This is a comprehensive book on infrastructure development and construction management. It is written keeping in mind the curricula of construction management programmes in India and abroad. It covers infrastructure development, the construction industry in India, financial analysis of the real estate industry in India, economic analysis of projects, tendering and bidding, contracts and contract management, FIDIC conditions of contract, construction disputes and claims, arbitration, conciliation and dispute resolution, international construction project exports and identifying, analysing and managing construction project risk. Thus, this book covers most of the construction management activities that are carried out at different stages of a construction project. This is an essential book for students of construction management, construction professionals, academicians and researchers.

This book analyzes the continuous operation of a power plant with condensing power units in combined heat and power mode (CHP-mode) over a period of one year. Focusing on the operation of one and two power-unit systems with differing heat exchanger configurations, this book uses mathematical modeling of the steam-water cycle of a 370 MW power unit to calculate the operating characteristics and mass-energy balance of the system. Featuring comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of the quasi-unsteady operation of power units in cogeneration for electrical power generation, as determined by the Polish Power System, this work also includes an economic analysis of the power plant, presenting the costs and economic effectiveness of such a system.

This book investigates how extractive capitalism has developed over the past three decades, what dynamics of resistance have been deployed to combat it, and whether extractivism can ever be transformed into being a part of a progressive development path. It was not until the 21st century that the extraction of natural resources and raw materials took on a decidedly capitalist form, with the global north extracting primary commodities from the global south as a means of capital accumulation. This book investigates whether extractivism, despite its well-documented negative and destructive socioenvironmental impacts and the powerful forces of resistance that it has generated, could ever be transformed into a sustainable post-development strategy. Drawing on diverse sectoral forms of extractivism (mining, fossil fuels, agriculture), this book analyses the dynamics of both the forces of resistance generated by the advance of extractive capital and alternate scenarios for a more sustainable and liveable future. The book draws particularly on the Latin American experience, where both the propensity of capitalism towards crisis and the development of resistance dynamics to 'extractive' capital have had their greatest impact in the neoliberal era. This book will be of interest to researchers and students across development studies, economics, political economy, environmental studies, indigenous studies, and Latin American affairs.

This book explores the twists and turns in Argentina's modern economic history and the debates that raged there around a problem common to all former colonies: how to achieve a level of economic growth for its population in a world characterized by unequal economic relations between the industrialized nations of the north and the commodity producers of the south. This new perspective examines the history of ideas surrounding industrialization and economic development in Argentina, drawing on a rigorous investigation of multiple sources. It demonstrates Argentina's role as a laboratory for and disseminator of ideas that would eventually become the common property of all the developing world. Influential thinkers such as Raul Prebisch and Aldo Ferrer, leading figures in twentieth century Latin American economic thought, developed important ideas such as unequal international trade relations, the promise and limits of Import Substitution Industrialization, the role of the state in the development of a national capitalism. These were the forerunners of similar concerns in other countries in Latin America and elsewhere in the world. The book will be of interest to historians, economists, sociologists of economic development, and related disciplines concerned with questions of global economic inequality.

Telecommunications are increasingly recognized as a key component in the infrastructure of economic development. For many years, there were state-owned monopolies in the telecommunications sector. In transition economies, they were characterized by especially poor performance and high access deficits, as telecommunications were considered to be a non-profit-oriented production process intended to support the socio-economic superstructures. As a result, the starting point for the reform processes in transition countries was quite poor performed public monopolies, functioned under completely different circumstances as the peers in the market economies.

The main question of this book is what the strategies for the successful future development of the telecommunications sector in transition countries are. The special focus is on Russia, the largest of the transition countries.

The book presents theoretical and empirical research on the integrated assessment of cartels' effects on national economies. The empirical analysis is based on three cases in Lithuania, a country chosen because it corresponds to the features of a small economy with a developing culture of competition. An integrated assessment of a cartel's impact by measuring the net economic effect created by its operations on the market is extremely important at the scale of national economies. If a cartel's true impact is not identified and evaluated, it is impossible to make important strategic decisions, for the whole economy instead of individual affected parties and to establish an optimum baseline for mitigating the harm done to the economy. Thus, an integrated cartel impact assessment can help to more proactively combat cartel agreements on the market and improve the economic welfare of the respective country.

