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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Microeconomics
Providing overviews and case studies of states and sectors, classes and companies in the new international division of labour, this series treats polity-economy dialectics at global, regional and national levels. This volume in the series looks at the complexities of structural adjustment in Africa. Structural adjustment programs in Africa are as widespread as they are controversial. This book examines the complex economic and political nature of these programs and seeks to make them intelligible to the non-expert. It analyzes, in a concise accessible manner, the impact of specific policy measures designed to achieve structural adjustment, such as devaluation, price liberalization, fiscal restraint and privatization. It critically evaluates the past experience of countries implementing these policies and assesses the likelihood of such policies providing sustainable long-term economic solutions to the African crisis. Particular attention is paid to whether orthodox approaches to adjustment, as imposed by the IMF and World Bank as conditionality for their loans, can generate the broad political consensus required for long-term growth and stability in Africa.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 envisioned a competitive free-for-all in the U.S. telecommunications industry with removal of barriers to entry in local telecommunications markets and the lifting of the artificial restrictions that kept the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) out of the interLATA long-distance market. After close to 5 years, only one RBOC has been granted permission (controversially) to enter the interLATA market, and local competition has yet to provide most consumers with meaningful choices. In addition, the wave of mergers across the industry has raised the specter of putting the former Bell System back together again. Policymakers now openly question whether the Act can deliver what it promised. Three principal themes are developed in this book. First, there has been a coordination failure between Congress and the FCC in translating the principles embodied in the Act into practice. The authors provide evidence for this by analyzing stock market reactions to legislative and regulatory actions. This coordination failure was largely predictable, given the ambiguity in the Act, as well as conflicting jurisdictions between the FCC and the states. Second, the Act calls for wholesale prices to be based on cost.' Regulators adopted a costing standard (TELRIC) that provides a means to subsidize competitive entry in local telephone service markets. The ready adoption of the TELRIC standard by regulators is shown to be tied to the third theme: price cap regulation provides regulators with insurance' against the adverse effects of competition in local telephone markets. Statistical analysis reveals that regulators in price cap states set uniformly lower unbundled network element prices (lower barriers to entry) in comparison with regulators in rate-of-return and earnings sharing states. The result is a triumph of regulatory processes over market processes - the antithesis of the purpose of the Act.
The internet and the electronic economy are a technological revolution whose secular importance is apparent. The internet eliminates the temporal and spatial constraints on the exchange of information. It changes deeply the world of production and of labour. It transforms the exchange relationships between producers and consumers as well as between the suppliers within the supply-chain. The electronic economy is able to generate more accurate con sumer profiles and, therefore, a more powerful and effective marketing di rected to the individual consumer. There is no industry that is not undergoing thorough changes caused by the internet. The volume at hand gives an analysis of the internet revolution. It covers questions reaching form the highly controversial thesis of the end of property rights in the internet caused by the non-rivalry of the "consumption" of in formation to questions regarding the repercussions of the internet on our understanding of the human person. Technological changes like the introduction of the electronic economy pose the question of how to handle it and how to manage reasonably its ethi cal problems and dilemmas. The ethical problems and the business ethics of the electronic economy in the fields of production and labour, of consump tion, and in handling trust and the abuse of trust are analysed by the contribu tions from applied ethics and business ethics."
An important new resource for managers in marketing, finance, acquisitions analysis, and strategic planning, this book explores a question central to the financial health of every company: Is there a rate of corporate growth that is both desirable and sustainable? As the authors point out, excessive growth in sales can be as destructive to the survival of a firm as no growth. Here they present analytical models and tools that enable corporate planners to evaluate their own growth needs, target realistic expectations, and assess the collateral risks of growing either too fast or too slow. Focusing throughout on the concept of managed growth, the authors begin with a theoretical micro/macroeconomic analysis and proceed to a practical, applied presentation of growth theory in management decision making. They present models useful for both short- and long-term management, all of them illustrated with concrete data taken from corporate annual reports and SEC 10K reports. By employing these models, planners will be able to accurately forecast optimal and feasible growth rates, evaluate the impact of price fluctuations on the sustainable growth rate, isolate the effects of productivity trends, plan working capital requirements, determine the most favorable capital structure of the firm, and measure the impact of potential mergers or takeovers on sustainable growth. Each of the models can easily be programmed for computer usage. The authors also pay considerable attention to remedial actions that can be taken when the actual growth rate either exceeds or falls short of the sustainable growth rate, making this an especially practical tool for anyone charged with financial, sales, and strategic planning responsibilities.
