This book brings together cutting edge contributions in the fields of international economics, micro theory, welfare economics and econometrics, with contributions from Donald R. Davis, Avinash K. Dixit, Tadashi Inoue, Ronald W. Jones, Dale W. Jorgenson, K. Rao Kadiyala, Murray C. Kemp, Kenneth M. Kletzer, Anne O. Krueger, Mukul Majumdar, Daniel McFadden, Lionel McKenzie, James R. Melvin, James C. Moore, Takashi Negishi, Yoshihiko Otani, Raymond Riezman, Paul A. Samuelson, Joaquim Silvestre and Marie Thursby.

Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction 2. International Restructuring and National Contingencies 3. Structural Forces Challenging the European National Telecommunications Regime 4. The Liberalisation, Privatisation and Regulatory Reform of Telecommunications in the UK: In Care of the Market? 5. The Liberalisation, Privatisation and Regulatory Reform of Telecommunications in the Netherlands: In Pursuit of a New Consensus? 6. The Liberalisation, Privatisation and Regulatory Reform of French Telecommunications: Still in Care of the State? 7. A Comparative Institutional Analysis of British, Dutch and French Telecommunications Policy 8. Convergence and/or Divergence in European Telecommunications Restructuring?

The theory of the firm did not exist, in any serious manner, until around 1970. Only then did the current theory of the firm literature begin to emerge, based largely upon the work of Ronald Coase and to a lesser degree Frank Knight. It was work by Armen Alchian, Robert Crawford, Harold Demsetz, Michael Jensen, Benjamin Klein, William Meckling and Oliver Williamson, among others, that drove the upswing in interest in the firm among mainstream economists. This accessible book provides a valuable overview of the 'prehistory' of the firm. Spanning an impressive timeline, it delves into Antiquity, the Medieval era, the pre-classical economics period and the 19th and 20th centuries. Next, the book traces the theoretical contributions from pre-classical, classical and neoclassical economics. It will be illuminating reading for students and researchers of the history of economic thought, industrial organization, microeconomic theory and business history.

Urban transportation problems abound across America, including jammed highways during rush-hours, deteriorating bus service, and strong pressures to build new rail systems. Most solutions attempt either to increase transportation capacity (by building more roads and expanding mass transit) or to manage existing capacity (through HOV restrictions, exclusive bus lanes, and employer-based policies such as flexible work hours). This book develops an alternative solution to urban transportation problems based on economic analysis, but well aware of the political constraints on policymakers. The authors estimate that efficient pricing and service policies could save more than $10 billion in annual net benefits over current practices, but argue that powerful, entrenched political and institutional forces will continue to thwart efficient economic solutions to improve urban transportation. They believe, however, that some form of privatization would likely improve social welfare more than an efficient public sector system. Facing fewer operating restrictions, greater economic incentives, and stronger competitive pressures, private suppliers could substantially improve the efficiency of urban operations and offer services that are more responsive to the needs of all types of travelers. The authors conclude that policymakers have bestowed huge benefits on the public by allowing the private sector to play a leading and unencumbered role in the provision of intercity transportation. Public officials should take the next step and allow the private sector to play a leading role in the provision of urban transportation.

This seminal work advances beyond neoclassical economics to provide an integrated overview of economic decision making, and the management of bounded rationality and its evolutionary consequences.Clem Tisdell successfully combines recent developments in learning and game theory, transaction costs and evolutionary economics to provide new insights into economic and managerial phenomena. The results are applied to different levels of decision-making, including decisions by individuals, taking into account learning possibilities, decisions by groups and economic organizations including optimal communication within organizations. Bounded Rationality and Economic Evolution will be of particular use to economists, academics in management, business administration and public administration, and social scientists interested in group behaviour.

The Active Consumer discusses how consumers seem to delight in trying new solutions and exploring new combinatory possibilities. This book provides an economic-theoretical understanding of this phenomenon and the many ways in which innovation can structure consumer choice. The authors show from different points of view how central novelty can be in consumer behaviour, how it relates to technical change and how new consumer capabilities are developed and organized.

This volume approaches the history of Japanese-German relations from a business history perspective. Starting with an overview of Japanese-German relations which focuses on the environment, strategies and forms of inter-firm relations, Akira Kudo then uses case studies to provide a broader picture, before finally considering strategy, organizational strategy and technology and management transfer in the light of problems identified earlier. All the case studies are chosen to meet specific criteria which allow the author to move from individual details towards a broader picture and thus provide a history of Japanese-German business relations during the Inter-war years.

