The apparel industry has the scale, reach, and technical expertise to deliver on-target sustainable development goals within the industry's sphere of influence in its interconnected global and local value chains. From the farm to the consumer, the textile, retail, and apparel production industry has an array of economic, environmental, social, and governance impacts. In order to meet sustainable goals, the industry is challenged to buy and produce goods and services that do not harm the environment, society, and the economy. Circular Economy and Re-Commerce in the Fashion Industry is a pivotal reference source that explores and proposes solutions for best practices to meet sustainable development goals in the fashion industry and provides guidelines for assessing the technological landscape and modeling sustainable business practices. Highlighting a wide range of topics including digital marking, consumer behavior, and social and legal perspectives, this book is ideally designed for suppliers, brand managers, retailers, multinational investors, marketers, executives, designers, manufacturers, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

The major components of the Chinese financial system as it existed by the end of 1990 are identified. The activities of each component, its relative importance, and the role which each is likely to play in the economy as it develops are discussed. The components of the system include the State Council, the People's Bank of China, the banking sector, the non-banking sector, and the financial market. Professor Zhang Yichun and Mr Ma Mingjia have access to privileged documentation on the development of this financial system. The publication includes a note by R.L. Blackmore.

This book is one of the first comprehensive works to fill the knowledge gap resulting from the limited number of empirical studies on interfirm networks. The in-depth empirical research presented here is based on a massive transaction relationship database of approximately 400,000 Japanese firms. This volume, unlike others, focuses on the role of interfirm networks in three different fields: (1) macroeconomic activities, (2) economic geography and firm dynamics, and (3) firm-bank relationships. The database for this work is constructed in collaboration with Japan's largest credit research company, Teikoku Data Bank, and covers a substantial portion of Japanese firms with information on firms' transaction partners, shareholders, financial institutions, and other attributes, including their locations and performance. Networks prevail in many aspects of economic activities and play a major role in explaining a wide variety of economic phenomena from business cycles to knowledge spillovers, which has motivated economists to produce a number of excellent works. In the policy arena, there has been a growing concern on the vulnerabilities of networks based on the casual observation that idiosyncratic shocks on firms can be amplified through inter-firm connections and leads to a systemic crisis. Typical examples are the manufacturing supply-chain networks in the automobile and electronics industries which propagated regionally concentrated shocks (the Great East Japan Earthquake and floods in Thailand in 2011) into global ones. An abundance of theoretical literature on the formation and functions of networks is available already. This book breaks new ground, however, and provides an excellent opportunity for the reader to gain a more integrated understanding of the role of networks in the economy. The Economics of Interfirm Networks will be of special interest to economists and practitioners seeking empirical and quantitative knowledge on interfirm and firm-bank networks.

This book analyzes the effects of wives' employment on the economic status of families, using both descriptive and empirical research. The historical and socio-economic causes of change in the employment status of wives and husbands are detailed. The empirical studies respond to some basic questions about dual-earner families: How does having an employed wife influence family lifestyles? What effects do dual-earners have on the finances of their households and on the distribution of income? What policy changes are needed to recognize the economic importance of dual-earner families? In Working Wives and Dual-Earner Families, one-earner and dual-earner families are differentiated, with particular attention to the impact of wives' employment status (full-time or part-time) on household decision making. Among the most interesting research findings are: total family income or tax bracket and the cost of child care are among the critical determinants of dual-earner employment; married-couple families at the same level of income have very similar expenditure patterns regardless of whether the wife is employed; full-time working wives make the distribution of income less equal, but part-time working wives generate greater equality in the distribution of income; families with full-time working wives have higher income, but they do not save more or have greater financial assets than other families; families with part-time employed wives are similar to those with non-employed wives and differ from families with full-time employed wives. The authors conclude that the real incomes of dual-earner families will continue to grow, as one-earner real income remains the same or declines. Household planning and decision making will increasingly be predicated upon having two earners, which will be perceived as the norm. Dual-earner families, based on amenities, mobility, growing families, and demands for public goods, will drive private markets and public policy.