There is wide consensus on the importance of knowledge for economic growth and local development patterns. This book proposes a view of knowledge as a collective, systemic and evolutionary process that enables agents and social systems to overcome the challenges of the limits to growth. It brings together new conceptual and empirical contributions, analysing the relationship between demand and supply factors and the rate and direction of technological change. It also examines the different elements that compose innovation systems. The Economics of Knowledge, Innovation and Systemic Technology Policy provides the background for the development of an integrated framework for the analysis of systemic policy instruments and their mutual interaction the socio-political and economic conditions of the surrounding environment. These aspects have long been neglected in innovation policy, as policymakers, academics and the business community, have mostly emphasized the benefits of supply side strategies. However, a better understanding of innovation policies grafted on a complexity-based approach calls for the appreciation of the mutual interactions between both supply and demand aspects, and it is likely to improve the actual design of policy measures. This book will help readers to understand the foundations and working of demand-driven innovation policies by stressing the importance of compent and smart demand.

The 2008 credit crisis started with the failure of one large bank: Lehman Brothers. Since then the focus of both politicians and regulators has been on stabilising the economy and preventing future financial instability. At this juncture, we are at the last stage of future-proofing the financial sector by raising capital requirements and tightening financial regulation. Now the policy agenda needs to concentrate on transforming the banking sector into an engine for growth. Reviving competition in the banking sector after the state interventions of the past years is a key step in this process. This book introduces and explains a relatively new concept in competition measurement: the performance-conduct-structure (PCS) indicator. The key idea behind this measure is that a firm's efficiency is more highly rewarded in terms of market share and profit, the stronger competitive pressure is. The book begins by explaining the financial market's fundamental obstacles to competition presenting a brief survey of the complex relationship between financial stability and competition. The theoretical contributions of Hay and Liu and Boone provide the theoretical underpinning for the PCS indicator, while its application to banking and insurance illustrates its empirical qualities. Finally, this book presents a systematic comparison between the results of this approach and (all) existing methods as applied to 46 countries, over the same sample period. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the knowns and unknowns of financial sector competition for commercial and central bankers, policy-makers, supervisors and academics alike.

This book sheds new light on the advancement of various industries in developing Asian countries through an application and re-examination of catch-up industrialization theory. With contributors presenting their own perspectives on the progression of a range of different industries in Asia, this volume provokes readers to reconsider their current understanding of industrialization in latecomer countries. More specifically, the chapters discuss Taiwan's semiconductor industry, Korea's steel industry, and Malaysia's palm oil industry, amongst others. The authors also explore the 'catch-down' innovation strategy in China and India. Varieties and Alternatives of Catching-up provides a thorough analysis of the strategies employed by numerous Asian countries to radically transform their low-income agricultural economies to middle-income industrialized ones. This book is essential reading for researchers and scholars interested in Asian economic development.

This book provides deep insight into the emergent Chinese innovation economy, as we head towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It describes, discusses and analyzes the period from China's opening up to foreign investment in the 1980s until the New Silk Road project, from 2013 onwards. The developments are assessed from a systemic thinking and evolutionary economic standpoint. The book presents the latest research findings on the direction and achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the results both for China, the countries along the new Silk Road, as well as for Europe and the United States are brought to light. The author asserts that the phenomenon of the New Silk Road as an innovation generator can be understood and explained through the effects of various social mechanisms. He labels these five social mechanisms as: the locomotive force; the explosive force of the butterfly effect; the force of co-creation; the force of expectation; and the force of competence. The book presents 20 cases to substantiate the descriptions, analysis, theoretical reflections and the practical utility of the questions examined in each chapter. It utilizes economic history research methods, scenario thinking, futures research and conceptual generalization to offer different views on the research problem under investigation. Further, the book offers policy suggestions, which include promoting effective macroeconomic policies, and extending microeconomic cooperation schemes, related to the innovation economy. The book will appeal to academics, researchers and graduate students concerned with Chinese economic expansion, Chinese foreign policy and US- and Europe-China relations, as well as policymakers and political advisors.

