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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > International economics > International trade > General
The debates over what African economic integration and development actually entails continue across international economic organizations, national governments and NGOs. Despite the glare of media attention and the position this issue has on international political agendas, few comprehensive accounts exist that fully examine why this process will be inevitable in the 21st century and how integration of national economies can be attuned to attaining the socio-economic goals and aspirations of member-countries. This book addresses this problem. It combines theory with application, enumerating the imperatives and initiatives governments will be forced to confront; providing insights for educators and students in African development, for policy makers in African governments, and for inter-governmental organizations.
There are competing theories to explain the reasons behind the international competitiveness of manufacturing in Asia. Analysing these different theories will bring important lessons, not just for Asia, but for developing economies the world over. This lucid book studies industries and firms in East Asia and examines the major determinants of their economic performance. With contributions from such leading thinkers as Ha-Joon Chang and Rajah Rasiah, the book covers such themes as: *industrial policy and East Asia *Taiwan's information technology industry *The role of the government in technological capability building Manufacturing Competitiveness in Asia touches on many important themes and issues and as such will be of great interest to students, academics and policy-makers involved in industrial economics, international trade and Asian studies.
The current value of global trade has reached a staggering annual figure of $6 trillion in merchandise crossing borders. Such prolific global trading has, at the same time, begun to raise fears of pandemics and concerns for global health. Yet, investment in public health infrastructure and disease control was never designed to cope with international trade of this volume and diversity. Indeed, most health systems lag far behind, especially in poor countries. This has created new vulnerabilities for global populations to the introduction and amplification of infection through trade. Public fears have been further heightened by frightening news reports of deadly diseases such as Mad Cow disease and E. Coli. Risky Trade: Infectious Disease in the Era of Global Trade provides a thorough examination of the actual risks posed by disease in the age of globalization. Drawing on the economics of international trade and epidemiology, the author explores the critical health issues arising from the enormous increase in global trade and travel. Issues covered include: c The scale of the problem with particular reference to the Sakai outbreak of E. Coli; c Risks from particular microbes - Enteric and viral infections; Highly infectious agents; Antimicrobial resistance; and, Stealth agents; c Global outbreaks as a result of human travel and trade; c Prevention, surveillance and control; c The future health of global trading. In addition to highlighting the problems, the book also addresses some of the potential benefits the same globalization can bring to epidemic control through surveillance, diagnostics, treatment and investigation. The empirical approach ties together existing descriptions and case studies of epidemics building a comprehensive framework for examining new events and considering historical experience with infectious outbreaks. The volume will be a valuable guide to students, academics, practitioners, and policy makers in the areas of international trade, health economics, epidemiology, international/public health and disease control.
In this brilliantly researched expos, 'communications Rottweiler' Sharon Beder blasts open the backrooms and boardrooms to reveal how the international corporate elite dictate global politics for their own benefit. Beder shows how they created business associations and think tanks in the 1970s to drive public policy, forced the worldwide privatization and deregulation of public services in the 1980s and 1990s (enabling a massive transfer of ownership and control over essential services) and, still not satisfied, have worked relentlessly since the late 1990s to rewrite the very rules of the global economy to funnel wealth and power into their pockets. Want a globalized and homogenized world of conflict, poverty and massive environmental degradation run by a corporate oligarchy that wipes its feet on democracy? Or a democratic world, where poverty is history, companies work for people and clean water is a right, not a privilege you pay for? Beder 's message is clear - it 's your world, and it 's time to fight for it.
