Understanding the governance of nations is a key challenge in contemporaneous political economy. This book provides new advances and the latest research in the field of political economy, dealing with the study of institutions, governance, democracy and elections. The volume focuses on issues such as the role of institutions and political governance in society, the working of democracy and the electoral performance in several case studies. The chapters involve cutting edge research on many different countries, including the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and the Third World. The authors of the chapters are leading scholars in political economy from America, Europe and Asia.

This book presents topics regarding economics, public finance and business. It is aimed at educators, researchers, and students interested in public finance, business and economics.

Originally published in 1985. This book examines the scope of the industry and also focuses on issues relevant to it, divided into three sections: an overview of the American nuclear power industry, an examination of the nuclear power plant licensing process and issues that face the nuclear industry, and selected case studies that illustrate issues discussed in the previous section. The growth and future of the nuclear power plant industry is discussed and industry-wide trends and relevant data are presented providing background information on the scope, diversity, capacity, and control of nuclear power in the United States. Issues examined concern safety; environmental, geological, and natural phenomenon matters; and anti-trust. The in-depth case studies on the status of selected nuclear power plants include: Three Mile Island, Enrico Fermi, Seabrook, Indian Point, R. E. Inna, Diablo Canyon, and Browns Ferry.

This book provides a comprehensive, theory-based analysis of current issues in population economics. It addresses the most important problems caused by demographic changes using the popular overlapping generations growth model by Samuelson and Diamond. Taking into account families' fertility decisions, it examines not only the demographic changes due to longer life expectancy but also the effects of social security policy on demography and labor supply/individual retirement behaviors. Conducting all analyses in a dynamic general equilibrium setting, the book offers a valuable theoretical reference guide in the field of population economics.

In this updated edition, author Nicola Jentzsch provides an in-depth analysis of the economics and regulation of financial privacy. You get a comparative overview of credit reporting systems in the US and in the 27 member states of the European Union. This is the "most in-depth study of the history and economics of credit reporting to date," according to David Medine, former Associate Director of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Dwindling innovation and deteriorating economic conditions are caused by a major force, a systemic shift in the American economy. In this gripping book, Dr. Samli makes the case that the US economy is shifting for the worse, tilting towards a finance-driven economy, and argues that investing in innovation will bring us out of the recession and back to a successful, market-driven economy. While the US is cost-cutting by sending jobs abroad, reducing education budgets, and redirecting government funds to military involvement, American innovation has been suffering and stifled. Dr. Samli explores the roots of the recession from this viewpoint and offers an 'innovative' solution for disciplining economic, political, and social activities to come out of the recession and restore the tilt towards the 99-percent.

This state-of-the art collection of papers analyses various aspects of the theory of externalities and public goods. The contributions employ new analytical techniques like the aggregative game approach, and discuss the philosophical underpinnings of the theory. Furthermore, they highlight a range of topical empirical applications including climate policy and counterterrorism. This contributed volume was written in memory of Richard C. Cornes, a pioneer in the theory of externalities and public goods.

This book focuses on the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT), second round effects and the inflation process in South Africa. The authors demonstrate that magnitudes of the second round effects of the exchange rate depreciation and oil price shocks depend on inflation regimes. The impact of positive oil price shocks on inflation is weakened by monetary policy credibility. Evidence shows the influence of oil price on unit labour costs and correlation between exchange rate changes and inflation has weakened. In addition, ERPT is reduced by low business and consumer confidence, high trade openness, low inflation and high exchange rate volatility which weaken real economic activity. Both monetary and fiscal policy credibility lowers the sizes of ERPT to inflation and inflation expectations. Fiscal policy via fuel levies, administered prices and public transport inflation channel impacts the responses of monetary policy to inflation shocks. The authors show that second round effects contribute very little to wage inflation following an exchange rate depreciation shock. Both lending rate and household consumption responds asymmetrical to repo rate changes. This book will appeal to policymakers, students, academics and analysts.

This book describes the ontology structure, types of actors, their potential actions, and ways that actions can affect the things that are part of the conflict. An ontology of unconventional conflict supports the understanding of unconventional conflict in general. It also provides a tool for understanding and investigating a particular unconventional conflict. The ontology specifies the relations among the elements and supports creating a description of a particular situation. Unconventional conflict spans the range from natural disasters through human disagreements to irregular warfare (up to conventional war). Unconventional conflict involves damage to things and injuries to people; however, the critical factors are the actions, reactions, and opinions of people, including political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, and information components. This ontology supports and will appeal to military strategists, political scientists, economists, and politicians in understanding their planning for, and managing of these conflicts.

