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.

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 presents selected papers from the 23rd Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, held in Madrid, Spain. While the theoretical and empirical papers presented cover diverse areas of economics and finance in different geographic regions, the main focus is on the latest research concerning international trade, public economics, and regional studies. The book also includes studies on the economics of innovation, inequality and tourism.

This book examines the history of empire and its influence on capitalism. Taking inspiration from Vladimir Lenin's essay Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, the thoughtful chapters explore how workers and resources in Africa, Latin America, and Asia were exploited by capitalist colonizers. Particular attention is given to the empires of Great Britain, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. This book aims to trace the historical development of capitalism and its reliance of colonialism, and is relevant to those interested in economics, development studies, international relations, and global politics.

Volume VII illustrates the administrative aspects that are an on-going component of most economic theory. It demonstrates that before the birth of political economy as a formal discipline, public and private administrators were formulating theories about economic processes as guidelines for administrative decisions. The main theme of this volume revolves around the influence of administrative considerations on the development of economic theory.

The theory of monopoly capital is central to any satisfactory analysis of accumulation and stagnation in advanced capitalist economies. This major new book presents in one volume recent discussions of monopoly capitalism to emphasize the centrality and vitality of this tradition in modern political economy.Following the work of Kalecki, Steindl and Baran and Sweezy, a number of leading economists address key issues such as the calculation of the economic surplus, the division of income between labour and capital, oligopoly collusion over output and pricing, the growth of unproductive activity, the degree of monopoly, surplus absorption and stagnation and the history of the present crisis.

In 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) became part of the United Nations. With 173 member states and more than 400 field offices, the IOM-the new 'UN migration agency'-plays a key role in migration governance. The contributors in this volume provide an in-depth and comprehensive insight into the IOM, its transformation, current structure and projects, as well as its capacity, self-understanding and political agenda.

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.

This book addresses major issues such as a growing world energy demand, environmental degradation due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and risk management of disastrous events such as pandemics, abnormal climate, and earthquakes. Using cutting-edge analytical tools, particularly computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling, the analyses are focused on a very wide range of policy-relevant economic questions for the Asia-Pacific region, especially for Japan, China, India, Vietnam, and smaller nations, including Brunei, Timor Leste, and Fiji. The first part considers (a) the effects of climate change on agriculture sectors, energy policies, and future GHG emission trends, (b) adaptation to climate changes in energy policy and its impacts on the economies, and (c) risk management of catastrophic events such as global pandemics. The second part examines (a) energy environmental issues, (b) economic impacts of natural disaster and depopulation, and (c) effects of informatics development on risk management, using CGE modelling and other methods in regional science fields. Contributors are internationally active leading CGE modellers and environmental economists. The book should be greatly beneficial for scholars and graduate students as well as policy makers who are interested in the economic effects and management of risks relating to climate change and disastrous events.

Beginning with the economic meltdown of 2007/8, this book shows that the predatory mortgage lending and overleveraging-which is to say, the overextension of credit-which precipitated The Great Recession was a response to a crisis of overproduction reflective of an unavoidable contradiction at the heart of competitive capitalism. This contradiction, in addition to portending capitalism's inevitable ultimate demise, invites both a pragmatic and moral comparison of (US) capitalism with (Chinese) socialism. Simon V. Glynn provides a critique of political economy and an analysis of the economic logic of capitalism, pointing to the inevitable triumph of socialism.

This open access handbook, Ten Crises systematically traces the economic historyof China from 1949 to 2020, unravelling the complex domestic and global factorsleading to the cyclical crises identified by WEN and his research team, andexamining the corresponding counteracting policies and measures by thegovernment to resolve or defer the crises. The book offers profound insights intoChina's endeavours and predicaments on the path of modernization, andcontemplates opportunities and lessons for the forging of alternative trajectoriesnot only for China but also for the global south: to reconstruct rural communitiesfor integrated cooperation and governance, and to revitalize ecological civilization.

