This Palgrave Pivot provides an introduction to the economy and business environment of Vietnam, a member of the ASEAN Economic Community whose economy is rapidly growing. The introduction argues that though there may be perceived disadvantages in investing in Vietnam, there are a number of benefits as well, such as the country's openness to trade and foreign direct investment, the increasing ease of doing business there and the dynamism of the economy. The book then provides an overview of Vietnam's economic policy since 1975, covering reunification, attempts at a command economy, and finally renovation under Doi Moi Policy. Further chapters cover the expansion of the private sector, interest in foreign investment, and the peculiarities of marketing and finance in Vietnam. As an edited volume with chapters written by Vietnamese scholars across economics, history, and business, this book is critical reading for researchers studying Vietnam and other Asian economies and for businesses interested in expanding into that market.

The corporate governance systems of continental Europe have traditionally been quite different to those of the liberal market economies (e.g. the US and the UK). Company ownership has been dominated by incumbent blockholders, with a relatively minor role for minority shareholders and institutional investors. Business strategy has focused on the achievement of social stability--taking into account the interests of a broad group stakeholders--rather than the maximisation of shareholder value.
However, since the mid-1990s, European corporations have adopted many of the characteristics of the Anglo-American shareholder model. Furthermore, such an increased shareholder-orientation has coincided with a significant role for the Left in European government. This presents a puzzle, as conventional wisdom does not usually conceive of the Left as an enthusiastic proponent of pro-shareholder capitalism. This book provides an analysis of this paradox by examining how economic factors have interacted with the policy preferences of political parties to cause a significant change in the European system of corporate governance.
This book argues that the post-war support of the European Left for the prevailing blockholder-dominated corporate system depended on the willingness of blockholders to share economic rents with employees, both through higher wages and greater employment stability. However, during the 1990s, product markets became more competitive in many European countries. The sharing of rents between social actors became increasingly difficult to sustain. In such an environment, the Left relinquished its traditional social partnership with blockholders and embraced many aspects of the shareholder model.
This explanation is supported through a panel data econometric analysis of 15 non-liberal market economies. Subsequent case study chapters examine the political economy of recent corporate governance change in Germany and Italy.

This book discusses what is often called the "Great Leap Famine", which occurred in China during the years from 1959 to 1961. Scholarly consensus suggests that 30 million Chinese perished. Yang Songlin's book provides an evidence-based, systematic and substantial rebuff, concluding that a much smaller number of deaths can be verified. This book is of interest to scholars of China and Chinese development and politics, economists, and demographers.

This book provides a multi-level and multi-dimensional insight into urban water and sanitation development by analyzing sector reforms in Africa. With the recent events in mind - water shortages in Cape Town, widespread cholera in Haiti, mass-migration from low-income countries, etc. - it elaborates a pressing topic which is directly linked to the precarious living conditions of the urban poor in the developing countries. It is urgent to acknowledge the proposed findings and recommendations of the book which will help to improve the situation of potential refugees in their home countries with a realistic vision for the development of the most basic of all life supporting services. So many efforts to reverse the negative trend in water and sanitation development have failed or targets have been repeatedly missed by far without notable consequences for decision makers on different levels and institutions. It has unnecessarily consumed many young lives, contributed to keep billions in poverty until today and fostered discrimination of women. The knowledge gap and the confusion in the sector lined out in the book becomes evident when a national leader in a low-income country declares a state of emergency in urban water and sanitation while at the same time global monitoring publishes an access figure for urban water of over 90% for the same country. It is time to change this with an effective sector development concept for our partner countries and a more realistic discourse on global level. The book argues for a sweeping rethinking and combines extended local knowledge, lessons learned from history in advanced countries and thorough research on reforms in Francophone and Anglophone developing countries. This was possible because the writer was working in Sub-Saharan partner countries for almost 30 years as an integrated long term advisor in different sector institutions (ministry, regulator, financing basket and different sizes of utilities) and had the opportunity to cooperate closely with the main development partners. The reader has the opportunity to obtain a comprehensive understanding of how the sector works and sector institutions in low-income countries function and can discover the reasons behind success and failures of reforms. The book also covers issues which have a significant influence on urban water and sanitation development but are hardly the subject of discussions. It helps to make the shortcomings of the water and sanitation discourse more apparent and assist institutions to move beyond their present perceptions and agendas. All of this makes the book different from other literature about urban water and sanitation in the developing world.