This book from the Centre for Economic Policy Research collects theoretical, applied and historical research on the welfare economics of public debt; how inappropriate debt management can lead to funding crises; capital levies; debt consolidation; U.S. public debt history; political influences on debt accumulation; trade-offs between indexation and maturity; and confidence effects in a stochastic rational expectations framework.

A decade on from Schumacher's 1997 work, there are renewed calls for a paradigm shift from the metaphysics of materialism that informs conventional thinking, to holistic theorisations of how we should engage with the other. Twenty-first century frameworks of accountability should emancipate society from the hegemony of neoclassical economics. This special issue posits Schumacher's Middle Way thinking in the context of growing concerns about global warming and climatic changes and, teases out its implications for holistic accountability by introducing readers to the science of climate change and its implications for managing natural resources, and integrating 'western' and 'eastern' tenets of holistic knowledge without dichotomising them into 'either or' frameworks.

This book addresses the financing of government budgets with non-debt-creating flows through risk-sharing capital market instruments. It offers a comparative analysis with conventional finance to demonstrate the ability of Islamic capital market instruments to create an impetus for economic stability and growth. Rizvi, Bacha, and Mirakhor guide readers chronologically through the unfolding effects of macroeconomic policy implemented to reduce crippling sovereign debt, increase government financing, and guide governments to the path of economic progress.

This book provides an assessment of public financial management (PFM) reforms in developing countries using Turkey as a case study. Volume II elaborates on asset and liability management, intergovernmental fiscal relations, accounting, financial reporting, and auditing. Bringing together academics and practitioners, the book analyzes the PFM reforms in the light of theoretical explanations and practices to reveal the achievements, challenges, and future perspectives of PFM.

This book explores why, despite increased government spending on income-support, health and education, the costs of public goods are rising and their quality is declining. Charting the rise of big government, the author identifies a growing divergence between public-sector ideals and the realities of troubled political economies grappling with debt, deficits, ageing populations, improvident social insurance, declining education test scores and multiplying health costs. Limited Government analyzes in detail the social and political factors in major economies that drive up public spending, as well as the relationship between spending and outcomes. By developing an alternate model of public finances, and engaging in a critique of the managerial society, the author emphasizes the positive effects of self-management, social self-organization and technological automation, arguing that high-quality, low-cost goods are the result of nations that save, not states that tax. A sociological account of public finances, Limited Government outlines how governments can spend less and yet help ensure good broad equitable standards of health, education and income security.

This book focuses on ancient Chinese management thoughts, building a Chinese management theory system and defining the core concepts. Firstly, it systematically reviews the excellent management ideas in traditional Chinese culture from the perspective of modern management, summarizing the experience and wisdom of Chinese management in order to disseminate the ideas to global readers, and highlighting the soft power of Chinese culture. Secondly, based on the management practices of Chinese local enterprises, the book refines the Chinese management model, constructing a modern management theory system with Chinese characteristics to promote innovation and changes in global management theory.

This book gathers invited top experts on Public-Private partnership (PPP) in China, from both theoretical and practical fields, to present the most comprehensive analyses of PPP's practice in China up to 2017. This timely book offers researchers and practitioners a thorough understanding of the PPP's development in China, including its definition, its modes, its features as well as its many kinds of applications into different industries including medical care, environmental protection, education, public works, park development, etc. It addresses diverse themes in PPP analyses such as quantitative analyses and qualitative analyses; data statistics and case study, theoretical framework modeling and field study verification. The book is an overview of the Chinese PPP development through 2017.

The book reveals how the Global Credit Bubble and Bust of 2003-10 stemmed from giant monetary disequilibrium created by the Federal Reserve. Almost continually that institution has pursued flawed monetary practice and principle which has mutated into Bernanke-ism. The book dissects this and shows how it threatens the return of economic prosperity.

