Serving as an introduction to one of the "hottest" topics in financial crime, the Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud, this new and original book aims to analyze and decrypt the fraud and explore multi-disciplinary avenues, thereby exposing nuances and shades that remain concealed by traditional taxation oriented researches. Quantifying the impact of the fraud on the real economy underlines the structural damages propagated by this crime in the European Union. The 'fruadsters' benefit when policy changes are inflicted in an economic space without a fully fledged legal framework. Geopolitical events like the creation of the Eurasian Union and 'Brexit' are analyzed from the perspective of the VAT fraud, thereby underlining the foreseeable risks of such historical turnarounds. In addition, this book also provides a unique collection of case studies that depict the main characteristics of VAT fraud. Introduction to VAT Fraud will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regards to banking and finance law, international law, criminal law, taxation, accounting, and financial crime. It will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of law, financial crime, technology, accounting and taxation.

The labour market was undergoing considerable change. In particular, the advance of new technology and the development of positive action training for women had the potential to change patterns of gender segregation in the workplace. Originally published in 1992, Teresa Rees draws on a wide range of international studies of these issues and discusses them in the context of current theoretical and political debate. Based on work carried out by the author in Britain, Germany and Australia, Women and the Labour Market focuses on education and training policy, changes in labour supply, and changes in the nature and size of labour demand. It highlights the obstacles to equality at work, showing how the ideology of the family, the limitations of material reality and the exclusionary mechanisms operated by men have had an adverse impact upon women's experiences of paid work. As well as underlining the power of patriarchy in shaping the labour market, Women and the Labour Market also discusses the development of policy measures which might have some effect on breaking down gender inequalities. An important contribution to debates at the time, the study puts forward practical suggestions for adjusting the system at the key points of recruitment, training and work organisation.

This book provides a historical perspective of the Uruguay Round agreement and focuses on the interaction between the developed and developing countries on matters relating to the global trading system and its disciplines since the founding of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Taliban's return to power in August of 2021 caused everyone to ask why the two decades of institution building in Afghanistan failed. This book investigates the root causes of failed reforms in an important area of reform: trade and credit institutions. It explains why the efforts to reform and regulate the economic institutions in Afghanistan failed and what we can learn from their failure. It draws on more than eighty interviews with Afghan merchants, business leaders, money dealers, and government officials in five major provinces of Afghanistan to identify the barriers to access to credit and to understand the performance of formal institutions (banks) and their informal counterparts. This book finds that Afghan merchants were often unable to benefit from the offerings of formal institutions for three reasons: a highly volatile business climate, uncertain contract enforcement, and an unsupportive property rights system. Several informal institutions have emerged that alleviate some of the credit constraints on Afghan merchants. These informal institutions include risk-sharing trade credit operations, money dealers' short-term working capital loans, Gerawee, and Sar qufli. Although these informal institutions have helped Afghan merchants survive, they are unable to support economic growth. This book argues that countries like Afghanistan should solve their institutional dilemma by adopting an approach which the author calls "Grounded Institutional Reform." Using this approach, a country would formalize existing informal institutions, a development that would vastly increase their effectiveness. While this book focuses on credit and trade in Afghanistan, the analysis of "formalizing the informal" can easily be extended to solve other types of economic problems in similarly situated countries. This book should be of great interest to scholars, policymakers, and development workers in the field of law, finance, and development.

The concepts of innovation and export are traditionally considered in isolation, both within companies and within the support organizations dedicated to them. As a result, within this broad research field, very little academic work has focused on how to implement their relationship at an operational level. This book proposes a joint diagnostic tool for SMEs, highlighting good practices to be mastered in order to simultaneously improve innovation and export performance, in the form of a virtuous circle. Innovation and Export focuses on the integration of innovation and export into the strategic management of SMEs, for which the use of synergies is a powerful lever to overcome any difficulties in mobilizing significant resources.