If evolutionary economics is to compete with neoclassical economics as a general-purpose economic theory, it needs to incorporate new aspects of socioeconomic reality, such as institutions of all types, including technical, scientific, and political. Furthermore, evolutionary economics needs to be able to provide policy implications at least as interesting as those of neoclassical economics. Thus, as this book argues, evolutionary economics must become evolutionary political economy. Innovation plays a central role in the book, but not in the sense of providing a technologically determinist interpretation. Rather, the book argues that innovations do not emerge in isolation from other components of socioeconomic systems but coevolve with institutions, infrastructures and organizational forms. This concept of coevolution is absolutely central in the book and provides a link with theories of complexity. In addition to providing an epistemological basis for evolutionary economics, the link with complexity and coevolution offers the connection with evolutionary political economy. Innovations and technologies do not emerge and develop in an institutional vacuum, but interact with existing institutions and reshape them, in addition to inducing the formation of new institutions. In this process, technologies and institutions reinforce each other providing a potential mechanism to transform socioeconomic systems. The book also explores the policy implications of these innovative societies, where wealth is created but unequally distributed. The book is addressed to open-minded economists, social scientists who are dissatisfied with the approach of neoclassical economics, technologists and policy makers.

The organization of interfirm networks, such as alliances, cooperatives, franchise and retail chains, has become an important research topic in the field of economics, marketing, strategic management, and organization theory. This book contributes to the literature on formal and informal inter-organizational governance by providing new insights on contract design, ownership, evolution of cooperation, role of social capital and performance in franchising networks; includes topics of loyalty, reputation and organizational form as well as performance of cooperatives, and discusses the relationship between formal and relational governance in alliances, governance structures of innovation activities, dynamics of interfirm conflicts, and network externalities and alliance formation.

As paradoxical as it sounds, one of the toughest problems facing many of today's most successful companies is success itself. Like living organisms, companies are complex networks of interdependent systems-and unless managers recognize and swiftly implement the changes to those systems required by a sudden surge in demand, a booming business can easily go bust under the strain. Recent history abounds with examples of companies whose overnight success led to morning-after failure because their managers, like most managers, lacked the training or experience needed to manage explosive growth. Yet, surprisingly, until recently there have been few expert guides devoted exclusively to this crucial change management issue.
Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is a practical guide to piloting your company through periods of explosive growth with minimum damage and maximum sustainable profits. Author Steven Bragg explores the reasons why companies succeed or fail to adapt to explosive growth. He identifies the warning signs of impending explosions or declines in sales volume and zeroes in on the key growth issues specific to each functional area of the company-including accounting, auditing, IT, customer service, distribution, engineering, finance, HR, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. He also presents clear-cut guidelines on how to balance the demands of all organizational areas while guaranteeing customer satisfaction.
In addition to proven strategies for planning, financing, and managing explosive growth, he provides you with valuable explosive growth management tools, including checklists of key explosive growth indicators; metrics and reporting systems for controlling cashflow; multioption budgeting systems that address all growth levels; and reporting systems that help you monitor and control rapid expansion.
Managing Explosive Corporate Growth is an indispensable working resource for corporate managers, internal auditors, and entrepreneurs. It will also be of considerable interest to institutional investors who would like to learn the latest techniques for tracking the performance of current or potential investments.

This book explores the relationship between the changing nature of capitalism and the creation of the new worker. In a changing global economy, work - as the activity that structures individuals in capitalism both socially and psychologically - is being undermined. Combining a Gramscian critique of contemporary patterns of capitalist labour control with Lacanian psychoanalysis, Durand examines what kinds of human beings are emerging in and through modern work, or on its margins. Creating the New Worker will be of interest to students and scholars who engage in the sociology and psychology of work, economics, and labour.