First published in 1998, this volume focuses on the special category of countries popularly referred to as 'transition economies' through an analysis of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and their role in Asian economies, with a view to assessing whether they could or should provide a model for African countries. The present volume explores the institutional peculiarities displayed by 'transition economies'. These are economies which are undergoing a comprehensive and fundamental societal transformation with a view to creating a utopian communist society within the frame of a centrally administered economy, then a pluralistic society based on a market economy and the rule of law. Much of the debate on the economic performance of African LCD's has focused on informal sector activities or on the imperative to achieve structural adjustment. By highlighting instead the challenges facing two of the least successful among the African economies - Ethiopia and Tanzania, both of which share a socialist past - this book moves beyond the above issues. It argues that institutional adjustment is critical to the prospects for success in developing transition economies. As such the book investigates the transaction costs environment within which small-scale industrial activities are set. By drawing extensively on the Asian experience, (predominantly China and Vietnam but also India and Taiwan), it identifies sources of transaction costs by examining not only the transactional disadvantages of small-scale production, but also the past and present sources of institutional inefficiency.
Before his untimely death in 2000, the brilliant young Israeli economic historian Klug conducted a thorough survey into the different theories of international trade. The results of this are now available here for the first time with an introduction from Warren Young and Michael Bordo. Utilizing the inter-temporal open economy model as a case study, Theories of International Trade illuminates the phenomenon of recurrence and the problem of recurring doctrines in economic thought and analysis. This compelling book will be of interest to scholars in the history of economic thought, and to international economists in general.
This book presents a conceptual framework for analysing the definitions of State aid and subsidy in EC and WTO law. This is done through a comparative analysis, examining the coherence of the conceptual understanding of the crucial, but still elusive, issue of the definition of subsidy. The first, important finding is that the topic is not only technical but raises more fundamental questions about the objectives of subsidy control in a given legal system and, more radically, about the goals of that system itself. The analysis does not only concentrate on the state of the law but critically looks forward offering suggestions for new interpretations and law reform. The book focuses on the substantive provisions of the EC and WTO relating to what are identified by the author as the core properties of a notion of subsidy, ie a form of public action, the grant of an economic advantage and the ensuing impact on the competitive process. The current regulation in EC and WTO law is analysed, compared and assessed in depth, and tested against a baseline represented by of a notion of subsidy inserted in a subsidy regulation pursuing certain objectives. Drawing on the results of the comparative exercise, the book argues that both systems can learn valuable lessons from each other to achieve a greater coherence and a more efficient regulatory system.
The Doha Development Agenda held the promise of substantial gains for developing countries. However, the realization of these gains is far from obvious: the interests of various groups of countries differ greatly and technical complexities have hampered further progress since the very start of the negotiations. Against the background of the agenda of the present trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization and its slow progress, this enlightening book outlines the positions of the main players. Its central focus is to analyze the main effects of these positions and to find a way to complete the Doha Round so a meaningful contribution to its main objective i.e. development, is made. Key issues discussed include: the rise of the G20 group of developing countries led by Brazil, China and India the reasons for the failure of the WTO Ministerial Conference at Cancun in 2003 the prospects for the poorer developing countries - with emphasis on Africa in particular. This timely and topical book enables the reader to monitor and evaluate the ongoing negotiations in the DDA, and is a natural follow-up to the bestselling 2001 Routledge title World Trade Organization Millennium Round edited by Deutsch and Speyer.
What is the future of the oil and gas sector in Lebanon? Following the recent discovery of these valuable resources in the southern Mediterranean, including in the Cypriot and Israeli offshore reserves, the possibility of Lebanon also becoming a petroleum-producing country has been raised. This collection of essays addresses the major challenges and opportunities that accompany the country's hope to join the petroleum club. Covering the key policy issues - from Lebanon's susceptibility to the oil curse, to the environmental risks of production - this book brings together expert analysis to offer answers at the institutional level. Of central importance, the contributors argue, is that for Lebanon to benefit from the discovery of petroleum, it must first reform its institutions with the full support of the voting public and civil society. Combining rigorous quantitative and qualitative research, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies has produced here an essential book that puts petroleum in Lebanon, and the important questions that come with it, within a global perspective.
The Asia-Pacific region has witnessed a rapid rise in bilateral
preferential trade agreements at the beginning of the twenty-first
century. This trend could have potentially dramatic effects on the
trading patterns of countries in the transpacific region and
beyond. Some argue that these accords will spur multilateral
negotiations, while others believe that they will irreparably
damage the trading system.
