It is becoming increasingly recognised that the way in which human resources are managed is a key source of sustainable competitive advantage for business. Nowhere, Michael Zanko argues, is this seen to be more relevant than in the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of the Handbook and its systematically codified economy human resource management (HRM) profiles is to improve knowledge and understanding of HRM policy and practices in the Asia-Pacific region. It serves as a practical guide to predominantly macro-level HRM policies and practices in ten APEC economies, covering Australia, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, People's Republic of China, Thailand and the United States of America. The Handbook of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices in Asia-Pacific Economies Volume I will be essential reading for lecturers, researchers, academics and managers concerned with human resource management, international business, management, and cross-cultural studies. The Handbook will also be of great interest to those involved in industrial and employment relations.

This volume spans economics, history, sociology, law, graphic design, religion, environmental science, politics and more to offer a transdisciplinary examination of debt. From this perspective, many of our most pressing social and environmental crises are explored to raise critical questions about debt's problems and possibilities. Who do we owe? Where are the offsetting credits? Why do such persistent deficits in care permeate so much of our lives? Can we imagine new approaches to balance sheets, measures of value, and justice to reconcile these deficits? Often regarded as a constraint on our ability to meet the challenges of our day, this volume reimagines debt as a social construct capable of empowering people to organize and produce sustainable prosperity for all. This text is ideal for provoking classroom discussions that not only point out the gravity of the crises we face in the twenty-first century, but also seeks to set readers' minds free to create innovative solutions.

Economic Growth is an advanced undergraudate text written specifically for one semester courses in growth theory and for first year graduate students to refresh their knowledge. It should also be of great use for scholars and professional economists as the text contains many references to practical policy issues. The author condenses the fundamental issues of growth theory and covers the new ideas in a highly entertaining text, written in a clear and accessible style.

During the past few decades the economies of East and South East Asia have grown at a significant rate, resulting in a large proportion of the world's population being relieved from poverty in a relatively short space of time. This unprecedented phenomena underlines the importance of understanding the driving forces behind the growth 'miracle' of East Asia. Yanrui Wu addresses some of the most critical macroeconomic issues associated with East Asian growth. Principally focusing on the most rapidly emerging economies in the region, the author covers a broad base of topics. Several determinants of growth are examined and in each case an analytical framework is applied to empirical data. Specific themes include: * economic openness and growth * stock market development * intra-industry trade * growth engines in Singapore * productivity growth in Taiwan * the Asian financial crisis. Employing both cross-country analyses and case studies of individual economies, this important new book substantially contributes to the many debates surrounding economic growth in East Asia. The author's concise yet absorbing style will appeal to economic researchers, lecturers and students of economics, as well as business economists and market analysts.

In this book, leading experts in the field examine the effects of the recent growth in concentration in the European food retailing sector. In particular, the book develops a number of buyer power propositions and builds on the previous work of several of the authors, to consider how the growth of large supermarket chains affects competition in food retailing. The authors outline the theoretical and policy analysis underpinning the work and assess evidence on the size and growth of supermarket chains across the EU. Whilst not entirely critical, they suggest that there is strong evidence in some countries that supermarkets use their buying power to impose unfair terms and conditions on suppliers, particularly affecting small suppliers. The authors use case studies, to provide an in-depth analysis of four European countries, namely France, Germany, Spain and the UK. The book ends with a discussion of policy issues against a backdrop of likely future trends in concentration in this area. Academics working in the areas of microeconomics and industrial economics as well as those involved in European competition policy more generally, such as lawyers, civil servants and consultancy groups, will find this volume enlightening.

This book focuses on one of the most important features of the contemporary Japanese economy; cross shareholding - or mutual shareholding - between corporations. The book analyses recent trends and the reasons behind these, and discusses the implications for the entire Japanese economic system and highlights relevant public policy. Mitsuaki Okabe proposes that the dissolution of cross shareholdings has weakened the importance of long-term transactional relationships as seen in the Keiretsu (the 'main bank') practice and employment, and that as a result the character of the economy is now closer to that of the Anglo-American system. Cross Shareholdings in Japan is a timely book and will be of special interest to academics and researchers of economics, Asian studies and finance, as well as policymakers and those involved either directly or indirectly in the Japanese financial system.

This concise book, by one of the leading scholars in development economics, has been developed from a series of lectures given to masters students and will serve as an excellent introduction to the principles of growth and development theory. The author presents conventional wisdom with a critical eye and charts development economics as it has evolved from Adam Smith to 'new' or endogenous growth theory. Thirlwall is critical of the latter, and its predecessor neo-classical growth theory, and tries to put back demand as a driving force in growth theory. He argues that in an open developing economy one of the major constraints is the availability of foreign exchange to pay for imports, so that export growth which relaxes a balance of payments constraint on demand becomes a crucial determinant of overall growth performance. Demand creating its own supply in a growth context, rather than the pre-Keynesian view of supply creating its own demand, provides an alternative framework to the neo-classical one for understanding the differential growth performance of nations. This highly original book will be essential reading for all students and scholars of development and growth economics.

