At the end of the 20th century economists and policymakers face an unprecedented dual challenge: to avert ecological disaster and to end mass unemployment by accelerating and redirecting world economic growth.This major volume brings together contributions from environmental and technological economists. The first part discusses the ecological challenge to economists and policymakers and shows that both need a radical change in their approach. The second part discusses the institutional and legal changes which are necessary to address this challenge. The final part deals with the technological revolution, focusing on microelectronics and biotechnology, which is now transforming the world economy, and sets it in the context of long term fluctuations in economic growth and the relative stagnation since 1973. The protection of the environment, and economic growth with full employment are not necessarily opposed. On the contrary, as this volume demonstrates, what is required to return to full employment and more rapid growth is vigorous and concerted government action to give an 'eco-friendly' direction to technological and economic change.

There is much debate regarding which countries economies have the best economic systems to encourage economic growth and technological change. This book is a major contribution to this discussion, connecting the fields of corporate governance and finance with the field of innovation and technology and analysing the ways in which countries systems of corporate governance affect firms ability to meet the technological challenges of different sectors.

Tylecote and Visintin combine incisive analysis with empirical studies systems of corporate governance in the US, Europe, East Asia and China, demonstrating how these systems vary and how the demands on those who control and finance industry are changing. The authors argue that while certain types of system have worked for particular sectors, the technological revolution through which we are passing demands innovation in corporate governance and finance. Indeed, this book goes some way in challenging accepted views of best practise in corporate governance and finance, showing how structures and rules intended to advance shareholder value may undermine it by inhibiting technological change.

This book will be very interesting reading for students and researchers engaged with corporate governance and national business systems, as well as those interested in systems of innovation.

Winner of the 2010 Myrdal Prize There is much debate regarding which countries' economies have the best economic systems to encourage economic growth and technological change. This book is a major contribution to this discussion, connecting the fields of corporate governance and finance with the field of innovation and technology and analysing the ways in which countries' systems of corporate governance affect firms' ability to meet the technological challenges of different sectors. Tylecote and Visintin combine incisive analysis with empirical studies systems of corporate governance in the US, Europe, East Asia and China, demonstrating how these systems vary and how the demands on those who control and finance industry are changing. The authors argue that while certain types of system have worked for particular sectors, the technological revolution through which we are passing demands innovation in corporate governance and finance. Indeed, this book goes some way in challenging accepted views of best practise in corporate governance and finance, showing how structures and rules intended to advance 'shareholder value' may undermine it by inhibiting technological change. This book will be very interesting reading for students and researchers engaged with corporate governance and national business systems, as well as those interested in systems of innovation.

Is it a mere coincidence that the world economy was depressed in the 1930s and again in the 1980s, just as Nikolai Kondratieff had predicted in 1925? Or do the theories of long waves - alternate long upswings and downswings lasting together about half a century - have real explanatory and predictive power? And if so, why have economic historians found little evidence of regular long waves before Kondratieff wrote?;"The Long Wave and the World Economy" finds that the only regular "wave", since the eighteenth century, has been in technological change. The long rhythms of the economy have, until recently, been irregular. Andrew Tylecote shows how technology, national and international inequality, war and social change, gold rushes and demography, have contributed to the dynamics of economic growth. He also demonstrates how the current downswing has meshed with an ecological crisis which must be addressed before a new world boom can begin. This book should be of interest to lecturers and students of economic history and economics.

Long waves are cycles of some fifty years duration in which a period of rapid expansion is followed by one of slow growth of stagnation. This book provides a critical examination of long wave theory and an original explanation of long fluctuations which is highly relevant to the current crisis in the world economy.