This handbook covers a wide range of topics related to the collection, processing, analysis, and use of geospatial data in their various forms. This handbook provides an overview of how spatial computing technologies for big data can be organized and implemented to solve real-world problems. Diverse subdomains ranging from indoor mapping and navigation over trajectory computing to earth observation from space, are also present in this handbook. It combines fundamental contributions focusing on spatio-textual analysis, uncertain databases, and spatial statistics with application examples such as road network detection or colocation detection using GPUs. In summary, this handbook gives an essential introduction and overview of the rich field of spatial information science and big geospatial data. It introduces three different perspectives, which together define the field of big geospatial data: a societal, governmental, and governance perspective. It discusses questions of how the acquisition, distribution and exploitation of big geospatial data must be organized both on the scale of companies and countries. A second perspective is a theory-oriented set of contributions on arbitrary spatial data with contributions introducing into the exciting field of spatial statistics or into uncertain databases. A third perspective is taking a very practical perspective to big geospatial data, ranging from chapters that describe how big geospatial data infrastructures can be implemented and how specific applications can be implemented on top of big geospatial data. This would include for example, research in historic map data, road network extraction, damage estimation from remote sensing imagery, or the analysis of spatio-textual collections and social media. This multi-disciplinary approach makes the book unique. This handbook can be used as a reference for undergraduate students, graduate students and researchers focused on big geospatial data. Professionals can use this book, as well as practitioners facing big collections of geospatial data.

This book examines the theory and global evidence on structural transformation along with stylised facts and implications using, among others, a dynamic panel model, for South Asia. The characteristics of the structural transformation process in Bangladesh bring out the relevance of a comprehensive and inclusive South Asian 'brand' in view of the challenges of large population size, high burden of poverty, rising inequalities and its compulsion to achieve rapid and sustained inclusive development.The analysis highlights several distinct characteristics of Bangladesh's structural transformation including changes in value added, trade, employment, productivity, formal-informal jobs, and opportunities for low-skilled workers. The book suggests that the manufacturing sector could not create the required number of jobs and generate rapid absolute and relative productivity gains in the Bangladesh economy. Although the services sector has largely led output and employment growth, services subsectors with strong labour absorptive capacity have low average productivity. Hence, growth-enhancing structural transformation led by these subsectors is likely to be less dynamic than required for rapid employment-creating growth in the economy. The book's analysis on COVID-19 and cyclone Amphan shows that an integrated disaster and development paradigm is needed for Bangladesh. An inclusive and health and well-being focused structural transformation presents the pathway to advance the people-centred approach to development in Bangladesh through both vulnerability reduction and investments in sustainable development that would offset both known and unknown disaster threats. The key for Bangladesh is to skillfully manage the 'developer's dilemma' of achieving both structural transformation in terms of large productivity gains and inclusive growth for reducing poverty and rising inequalities. This book is relevant to students, academicians and development practitioners and others interested in contemporary development.