The air transport industry has high economic impact; it supports more than 60 million jobs worldwide. Since the early years of commercial air travel, passenger numbers have grown tremendously. However, for decades airlines' financial results have been swinging between profits and losses. The airline industry's aggregate net average profit between 1970 and 2010 was close to zero, which implies bankruptcies and layoffs in downturns. The profit cycle's amplitude has been rising over time, which means that problems have become increasingly severe and also shows that the industry may not have learned from the past. More stable financial results could not only facilitate airline management decisions and improve investors' confidence but also preserve employment. This book offers a thorough understanding of the airline profit cycle's causes and drivers, and it presents measures to achieve a higher and more stable profitability level. This is the first in-depth examination of the airline profit cycle. The airline industry is modelled as a complex dynamic system, which is used for quantitative simulations of 'what if' scenarios. These experiments reveal that the general economic environment, such as GDP or fuel price developments, influence the airline industry's profitability pattern as well as certain regulations or aircraft manufactures' policies. Yet despite all circumstances, simulations show that airlines' own management decisions are sufficient to generate higher and more stable profits in the industry. This book is useful for aviation industry decision makers, investors, policy makers, and researchers because it explains why the airline industry earns or loses money. This knowledge will advance forecasting and market intelligence. Furthermore, the book offers practitioners different suggestions to sustainably improve the airline industry's profitability. The book is also recommended as a case study for system analysis as well as industry cyclicality at graduate or postgraduate level for courses such as engineering, economics, or management.

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is the systematic and analytical process of comparing benefits and costs in evaluating the desirability of a project or programme - often of a social nature. It attempts to answer such questions as whether a proposed project is worthwhile, the optimal scale of a proposed project and the relevant constraints. CBA is fundamental to government decision making and is established as a formal technique for making informed decisions on the use of society's scarce resources. This timely sixth edition of the classic Cost-Benefit Analysis text continues to build on the successful approach of previous editions, with lucid explanation of key ideas, simple but effective expository short chapters and an appendix on various useful statistical and mathematical concepts and derivatives. The book examines important developments in the discipline, with relevant examples and illustrations as well as new and expanded chapters which build upon standard materials on CBA. Highlights include: updated historical background of CBA extended non-market goods valuation methods the impact of uncertainty evaluation of programmes and services behavioural economics decision rules and heuristics CBA and regulatory reforms CBA in developed and developing countries value of household production other topics frequently encountered in CBA, such as costs of diseases and air pollution, and value of statistical life. This book is a valuable source and guide to international funding agencies, governments, interested professional economists and senior undergraduate and graduate students. The text is fully supported by a companion website, which includes discussion questions and PowerPoint slides for each chapter.

The cultural sector plays an important role in sustainable economic development and creates economic activities, opportunities for entrepreneurship and jobs, adding to the attractiveness of cities and contributing to the development of tourism. The Cultural Sector and Sustainable Economic Development: Innovation and the Creative Economy in European Cities offers both a theoretical and practical analysis of the contemporary approach to culture and innovation, with special emphasis on the relationships among culture, innovation and the economy. Sustainable development, itself, balances environmental protection, culture, social progress, the economy and stability today and for the future. The book's key theme is the role and possibility of culture as a laboratory, with a strong supporting subtext on innovative practice. The text provides an eclectic mix of possibilities that reinforce and underscore the full innovative and complex potentials of culture. It is a cross-disciplinary volume presenting case studies that cover the main theme of cultural ecosystem in a very broad sense, highlighting the relationships that could lead to a sustainable system where economy and culture are the main players. It proposes and maps the European perspective of urban cultural development and suggests that the successes and challenges of European cities under consideration may offer guidance on best practices for urban development in other distant cultural contexts. This book is written in such a way that it can be used as a summary for a cultural professional, a reference text for an academic or for actors in local development and cultural policy at European, national and local levels.