The standing of industrialization has fallen in the list of social and economic objectives of developing countries in recent years. Turkey provides an ideal example of this beginning with a program adopted in 1980 under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank. The macroeconomic and microeconomic issues concerning Turkish industrialization in global context with particular emphasis on the decade of the 1980s are examined. The rapid transformation in industrialization strategy from import substitution under heavy state direction to outward orientation has had a profound effect on industrialization of Turkey.

Economic Evaluation in Genomic Medicine introduces health economics and economic evaluation to genomic clinicians and researchers, while also introducing the topic to health economists. Each chapter includes an executive summary, questions, and case studies, along with supplementary online materials, including process guides, maps, flow charts, diagrams, and economic evaluation spreadsheets to enhance the learning process. The text can easily be used as course material for related graduate and undergraduate courses, providing a succinct overview of the existing, state-of-the-art application of economic evaluation to genomic healthcare and precision medicine.

This book explains why inflation remains subdued after recessions, based on three revolutionary concepts: defensive expectations, compensatory savings, and cumulative wage gap. When income falls, consumption falls, and savings rise, as people rebuild their past wealth. Households will not spend more until they fully recover what they lost. The revised Phillips Curve explains that current inflation depends on the cumulative difference between current income and past income. This new theory is tested and validated by data for US since 1960 to date and for 35 OECD countries from 1990 to date. A number of policy implications are derived from these results. The book calls for an optimal policy mix between monetary policy and fiscal policy; it also discusses the coronavirus crisis as an extreme case of defensive expectations.

The first published reference source to bring together biographical information on American antiquarian bookdealers, this book provides librarians, dealers, and collectors with useful information on those dealers who were prominent in securing and distributing used and rare books, manuscripts, maps, autographs, documents, and ephemera. The book covers 205 notable dealers who died before August 1, 1997. Prominent dealers are identified as those who carried quality stock, issued carefully documented sales catalogs, participated in professional organizations, and helped develop important private and institutional collections.

The book considers such well-known figures as Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach, Charles Sessler, and Hans Peter Kraus. Each profile describes the dealer's subject specialities, the style of catalogs and sales lists issued, the dealer's impact on private and institutional collecting, professional activity, and, when relevant, the final disposition of the dealer's stock. Entries conclude with a selected bibliography of sources. The information, drawn from both primary and secondary sources, will be useful to library reference workers, bookdealers, collectors, and anyone interested in the history of the American antiquarian book trade.

Manpower analysis and planning for the energy sector is the cornerstone of any successful national energy program. The human resources aspect of energy problems, however, has received little systematic attention. Responding to the need for a comprehensive information source on this important subject, Professor Hosni's bibliography reviews research completed to date and documents the different strategies that have been developed to cope with changing conditions in the energy market. Providing an international perspective, it draws on the literature of the United States and fifty other countries, with particular attention to the Arab world, where both energy and manpower are critical to future development.

Written by a distinguished group of French business leaders, scholars, and government experts, this volume examines the recent watershed period in which the French government loosened state controls and put a further emphasis on market forces. The book is unique in that it presents in accessible accessible a clear view of France's new business sense and the evolution that has taken place since Mitterrand came to power in 1981--from the perspective of key players in the French economy themselves. The contributors analyze the political, economic, and cultural upheaval of the past decade; its effect on the way the French think about and conduct business; and the new concerns and priorities of French business leaders.

The contributors deal with all aspects of French business life, addressing such diverse topics as: France's image in the United States, French trade relations with the United States and with the Third World, new economic policies and their impact, the privatization of banks and large industrial concerns, the influence of the business press, corporate relations, French advertising style, marketing luxury goods, the problem of trade unionism, the role of women in French business, investment patterns, and the general liberalization of the economy. They show that along with the legislative reforms of recent years, a fundamental change in French society has occurred. A new admiration for entrepreneurship, a relaxation of negative views of capitalism, and an increased emphasis on marketing abroad have all contributed to a new business climate in France. The American businessperson must be aware of this if he or she is to successfully do business in France or with the French. By clearly outlining the major developments that have acted to transform French business in recent years, this book provides the basis for that awareness.