National Accounting and Capital presents definitive solutions to current problems in national accounting practice. Professor Hartwick deals expertly with problems in accounting natural capital, financial capital and skills capital and communicates his solutions in specially designed national accounting tables or matrices. Key issues discussed include: * new developments in the theory of green national accounting, particularly the place of natural resource stocks in the national accounts * the relationship between dollar valued net national product and sustainable income * an extension of standard treatments of capital, (buildings, machines, etc.), in the national accounts to deal with natural resources, human capital, and financial capital, (equities of banks and other firms and loans from banks to firms) * the sustainability of the current path of an economy * the role of capital gains on 'new' types of capital in the expression for net national product In addition, Professor Hartwick indicates how to deal with certain long-standing issues involving services to banks in the national accounts. The accounts are always expressed in a national accounting matrix and this makes for consistency in style. He wishes to persuade readers of the value of this approach. This book will be of immense use to scholars of national and environmental accounting and practitioners in government statistical agencies, the UN, the World Bank and the IMF.

The widespread capital market liberalisation has resulted in a massive surge in international capital flows and the development of a more integrated world financial system. At the same time, however, the volatility of capital flows has increased and the stability of this modern financial system has been called into question by a number of financial and currency crises. In this volume the editors assess the behaviour of international capital markets during this period, focusing on both the causes and the consequences of financial instability. They examine the origins of the Latin American and East Asian crises and the lessons that can be drawn from these, and they consider the proposals for reform of the international financial system which have followed. This collection of papers, written by both academics and practitioners, is addressed both to specialists and to a wider audience, and will provide insight into an extremely important global development.

'Time and the Macroeconomic Analysis of Income' will undoubtedly puzzle, stimulate, infuriate, or annoy many readers. Alvaro Cencini challenges so many of the commonly held notions which are perpetuated in elementary textbooks and taken for granted in learned journals that a first reaction is bound to be that the author must be naive or ignorant - this is far from the case; the questions that Cencini raises are original and searching. His answers are even more intriguing for economists and interested readers.

What tools are available for setting and analyzing monetary policy?

World-renowned contributors examine recent evidence on subjects as varied as price-setting, inflation persistence, the private sector's formation of inflation expectations, and the monetary policy transmission mechanism. Stopping short of advocating conclusions about the ideal conduct of policy, the authors focus instead on analytical methods and the changing interactions among the ingredients and properties that inform monetary models. The influences between economic performance and monetary policy regimes can be both grand and muted, and this volume clarifies the present state of this continually evolving relationship.
Explores themodels and practices used in formulating and transmitting monetary policiesRaises new questions about the volume, price, and availability of credit in the 2007-2010 downturnQuestions fiscal-monetary connnections and encourages new thinking about the business cycle itselfObserves changes in the formulation of monetary policies over the last 25 years"

This insightful book focuses on the economic consequences of structural reform policies in the economies at the cutting edge of reform: Denmark, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway. The contributors examine policies aimed at improving the underlying path of growth, employment and saving-investment balances of the economy and apply state of the art methods to measure and model structural reforms. They examine the areas of competition policy, regulation of entry barriers, non-tariff trade barriers and employment protection rules as well as the quality of education and training, the efficiency of various public sector agencies and labour supply effects of care for children and the elderly. Special attention is paid to two 'success stories': New Zealand's 'Kiwi-model' and the Dutch 'Polder-model'. The book provides a welcome addition to the scarce evidence on both the costs and the benefits of structural reform and identifies the policy problems and the analytical issues at stake. This book will be indispensable to policymakers and academics with an interest in structural reform and macroeconomic policy.

The timeliness of this book is beyond question. Since the crisis erupted in Thailand in mid-1997 and spread, with varying degrees of severity, to the rest of Asia, the export-led industrialization strategy that has driven economic growth in East and Southeast Asia over the last 50 years has come into question. Is this model still applicable to latecomers such as Vietnam? The Asian financial crisis has highlighted the dangers of implementing export-oriented industrialization through government subsidies and protection. This book finds that the strategy followed by the Asian economies in the last half-decade remains a valid model for Vietnam. In order to avoid grave damage to its financial institutions, the strategy needs to be implemented in conjunction with the development of a sound financial system and a robust private sector. Based on a detailed analysis of the causes and nature of the Asian financial crisis as well as the Vietnamese economy, this book concludes that it is unlikely that Vietnam will face a banking and currency crisis in the short term, but Vietnam could be plagued by balance of payments difficulties for some time to come unless major structural reforms are undertaken soon. This timely book will be of great use to Asian studies scholars and those interested in the role of the financial sector in economic management and development.

Foreign capital has played a fundamental role in China's development and economic reconstruction during the past two decades. China is now the world's second largest host for foreign direct investment, outside the United States. This important new book, by a distinguished group of contributors, offers insights into the impact of foreign investment on China's growth and regional economic development. The book features: * an examination of China's investment policy * an analysis of the most recent industrial surveys * case studies from selected regions * applications of modern econometric techniques to data on foreign direct investment in China Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in China will be of interest to those working in the areas of international business, finance and international economics as well as Asian development and Chinese economic studies.