? In his "Prime ricerche sulla rivoluzione dei prezzi in Firenze" (1939), Giuseppe Parenti, by Fernand Braudel regarded as an author who "se classait, d'entree de jeu et sans discussion possible, a la hauteur meme d'Earl Jefferson Hamilton. . . . " begins his opening lines with a description/de?nition of the price revolution which took place in the XVI in Europe as "that extraordinary enhancement of all things that occurred in European countries around the second half of the XVI; revolution in the true meaning of the word, as not only, like any strong price increase, it modi?ed the wealth distribution process and changed the relative position of the various social categories and of the different functions of the economic activity, but affected too, in a way that was not enough studied yet, the relative evolution of the various national economies, and ?nally, . . . . . . . . . ., certainly contributed to the birth, or at least to the dissemination, of the new naturalistic economic ideas, from which the economic science would have sprung." De?nition that can be taken as the founding metaphor of this volume."
In designing policies to help resolve its energy problems, every country faces a unique set of conditions. Contributors to this volume profile the energy situation in the developing countries, assess the role of energy policy in Third World development, and discuss the global energy situation in relation to these countries' consumption, production, trade, and resource endowment. The rest of the volume provides researchers with different sources of information--statistical and bibliographic--relating to energy policy development in the Third World. Managing the increasing demand for energy is explored in depth.
The regulation of road transport externalities - environmental pollution, noise annoyance, accidents and congestion - is one of the most important issues in contemporary transport policies.The Economics of Regulating Road Transport explores welfare economic evaluations - in terms of efficiency as well as equity and social feasibility - of regulatory policies and policy mixes directly aimed at, or indirectly connected to the containment of market failures in road transport. The discussion ranges from static analyses at the level of individual actors and firms to the dynamic behaviour of large spatio-economic systems. Part one explores the economic rationale behind regulating road transport, part two investigates issues of efficiency in the regulation of road transport and part three discusses the issue of equity and social feasibility versus efficiency. This book will be of interest to students of environmental economics and transport economics and to transport and environmental policymakers at the local, regional, national and international level.
The International Economic Association was foremost in reviving professional economists' concern with institutions and their impact in publications such as Economic Institutions in a Dynamic Society (1989). This volume concentrates on the states whose development has been characterised as the 'East Asian miracle' in the light of the performance of other economies starting from similarly low income levels, including India, China, African states - especially Nigeria - and Latin American countries including Brazil. This comprehensive comparative survey in economic history demonstrates the external shocks and interacting domestic forces which constituted the growth dynamic. Nobel Laureates Kenneth Arrow and Douglass North and past President of the IEA the late Michael Bruno are among the thirty-four highly distinguished specialist contributors.
In Poverty from the Wealth of Nations , the author presents an analysis of the evolution of global disparities that goes beyond the earlier neo-Marxist critiques of global capitalism. He moves beyond their narrative by inserting two additional asymmetries into the global economy - those created by 'unequal races' and unequal states. The author analyzes not only the power of markets, but the powers that shaped these markets. More importantly, he marshals cross-country evidence to show that loss of sovereignty retarded industrialization, human capital formation and economic growth.