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars Britain found itself faced with a stagnant economy. Economist David Ricardo believed that the full re-integration of Britain into the world market would allow for both capital accumulation and population growth, and used arguments that anticipate ideas entertained in modern contributions to the theory of economic growth and development. However, several of these arguments have not yet been translated into the language of modern classical economics. Ricardo's Theory of Growth and Accumulation seeks to overcome this striking lacuna. The latest entry in the Graz Schumpeter lecture series, this text explores and elaborates Ricardo's arguments and the models utilized by those who subsequently followed in support of his work. The Ricardian system is first examined through a one-sector economy, following Kaldor's model, and a two-sector economy, following Pasinetti's model. These building blocks are developed through the exploration of a small open economy, which allows an analysis of the impact of international trade in exceedingly simple circumstances. This discussion expands further by considering the world economy. More sophisticated variants of the two-sector model are presented, in which commodity prices are endogenously determined by the trading interplay amongst several countries. A final analysis makes Ricardo's case by introducing accumulation in the world economy. This book is of interest to students and scholars of Ricardo, classical economics, and - more broadly - growth theory, the theory of international economics, and globalization. The author was keen to render the analytical parts compelling to the historian and the historical parts compelling to the theorist.

Subsidies and countervail have been the subject of much attention in recent decades. In this book, the editors have selected seminal contributions to the literature on the economics of subsidies and countervailing duties in international trade, their role in trade agreements and their treatment in the GATT/WTO system.

BRICS is conceivably the most formidable organisation to have emerged in the post-Cold War period in the non-Western world. This book highlights the significance of BRICS in a wider global context and foregrounds the long-pending demand for the reform of global governance institutions. The volume: * Traces how the organisation came into being and looks at the distinct norms and principles espoused by it * Discusses the glaring limitations of the existing institutions of global governance * Explores the economic growth and the rising political influence of BRICS states * Analyses the internal threats to the survival of the organisation and assesses its prospects in the foreseeable future. A significant intervention in situating BRICS as one of the major players in global governance, the book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international political economy, international business and finance, international relations, politics, and Global South Studies.

This timely research review analyses a broad selection of important readings from the existing literature addressing several fundamental questions about recessions. These include what a recession is, the causes and effects of recessions, how to identify and predict recessions, and how to manage the associated risks. The review offers a general overview of the subject, detailed analysis of the readings, discussion of policy implications and acknowledgment of the areas where further research is required, proving itself to be an invaluable source of reference for academics, scholars and practitioners alike.

For years, China's transformation from one of the world's poorest nations was lauded as a triumph that lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. There were always questions about data reliability and growth sustainability, but the general views on China have recently taken a decidedly sour turn. Concerns abound about state interference in the economy, an ageing population, and high debt level. Making Sense of China's Economy untangles China's complex economic structure, evolving issues and curious contradictions, and explains some key features of this most puzzling of global economic powerhouses. This book reveals how factors such as demographics, the initial stage of development in 1978, the transition away from full state ownership and central planning, the dual urban-rural society, and a decentralised governance structure have combined to shape the economy, its development and its reforms. It shows how the pragmatic and adaptive nature of China's policymaking upends familiar perspectives and hinders simple cross-country comparisons. The book also explores crucial topics including the property market, debt accumulation and environmental challenges. In this book, Tao Wang innovatively weaves the multiple strands of China's economy into a holistic and organic tapestry that gives us unique insights from both a Chinese and an international perspective. This book is critical reading for business leaders, investors, policymakers, students, and anyone else hoping to understand China's economy and its future evolution and impact, written by a specialist who has studied the country from both inside and out.

Our morning coffee is the fruit of the labor of millions of workers and producers in the South. Unfortunately, many of them earn paltry wages for work done under very difficult conditions. Chances are, the coffee you are drinking was grown by farmers who labored long, back-breaking hours while exposed to harmful chemicals in order to pocket a few cents.

In an attempt to break the cycle of malnutrition, dependence, illiteracy and violence, an alternative trade system, known worldwide as "fair trade," has been created. The products of this type of exchange, encourage consumers and retailers to opt for coffee which is "fairly traded."

This book looks at the fair trade movement by examining the issues surrounding the production and trading of coffee. Using Mexico as an example, part one describes the conventional coffee trade, tracing the coffee bean's journey from the tree, through the hands of several intermediaries in both the North and South, to its final destination as a cup of coffee. Part two presents the fair trade concept through the example of the Mexican peasant organization which was one of the first to embrace the fair trade system, and which was also a pioneer in the production of organic coffee. The third part explores the situation of fair trade in North America, and provides comprehensive sources and references for anyone who wants to get involved, at any level.