Methodologically rigorous and geographically exhaustive, Post-Communist Welfare States in European Context is an insightful empirical analysis of social policy patterns in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a must-read for everyone interested in comparing hybrid emerging social protection models in the divergent new Europe with established worlds of welfare in Western Europe. Kati Kuitto has written a state-of-the-art study in comparative welfare, emphasizing regime change and variability over regime coherence and stability.' - Pieter Vanhuysse, University of Southern DenmarkWelfare reforms in post-communist countries are determined by economic and social hardship, democratization of the political systems and rapid structural change. This groundbreaking book provides a comprehensive and systematic empirical assessment of the Central and Eastern European post-communist welfare states in the context of their Western European counterparts. Basing the study on new data on welfare entitlements and cluster analysis, Kati Kuitto systematically compares 26 European welfare states across three empirical dimensions. The author employs a multidimensional framework to analyze patterns of welfare policies and highlight spending priorities, financing and the generosity of welfare entitlements. Kati Kuitto thus sheds light on the hybrid patterns of welfare policies in post-communist countries as they have emerged after the period of transformation and discusses their future challenges. Unique and comprehensive, this is essential reading for researchers in the fields of comparative welfare state research and Central and Eastern European studies, as well as students and practitioners of social policy, social security and political economy.

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 textbook examines corruption through a macroeconomic lens, exploring the relationship between corruption, fiscal policy, and political economy. It merges macroeconomic growth models with elements of political economic theory to address important applied topics such as income inequality within and across countries, growth slowdowns, and fiscal crises. Revised and updated to include new research findings and recent policy discussions, the second edition contains 15 new sections and 2 new chapters on topics such as public defaults, the wage elasticity of work and the interest elasticity of saving, and the economic and fiscal impact of the 2020 pandemic. Most of the basic ideas are illustrated using a two-period model of government investment that captures the future cost of policies that favor the present. The more subtle and advanced issues are illustrated and, in some cases, quantified, using the overlapping-generations model of economic growth. The models used to illustrate the mechanisms of economic growth are extended to incorporate politics and the behavior of public official. The text concludes with a thorough discussion of policy reforms designed to address the issues discussed in earlier chapters. Intended for students familiar with intermediate-level economics, the second edition contains a technical appendix, expanded end-of-chapter questions and problems, and a complete solutions manual. The second edition also offers updated resources for instructors, including sample syllabi and over 550 multiple choice questions. Offering a unified explanation for the causes and consequences of government failure, fiscal crisis, and needed policy reforms, this text is appropriate for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses in macroeconomics, political economy, and public policy.

Using a series of studies, this book shows that ownership structure plays a major role in the national economy as a whole. Inefficient State Owned Enterprises (SOE's) damage the development of private enterprises and overall economic growth in various ways. The policy implications are very clear: in order to achieve healthy and fast economic development, there must be a radical reform of SOEs. Moreover, the aim of the SOE reform is not just to highlight the enterprises' efficiency, but also create favorable conditions for financial deregulation, elimination of market segmentation, weakened market monopoly, and balanced regional economic development. The book argues that SOE reform is pivotal to stimulating general economic reform and development in order for China to achieve a smooth transition to a mature market economy.

This book conceptualises the ongoing hydropower expansion in Southwest China as a socio-political and transnational project transcending the construction of dams. Chapters in this volume are organised around three sections spanning hydropower and resettlement governance, rural livelihoods, and international relations connected to China's hydropower expansion. Dam projects of various scales are analysed as infrastructure projects that shape peoples' livelihoods, the environment, and China's relations with Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

This book takes an in-depth look at China's national economic development strategy promulgated by the CPC at its Nineteenth National Congress, held in October 2019, from a historical and scientific perspective. Each of the fifteen chapters discusses one aspect of the new strategy by tracing its core ideas to their theoretical and historical roots. The wide range of topics covered include foundational, strategic, tactical and practical issues such as China's commitment to socialism, innovation, entrepreneurship and consumer spending, tax and fiscal reform, job-creation, rural development, and digital trade. This book will be of interest to China scholars studying the evolution of the country's approach to economic development and the larger historical context of the latest strategic plans that will shape China's economic outlook in the next few decades.