Communications markets have made much progress towards competition and deregulation in recent years. However, it is increasingly clear, in the age of the Internet and the digital revolution, that much more needs to be done, and that new approaches, both at the Federal Communications Commission and in Congress, will be required to complete the task. In this volume, the Progress and Freedom Foundation presents nine papers by communications policy experts and government policymakers that show how to finish the job of deregulating communications markets and reforming the FCC. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a landmark piece of legislation for an industry moving from a monopoly orientation towards competition, but additional steps are needed to complete the process of implementing the pro-competitive, deregulatory vision of the act. Bringing together a group of the caliber represented in this book makes possible the best recommendations about the exact nature of those necessary changes. In this volume, the most difficult and politically-charged hot-button issues involving local and long distance competition, universal service, spectrum allocation, program content regulation, and the public interest doctrine are confronted head-on. As importantly, the authors recommend specific reform proposals to be considered by the Federal Communications Commission and Congress. The ideas contained in the experts' essays were presented and debated at a conference hosted by The Progress & Freedom Foundation, which was held in Washington, DC, on December 8, 2000. The Progress & Freedom Foundation studies the impact of the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It conducts research in fields such as electronic commerce, telecommunications and the impact of the Internet on government, society and economic growth. It also studies issues such as the need to reform government regulation, especially in technology-intensive fields such as medical innovation, energy and environmental regulation.
This book synthesizes the existing quantitative evidence on organizational design, bringing together the growing stream of theoretical work on the economics of firms' organization and available empirical findings produced by qualitative work in management, business history and organizational sociology.
This text is concerned with strategy and tactics for directing that small slice of world income into filling the gap. This must be done country by country, on the initiative of each country's government: with the maximum involvement of its own civil society, and with the rich world also making a contribution. To add momentum, the international community needs to adopt targets far more specific than the fifty percent extreme 'poverty reduction' of the first Millennium Development Goal.
This is the tenth volume in a series of studies on entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth. The work looks at legal, regulatory and policy changes that affect entrepreneurial midsize firms.
First published in 1991, during a significant stagnation in the Israeli economy, this title discusses the causes of the economic downturn, and assesses the country's prospects. Throughout, Aharoni measures the economic problems Israel has endured against the social and economic successes it has been able to achieve. He highlights the incongruities of the aspirations of Israel's founders and supporters and the reality, as well as the interplay of economic and political forces that have shaped this. With a detailed introduction to the ideology and development of the state of Israel, and a history of the Israeli economy and its institutional structure, this title will be of significant value to any student studying the economic history of Israel and the Middle East.
In this book an eminent international banking expert grapples with issues that surround the trend toward financial globalization and its potential impact on financial fragility. Does globalization entail the risk of greater financial market instability -- perhaps even genuine systemic fragility -- or will it lead to a smoother working of markets? How should governments, central banks, and international institutions respond to manifestations of financial fragility? Alexandre Lamfalussy analyzes four major crisis experiences in emerging markets: Latin America in 1982-83, Mexico in 1994-95, East Asia in 1997-98, and Russia since 1998. The author finds that the build-up of short-term indebtedness and asset price bubbles were at the heart of the four crises. And in each case the exuberant behavior of lenders and investors from the developed world played a major role, while financial globalization was an aggravating factor. Lamfalussy offers a series of carefully considered policy recommendations for the future that are both pragmatic and wise.
This book presents the theory and practice of product lifecycle management, chiefly focusing on modern approaches suitable for digitalized enterprises. In addition to describing adaptive methods for advanced product creation using big data analytics, it presents economic and mathematical models for managing product lifecycles based on the application of recent methods (e.g. digital design and automated intelligent systems) to control pre-production and production processes. Given its scope, the book appeals to researchers, economic analysts and entrepreneurs alike.