The cultural sector plays an important role in sustainable economic development and creates economic activities, opportunities for entrepreneurship and jobs, adding to the attractiveness of cities and contributing to the development of tourism. The Cultural Sector and Sustainable Economic Development: Innovation and the Creative Economy in European Cities offers both a theoretical and practical analysis of the contemporary approach to culture and innovation, with special emphasis on the relationships among culture, innovation and the economy. Sustainable development, itself, balances environmental protection, culture, social progress, the economy and stability today and for the future. The book's key theme is the role and possibility of culture as a laboratory, with a strong supporting subtext on innovative practice. The text provides an eclectic mix of possibilities that reinforce and underscore the full innovative and complex potentials of culture. It is a cross-disciplinary volume presenting case studies that cover the main theme of cultural ecosystem in a very broad sense, highlighting the relationships that could lead to a sustainable system where economy and culture are the main players. It proposes and maps the European perspective of urban cultural development and suggests that the successes and challenges of European cities under consideration may offer guidance on best practices for urban development in other distant cultural contexts. This book is written in such a way that it can be used as a summary for a cultural professional, a reference text for an academic or for actors in local development and cultural policy at European, national and local levels.

Producers, Consumers, and Partial Equilibrium provides a systematic and accessible presentation of the full formal details in the core theories of producer and consumer choice under conditions of price taking; and covers the standard theories of competitive, monopoly, and oligopoly partial equilibrium among these economic actors. The book pulls together foundational content from many classic sources and organizes it in a self-contained format that rigidly adheres to optimization as the central behavioral postulate and analytical tool for economic theory. The book maintains a sharp focus on the properties of outcomes from optimizing behavior in varying environments. These properties are the refutable hypotheses from each optimization behavioral postulate, and they form the core content of this positive economic theory. In so doing, the book presents and documents the underlying formal structure of the theory with a higher degree of integration and completeness than is typical of Ph.D. textbooks in microeconomics.

This book examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changing labour markets and accelerating digitalisation of the workplace in Central and Eastern Europe. It provides an innovative and enriching take on the work experience from the pandemic times and discusses the challenges of ongoing changes in labour markets and workplaces in a way that is not covered by the extant literature. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalisation on labour market outcomes is analysed throughout 12 chapters, by 34 labour market experts from various CEE countries. Most chapters are based on empirical methods yet are presented in an easy-to-follow way to make the book also accessible for a non-scientific audience. The volume addresses the three key goals: to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the adoption of workplace digitalisation in the selected labour markets in CEE countries and the potential trade-offs facing those who do and do not have access to this benefit to complement the labour market research by incorporating the outputs of changing demand for skills to contribute new insight into policies and regulations that govern the future of work The book argues that the recent COVID-19 pandemic was a sombre reminder of the relevance and necessity of digital technology for a variety of sectors and market activities. It concludes that to downside the risks of vanishing jobs, as well as to minimise the threats and maximise the opportunities of digitalisation in CEE countries, labour market partners need to consider an effective governance tool in terms of inclusive access to the digital environment, re-skilling, and balanced regulations of the more problematic facets of digital work. The book will be of interest to postgraduate researchers and academics in the fields of labour economics, regional economics, and macroeconomics. Additionally, due to the broader policy implications of the topic, the book will appeal to policymakers and experts interested in labour economics. The Introduction, Chapters 4 and 12 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Live music events are synonymous with fun but seldom associated with international trade. This book serves to transform this mindset, through describing the economic value of live music and analysing the factors affecting international trade in Caribbean live music services. Race and ethnicity, unachieved regionalism within the Caribbean, and perceived biases in international trade agreements are assessed in relation to their impact on this trade. Several topics presented in this book are based on empirical findings from a previous microeconomic study, dedicated entirely to international trade in live music. Moreover, this book is unique because it compares the Caribbean and South Korea to assess the effectiveness of strategies aimed at developing international trade in live music services. This comparison should inspire robust policy initiatives for advancing international trade in Caribbean live music, given that South Korea is presently a heavyweight in the export of its entertainment services, despite language barriers. Given the interdisciplinary nature of this book, it will appeal to a wide range of readers such as postgraduate students or researchers of microeconomics, intraregional trade, international trade, international business, international relations, public policy, and cultural studies, as well as IP legal professionals, live music stakeholders, cultural practitioners, and policymakers.