Privatization investment funds are the key feature of mass privatization programmes in transitional economies. This book offers a thorough survey of mass privatization programmes in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, supported with extensive empirical analysis. The study of 'top-down' privatization funds in Poland and 'bottom-up' funds in the Czech Republic and Slovenia offers different solutions to the problem of how to improve the governance of privatization funds. The authors argue that the institutional structure of closed-end investment companies and open-end mutual funds has not provided the right incentives to maximize the value for the shareholders. In addition too many regulations are in place in underdeveloped markets to protect new shareholders unaccustomed to exercising their ownership rights. Instead, the authors argue that they need to promote adjustment in fund portfolios and ownership structures in order to spur the development of capital markets and effective mechanisms of corporate governance.

At the beginning of the 1990's the first encouraging results on GDP growth combined with the fulfilment of international requirements led many to believe that Albania was a 'shining star' in Central and Eastern Europe. But in 1997 this progress was reversed by unprecedented institutional, political and social turmoil leading to a spiral of violence and chaos. This book presents, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the different factors behind the 1997 political, economic and social upheaval in Albania. It shows that the crisis was both predictable and complex, and not simply a matter of a disgruntled population attempting to regain their money. Using extensive and detailed evidence Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead identifies the major reasons for the growing discontent and final explosion: - the increase in unemployment, collapse of industrial production, inefficiency of the banking system, limitations and drawbacks of foreign investment, failure of mass privatization, falling living standards, and rising poverty. He examines the consequences of the crisis at the enterprise level, by region, sector, industry and property form using a unique survey of over 1,000 enterprises. In conclusion he offers a series of policy recommendations with a view to regenerating production whilst avoiding a new social explosion in a destroyed economy, weakened by political instability and the conflict in Kosovo. This unique book will be essential reading for all academics working in the area of transition as well as policymakers from international organizations involved in transition economies.

A new international standard of national accounts is being implemented worldwide under the auspices of the United Nations. The New National Accounts is an authoritative introduction to this new system and provides a comprehensive explanation, with illustrative data, of the accounts and accounting concepts that all countries will use in the future. The book assumes no previous knowledge of either economics or national accounting. Beginning with an overview of the entire structure of the new system of accounts, both for flow transactions and their derived balancing items and also for stocks of economic assets and liabilities, Dudley Jackson explains the system's main balancing item - gross value added - and its relation to gross domestic product, to final expenditures, to primary incomes and to transfer payments. The book concludes by explaining the accumulation accounts and the resulting 'wealth of the nation' as recorded in the new system's balance sheets. The New National Accounts will be essential reading for both students and practitioners concerned with macroeconomics, economic policy, national accounting and comparative studies of the economic performance of advanced and developing countries.

Since the demise of communism, Russia has become increasingly disparate. Some regions have grown in strength while others have been less successful. This book examines regional patterns of economic change in Russia by addressing questions such as: * Is Russia a single economic area? * Why are regional economic inequalities increasing? * Are there significant regional differences in the economic regime? * What influence do leaders have in their own regions, and on federal economic policies? * To what extent do central policymakers affect regional outcomes? * How are Russian regions affected by their new openness to foreign trade and investment? Based on research carried out by an international and interdisciplinary group of experts, this book analyses case studies from eight regions as well as testing hypotheses on data for the 77 main administrative regions. It will be of immense value to academics, those working for government and non-government agencies, and business people.

Money, Coordination and Prices explains the phenomenon of nominal price rigidity as a characteristic of a monetary economy by means of an innovative combination of insights, using several strands of economic thought, to analyse the monetary economy. The work connects neoclassical and New Keynesian explanations of the use of money and nominal price rigidity and provides heterodox analyses of the two phenomena. The author integrates the mainstream approach with views from institutional and evolutionary economics, as well as post Keynesian economics. Analyses include: * theories of money and nominal price stickiness * conventions and institutions in coordination problems * trust in a monetary economy * the stability of the monetary economy * the monetary economy as an open self-organizing system. This book will appeal to institutional, monetary, post Keynesian and neoclassical/mainstream economists and academics alike.

This study explores the international aspects of pension reform, private savings and volatile capital markets and clarifies how they relate to one another. It builds the case for the pension-improving benefits of global asset diversification, and analyses the implications of financial reform.

This book shows that research contributions from different fields-finance, economics, computer sciences, and physics-can provide useful insights into key issues in financial and cryptocurrency markets. Presenting the latest empirical and theoretical advances, it helps readers gain a better understanding of financial markets and cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to use a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending and to control its issue without the need for a central authority, and it has attracted wide public attention since its introduction. In recent years, the academic community has also started gaining interest in cyptocurrencies, and research in the field has grown rapidly. This book presents is a collection of the latest work on cryptocurrency markets and the properties of those markets. This book will appeal to graduate students and researchers from disciplines such as finance, economics, financial engineering, computer science, physics and applied mathematics working in the field of financial markets, including cryptocurrency markets.