This thorough reconstruction of microeconomics 'post-2008' provides economic students with a new way of real-world understanding and strategic qualification that will be better appreciated by their future employers and any professional practice. It will prove essential for economic students and other social science programs at a graduate level. This accessible and engaging textbook includes: - A survey of the most famous core models of modern microeconomics including the neoclassical approach and its heterodox critiques - Sraffian, Institutionalist, Post-Keynesian and Mirowskian - An introduction to complexity thinking in economics - An introduction to game theory - An introduction to the methods of complex computer simulation - An introduction to strategic behavior - An newly integrated approach to real-world and complexity economics, rather than focusing on neoclassical ('perfect') market equilibrium 'plus a thousand recent extra things on top'. See the companion website - www (dot) microeconomics (dot) us - for teaching material, readings, exams and as a general guide to explore issues raised in the book.

This study illustrates the social and political principal that institutions matter. It explores not only how to get institutions to work efficiently, but also how to assess the proper relationship between institutions and development challenges through evaluative techniques.

In this important book, Gerard Dumenil and Dominique Levy assess the impact of the profit rate on modern economies, its role in the allocation of resources among industries, its influence on business fluctuations, and its relation to accumulation, technological change and wages.The Economics of the Profit Rate presents a broad synthesis of recent work and builds on classical theory, using the tools of modern economics, to suggest alternative approaches to conventional microeconomics and macroeconomics. In sharp contrast to the general equilibrium theory, the emphasis is placed on dynamics and the reaction of individual agents to disequilibrium. This impressive book includes an assessment of the history of the US economy in which theoretical and empirical analyses are consistently combined.

In this study of the development of the Asian department store, economists, anthropologists and historians examine various aspects of retailing, business organization, networking and consumerism in the expanding economies of Asia. While focusing on the cultural histories of China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore in the formation and shaping of Asia's universal providers', this book presents a comparative perspective on the way in which department stores such as Wing On, Sincere, Seibu and Metro have gradually been transformed into multinational enterprises during the 20th century.

Series Information:
Foundations of the Market Economy

Providing human service through markets is inherently problematic. Quality care is critical and unsatisfactory human service greatly influences people's quality of life. Yet, profit for human service providers is essential for sustainable service provision. This book focuses on striking a balance between human services' need for quality assurance and market providers' need for profit.

Compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the CPI is used to index Social Security payments and many other federal programs, as well as to adjust tax brackets. Today, the accuracy of the CPI is being hotly debated, particularly in light of the Boskin Commission report that concluded in December 1996 that the CPI overstates inflation by 1.1%. If accepted and applied in the formulation of economic policy, the report would have major implications for balancing the federal budget. It would have a direct impact on the lives of Americans who are beneficiaries of government programs as well as on everyone who pays taxes. In this book, Dean Baker introduces and explains the significance of the debate, presents the full text of the Boskin Commission report and finally discusses in a far-reaching and insightful analysis both the Commission's research methodology and its conclusions.

Consumer Services have been viewed as parasitic activities, dependent on other sectors of the economy for their viability and vitality. Yet local economic policy is now looking towards consumer services to solve severe economic problems. The rapid expansion of the service sector is now a principal feature of contemporary global economic restructuring. Consumer Services and Economic Development evaluates the contributions that consumer services can make to local economic development and revitalisation. A broad range of consumer service industries are examined in turn: tourism, sports, universities, retailing and cultural industries. Detailed local case studies illustrate the role, impact and effectiveness of consumer services in economic regeneration in a number of different contexts: the global city, contrsting urban areas and rural localities. With many localities in the advanced economies suffering from severe deindustrialisation and weak producer service growth, this book highlights the need for a fundamental rethink of both the function of services and of economic development theory and practice in general.

This book, first published in 1971, reports on the first detailed study of pricing decisions ever made in the UK. Based on case studies, it shows precisely how thirteen pricing decisions were taken. In doing so, it reveals the objectives pursued by these firms and how conflicts between these objectives were resolved. The assessments of the pricing decisions show the strengths and weaknesses of the procedures used by the firms, and the relative importance of economic and organizational elements in such decisions.

First published in 1981, this book brings together a collection of essays on microeconomics and development presented at the conference of the Association of University Teachers of Economics. Topics covered include the intergenerational transfer of economic inequality, a review of the recent development in the theory of equity in the economy's distribution and production process, labour and unemployment, market structure and international trade, taxation and the public sector, Third World industrialisation and Indian agriculture. This book will be of interest to students of Economics and Development Studies.

Experts define, review, and evaluate economic fluctuations
Economic and business uncertainty dominate today's economic analyses. This new Encyclopedia illuminates the subject by offering 323 original articles on every major aspect of business cycles, fluctuations, financial crises, recessions, and depressions. The work of more than 200 experts, including many of the leading researchers in the field, the articles cover a broad range of subjects, including capsule biographies of leading economists born before 1920. Individual entries explore banking panics, the cobweb cycle, consumer durables, the depression of 1937-1938, Otto Eckstein, Friedrich Engels, experimental price bubbles, forced savings, lass-Steagall Act, Friedrich hagen, qualitative indicators, use of macro-econometric models, monetary neutrality, Phillips Curve, Paul Samuelson, Say's law, supply-side recessions, James Tokin, trend and random wages, Thorstein Veblen, worker-job turnover, and more.

