functions of law is to ensure that the legal structure governing all social relations is predictable, coherent, consistent and applicable. Taken together, these characteristics of law are referred to as legal certainty. In traditional approaches to legal certainty, law is regarded as a hierarchical system of rules characterized by stability, clarity, uniformity, calculable enforcement, publicity and predictability. However, the current reality is that national legal systems no longer operate in isolation, but within a multilevel legal order, wherein norms created at both the international and regional level are directly applicable to national legal systems. Also, norm creation is no longer the exclusive prerogative of public officials of the state: private actors have an increasing influence on norm creation as well. Social scientists have referred to this phenomenon of interacting and overlapping competences as multilevel governance. Only recently have legal scholars focused attention on the increasing interconnectedness (and therefore the concomitant loss of primacy of national legal orders) between the global, European and national regulatory spheres through the concept of multilevel regulation.

In this project the author uses multilevel regulation as a term to characterize a regulatory space in which the process of rule making, rule enforcement and rule adjudication (the regulatory lifecycle) is dispersed across more than one administrative or territorial level and amongst several different actors, both public and private. The author draws on the concept of a regulatory space, using it as a framing device to differentiate between specific aspects of policy fields. The relationship between actors in such a space is non-hierarchical and they may be independent of each other. The lack of central ordering of the regulatory lifecycle within this regulatory space is the most important feature of such a space. The implications of multilevel regulation for the notion of legal certainty have attracted limited attention from scholars and the demand for legal certainty in regulatory practice is still a puzzle. The book explores the idea of legal certainty in terms of the perceptions and expectations of regulatees in the context of medical products - specifically, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, which can be differentiated as two regulatory spaces and therefore form two case studies. As an exploratory project, the book necessarily explores new territory in terms of investigating legal certainty first in terms of regulatee perceptions and expectations and second, because it studies it in the context of multilevel regulation.

Help the world bridge the digital divide by learning an easy-to-use method that allows everyone to enjoy the benefits of the Internet using just a phone and their voice. Computer and technology expert Emdad Khan pinpoints the factors that affect the use of technology, including the language divide. While the English-speaking world dominates the Internet, it's possible for all people to reap its benefits using just their voice in their native language. The Voice Internet ushers in a new era of access to technology. It eliminates the need to learn a new language, is affordable, and overcomes problems associated with many devices, such as needing to use a small keypad and screen. Get ready to learn how Voice Internet technology rides on existing infrastructure; how to take further steps to harness the benefits of the Internet; and how this technology can positively affect economies and cultures. If you are a decision maker, governmental policy maker, teacher, entrepreneur, philanthropist, or someone concerned with helping humanity enjoy access to the Internet, then this guidebook provides you with the knowledge to take action. Bridge the gaps that limit the usage of technology and open up the "Internet for Everyone."

Large multinational corporations shape our lives to an enormous extent. How is the growth, power, and significance of big business to be explained and understood? Focusing on the issues of ownership, control, and class formation, Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes explores the implications of changes in the nature of big business, which affect both the businesses themselves, and the economic and political milieu in which these multinationals operate. Up-to-date empirical evidence is reviewed in a wide-ranging comparative framework that covers Britain and the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and many other societies, including emerging forms of capitalism in China and Russia. Unlike other specialist texts in the area, Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes relates its concerns to issues of social stratification and class structure. The first and second editions of the book (under the title Corportations, Classes and Capitalism) were enthusiastically received, and the present edition reviews new theoretical ideas and empirical evidence that has emerged in the ten years since the second edition appeared. The text has been completely re-written and re-structured, and it relates its concerns to contemporary debates over `disorganized capitalism' and post-industrialism.

This book explores the role of national fiscal policies in a selected group of Euro-area countries under the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In particular, the authors characterize the response of output to fiscal consolidations and expansions in the small Euro-area open economies affected by high public and private debt. It is shown that the macroeconomic outcome of fiscal shocks is strongly related to debt levels. The Euro-area countries included in the investigation are Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal, over the sample period 1999-2016, i.e., the EMU period. The main econometric tools used in this research are structural vector autoregressive (VAR) models, including panel VAR models. The available literature relating to the subject is also fully reviewed. A further closely investigated topic is the potential spillover effects of German fiscal policies on the selected small Euro-area economies. Moreover, in the perspective of the evolution of the Euro Area towards a full Monetary and Fiscal Union, the authors study the effects of area-wide government spending shocks on aggregate output and other macroeconomic variables during the EMU period. The closing chapter of the book considers evidence on the consequences of austerity policies for European labour markets during recent years.

At the beginning of the 21st century, in Japan and most of the continental European economies, we can observe a shift from what has been labelled a "corporatist" system to more market-oriented structures. Regulatory competition caused by the globalization of markets is increasingly placing the traditional legal institutions of these jurisdictions under severe strain. This is especially true for the services markets. Of these, the markets for financial services and telecommunications services have to adapt most urgently. These adaptations are already underway to varying extents and degrees, made possible by a mixture of de-regulation and re-regulation. In this volume, scholars from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Japan as well as practitioners from various institutions lay out the theoretical foundations and means for these developments. Through critical analysis, the various contributions show what has been reached so far in Europe and Japan and what remains to be achieved in the future.

This book elaborates on how China's previous leaders established, consolidated, developed and improved China's basic modern governance system. It also explores and discusses how to correctly, objectively and scientifically perceive, evaluate and promote the modernization of China's state governance and its capacity. Using detailed and accurate data and extensive background information, this book analyzes the changing history and future perspectives of the relationship between China's government and the market, state-owned economy and private economy. Covering an extensive timespan, this comprehensive book includes contributions from Chinese scholars specialized in contemporary China studies discussing the major breakthroughs and decision-making consultations in Chinese development strategies. It also offers insights into the research mechanism and development levels of Chinese think tanks based at research institutes. Last but not least, it sheds light on the democratic advances in the Chinese decision-making process.

