This book offers an examination of the empirical data of business cycles, the theories that economists have developed to explain them, and major case studies of recessions and depressions both in the United States and internationally. When it first appeared in 2004, the first edition of Recessions and Depressions: Understanding Business Cycles offered readers an expertly guided tour through fundamental business cycle theories and the latest research on pivotal market failures. In the aftermath of the events of the 2008 economic crisis, Knoop offers an extensively updated new edition. As before, the second edition offers clear explanations of classical and Keynesian economic theory and how each has moved in and out of favor from the early 20th century to the present. It then provides detailed studies of major business-cycle downturns in the United States, from the Great Depression and postwar recessions to the "new" economy of the 1990s, the 2001 recession, and in an all-new chapter, the 2008 global financial crisis. The book also features an exhaustive update of statistical data, plus coverage of recent international crises in Argentina and Japan, and a new chapter on what we do and don't know about business cycles.

In recent years, the potential role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in fostering socio-economic development has received increasing attention in the international economic community. However, no previous works have dealt with the technological capabilities of these enterprises. Here, A. S. Bhalla and a distinguished group of contributors fill this gap by presenting a sustained analysis of the technology issues and options facing small and medium enterprises in both urban and rural settings. The work is organized around three major issues: the policies and programs that affect small and medium enterprises; the innovation potential of these businesses; and the institutions and infrastructure most conducive to their success in developing and advanced economies.

Following Bhalla's introduction, Part One looks at the macro- and microeconomic policy environment necessary to stimulate the innovative capacity and potential of SMEs. The contributors show that existing policy measures are invariably geared toward large enterprises and discuss whether removal of these policy biases is enough to promote SME growth or whether more interventionist approaches are needed. Part Two focuses on the capacity of SMEs to design and manufacture equipment or products--adapting technology to suit their particular requirements. The contributors challenge the accepted views in this area, demonstrating that even microenterprises have the capacity for product and process innovations. In Part Three, the contributors examine the success of the business incubation process in fostering technological innovation, the traditional forms of support offered to SMEs in developing economies, and the linkages between SMEs and research institutions. In each section, individual chapters examine the operation of SMEs in a variety of settings in both advanced and developing countries. Must reading for policymakers and students of international economics, "Small and Medium Enterprises" is a catalyst for informed action in this vital segment of economic activity.

The encouragement of the birth and growth of high technology small firms is a major goal of both national and regional government planning agencies. However, while there is broad agreement on the increasing value of this type of small firm to future industrial expansion beyond the year 2000, there is little hard evidence on which to base measures to encourage the rate of new firm formation and subsequent growth. This book aids policy prescription by providing a detailed study of regional variations in the management of innovation in high technology small firms. The empirical research considers all the major management factors that are inputs to the innovation process through a time-series study of innovation in British and American high technology small firms. In conclusion, results of this study form the basis of a radical new policy approach to the promotion of growth in high technology small firms.

The book provides a comprehensive examination of patterns and determinants of production networks in East Asia, a key driver in the region's global success. It provides the reader with an accessible understanding of the theoretical literature on production networks and recent developments in empirical analysis at the industry and firm-levels. The topics covered in the book include: gross trade in parts and components and gravity models, trade in value added, industry case studies, and micro data econometric studies of firm heterogeneity in production networks. The micro data econometric studies explore key aspects of the heterogeneity of firms in East Asian production networks such as technological capability, the entry of small and medium enterprises into production networks, business use of free trade agreements, and access to credit. Blending new sources of data, empirical tools and econometric methods this book is highly recommended for readers who seek to understand the workings of the complex web of production networks in East Asia.

The book provides a thorough treatment of set functions, games and capacities as well as integrals with respect to capacities and games, in a mathematical rigorous presentation and in view of application to decision making. After a short chapter introducing some required basic knowledge (linear programming, polyhedra, ordered sets) and notation, the first part of the book consists of three long chapters developing the mathematical aspects. This part is not related to a particular application field and, by its neutral mathematical style, is useful to the widest audience. It gathers many results and notions which are scattered in the literature of various domains (game theory, decision, combinatorial optimization and operations research). The second part consists of three chapters, applying the previous notions in decision making and modelling: decision under uncertainty, decision with multiple criteria, possibility theory and Dempster-Shafer theory.