"Business Adventures remains the best business book I've ever read." --Bill Gates, The Wall Street Journal What do the $350 million Ford Motor Company disaster known as the Edsel, the fast and incredible rise of Xerox, and the unbelievable scandals at General Electric and Texas Gulf Sulphur have in common? Each is an example of how an iconic company was defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety; these notable and fascinating accounts are as relevant today to understanding the intricacies of corporate life as they were when the events happened. Stories about Wall Street are infused with drama and adventure and reveal the machinations and volatile nature of the world of finance. Longtime New Yorker contributor John Brooks's insightful reportage is so full of personality and critical detail that whether he is looking at the astounding market crash of 1962, the collapse of a well-known brokerage firm, or the bold attempt by American bankers to save the British pound, one gets the sense that history repeats itself. Five additional stories on equally fascinating subjects round out this wonderful collection that will both entertain and inform readers . . . Business Adventures is truly financial journalism at its liveliest and best.

Peak Load and Capacity Pricing lays out clear pricing strategies for understanding peak load and capacity pricing structures, further cementing electricity's role as an asset class with fixed and variable costs.

How are political systems likely to shape the choices, uses, and effects of technological progress? This important new book addresses that question in a case study of Brazil's national alcohol program, Proalcool. Proalcool's stated goals are economic growth, and the reduction of personal regional income disparities, through the production of alcohol as a substitute for petroleum fuels used in internal combustion engines. Established by presidential decree in 1975, the program sought to save Brazil's floundering sugar industry and today can be counted as one of the world's largest and most advanced alternative energy experiments. To better understand how Brazil's political system has shaped this technology, the author investigates the prograM's actual social and economic consequences. He then seeks explanations for these outcomes focusing on the systemic or structural reasons that determined the development of Proalcool's technology. He concludes that the program is best understood as an agent and as a product of an authoritarian political regime, and goes further to analyze its potential role in Brazil's nascent democracy.

The book offers an evaluation of the ways in which the new democratic regime in Brazil is likely to shape the choice, use and development of technologies with the potential for profound and lasting changes on the Brazilian economy. By comparing and contrasting the essential features of a democratic regime with a bureaucratic authoritarian one, the author outlines the ways in which the new Brazilian regime--and other Latin American regimes--are likely to shape their technological choices and the futures of their citizens.

The global food crises of 2008 and 2010 and the increased price volatility revolve around biofuels policies and their interaction with each other, farm policies and between countries. While a certain degree of research has been conducted on biofuel efficacy and logistics, there is currently no book on the market devoted to the economics of biofuel policies. The Economics of Biofuel Policies focuses on the role of biofuel policies in creating turmoil in the world grains and oilseed markets since 2006. This new volume is the first to put together theory and empirical evidence of how biofuel policies created a link between crop (food grains and oilseeds) and biofuel (ethanol and biodiesel) prices. This combined with biofuel policies role in affecting the link between biofuels and energy (gasoline, diesel and crude oil) prices will form the basis to show how alternative US, EU, and Brazilian biofuel policies have immense impacts on the level and volatility of food grain and oilseed prices.

As carbon dioxide is the most important source of greenhouse gases today, its emission quantity has become a primary focus of governments, scholars, and the general public. From the perspective of the structure of Chinese industry, this book aims to answer two questions. First, what is the driving force of China's CO2 emissions and how does this relate to the structure of industry? Second, what is the potential for abatement and the cost of CO2 across sectors and regions, and the impact for industry? The author calculates the CO2 inventory data at province and sectoral level based on the approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and then quantifies the CO2 abatement potential and marginal abatement cost using this production framework. Econometric models are used to examine the likely impact on industry of abatement potential and cost. The book hence provides a rich source of information for general readers to better understand the characteristics, patterns and drivers of China's CO2 emissions. It also provides solid evidence for policy-makers to help mitigate CO2 emissions through industrial restructuring strategy.