The sports industry presents many unusual and interesting opportunities for the application of economic theory and econometrics. In 15 professional papers, this book addresses current economic issues in the industry, including the problem of competitive balance, the location of professional sports teams and their impact on local communities, managerial decision making, and issues related to labor markets. Extending the previous research in sports economics, the papers reflect the most recent applications of economic theory in this area. The book will be a valuable resource for professional economists working on sports economics topics. In two opening chapters on competitive balance, the contributors develop a model for college football and examine the impact of balance on attendance in major league baseball. In a section on the location of professional sports teams, the chapters then develop a model to predict the location of expansion teams, make econometric estimates of the impact of Super Bowls on the host city, and analyze the ownership of stadiums and arenas. Managerial decision making is discussed in chapters that examine alternative econometric models of production in baseball, use a production function model to analyze technological change in Major League Baseball, examine the management of team streaks, consider the competitive balance between American and National Leagues, analyze the efficiency of player trades in the National Basketball Association, and estimate the impact of participation in inter-collegiate sports on academic performance. In the final section on labor markets, the contributors estimate the impact of owner collusion on baseball players' salaries, consider the impact of the new collective bargaining agreement in Major League Baseball, analyze the impact of being a union representative, and examine the impact of the National Football League's salary cap on player's salaries.
This book analyses the conception of economic development in modern regions, which has gone through a fundamental change since the early 1980s. Regions are today increasingly looked upon as independent market places that are connected via interregional and international trade and not as administrative units embodied in a national state. Two complementary theoretical frameworks explain the specialization of economic activity at the regional level. The traditional approach assumes that the comparative advantages of regions depend upon differences in the supply of lasting resources. In contrast the new complementary framework called the New Economic Geography, assumes that the dynamic interaction between geographical market potentials and rational firms in its own way creates the comparative advantage of regions. The contributors to this book examine the policy implications of the complementarity of the competing views in a variety of geographic and functional contexts. The first set of papers examines the effect of regional policy on firm locational decision-making. This leads to another set evaluating a variety of regional policy efforts. New and different methodological approaches are examined in another set of papers. The final part of the book focuses on new concepts. Economists, geographers and readers interested in regionalization, trade and development will find this book informative.
* Presents many of the microeconomic and macroeconomic theories and schools of thought not generally covered in mainstream principles of economics textbooks * Each chapter starts with a short "refresher" of standard neoclassical economic modelling before demonstrating how that model is distorted by people, problems and events in the real world to provide students with a more realistic picture of how the economy works * Updates throughout and new material on populism, racism, inequality, climate change and the covid-19 pandemic * Now has online supplements: quiz questions for students and PowerPoint slides for instructors
The sense one gets from this most interesting book is that the change Nasser wrought in the Egyptian economy was more out of expediency than out of ideological commitment. According to Hosseinzadeh, those who argue that Nasser's development path was noncapitalist or socialist are wrong; he presents their arguments and refutes them. Indeed Egypt's path, he argues, was closer to state capitalism than to any other path. . . . Highly recommended for faculty, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students. "Choice" This clear, comprehensive book examines the theoretical, ideological, and political aspects of the official Soviet approach to Third World economic development. Of particular interest is the analysis of the so-called theory of non-capitalist (NCD) path to socialism, which is studied both theoretically and empirically. The author traces the history of thought leading to successive versions of this theory and provides a persuasive critique of it. This history begins with Marx and Lenin, continues with Trotsky and the resolutions of the Comintern Congresses of the 1920s, and leads through the Stalin era to the influence of Soviet experiences with national and social movements in the Third World. The book ends with recent reassessments of the Soviet approach to Third World developments under Gorbachev and his co-thinkers. This definitive work is of value to all those interested in Soviet studies, Third World--especially Middle East--studies, and the study of Soviet-Third World relations in general. The author challenges Soviet Third World experts by examining the substance of their theories and the relevance of their policies from a Marxist point of view. The claims of these experts are tested against the actual developments of Nasser's Egypt, the most frequently cited case of non-capitalist development. The study of the case of Egypt focuses on the extensive nationalizations that were implemented under the Free Officers' rule, the philosophy of those nationalizations, the character of state capitalist regimes and their tendency toward expanding the public sector, the differences between socialism and state capitalism, and the like. |
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