"Incites change in consumer attitudes and thoughtful commitment to a more equitable system of international trade."--Louis Sabourin, Director of ENAP and Former President of the OECD Development Center, Paris

Laure Waridel, as a member of Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment and Development, was instrumental in organizing the activist group, A Just Coffee, whose aim it is to raise our coffee consciousness and consciences, and opt for coffee which is "fairly traded." She lives in Montreal.

First published in 1981 The European Community and its Mediterranean Enlargement examines the background to the economic developments in Greece, Spain and Portugal, their relationship with the Community and the political and economic interests at issue during negotiations. At the same time the study of enlargement provides an excellent opportunity for a critical appraisal of existing Community policies (especially those affecting industry and agriculture) and a discussion of likely future developments and pressures for change within the context of the 'Community of Twelve'. Loukas Tsoukalis combines a thorough familiarity with Community affairs with a good knowledge of Southern Europe and the ability to work in several European languages. This book crosses many disciplinary boundaries and is a must read for scholars and researchers of European politics, European Union, international relations and European history.

Gulliver's Troubles offers the first comprehensive assessment of the post-Cold War foreign policy of Nigeria one of Africa's most important states. Expert contributors, comprising academics and scholar-diplomats, analyze Nigeria's most vital domestic challenges and critical regional issues from historical and contemporary perspectives. Nigeria's relations with its neighbors, other significant states, and regional and international bodies also come under scrutiny. The debates here, while multifaceted, share the premise that an effective foreign policy must be built on a sound domestic base and democratic stability.

Studying the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) through the lens of international relations (IR) theory, Chen argues that it is inappropriate to treat the AIIB as either a revisionist or a complementary institution. Instead, the bank is still evolving and the interaction of power, interests, and status that will determine whether the bank will go wild. Theoretically, the current shape of the AIIB will influence global strategic conditions and global perceptions of the bank itself, consequently affecting China's level of dissatisfaction with its power and status in the international financial system and maneuvering in the AIIB. To empirically show that, this book presents the evolution of the AIIB, compares the bank with its main competitors in the Asia-Pacific region, and conducts ten comparative case studies to show how countries around the world have positioned themselves in response to the emergence of the AIIB. This book presents critical insights for scholars and foreign-policy practitioners to understand China's surging influence in international organizations and how China can shape the world order. It should prove of interest to students and scholars of IR, strategic studies, China Studies, Asian Studies, developmental studies, economics, and global finance.

The existence of fiat currencies has long been cited as one of the major contributing factors to the challenges facing contemporary economies, and the current monetary system is not only a key source of exorable increases in interest rates but also a principal cause of inflation and decline in the value of money in many countries. The editors argue that an Islamic monetary system, with its specific money concepts, interest-free financial institutions, and monetary policy embedded in real growth, provides a solution to this conundrum. Contributions from many world-renowned experts consider a wide array of topics, ranging from the theoretical concepts of money and banking in conventional and Islamic economics to the historical journey of money from precious metals to plastic money and digital currency today. The book outlines the problems that sprout from interest-based banking and multiple debt structures. It then mirrors the Islamic concepts of money as well as idiosyncrasies of its monetary policy. Supported with meticulous research and empirical evidence, the book demonstrates the efficacy of Islamic monetary system in delivering real growth along with equitable distribution of wealth and prosperity in the economy. It additionally acquaints the readers with juristic debates about money and monetary policy. This is essential reading for both students and researchers in Islamic economics, banking, and finance, expertly promoting a fair and just economic system that emerges as a result of interest-free banking and monetary policy based on Islamic principles.

The Political Economy of International Commodity Cartels examines how international commodity cartels in the 1930s were impacted not only by commercial rivalry, but also by international trade political and diplomatic concerns. This work presents the rise and decline of the European Timber Exporters' Convention (ETEC) and analyses how firms navigated through the cartel game under increasing international competition, pressures from the national governments, and the interventionist endeavours of the League of Nations. Cartels are often associated with, in the standard economic interpretation, business collusion. However, in using vast archive sources and historical methodology, the chapters in this book shed light onto how international relations shaped cartels. The rise of British protectionism, the emergence of the Soviet Union as an industrial power, and the economic rapprochement of the League of Nations in the early 1930s created a wave of political and diplomatic challenges in the timber trading countries and affected cartelisation. Timber firms in the biggest producer countries-Finland and Sweden-were uninterested in international cartel collaboration, but under pressure joined the ETEC nevertheless. This book makes a strong contribution to the fields of business history and cartel studies. It is an essential read for economic historians interested in how political pressure shaped international cartels and how cartels became avenues of diplomacy.