First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Contents:
1. In What Senses Were the Founding Austrians 'Neoclassical' Economists? 2. The Founding Austrian Conceptions of Economics 3. Carl Menger's Analysis of Choice 4. Wieser and Bohm-Bawerk on Economizing Behaviour 5. Carl Menger's Theory of Price Formation 6. Bohm-Bawerk's Value and Price Theory 7. The Process of Competition in Founding Austrian Economic Theory I: Menger's Principles 8. The Process of Competition in Founding Austrian Economic Theory II: Wieser and Bohm-Bawerk 9. Capital in Founding Austrian Economic Theory: Menger versus Bohm-Bawerk 10. Mengerian Distribution Theory: Wieser's Contribution 11. The Founding Austrian Version of Neoclassical Microeconomics: Summary and Conclusions

CONSTRUCTION MICROECONOMICS Unique and comprehensive reference describing microeconomic approaches, theories, and models adapted to and developed for the construction industry Construction Microeconomics provides comprehensive coverage of microeconomics applied to the construction industry, focusing on construction clients, who initiate construction projects, and on contractors who transform the ideas and plans of clients into infrastructure and buildings. With the help of microeconomic theory, it tries to answer questions about decision-making by clients, contractors, and governments with respect to projects in the built environment. It includes discussions of alternative theories to mainstream microeconomics, such as new institutional economics, behavioral economics, and the capability approach. Applications from the construction sector including land supply, sustainability, industrialization, and lean construction are provided to ground the theory in practical construction. In Construction Microeconomics, readers will learn: How microeconomic theory relies heavily on assumptions for modeling and the nuances of adjusting those assumptions How heterogenous contract goods affect supply and demand, markets, information, technology, and accordingly, the theories of contractors and owners How interaction influences the production process and how land as a production factor changes the production function How ex-ante costs determine the cost theory of the contractor and why contracting is more akin to the service sector than the goods sector Advanced undergraduate and masters students, lecturers and academics in -construction and related disciplines, and professionals in the construction industry looking for expert analysis into a unique facet of the field will find Construction Microeconomics to be a valuable, complete, and authoritative reference on the subject.

This book explores a new theory of the firm produced through an exchange between management theory and economics. In the process economics is seen to provide a foundational element for strategy research whilst developing a more realistic theory of the firm with a greater emphasis on its internal features. The success of competence theories of the firm also reflects their ability to explain significant trends in the business world, notably the declining importance of conglomerates and critical features in the success of Asian and Japanese business.

The countryside has often been marginalised in discussions of economic and societal development, in favour of the urban. This book aims to stimulate a debate and a re-evaluation of how the concepts of the rural, peripheral and marginal are treated in academia and policy. Approaching this theme from geographic, demographic and economic perspectives, Peter de Souza makes a compelling case for giving the periphery a prominent role as an integral part of a holistic and balanced society. The book carefully deconstructs the concept of the urban, and critiques the idea of urban-rural or centre-periphery comparisons, and presents an alternative approach to spark future discussions. Winner of the Regional Studies Association Best Book Award 2020, The Rural and Peripheral in Regional Development will be of interest to those studying and researching in the areas of rural economics, sustainability and development, as well as those involved in rural policymaking.

Can industrial, trade and competition policies complement one another? In this major volume, a distinguished group of researchers and policymakers systematically investigates the relationships between the microeconomic policies of competition, trade and industry within the European Union. After an introductory chapter contrasting the optimal mix of targets and instruments with the effective use and interaction of policies that can be observed in the real world, the book addresses the experience of the EU, its institutional framework and the evolving use of instruments. The convergence and divergence of economic prescription and application are revealed through an outstanding set of case studies which focus on the automobile, chemical fibre, steel, telecommunication and pharmaceutical industries. Competition, trade and industrial policies play a central role in the efficiency of any market economy and the rich European experience offers valuable lessons for economists, regulators and policy makers from both inside and outside the union. European Policies on Competition, Trade and Industry offers an authoritative discussion of policy making and enforcement in the EU. The strong combination of analysis with detailed case studies and overviews will ensure that this book will make a pioneering contribution to understanding the development of microeconomic policies in the Union.

First published in 1989, The Economics of the Swap Market looks at how the swap has become a commonplace tool for corporations throughout the OECD world to 'lock-in' interest rates on their borrowing. The aim of The Economics of the Swap Market, is to contribute to a redressing of the balance. Subjects covered include both those conventionally falling within the scope of micro-economics and of macroeconomics, beginning with an examination of the forces behind the take-off the swap market and a formal setting out of key arbitrage relationships which hold in equilibrium between the swap markets on international capital flow.