The Asia-Pacific region has witnessed a rapid rise in bilateral
preferential trade agreements at the beginning of the twenty-first
century. This trend could have potentially dramatic effects on the
trading patterns of countries in the transpacific region and
beyond. Some argue that these accords will spur multilateral
negotiations, while others believe that they will irreparably
damage the trading system.
Many economists celebrate markets as institutions promoting efficiency and supporting freedom and liberty; others condemn them for generating economic inequality and social disharmony. Market Sense offers a critical evaluation of both perspectives and outlines a new economics of markets and society. This key book concentrates upon the historic associations of the marketplace in the work of Aristotle, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx, and demonstrates that what markets were imagined to entail for society was critical to each author's understanding of the central social problems of their time. Smith's work receives particular attention because his market sense underlies so much of the official defense of contemporary globalization. Marx's mature work on the other hand both provides a way to break the mechanical linking of markets to particular social outcomes and encourages us to displace the market from the center of economic analysis it has occupied both in the history of political economy and in recent controversies over globalization.
First published in 1967, this superb collection of essays on
trade in the Middle Ages has been a major contribution to modern
medieval studies. Professor Carus-Wilson examines:
* fifteenth-century Bristol
Each paper is firmly rooted in original research and contemporary sources such as customs returns and company minutes, and, in addition, her expose of the dubious accuracy of Aulnage accounts is widely recognised as a classic.
First Published in 2005.This text starts to look at England's Commercial Policy towards her Colonies since the Treaty of Paris and then moves forward to cover Commercial policy, federation, the Empire and Trade.
First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
This book examines the evolution of multinational trading companies from the eighteenth century to the present day. During the Industrial Revolution, British merchants established overseas branches which became major trade intermediaries and subsequently engaged in foreign direct investment. Complex multinational business groups emerged controlling large investments in natural resources, processing, and services in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
This Overview is an invaluable summary of the capstone volume Investing in Development, which brings together the core recommendations of the UN Millennium Project, commissioned by UN Director-General Kofi Annan and directed by Jeffrey D. Sachs, one of world's leading economists. The Overview provides a user friendly introduction to the main volume, which is the official action plan for ending poverty, providing practical investment strategies and approaches to financing them and an operational framework that will allow even the poorest countries to achieve the MDGs within ten years.
This book describes and assesses an emerging threat to states' territorial control and sovereignty: the hostile control of companies that carry out privatized aspects of sovereign authority. The threat arises from the massive worldwide shift of state activities to the private sector since the late 1970s in conjunction with two other modern trends - the globalization of business and the liberalization of international capital flows. The work introduces three new concepts: firstly, the rise of companies that handle privatized activities, and the associated advent of "post-government companies" that make such activities their core business. Control of them may reside with individual investors, other companies or investment funds, or it may reside with other states through state-owned enterprises or sovereign wealth funds. Secondly, "imperfect privatizations:" when a state privatizes an activity to another state's public sector. The book identifies cases where this is happening. It also elaborates on how ownership and influence of companies that perform privatized functions may not be transparent, and can pass to inherently hostile actors, including criminal or terrorist organizations. Thirdly, "belligerent companies," whose conduct is hostile to those of states where they are active. The book concludes by assessing the adequacy of existing legal and regulatory regimes and how relevant norms may evolve.
This title was first published in 2001: Bringing together geographers, planners, political scientists, economists, rural development specialists, bankers, public administrators and other development experts, this volume questions the benefits of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). It critically assesses the impact of SAPs from a wider perspective than a purely economic one, highlighting concerns about impacts of adjustments on the more vulnerable elements of society such as social welfare, the environment, labour, gender and agriculture. Revealing both the costs and benefits of the economic restructuring programme, the book also suggests alternatives to current development models, and how SAPs can be made more sustainable. An original and comprehensive addition to the collections of both students and practitioners of development.