In contemporary global capitalism, the most powerful corporations are innovation or intellectual monopolies. The book's unique perspective focuses on how private ownership and control of knowledge and data have become a major source of rent and power. The author explains how at the one pole, these corporations concentrate income, property and power in the United States, China, and in a handful of intellectual monopolies, particularly from digital and pharmaceutical industries, while at the other pole developing countries are left further behind. The book includes detailed empirical mappings of how intellectual monopolies develop and transform knowledge from universities and open-source collaborations into intangible assets. The result is a strategy that combines undermining the commons through privatization with harvesting from the same commons. The book ends with provoking reflections to tilt the scale against intellectual monopoly capitalism and arguing that desired changes require democratic mobilization of workers and citizens at large. This book represents one of the first attempts to capture the contours of an emerging new era where old perspectives lead us astray, and the old policy toolbox is hopelessly inadequate. This is true for the idea that the best, or only, way to promote innovation is to transform knowledge into private property. It is also true for anti-trust policies focusing exclusively on consumer prices. The formation of global infrastructures that lead to natural monopolies calls for public rather than private ownership. Scholars and professionals from the social sciences and humanities (in particular economics, sociology, political science, geography, educational science and science and technology studies) will enjoy a clear and all-embracing depiction of innovation dynamics in contemporary capitalism, with a particular focus on asymmetries between actors, regions and topics. In fact, its topical issue broadens the book's scope to those curious about how innovation networks shape our world.

Economic Growth and Distribution isolates and compares the logical structures and methodological underpinnings underlying the relationship between economic growth and distribution. It carries out an in-depth analysis of a wide range of issues connected with growth theory considered from different theoretical perspectives. Its uniqueness is derived from the original contributions by a number of scholars of different persuasions; some within the mainstream and others from Keynesian-Kaleckian-Sraffian positions. The book deals with a wide variety of research topics concerning economic growth and distribution, such as the transition from the epoch of Malthusian stagnation to the contemporary era of modern economic growth; comparisons among the classical tradition, modern theory, and heterodox models; problems of policy; dynamics and business cycles; and the role of institutions. For its emphasis on comparisons and complementariness among alternative theories of growth and distribution, Economic Growth and Distribution complements the work of advanced textbooks on the topic. It is a companion to Innovation, Unemployment and Policy in the Theories of Growth and Distribution (edited by N. Salvadori and R. Balducci) and Classical, Neoclassical and Keynesian Views on Growth and Distribution (edited by N. Salvadori and C. Panico). The book will be appreciated by scholars of the theory of economic growth, the theory of distribution, macroeconomics, classical and Keynesian economics, as well as historians of economic thought.

This authoritative Handbook provides a thorough account and analysis of the important issues relating to the globalization of the international economy. The increasing interdependence of the world's economies has caused a breakdown in national economic boundaries and a freer access to goods, services and labour. This comprehensive book, written by experts in the field, addresses major issues associated with this international economic integration. This reference work considers: global growth including inequality, saving, foreign direct investment, external debt and multinational corporations regionalization and globalization of trade such as the role of international institutions, external economies of scale and trading blocs transition to market economies in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and East Asia internationalization and integration of markets including the financial, capital, labour and agricultural markets global environmental and resource problems including transboundary pollution, the implication of North-South trade for natural resource depletion and environmental degradation, and the impact of energy markets on global growth, pollution and economic stability.

The Routledge Handbook of Transformative Global Studies provides diverse and cutting-edge perspectives on this fast-changing field. For 30 years the world has been caught in a long 'global interregnum,' plunging from one crisis to the next and witnessing the emergence of new, vibrant, multiple, and sometimes contradictory forms of popular resistance and politics. This global 'interregnum' - or a period of uncertainty where the old hegemony is fading and the new ones have not yet been fully realized - necessitates critical self-reflection, brave intellectual speculation and (un)learning of perceived wisdoms, and greater transdisciplinary collaboration across theories, localities, and subjects. This Handbook takes up this challenge by developing fresh perspectives on globalization, development, neoliberalism, capitalism, and their progressive alternatives, addressing issues of democracy, power, inequality, insecurity, precarity, wellbeing, education, displacement, social movements, violence and war, and climate change. Throughout, it emphasizes the dynamics for system change, including bringing post-capitalist, feminist, (de)colonial, and other critical perspectives to support transformative global praxis. This volume brings together a mixture of fresh and established scholars from across disciplines and from a range of both Northern and Southern contexts. Researchers and students from around the world and across the fields of politics, sociology, international development, international relations, geography, economics, area studies, and philosophy will find this an invaluable and fresh guide to global studies in the 21st century.