This book develops a unified treatment of the income distribution-capital-value problems with respect to actual economies, and then gradually turns to the issues of effective demand and capitalist accumulation fluctuations from both political economy and economic policy perspectives. That treatment, on the one hand, places produced means of production, positive profits, and capital accumulation at the centre of the analysis and, on the other hand, is analytically based on the modern control theory. Hence, the authors' investigation is concerned with input-output representations of actual single and joint production, heterogeneous labour, and open economies; zeroes in on the characteristic value distributions of the system matrices; and, finally, derives meaningful theoretical results consistent with the empirical evidence, and vice versa. The main topics addressed are the uncontrollable/unobservable aspects of the real-world economies, the powerful low-order spectral approximations and reconstructions of the inter-industry structure of production-value-distributive variables relationships, the critical-constructive appraisal of both "mainstream" and "radical" theories of value, the matrix demand multipliers and demand-switching policies in heterogeneous capital worlds, and the circular inter-actions amongst income distribution, effective demand, accumulation, and technical conditions of production. Written on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the publication of both Piero Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities and Rudolf E. Kalman's paper "On the general theory of control systems", this book provides a consistent and comprehensive framework for theoretical, empirical, and economic policy research.

This book- which features a foreword by Jean-Claude Juncker and Preface by Professor Harold James- examines the European vocation and achievements of Pierre Werner (1913-2002), former Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, unanimously recognized as one of the architects of Economic and Monetary Union. The author makes extensive use of Pierre Werner's previously unpublished archives belonging to the Werner family, opened for the first time for research purposes. The book analyses the Werner Report, negotiations within the Werner Committee, the emergence of the Committee's views on EMU, their political commitment to a European currency, the similarities and differences between their ideas, their personal networks, the influence of the states they represented, their theoretical and methodological input and their contribution to the political consensus. Chapters shed new light on various aspects of the European integration process and also on the role of Luxembourg and its European policy. In addition, the author has carried out a series of original interviews with Luxembourg and European figures who share their memories and thoughts concerning Pierre Werner, his achievements and his views on the European integration process, and also other topics such as Economic and Monetary Union and Luxembourg's European policy. This book will be of interest and value to researchers, EU policy makers and students in the fields of political economy, political science, economic history and history of economic thought.

Regional Intelligence is an emerging field that leverages the lessons learned through decades of regional science. By merging spatial analysis with quantitative analytical techniques in the Anthropocene, this book contributes to the multidisciplinary understanding of regional issues. The locational aspects of regional paradigms are explored through various empirical studies that promote a rich and diversified understanding of regional issues concerning policy, governance, land use, and territorial decisions. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars and students of regional and spatial sciences and geography, as well as practitioners and decision makers engaged in regional planning and policymaking, looking for new methodological approaches that offer insights into sustainable development, regional prosperity, and livability. As a unique contribution, this book challenges the status quo on how complex spatial problems at an international level and at multiple scales can be comprehended.

This book presents a rough sketch of Dr. Yat-sen Sun's (1866-1925) requirements for modernizing China and elaborates on Sun's desire for the then China to implement a sweeping wave of economic reconstruction and development reforms concerning its railroads and highways, river conservancy and irrigation, new ports and modern cities, by absorbing international capital coming to China. In the preface to this book, first published in 1922, Yat-sen Sun posits, "Unless the Chinese question can be settled peacefully, another world war greater and more terrible than the one just past will be inevitable." In order to solve the "Chinese question," he suggested that the country's vast resources be developed internationally under a socialistic scheme, both for the good of the world in general and the Chinese people in particular. It was his hope that such a scheme would abolish the prevalent spheres of influence of the time, and that the class struggle between capital and labor could be avoided. In this book, Yat-sen Sun presents his solutions for three great questions of global importance: International War, Commercial War and Class War.

A young entrepreneur makes the case that politics has no place in business, and sets out a new vision for the future of capitalism. The modern woke-industrial complex divides us as a people. By mixing morality with consumerism, corporate elites prey on our innermost insecurities about who we really are. They sell us cheap social causes and skin-deep identities to satisfy our hunger for a cause and our search for meaning, at a moment when we lack both. Vivek Ramaswamy is a traitor to his class. He's founded multibillion-dollar enterprises, led a biotech company as CEO, trained as a scientist at Harvard and a lawyer at Yale, and grew up the child of immigrants in a small town in Ohio. Now he takes us behind the scenes into corporate boardrooms and five-star conferences, into Ivy League classrooms and secretive nonprofits, to reveal the defining scam of our century. But this book not only rips back the curtain on the new corporatist agenda, it offers a better way forward. Corporate elites may want to sort us into demographic boxes, but we don't have to stay there. Woke, Inc. begins as a critique of stakeholder capitalism and ends with an exploration of what it means to be a member of society in 2021 - a journey that begins with cynicism and ends with hope.