Internalization theory, despite criticism of its empirical deficiency, has dominated the industrial organization approach to the multinational enterprise and its foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions. Liu improves the empirical foundations of internalization theory, through the elaboration of the FDI signaling framework, which holds that a firm's direct foreign investment influences the perceptions of less-informed market participants. The signaling concept is derived from the premise that a firm's intangible assets in know-how cannot be correctly priced in a market with asymmetric information, and this motivates the firm's decision to undertake FDI. If the premise is correct, the firm's decision is based on inside information, and the firm's action reveals that information to the market. The firm's FDI internalization is evidence of management's confidence in its intangible assets, and its action may further influence market perceptions. The hypotheses generated along this line of analysis are subjected to investigation, and the evidence supports the FDI signaling proposition. Moreover, the study represents an indirect test of internalization theory. As a result, internalization is transformed from a untested theory to an empirical result.

Contemporary studies on social structure and the world political economy tend to be concerned primarily with present conditions and what these promise--or threaten for the future of the planet. The authors of this volume have taken a less fashionable stance, looking instead to the recent past and the pivotal historical moments that have formed the world we live in. Consisting of fourteen essays contributed by an international group of specialists, Rethinking the Nineteenth Century examines the social formations of that period and integrates them into a modern theoretical framework. The broad issues of class and state formation, imperialism and nationalism, and ascent and decline in the world system are the central focus of the book.

As the rural township, village and private enterprises are becoming more significant in the Chinese economy, this text focuses on the comparison of the rural (non-state) and state firms in terms of performance. The analysis is based on the empirical results from estimating various production functions applied to cross-section and panel data. Both aggregate and firm-specific efficiencies are examined in the case studies, exploring potential sources of efficiency differentials such as ownership, scale, factor intensity, location and economic reforms. Special attention is also paid to the regional comparison of industrial development and performance. The implications of the findings in the book for economic and reform policy are thus highlighted.

This volume brings together business, government and academic representatives from the United States, Pacific and Asian nations to address issues of regional economic cooperation in the Pacific Basin. The contributors focus particularly on cooperation in five areas: development, commodities, technology, human resources, and issues and directions. Their papers explore both the broad questions of cooperation in regional economic development and more practical concerns such as appropriate technology, political constraints, and foreign aid. Invaluable supplemental reading for courses in economic development and comparative economics, "Pacific Cooperation and Development" provides important new insights into the dynamics of economic development in an increasingly critical global market.

This is an especially impressive study, one really without equal in terms of its coverage and sophistication. . . . While the analysis is predominately neoclassical, it is sensibly and sensitively done, and there is much to be learned from these pages on the immense difficulties involved in designing and implementing appropriate small-state economic policy. The tug of economic reality facing small economies in an open-world economy make the push coming from internal interests a real balancing act, as Worrell appreciates. There are other points one might have liked Worrell to have touched upon, but this work is really in a class by itself; there is no other general economic study of the region that is even remotely comparable. "Choice"

Dr. Worrell has been Director of Economic Research at the Central Bank of Barbados for over ten years. During this time he has observed firsthand the economic fluctuations in the Caribbean, advised the Barbados Government on policy, and written about the issues. "Small Island EconomieS" offers the author's reflections on the English-speaking Caribbean's economic performance during the last fifteen years. This insightful volume will be of use to specialists of developing and comparative economies and third world scholars, as well as those concerned with present-day international relationships.

How Markets Work presents a new and refreshing introduction to elementary economics. The venerable theory of supply and demand is reconstituted upon plausible and defensible assumptions concerning human nature, the law, and the facts of everyday life - in short - the 'Real World'. The message is that markets differ in ways that matter. Starting with a brief survey of property and contract law, the lectures develop several 'ideal types' of markets - such as credit, assets, and labor - while illuminating the similarities and differences among them. Care has been taken to ensure that the reformulations presented are accessible to students and compatible with a variety of non-mainstream traditions in economic thought.Topics covered include the theory of markets, labor markets, market processes when influenced by the availability of information, and social, ethical and political considerations. Also discussed are commodity, credit and asset markets, contracts, dynamics of labor markets, and the economics of discrimination. This book is intended as an essential supplemental text for undergraduate economics students, particularly in heterodox programs, as well as for those in companion liberal arts and sociology fields looking for an accessible introduction to essential economic theory.

This is the first major biography of Alexander T. Stewart, known during his lifetime as The Merchant Prince for his success in retail, wholesale, and manufacturing in New York City. At the time of his death in 1876, Stewart was one of the three wealthiest men in America, along with William B. Astor and Cornelius Vanderbilt. But, because he died with no surviving children, his name has all but been forgotten. In this work, Stewart is revived, his remarkable success as the father of the department store examined, and his great contributions to retailing acknowledged and recounted. Not only a definitive account, this story of a major figure in America's Gilded Age, as told by Stephen Elias, is also an absorbing tale.

This work fills a gap in the literature on American history and the history of our retail trade. It will be of use to historians, students of merchandising, and those interested in New York's golden age.

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.

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.