There are so many roadblocks in Central Africa that it is hard to find a road that does not have one. Based on research in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR), Peer Schouten maps more than a thousand of these roadblocks to show how communities, rebels and state security forces forge resistance and power out of control over these narrow points of passage. Schouten reveals the connections between these roadblocks in Central Africa and global supply chains, tracking the flow of multinational corporations and UN agencies alike through them, to show how they encapsulate a form of power, which thrives under conditions of supply chain capitalism. In doing so, he develops a new lens through which to understand what drives state formation and conflict in the region, offering a radical alternative to explanations that foreground control over minerals, territory or population as key drivers of Central Africa's violent history.

The USA and China, the world's largest economic powers, have been engaging in trade war since January 2018. The impact of this trade war is felt not only by US and China but also by other economies who have economic ties with them. This book provides insights into damages caused by this trade war. The first section of the book looks at the impact of the trade war on the global economy. It goes deeper to examine the trade war impact on the South Asian region. It is well-known that any imposition of new tariffs or an increase in existing tariffs would make imports more costly and render the exported goods less competitive. Yet, the book posits that the trade war has provided a window of opportunity to other countries not caught in it. The South Asian region, with countries like Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, has actually reaped benefits from the widening trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies. This book will be a useful reference to help policymakers to undertake informed decisions and initiate programs to minimise the trade war impact.

This book presents a new narrative on the eurozone crisis. It argues that the common currency has the potential to kill the European Union, and the conventional wisdom that the eurozone can be fixed by a common budget and further political integration is incorrect. The authors address key questions such as why the European Union and the single market have been successful, why the common currency poses a threat to European integration, and whether it is possible to either fix the eurozone or dissolve it while keeping the EU and the single market. Contrary to the view that it would be best if the Southern European countries left the eurozone first, the book makes the case that the optimal solution would be to start the process with the most competitive countries exiting first. The authors argue that a return to national currencies would be beneficial not only to the crisis-ridden southern countries, but also to France and Germany, which were the main promoters of the single currency. An organised unwinding of the euro area would be beneficial both for the European economy and for Europe's main trading partners. The authors contend that to defend the euro at all costs weakens the European economy and threatens the cohesion of the European Union. If pro-European and pro-market EU leaders do not dismantle the eurozone, it will most likely be done by their anti-European and anti-market successors. If that happens, the European Union and the common market will be destroyed. This book will be a useful and engaging contribution to the existing literature in the fields of macro, monetary and international finance and economics.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a Rorschach test for society: everyone sees something different in it, and the range of political and economic responses to the crisis can leave us feeling overwhelmed. This book cuts through the confusion, dissecting the new post-coronavirus capitalism into several policy areas and spheres of action to inform academic, policy and public discourse. Covering all the major aspects of contemporary capitalism that have been affected by the pandemic, Andreas Noelke deftly analyses the impacts of the crisis on our socio-economic and political systems. Signposting a new era for global capitalism, he offers alternatives for future economic development in the wake of COVID-19.

Winner of the 2021 Lionel Gelber Prize: A provocative look at how today's trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers "The authors weave a complex tapestry of monetary, fiscal and social policies through history and offer opinions about what went right and what went wrong . . . Worth reading for their insights into the history of trade and finance."-George Melloan, Wall Street Journal "This is a very important book."-Martin Wolf, Financial Times Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past thirty years. Across the world, the rich have prospered while workers can no longer afford to buy what they produce, have lost their jobs, or have been forced into higher levels of debt. In this thought-provoking challenge to mainstream views, the authors provide a cohesive narrative that shows how the class wars of rising inequality are a threat to the global economy and international peace-and what we can do about it. Longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and named a Best Business Book of 2020 by Strategy + Business