This book attempts to reveal historical dynamism of transforming contemporary Maritime Asia and to identify key driving forces or agencies for the evolution and transformation of Maritime Asia in the context of global history studies. It seeks to accomplish these goals by connecting different experiences in Maritime Asia both historically from the late early-modern to the present and spatially covering both East and Southeast Asia. Focusing on interactions on and through oceans, seas, and islands, Maritime Asia can deal with any aspects of human society and the nature, including diplomacy, maritime trade, cultural exchange, identity and others. Its interest in supra-regional interactions and networks, migration and diaspora, combined with its microscopic concern with local and trans-border affairs, will surely contribute to the common task of contemporary social sciences and humanities, to relativize the conventional framework based on the nation-state. In this regard, research in Maritime Asia claims to be an integral part of global studies. Part I deals with long-distance trade and diplomatic relations during the late early modern era and its transition to the modern era, mainly in the nineteenth century. Part II focuses on the emergence of transregional and trans-oceanic Asian networks and the original institution-building efforts in the Asia-Pacific region in the twentieth century.

This book examines some of the driving forces of change in the Middle East and aims to provide a regional outlook. The political and social events of the past years have significantly affected the regional structure across the Middle East, evident in socio-economic systems, security framework and the balance of power across the area. Each chapter focuses on one of the driving forces of change, including the Iran Nuclear Deal, the role of external powers, energy and its political and economic role in the region, the regional balance of power struggle amongst the key regional players and the socio-economic challenges across the region.

This book examines cooperation between the US and the EU on financial regulatory reform, notably at the outset and the first three years of the global financial crisis. It discusses the development of US-EU cooperation on financial regulation over the last few decades at several levels, including at heads of state level, markets regulator level and at international level, and progresses with a detailed examination of cooperation at the outset of the financial crisis. It looks at the nature of and motivation for intense US-EU cooperation on coordinating a response to the crisis and presents a compelling argument that a defacto alliance was formed, which served to benefit respective US and EU interests domestically and in the international financial system. Providing a new perspective on financial regulatory reform after the last financial crisis and the relationship of regulatory outcomes to international financial governance, this volume will be of use to researchers interested in transatlantic relations, financial regulation, international relations, global governance, and the European Union, as well as professionals and policymakers working in foreign relations, financial markets, or banking policy.

This book offers a new interpretation of the Employment Act of 1946. It argues that in addition to Keynesian economics, the idea of a living wage was also part of the background leading up to the Employment Act. The Act mandated that the president prepare an Economic Report on the state of the economy and how to improve it, and the idea of a living wage was an essential issue in those Economic Reports for over two decades. The author argues that macroeconomic policy in the USA consisted of a dual approach of using a living wage to increase consumption with higher wages, and fiscal policy to create jobs and higher levels of consumption, therefore forming a hybrid system of redistributive economics. An important read for scholars of economic history, this book explores Roosevelt's role in the debates over the Employment Act in the 1940s, and underlines how Truman's Fair Deal, Kennedy's New Frontier and Johnson's Great Society all had the ultimate goal of a living wage, despite their variations of its definition and name.