The fields of Economic Geography and International Business share an interest in the same phenomena, whilst each provides both a differing perspective and different research methods in attempting to understand those phenomena. The Routledge Companion to the Geography of International Business explores the nature and scope of inter-disciplinary work between Economic Geography and International Business in explaining the central issues in the international economy. Contributions written by leading specialists in each field (including some chapters written by inter-disciplinary teams) focus on the nature of multinational firms and their strategies, where they choose to locate their activities, how they create and manage international networks and the key relationships between multinationals and the places where they place their operations. Topics covered include the internationalisation of service industries, the influence of location on the competitiveness of firms and the economic dynamism of regions and where economic activity takes place and how knowledge, goods and services flow between locations. The book examines the areas for fruitful inter-disciplinary work between International Business and Economic Geography and sets out a road map for future joint research, and is an essential resource for students and practitioners of International Business and Economic Development.

This book examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changing labour markets and accelerating digitalisation of the workplace in Central and Eastern Europe. It provides an innovative and enriching take on the work experience from the pandemic times and discusses the challenges of ongoing changes in labour markets and workplaces in a way that is not covered by the extant literature. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalisation on labour market outcomes is analysed throughout 12 chapters, by 34 labour market experts from various CEE countries. Most chapters are based on empirical methods yet are presented in an easy-to-follow way to make the book also accessible for a non-scientific audience. The volume addresses the three key goals: to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the adoption of workplace digitalisation in the selected labour markets in CEE countries and the potential trade-offs facing those who do and do not have access to this benefit to complement the labour market research by incorporating the outputs of changing demand for skills to contribute new insight into policies and regulations that govern the future of work The book argues that the recent COVID-19 pandemic was a sombre reminder of the relevance and necessity of digital technology for a variety of sectors and market activities. It concludes that to downside the risks of vanishing jobs, as well as to minimise the threats and maximise the opportunities of digitalisation in CEE countries, labour market partners need to consider an effective governance tool in terms of inclusive access to the digital environment, re-skilling, and balanced regulations of the more problematic facets of digital work. The book will be of interest to postgraduate researchers and academics in the fields of labour economics, regional economics, and macroeconomics. Additionally, due to the broader policy implications of the topic, the book will appeal to policymakers and experts interested in labour economics. The Introduction, Chapters 4 and 12 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The economics literature on industry dynamics contains a wide array of empirical works identifying a set of stylized facts. There have been several attempts at constructing analytical models to explain some of these regularities. These attempts are highly stylized and limited in scope to keep the analyses tractable. A general model of industry evolution capable of generating firm and industry behaviour that can match the data is needed. This book endeavours to explain many well-documented aspects of the evolution of industries over time. It uses an agent-based computational model in which artificial industries are created and grown to maturity in silico. While the firms in the model are assumed to have bounded rationality, they are nevertheless adaptive in the sense that their experience-based R&D efforts allow them to search for improved technologies. Given a technological environment subject to persistent and unexpected external shocks, the computationally generated industry remains in a perennial state of flux. The main objective of this study is to identify patterns that exist in the movements of firms as the industry evolves over time along the steady state in which the measured behaviour of the firms and the industry stochastically fluctuate around steady means. The computational model developed in this book is able to replicate many of the stylized facts from the empirical industrial organization literature, particularly as the facts pertain to the dynamics of firm entry and exit. Furthermore, the model allows examination of cross-industry variations in entry and exit patterns by systematically varying the characteristics of the market and the technological environment within which the computationally generated industry evolves. The model demonstrates that the computational approach based on boundedly rational agents in a dynamic setting can be useful and effective in carrying out both positive and normative economic analysis.