This book, the result of a symposium co-sponsored by several academic and professional organizations, provides information and insights useful for anyone aspiring to succeed in marketing to consumers in the 1990s. The book is unique in that it blends thoughtful commentaries of distinguished academics with the reasoned perspectives of executives of such firms as J. C. Penney, Avon, and Mary Kay in arriving at an agenda of critical propositions and issues relating to the nature and structure of retailing by the year 2000. What types of retailers will exist in the next century? How many retailers will there be? What will be the relationship between retailing and society? Questions such as these are asked and answered in the book. By focusing on likely trends in traditional retailing, direct marketing, direct selling, and multi-channel distribution networks, and overlaying these trends with the impact of technology and changing consumption patterns, the book provides a set of guidelines for achieving retailing success.

The book identifies the single-most important key to success in the remainder of this century--relationship management. Only by managing relationships between the firm and its customers, between the firm and its employees, and between employees and customers will a firm be able to survive in the 1990s. As the book notes, retail leaders in the next millennium will have learned to respect the lifetime value of both their customers and employees. The book concludes by identifying 25 conditions that will face retailers in the 1990s. These conditions, which range from hypersaturated markets to demographic trends (income polarization, smaller households, educational decline, more working women, time poverty), database marketing, show biz shopping, and concerned customers, are likely to both inhibit and facilitate retailing in the remainder of the century. Hence, the book should be of interest to business academics, business practitioners engaged in, or wanting to be engaged in, marketing to consumers, and anyone interested in the future of retailing from a societal or public policy perspective.

This powerful study suggests that strategic pragmatism has enabled Japan to use Western theories and doctrines more comprehensively and thoroughly than the West. The authors contend that Japan's success depends, in part, upon three factors: the ability to recognize a need for action; the ability to respond to such a need even under less than optimal technological conditions, cutting across theoretical and ideological lines; and the ability to adjust or correct action as soon as failure is recognized. By comparing Japan's policies and structure to patterns prevailing in major Western countries, Japan's `secret' can be translated into concepts familiar to the West. This brilliant and provocative book…is a tour de force that argues that Japanese-type economic policies can be duplicated in other capitalist states and that it is a mistake to believe that such policies can only evolve in the unique environment of Japanese culture and society. Foreign Affairs Japan's rise to economic power has been the focus of much attention and speculation in the West. This powerful study suggests that strategic pragmatism has enabled Japan to use Western theories and doctrines more comprehensively and thoroughly than the West. The authors contend that Japan's success depends, in part, upon three factors. The first is the ability to recognize a need for action. Next, the Japanese are able to respond to such a need even under less than optimal technological conditions and can cut across theoretical and ideological lines. Finally, they are ready to adjust or correct action as soon as failure is recognized. Western countries should look at the global significance of Japan's economic performance and learn from their model of action. By comparing Japan's policies and structure to patterns prevailing in major Western countries, Japan's 'secret' can be translated into concepts familiar to the West. Economists, government officials, and business policy makers will find this new approach to Japan's success a worthwhile study. Strategic Pragmatism opens with an explanation for Japan's economic performance. The book then presents the interesting way in which Japan makes functional cuts across doctrines. There is a chapter addressing adaptation and how Western economic concepts are incorporated into Japanese policy. Goal attainment includes such topics as neo-classical infant industry protection and mercantilist aspects in the policy of industrial development. Pattern maintenance is followed by integration, and then the relation of structure and action. Finally the authors develop a model demonstrating how Japan derives a sense of direction from the nature of the changing problems to be solved--the heart of strategic pragmatism.

