General

Japan's savings are among the highest in the world, and these high rates have played a valuable role throughout the post-war period. However, over the next several decades, Japan's population will be ageing rapidly. Will this lower Japanese savings...

How scientific is economics? This question has often been framed by analogies and correspondences made between economics and other, seemingly more well-established scientific disciplines, starting with classical mechanics. At the same time economics is...

The world economy is currently in the throes of a global economic crisis reminiscent of the great depressions of the 1930s and the 1870s. As back then, the crisis has exposed the major structural imbalances in financial and credit markets in addition to...

Behind the mystery of economic growth stands another mystery: why do some places fare better than others? Casual evidence shows that sizable differences exist at very different spatial scales (countries, regions and cities). This book aims to discuss the...

This edited volume identifies the various country specific factors that warrant changes in the design and implementation of competition laws. The book covers case studies of nine countries of differing sizes and at varying stages of economic...

There is not enough water globally for all the things humans need and want water to do for us. Water supply bubbles are bursting in China, the Middle East and India with potentially serious implications for the global economy and for political stability...

National Accounting Matrices of Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) tables are used to analyze a range of environmental pressures and economic data resulting from consumption and production patterns - helping us gain a far better notion of the consequences of...

The persistence of poverty hurts us all, and attacking poverty is a major policy objective everywhere. In Britain, the main political parties have an anti-poverty mandate and in particular an agreed commitment to eliminate child poverty by 2020, but...

This book seeks to enlighten two grey areas of industrial historiography. Although Bengal industries were globally dominant on the eve of the industrial revolution, no detailed literature is available about their later course of development. A series of...

The principal themes pursued in this book emerge from the great transformation that the Latin American and the Caribbean economies experienced in the aftermath of both the foreign debt crisis of 1982 and the macroeconomic stabilisation policies that...

This book draws together a set of topical writings on the subject of microcredit that will be of relevance to the work of both researchers and practitioners in the field. In drawing on the experiences of authors from countries and regions throughout the...

Bertram Schefold is recognized internationally as an outstanding economist. He has made major contributions to the development of economic theory and particularly to economic thought. His contributions to economic theory include his work on Sraffian...

Is neuroeconomics a flimsy fad likely to pass without leaving a discernible trace in economics? Or is it a promising new field with the potential to enrich and improve economic theory? Neuroeconomics brings together a unique mix of perspectives ranging...

In the last four decades the developed economies have developed into veritable knowledge economies at the same time as more and more economies have entered the road to economic development. Typical for the developments during this time has been...

The European Union has launched an important debate on the future of the EU budget from 2013. This discussion is to cover all aspects of EU revenue and expenditure, including that on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The CAP has been radically...

This text challenges the traditional view of the history of econometrics and provides a more complete story. In doing so, the book sheds light on the hitherto under-researched contribution of French thinkers to econometrics. Fascinating and...

Collateral - generally defined as an asset used to provide security for a lender's loan - is an important feature of credit contracts and all the available evidence suggests that its use is getting more pervasive. This informative book builds upon recent...

In this book Miroslav Beblavy, who has been involved in policy-making at the highest level in his country, offers a detailed study of monetary policy and monetary institutions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia during the 1990s and the...

This book presents the lifelong and ongoing research of Lawrence H. Officer in a systematic way. The result is an authoritative treatment of such issues as market structure and economic efficiency where more than one characteristic of a commodity is...

Organized, readable, technically sound and comprehensive from both theoretical and empirical standpoints, this book summarizes a vast amount of institutional, historical and descriptive detail. Using case studies from the US, Canada, Germany and...

The interplay of ideas and policies is central to understanding the historical evolution of economies. Ideas shape economic institutions and real economic constraints are the source of new economic ideas. The history of economic ideas, both those that...

The 'Everything But Arms' (EBA) regulation of the European Union (EU) has been hailed as a groundbreaking initiative for developing countries. Since 2001 EBA grants almost completely liberalized access to the European market for products from the...

Providing readers with a multi-faceted assessment of the implementation of fiscal policies in the euro zone and their macroeconomic effects five years after the inception of the euro, this book, international in perspective and scope, is the first...

A mixture of academic and practitioner research, this is the most detailed book available that provides an account of open market operations. With broad international appeal it includes discussions of central bank operations in Europe, North America,...

The issues of developing country debt crises, increased volatility and risk, and the determination of market liquidity are high on the agendas of policy makers, market participants and researchers in the area of financial markets. These issues are also...

When the 2008 housing market bubble burst in the United States, a financial crisis rippled from the epi-center in the United States across borders into economies both near and far, causing persistent social and economic detriment in many countries. The...

This book explores the foundations of the current economic crisis. Offering a heterodox approach to interpretation it examines the policies implemented before and during the crisis, and the main institutions that shaped the model of advanced economies,...

Despite exporting more good and services than any other country in the world, economic growth in Germany has been slow through the nineties and the early twenty first century with low wage growth, rising unemployment and increasing public deficits...

New Europe is a rhetorical term used by some analysts to describe European post-communist transition success stories. The term implies their recent return to European, or more precisely Western civilization, but suggests - given their (forced) communist...

International trade must be analysed within the historical context within which it occurs. Behind the statistics on trade flows lie power structures, class interests and international hierarchies. These change over time and how countries respond to them...

Arms purchases are among the most expensive, technologically challenging and politically controversial decisions made by modern-day governments. Superpower spending on weapons systems is widely analysed and discussed. But defence procurement in smaller...

The interlinked issues of air pollution and energy policies in an enlarged Europe are currently subjects of major interest in economic, environmental, geography and regional sciences. This interest is understandable given the considerable consequences on...

In the spring on 2006, a workshop was held at Michigan State University to honour the career of A. Allan Schmid and his writings about how institutions evolve and how alternative institutions, including property rights, shape political relationships and...

More than nine out of every ten working women in India are employed in the informal economy, unprotected by labour laws and excluded from basic forms of social security. They work as daily labourers in the fields, small producers and industrial...

The bulk of contemporary economics assumes rather than explains differences between people or groups of people. Yet, many of these differences are produced by society or they imply differing opportunities and outcomes. This book argues that economists...

The price index, a pervasive long established institution for economics, is a number issued by the Statistical Office that should tell anyone the ratio of costs of maintaining a given standard of living in two periods where prices differ. For a...

The extent to which firms can react creatively to rather than adjust passively against new techniques and practices is dependent on their command of technological knowledge and relative competence. This book explores the characteristics of the path...

This book draws on the expertise of both North American and European specialists of regional economics, evaluating the impact of economic policy in certain regions and considering alternative policies to foster regional economic development and improve...

This book analyzes the evolution and impact of the concept of risk on processes of transnational banking and financial market regulation, as well as the externalities generated by speculative financial activity in developing and emerging market economies...

Keynes asked whether his 'visionary' ideas would overcome the interests opposed to change. However, an examination of the histories of monetary and fiscal policies suggests that this is a false distinction. The interests and ideas associated with...