Based on long-term research, this book comprehensively and systematically discusses the industrialization process in China, analyzing the level, characteristics, achievements and experiences as well as the problems faced. It also provides answers to important questions related to economic development and the industrialization process in China, such as what level of industrialization China has achieved and whether China can become an industrialized country. Lastly, it offers an explanation of China's economic development from the perspective of industrialization.

The essays in this volume explore several key issues facing democracies today. They discuss the dilemma of how to protect civil liberties and individual freedoms in the light of external threats and assess the policies adopted by governments in this area. The book also addresses the question of how free, exactly, free markets should be in an economy in order to secure social peace, before going on to highlight the rudiments of the model of social market economy, as applied in Germany. It examines the problem of the democratic and legitimacy deficits that beset European integration and suggests reforms for a more democratic European Union. Last but not least, by looking back in history, they provide evidence and propose policies for the revitalization of institutions in present-day democracies. The book is of considerable interest to researchers and students in economics and political science, as well as to readers who wish to gain insights into the thorny social issues involved.

Transforming Management in Central and Eastern Europe analyses changes in enterprises in seven European countries since 1989 - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Slovakia. Economic trends have differed vastly between these countries, but nevertheless, there are common objectives, common problems, and significant similarities in developments. This book shows the continuities, as well as the discontinuities, between the Socialist and the post-Socialist periods. It argues that Central and Eastern European countries are developing a distinctive, hybrid form of post-Socialist economic system, largely dominated by enterprise managers in alliance with state administrations-politicized managerial capitalism. Privatization has not transformed management practices, competition has.

This book presents in a concise and accessible way why the EU institutional system exists in its present form, how the EU fits into the world as a system of governance, and who is involved in EU policy processes. It outlines the historical context which has shaped the EU system, gives a summary of the system's basic principles and structures, and describes its actors, procedures and instruments. The main theme is to show that EU decision-making is not just a matter of action at some higher and separate level, of 'them and us', but rather that it involves different forms of cooperation between European, national and regional authorities, as well as interaction between public and private actors. Numerous short case studies illustrate how people's day-to-day activities are affected by EU decisions, and how individuals' concerns are represented in the decision-making process. The book provides insights and examples which will be very helpful for all students of European integration. It will also be a valuable resource for European citizens wishing to understand the basic realities and rationales, as well as some of the dilemmas, behind EU policy-making.

A number of developing countries, including small island states have common problems that have affected their development and growth. Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives can be used to address some of these issues, but these developing countries need to understand what is needed to implement them, in order to improve economic conditions. While many of these countries have access to technologies that can be used to assist in knowledge management, relevant and low cost KM initiatives need to be considered in improving their existing KM processes. Sectors critical to the growth of these developing countries include health care, crime management, disaster recovery management, small and medium size enterprise development. Knowledge Management for Development: Domains, Strategies and Technologies for Developing Countries highlights the opportunities in these sectors and provides advice as to how these countries should go about understanding, building and adopting the relevant KM strategies and technologies. This book identifies appropriate technologies which should be considered to increase productivity within the identified sectors in the developing countries and also sectors in where knowledge management initiatives can yield maximum value. It also considers the constraints of these territories, recommending appropriate technologies and strategies for KM initiatives. It provides advice on how these technologies should be adopted in these sectors of developing countries. Investing in these strategies should benefit these countries development and growth.

Cashless infrastructures are rapidly increasing, as credit cards, cryptocurrencies, online and mobile money, remittances, demonetization, and digitalization process replace coins and currencies around the world. Who's Cashing In? explores how different modes of cashlessness impact, transform and challenge the everyday lives and livelihoods of local communities. Drawing from a wide range of ethnographic studies, this volume offers a concise look at how social actors and intermediaries respond to this change in the materiality of money throughout multiple regional contexts.

Agent-based models are tools that provide researchers in economic fields with unprecedented analytical capabilities. This book describes the power of agent-based models along their methodology, and it provides several examples of applications spanning from public policy evaluation to financial markets.

This book calls for a radical reappraisal of economic policy in the UK. It argues that a much lower exchange rate is needed to re-establish sufficient manufacturing capacity to enable Britain to pay its way in the world. Mills makes the case for the removal of balance of payments constraints to achieve growth and avoid endless austerity.

This book explores the changing socio-economic and technological landscape of the 21 century and what it means. It adopts an industrial economic approach, whilst proposing a road map leading to the adoption of a 'societal market economy' model as an appealing and politically acceptable third-way between capitalism and socialism.

Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan - East Asia's newly industrialised economies (the NIE-3) - experienced a profound development transformation over recent decades. Christopher Dent makes a comparative study of their foreign economic policies, highlighting how the NIE-3 have engaged with the international economic system in an increasingly dynamic way. The book develops a new macro-framework of foreign economic policy analysis that provides the structure for this study. The author argues that the 'development context' of the NIE-3's foreign economic policies is grounded in their common development statism and semi-peripheralisation. He further contends that it is the pursuit of economic security that primarily motivates their respective foreign economic policies. This new conceptualisation of economic security in the context of foreign economic policy will appeal to academics, researchers and students in wide range of disciplines including: Asian studies, international relations, international political economy, economics and politics.

This book examines human-interest stories, unpacking from them violence inherent to neoliberalism, and considers if it is possible to find in these stories hints of people and labour that suggest other narratives.