When the term rational' is used in formal economic theory, a strict definition is implicit. This strict definition cannot accommodate the complexities of our everyday ideas of what is rational. The concept of rationality that is embedded in our language is not a morally neutral one. It has always been believed possible to argue rationally about the worthiness of goals, the legitimacy of claim to rights, the existence of obligations or duties. Outside the discussions of the social sciences, argument concerning the rationality of a choice or action is never a purely technical, value-free discourse.
This book is devoted to an examination of the limitations of the various formulations and interpretations of the concept of rationality which has been developed by economic theorists. It presents a series of challenges to the formal (axiomatic) concept of rationality. This concept has spread from economics and decision theory through the social sciences and policy studies. It forms the implicit foundation for the pronouncement of policy-makers, whose recommendations can seriously affect the society and environment in which we live.
The book begins with the claim of neoclassical economics that a rational agent maximizes utility. Next it considers the later, more austere construction of rationality where a rational agent was simply one whose choices or actions were consistent. The discussion then turns to who, dissatisfied with this bare notion of consistency, claimed that a rational agent was one whose choices or actions were directed towards maximization of the agent's self-interested aims - a view they attributed (misleadingly?) to Adam Smith. Once the character of the individual agent has been established, neoclassical theory has always regarded the analysis of allocation among these agents as its supreme task. This is the subject of chapters 6 and 7.
Vivian Walsh examines the philosophical implications of the replacement of the ordinary concept of rationality by the formal concepts constructed to fit the requirements of general equilibrium theory, decision theory, and game theory. He argues that the current intellectual climate, which has moved away from formalism, necessitates the reexamination of the concepts of rationality which scholars and policy-makers, many of whom were not economists, were ready to adopt directly or indirectly from economic theory in the recent past.
The final two chapters are intended to contrast sharply with the rest of the book. They offer a readable and minimally technical account of the much smaller role played by the concept of rational choice in the work of a present-day school which derives from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century classical economists.

Dr. Hines draws on her own extensive worldwide research and her consultations with major multinational corporations to provide a comprehensive, detailed study of the rationale underlying the emergence of global private power, ways to find opportunities for further development within the global private power business, and alternative methods and techniques for its development and finance. Her book shows that, with assistance from bilateral and multilateral government agencies such as the International Finance Corporation and the various national export-import banks, project debt ratios resonably low. Equity is usually contributed to the project by all the major participants. Global competition for viable power projects is tending to reduce costs and increase plant efficiencies. This work is a major contribution to our understanding of what global power privatization is, where it is being implemented and how it is done, and the various considerations that energy executives and public policymakers worldwide should keep in mind when they seek financing for their private power projects.

Global power plant development commonly starts with regional and country risk analysis as the developer views alternative opportunities and compiles a prospectus for potential investors. As the developer analyzes the financial, market, operating, resource, political, and other risks, he or she usually considers possible methods of risk mitigation. With the participation of key host and home country and foreign partners, the developer selects the new location, the type of power plant and necessary equipment for the desired output, the fuel types and sources, the potential customers, the private financing methods, and the possibility of financial guarantees from the host government and bilateral and multilateral organizations. The markets of Asia, Latin America, and Europe present unusually good opportunities at the turn of the new century.

Transfer pricing is a dynamic and multidimensional topic that has captured the attention of academicians, corporate executives, and tax authorities for many decades. The issues of transfer pricing are very complex and the stakes are extremely high because more than 40 percent of international trade is trade between related entities. This book examines many important tax and management issues related to transfer pricing. These issues include new transfer pricing regulations and their implications, the selection of proper transfer pricing methods, major environmental variables, and issues concerning the administration of a transfer pricing system. The author also presents many interesting findings from a recent study on U.S. transfer pricing practices.

The author begins by describing the nature of intrafirm transactions in a corporate environment and the significance of intrafirm transactions in international trade. Recent changes and major transfer pricing legislation and regulations in the United States are explained. New transfer pricing regulations in Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the European Community and their implications are also discussed. These are followed by a presentation on research methodology and profile of 143 respondent firms. The author then explains the findings on transfer pricing methods and environmental variables of international transfer pricing. Current transfer pricing practices are compared with those of an earlier study done in 1977. Other issues such as system objectives, resolution of policy conflicts, and policies on outside purchases are covered by this monograph. General conclusions from this research and suggestions for further research are also provided.

With contributions from international scholars, this second volume by Joseph Stiglitz and Martin Guzman comprises of theoretical, empirical, and policy-based chapters which carefully utilize theory and data analysis. Part I focuses on the issues of global inequality, poverty measurement and security. Part II turns to the issue of income contingent loans (ICL), where the repayment in any year depends on the annual income of the individual. These loans have proven to be an especially effective way of financing higher education, but there has been experimentation of the use of these loans in several other areas.