Economists may suppose that low-wage work can result in correspondingly low productivity. The best solution to high unemployment and turnover and low productivity is to pay users of low-wage labor a subsidy for each unit of labor they use. Top economists examine the best ways to address the problem of low wages and employment in the low-skilled labor pool.

This book uses a critical political economy approach to develop an historically and politically grounded set of strategies for states to move toward a post-growth, decarbonised global economy. It begins by examining the social and ecological costs of and limits to economic growth and determines that significant decarbonisation of the global economy can only be achieved if conventional growth-based economies are replaced by an alternative post-growth economy. Set apart from many other works in the field by its critical political economy approach to policy development, this book offers the reader three distinctive features. First, it places the analysis in historical context in order to demonstrate how the global political economy is constantly changing with respect to distributions of wealth, power and fundamental norms, and explores how states might harness and transform these contingent patterns in a post-growth direction. Second, the book is not only concerned with developing and advocating post-growth policies, but also with how these measures can be incorporated into the high-level domestic and international strategies pursued by states to ensure their political legitimacy and economic and geopolitical survival. Third, rather than proposing an idealised and politically naive model of socioecological transformation, the proposed post-growth policy framework is highly cognisant of the geopolitical and international economic pressures facing states and demonstrates how these can be managed in the transition toward a post-growth economy. This book represents an invaluable resource for policymakers, academics, activists and students wishing to study or contribute to the transition to a post-growth, decarbonised economy.

This book aims to foster a better understanding of the particular challenges faced by resource-dependent countries or jurisdictions in managing their resource revenues through natural resource funds (NRFs). It explores the varieties of natural resource management strategies as dictated primarily by domestic politics, and how the potential negative distributional consequences of resource wealth management (the resource curse) may add political dimensions and potential conflicts to decisions about NRFs in ways that other sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) do not experience. By bridging the existing academic and practical knowledge gap arising from the limited attention given to the domestic politics of NRFs and state-society relations, this edited book is a valuable resource for academics, policymakers, and civil society actors in resource-driven economies and especially those interested in learning from comparative experiences of natural resource wealth management through NRFs.

Creativity loosely refers to activities in the visual arts, music, design, film and performance that are primarily intended to produce forms of affect and social meaning. Yet, over the last few decades, creativity has also been explicitly mobilized by governments around the world as a 'resource' for achieving economic growth. The creative economy discourse emphasizes individuality, innovation, self-fulfillment, career advancement and the idea of leading exciting lives as remedies to social alienation. This book critically assesses that discourse, and explores how political shifts and new theoretical frameworks are affecting the creative economy in various parts of the world at a time when creative industries are becoming increasingly 'industrialized.' Further, it highlights how work inequalities, oligopolistic strategies, competitive logics and unsustainable models are inherent weaknesses of the industrial model of creativity. The interdisciplinary contributions presented here address the operationalization of creative practices in a variety of geographical contexts, ranging from the UK, France and Russia, to Greece, Argentina and Italy, and examine issues concerning art biennials, museums, DIY cultures, technologies, creative writing, copyright laws, ideological formations, craft production and creative co-ops.

This book investigates individual companies' and industries' supply chain risk management approaches to identify risk drivers and verify effective risk-reduction measures and business continuity plans. Typically, supply chain risk assessments focus on normative guidelines based on single best practice examples or vulnerability events, and there has been little work exploring how the concepts of supply chain risk management and resilience are related. However, since this relationship has implications for developing integrated response strategies, a clear understanding of the possible consequences is a fundamental step in building socio-economic resilience along the supply chain. Against this background, the book addresses three main topics: firstly, it defines the conceptual and sectoral domains of supply chain risk management and resilience by examining the welfare effects of extreme weather events and other economic shocks on selected global supply chains. It then presents an in-depth analysis of the scope of public-private partnerships to tackle the risks, by empirically exploring supply chain risk effects and information management. Thirdly, it proposes a regional cooperation framework in the context of major supply chain vulnerability events such as disasters and global financial crises.