The European Union (EU) is at the forefront of engaging in external trade relations outside of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with entire regions and economic powerhouses. Understanding why and how the EU engages in one of the most active fields of external relations is crucial. This book fills a gap in the literature by analysing motives on the modes - bilateralism, inter-regionalism, or multilateralism - of EU external trade relations towards regional organizations in Asia and Latin America outside of the WTO. In particular, it examines why the EU turned from interregional to bilateral external trade relations towards these world regions - a question that is, to date, under-researched. By developing and testing an original approach rooted in realist theorizing coined 'commercial realism', it examines systematically the explanatory power of commercial realism against liberal-institutionalist approaches dominant in the literature on EU external relations through five in-depth case studies. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students in EU Politics/Studies, EU external relations, inter-regionalism and more broadly to International Relations and International Political Economy.
Originally published in 2004. This comprehensive collection provides an innovative analysis and a comparison between economic and financial integration in Europe and Latin America, addressed from a global, regional and country-specific perspective. It constitutes a valuable overview focusing on three topics: regional integration and monetary cooperation in Europe and Latin America, exchange rate strategies and financial sector structure. The collection is the outcome of a Workshop and high-level Seminar organized by the Banco de Espana and the European Central Bank that brought together senior European and Latin American central bankers, as well as senior representatives from international institutions. The 31 contributors presented high quality papers, allowing the reader to take advantage of a rigorous economic analysis that uses first-hand information and draws useful lessons for the future.
This book is the first to use local primary sources to explore the interaction between foreign and native merchants in Asian countries. Contributors discuss the different economic, political and cultural conditions that gave rise to a variety of merchant communities in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and India.
The intersection of risk and trade has resulted in protracted and acrimonious trade conflict that questions the right of sovereign states to address the threat of harm. When regions such as Canada, the US and the EU have disagreed over the legitimacy of risk perceptions, they have placed science at the centre of international trade conflict. In these moments, scholarly attention has focused on the WTO's Dispute Settlement System. However, formal trade disputes occur as a last resort after states have exhausted other avenues for trade conflict resolution. By looking across cases disputed and informally resolved, David Hornsby offers to deepen understanding of how interests, institutions and ideas involved in risk based trade conflict interact and explain transatlantic differences. Through giving explicit attention to the role of science in these moments, a new variable for understanding trade conflict over risk based issues is considered.
As tariffs have fallen worldwide, the increasing importance of non-tariff policies for further trade liberalization has become widely recognized. The methods for assessing the potential effects of such liberalization have lagged significantly behind those available for analyzing tariffs. This book is the first volume that comprehensively addresses this gap. It has been designed to be useful for both economists and policymakers, especially for those involved in communicating ideas and results between economists and policymakers.This indispensable book contains cutting-edge discussions of the full range of methodologies used in this area, including business surveys, summary statistics such as effective rates of protection and price gaps, time-series and panel econometrics, and simulation methods such as computable general equilibrium. It covers the entire spectrum of policies under discussion in current trade negotiations, including trade facilitation, services policies, quantitative measures, customs procedures, standards, movement of natural persons, and anti-dumping.Some prominent contributors to this book are Bijit Bora (World Trade Organization), John Wilson, Tsunehiro Otsuki and Vlad Manole (World Bank), Catherine Mann (Institute of International Economics), Alan Deardorff and Robert Stern (University of Michigan), Joe Francois (Erasmus University), Dean Spinanger (University of Kiel), Antoni Estevadeordal and Kati Suominen (Inter-American Development Bank), Thomas Prusa (Rutgers University), Thomas Hertel and Terrie Walmsley (Purdue University), Scott Bradford (Brigham Young University), Judith Dean, Robert Feinberg, Soamiely Andriamananjara and Marinos Tsigas (US International Trade Commission).
Farm and business lobby groups played a vital role in the erosion
of the American-led trade embargo against China from 1949-79. In
this comprehensive study, based on recently declassified primary
source material, trade negotiations and agreements are examined and
a detailed account of developing economic links between East and
West is also provided. |
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