There has never been a more urgent need for governments to secure adequate and stable resources for social development: inequalities are on the rise, a severe global food crisis threatens to eliminate the achievements some countries have made over recent years, and the neoliberal policy toolkit has been largely discredited.
'Financing Social Policy' shifts the policy debates beyond examining expenditures and austerity, to revenues and resources. It examines financing options that would be conducive to social development, creating and strengthening sustainable social programmes that work together with economic policies.
The contributors in this volume explore the economic, social and political implications and the developmental impact of a wide range of potential resources - including taxation, aid, mineral rents, social insurance, pension funds and remittances - for financing social policy in development countries.

This book aims to provide knowledge on how infrastructure is planned and built in a typical developing country, and what key variables are there in the system limiting the efficient use of public investments in infrastructure. The book begins with a comprehensive literature review on construction and economic development, and trade and economic development. The focus of the book is on the case of Vietnam, with lessons drawn for other developing economies. The book employs the mixed use of data to provide a stronger basis for analysis and interpretation of related government policies. Based on the research findings, the book recommends significant capacity building work for Vietnam to develop capacities that would remove constraints on the efficient use of public investments in infrastructure. The general principles of significant capacity building work which are useful for policy implications are introduced in the book. Analysts, academics, public and private communities in developing countries can adopt the research findings as guiding principles to bring about changes in their current use of public investments in infrastructure, thus supporting their trade and economic growth in the long term.

Fiscal policy is critical to the development of poor countries. Public spending on pro-poor services and public goods must be increased, tax revenues must be mobilized, and macro-economic stabilization must be achieved without inhibiting growth, poverty reduction and post-conflict reconstruction. This book provides both a comprehensive and balanced guide to the current policy debate and new results on the development impact of fiscal policies. It is essential reading for students of development economics as well as all those seeking to improve policy-effectiveness.

This first major book on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Nigeria explores the legal, policy and strategic issues involved in the structuring and execution of PPP projects in Nigeria. The book goes beyond the toolkit approach of other available resources to blend the theoretical analysis of concepts with practical step-by-step guides for consummating projects. The book adopts a multidisciplinary approach by integrating law, economics, finance and project management literature, relying on the author's extensive experience in the field to give clear insights on the PPP concept. The case study methodology employed in the book produces rich and compelling empirical results. This book is suitable for beginners wishing to develop an understanding of the concept, as well as practitioners advising on PPPs. Students and academics wishing to carry out further research on PPPs will also benefit from the book.

Presenting capitalisms as open, system-like configurations, this book argues four ideal-typical varieties (liberal, statist, corporatist, meso-communitarian) and analyzes the socio-economic performances of advanced capitalisms.

This work explores how reshaping budget rules and how they are applied presents a preferred means of public sector budgeting, rather than simply implementing fewer rules. Through enhanced approaches to resource flexibility, government entities can ensure that public money is used appropriately while achieving the desired results. The authors identify public budgeting practices that inhibit responses to complex problems and examine how rule modification can lead to expanded budget flexibility. Through a nuanced understanding of the factors underlying conventional budget control, the authors use budget reforms in Australia to show the limits of rule modification and propose "rule variability" as a better means of recalibrating central control and situational flexibility. Here, policy makers and public management academics will find a source that surveys emerging ways of reconciling control and flexibility in the public sector.iv>

This book offers fresh insights into the economic development and financial markets of Southeastern and Central European countries. The first part analyses macroeconomic trends and monetary policy issues, while the second part explores the development of financial and insurance markets. With contributions covering topics such as regional and income inequalities, economic embeddedness, industrial competitiveness, entrepreneurship, financial integration, insurance markets, and other socio-economic aspects, it appeals to scholars in the field of economics and finance interested in the further economic development of the Balkans and Eastern European countries as well as to professionals in the financial and insurance sectors.

This book analyzes the relative balance of bargaining power between governments and the banks in charge of underwriting their debt during the first financial globalization. Brazil and Mexico, both indebted countries that underwent major changes in reputation and negotiating power as they faced financial crises, provide valuable case studies of government strategies for obtaining the best possible outcomes. Previous literature has focused on bankers' perspectives and emphasized that debtors were submissive during negotiations, but Weller finds that governments' negotiating power varied over time. He presents a new analytical framework that interprets when and why officials were likely to negotiate loans more or less effectively, with newly uncovered primary sources from debtors' and creditors' archives suggesting key causes of variation: fiscal accounts, political stability, and creditors' exposure and reputation.