This book demonstrates how economics is used in cases of competition in Japan. Competition between firms is usually the most effective way of allocating economic resources and achieving consumer and producer welfare. At the same time, a balance must be struck; firms must not be over-regulated, but neither must they be completely free to create a monopoly or oligopoly. Therefore, the role of competition policy is to maintain a balance by using the collaborative economics of industrial organization. The book uses economic analysis to evaluate case studies on Japanese anti-monopoly law, the Act Concerning Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (AMA), and enforcement in e.g. cartel cases, private monopolization cases, and merger cases. The Japan Fair Trade Commission implements a competition policy, primarily through the enforcement of the AMA, which promotes ingenuity and innovation in business by guaranteeing and enhancing fair and free competition, thereby ensuring economic vitality and consumer benefit. This book is the first authoritative and compact work on competition policy in Japan, which has a more-than-70-year history and is based on solid legal principles. In addition, the book seeks to promote law enforcement based on economic analysis, and includes studies describing the enforcement mechanisms used. It provides comprehensive yet concise information on the structure of the AMA, recent cases, and economic analysis. It also explains the circumstances regarding recent cases and analyzes how the economic policy has been applied to actual cases.

Accounting for Ministers uses the tools of modern political science to analyse the factors which determine the fortunes of Cabinet ministers. Utilising agency theory, it describes Cabinet government as a system of incentives for prime ministerial and parliamentary rule. The authors use a unique dataset of ministers from 1945 to 2007 to examine the structural and individual characteristics that lead to the selection and durability of ministers. Sensitive to historical context, it describes the unique features of different Prime Ministers and the sorts of issues and scandals that lead to the forced exit of ministers. The authors identify the structural factors that determine ministerial performance and tenure, seeing resignation calls as performance indicators. Probing the nature of individual and collective responsibility within Westminster forms of government, its rigorous analysis provides powerful new insights into the nature of Cabinet government.

The policy framework advocated by Minford et al. . . . is grounded in economic theory and an incisive empirical analysis of the costs of UK's membership of the EU. Their thesis that the EU is a political union practising economic protectionism in the guise of gradualism towards free trade makes sense. . . . Minford and his associates' analysis suggests that the EU's policy framework of free trade for members but restrictions on trade of non-members with the EU countries is a second best policy adopted to promote political rather than economic objectives.' - V.N. Balasubramanyam, Lancaster University, UK'The EU got the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012, but such an award is not forthcoming for economics. In fact, the EU faces a stern public discontent throughout Europe. For years EU leaders have been unable to agree on almost anything. The eurozone's toxic monetary embrace is a colossal failure that has provoked misery in most of the participating countries and, worst of all, suffocated the hopes of prosperity for many years to come. The EU is no longer a venture that inspires people to run on barricades to defend it. Should Britain be a part of the crumbling EU project? This book provides a timely and documented answer. It is highly recommended reading.' - Miroslav N. Jovanovi , University of Geneva, Switzerland 'Much too much of the debate about the UK's relationship with the European Union relies upon general declarations unsupported by facts and assertions and claims not substantiated by evidence. This is why we need so badly the careful quantitative analysis provided by Patrick Minford and his colleagues. The UK electorate will have a momentous decision to take when the EU referendum takes place. History and emotions will be important, but getting the facts straight is even more vital.' - John Mills, Founder and Chairman of JML and Co-Chairman of Business for Britain 'Patrick Minford and his team have performed a hugely valuable service by quantifying the costs of Britain's EU membership. In particular, they show that Britain pays too much for too high a proportion of its imports. The EU's protectionism in its trade with the rest of the world costs Britain a significant slice of its national output. Their demonstration of this vital point is thought-provoking and sophisticated, and greatly strengthens the case for the UK to leave the EU.' - Tim Congdon, CBE, International Monetary Research Ltd Placed in the context of the upcoming referendum, this second edition brings up to date a thorough review of all economic aspects of the UK's membership of the EU. It notes the intention of the EU to move to 'ever closer union' and the nature of the regulatory and general economic philosophy of its dominant members, whose position is enforced by qualified majority voting. The book highlights the UK s dilemma that, while extending free markets to its local region is attractive, this European philosophy and closer union are substantially at odds with the UK's traditions of free markets and freedom under the common law. This comprehensive examination of the economic costs and benefits of membership uses state-of-the-art modeling methods and includes estimates of its net costs as a percentage of GDP. The book explains how the decision to leave would follow from a judgement on the political economy of the EU as compared with that of the UK. It details the misconceptions involved in much of the debate about trade with the EU, and argues that the key issue is not access to markets but rather the prices at which trade takes place. Covered in careful detail is the economics of the UK's trade with the EU in the key sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

This book is a study of the key components and contradictions of the escalating global crisis and their impact on modern Australia. It elaborates the damage being done to democracy, human rights, and the fabric of society. Racism is structured in the universality of the nation-state and capitalism in the 21st century. Racism is a process that discriminates and segregates the human species, creating major conflicts and antagonisms. It generates a global struggle for equality and social justice. The global crisis is energised by the contradiction between a global capitalism that is in effect totalitarian and the imperatives of economic growth driving every nation-state of the world. Racism is embodied in the emergence of a new imperialism to maintain Western global hegemony, a growing source of instability and violence in the world system, endangering the survival of humanity. The book advocates the promotion of full democratic participation in the struggle for social, political, and economic equality.

This book examines the development of the Spanish patent system in the years 1826 to 1902, providing a fundamental reassessment of its evolution in an international context. The Spanish case is particularly interesting because of this country's location on the so-called European periphery and also because of the centrality of its colonial dimension. Pretel gauges the political regulation and organisation of the system, showing how it was established and how it evolved following international patterns of technological globalisation and the emergence of the 'international patent system' during the late nineteenth century. Crucially, he highlights the construction and evolution of the patent system in response to the needs of Spain's technologically dependent economy. The degree of industrial backwardness in mid-nineteenth-century Spain set the stage for the institutionalisation of its modern patent system. This institutionalisation process also entailed the introduction of a new technological culture, social infrastructure and narrative that supported intellectual property rights. This book is important reading to all those interested in the history of patents and their role in globalisation.

This textbook presents all major topics in international monetary theory, foreign exchange markets, international financial management and investment analysis. It focuses on real-world problems in the sense that it provides guidance on how to solve policy issues as well as how to complete financial assignments across the globe. This in turn helps readers gain an understanding of the theory and refine the framework. This third edition of the book incorporates three new chapters, and most of the chapters from the second edition have been updated to integrate new material, data, and/or the recent developments in the areas. The book can be used in graduate and advanced undergraduate programs in international or global finance, international monetary economics, and international financial management. It is also a valuable reference book for researchers in these areas.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, nearly every combatant foresaw a short decisive conflict. Experience would soon prove, however, that this belief was sorely misplaced. Eventually, excessive economic dislocations would topple every authoritarian regime. Only the intervention of the United States would save the British and the French from collapse. This book traces the trilateral struggle between the Entente, the Central Powers, and the United States to determine the outcome of the war. Stubbs focuses on a few essential factors vital to understanding this three-way race: the acquisition of war materiel, food, human resources, and the movement of each.

In an analysis of coalition strategies, it is not enough to study the memoirs and memoranda of General Staffs or political figures engaged in war. One must also examine the roles played by each population, their industries, economy, means of transportation, and the financial decisions that make such strategies possible. In short, the material foundations of war set the boundaries within which strategic maneuvers occur. Ultimately, the United States determined the outcome of the First World War, not simply because it provided the last untapped reservoir of manpower, but due to its overall economic contributions to the allied effort.

This book is the fifteenth volume in the renowned International Papers in Political Economy (IPPE) series which explores the latest developments in political economy. Containing contributions by experts in the field, this book focuses on topics that address the ongoing debate of inequalities in economic systems. Inequality has been considered a problem by many academics and policy makers for a long time now and recently here has been some evidence of increasing inequalities in society. Contributors to this book focus on the causes and consequences of inequality along with the importance of tackling inequality and recommend potential policies to reduce it, for example tax reforms. The book covers different aspects of inequality - from income to gender - and explores links between inequality and economic growth, and financialisation and financial crisis.