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Social Economics: Market Behavior in a Social Environment (Belknap Ser.)
By Gary S. Becker, Kevin M. Murphy. 2003
Economists assume that people make choices based on their preferences and their budget constraints. The preferences and values of others…
play no role in the standard economic model. This feature has been sharply criticized by other social scientists, who believe that the choices people make are also conditioned by social and cultural forces. Economists, meanwhile, are not satisfied with standard sociological and anthropological concepts and explanations because they are not embedded in a testable, analytic framework. In this book, Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy provide such a framework by including the social environment along with standard goods and services in their utility functions. These extended utility functions provide a way of analyzing how changes in the social environment affect people's choices and behaviors. More important, they also provide a way of analyzing how the social environment itself is determined by the interactions of individuals. Using this approach, the authors are able to explain many puzzling phenomena, including patterns of drug use, how love affects marriage patterns, neighborhood segregation, the prices of fine art and other collectibles, the social side of trademarks, the rise and fall of fads and fashions, and the distribution of income and status.The Ownership of Enterprise
By Henry Hansmann. 2000
The investor-owned corporation is the conventional form for structuring large-scale enterprise in market economies. But it is not the only…
one. Even in the United States, noncapitalist firms play a vital role in many sectors. Employee-owned firms have long been prominent in the service professions--law, accounting, investment banking, medicine--and are becoming increasingly important in other industries. The buyout of United Airlines by its employees is the most conspicuous recent instance. Farmer-owned produce cooperatives dominate the market for most basic agricultural commodities. Consumer-owned utilities provide electricity to one out of eight households. Key firms such as MasterCard, Associated Press, and Ace Hardware are service and supply cooperatives owned by local businesses. Occupant-owned condominiums and cooperatives are rapidly displacing investor-owned rental housing. Mutual companies owned by their policyholders sell half of all life insurance and one-quarter of all property and liability insurance. And nonprofit firms, which have no owners at all, account for 90 percent of all nongovernmental schools and colleges, two-thirds of all hospitals, half of all day-care centers, and one-quarter of all nursing homes. Henry Hansmann explores the reasons for this diverse pattern of ownership. He explains why different industries and different national economies exhibit different distributions of ownership forms. The key to the success of a particular form, he shows, depends on the balance between the costs of contracting in the market and the costs of ownership. And he examines how this balance is affected by history and by the legal and regulatory framework within which firms are organized. With noncapitalist firms now playing an expanding role in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia as well as in the developed market economies of the West, The Ownership of Enterprise will be an important book for business people, policymakers, and scholars.The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle
By Harold James. 2012
Harold James examines the vulnerability and fragility of processes of globalization, both historically and in the present. This book applies…
lessons from past breakdowns of globalization—above all in the Great Depression—to show how financial crises provoke backlashes against global integration: against the mobility of capital or goods, but also against flows of migration. By a parallel examination of the financial panics of 1929 and 1931 as well as that of 2008, he shows how banking and monetary collapses suddenly and radically alter the rules of engagement for every other type of economic activity. Increased calls for state action in countercyclical fiscal policy bring demands for trade protection. In the open economy of the twenty-first century, such calls are only viable in very large states—probably only in the United States and China. By contrast, in smaller countries demand trickles out of the national container, creating jobs in other countries. The international community is thus paralyzed, and international institutions are challenged by conflicts of interest. The book shows the looming psychological and material consequences of an interconnected world for people and the institutions they create.Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners
By Roland Boer. 2021
This book covers the whole system of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, dealing with Deng Xiaoping’s theory, the socialist market economy,…
a moderately well-off (Xiaokang) society, China’s practice and theory of socialist democracy, human rights, and Xi Jinping’s Marxism. In short, the resolute focus is the Reform and Opening-Up. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is one of the most important global realities today. However, the concept and its practice remain largely misunderstood outside China. This book sets to redress such a lack of knowledge, by making available to non-Chinese speakers the sophisticated debates and conclusions in China concerning socialism with Chinese Characteristics. It presents this material in a way that is both accessible and thorough.How Important are Superior Numbers?: A Reappraisal of Lanchester's Square Law (Elements in Defence Economics)
By David L. Kirkpatrick. 2021
A century ago Frederick Lanchester formulated a mathematical model of combat which suggested that the combat power of a military…
force was proportional to the product of the individual effectiveness of the units in the force and the square of the number of units deployed. This model reinforced a long-established faith in the importance of superior numbers. However, successive historical studies failed to identify any clear relationship between the numbers and losses in opposing forces. This Element analyses American Civil War battles, and shows that the ratio of losses incurred was inversely proportional to the ratio of numbers effectively engaged. This result demonstrates that the numbers of fighting units in a military force are less important than the ability of those units to get into action and inflict losses on the enemy. This result demonstrates the limitations of the Square Law, and should prevent it from being applied indiscriminately.Energy Audits: Theoretical Examination and Modeling of Energy Audits (Sustainable Management, Wertschöpfung und Effizienz)
By Michael Krutwig, Adrian Dumitru Tanțău. 2021
Existing literature on energy audits consists almost exclusively of practical guides. This book looks at energy auditing from a scientific…
perspective. It discusses the nature of energy audits and provides a universally applicable data model as a basis for automatic processing of a large number of energy audits. Qualitative aspects of auditing are discussed in detail. The modeling enables an improved evaluation of subsidy programs for energy audits, but also a systematic and teamwork-oriented creation of energy audits.Sustainability in the Maritime Domain: Towards Ocean Governance and Beyond (Strategies for Sustainability)
By Angela Carpenter, Tafsir M. Johansson, Jon A. Skinner. 2021
This volume explores options for a sustainable maritime domain, including maritime transportation, such as, Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), maritime education and training,…
maritime traffic and advisory systems, maritime security. Other activities in the maritime domain covered in the book include small-scale fisheries and sustainable fisheries, and greening the blue economy. The book aims to provide the building blocks needed for a framework for good ocean governance; a framework that will serve through the next decade and, and hopefully, well beyond the 2030 milepost of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. In short, this book brings together the problems of the current world and sustainable solutions that are in the development process and will eventually materialize in the not so distant future. Additionally, the book presents a trans-disciplinary analysis of integral sustainable maritime transportation solutions and crucial issues relevant to good ocean governance that have recently been discussed at different national, regional and international fora, highlighting ongoing work to develop and support governance systems that facilitate industry requirements, and meet the needs of coastal states and indigenous peoples, of researchers, of spatial planners, and of other sectors dependent on the oceans.The book will be of interest to researchers across many disciplines, especially those that are engaged in cross-sectoral research and developments in the maritime transport sector and across the wider maritime domain. To this end, the book covers areas including natural and social sciences, geographical studies, spatial planning, maritime security and gender studies, as they relate to transport and the wider maritime sector. In addition, the book explores frameworks for sustainable ocean governance being developed under the UN’s Agenda for Sustainable Development to 2030. It will also look beyond the 2030 milepost under that Agenda, and will be of use to national and international policymakers and practitioners, government actors at the EU and other regional and national levels and to researchers of ocean governance, sustainability and management, and maritime transport.Digital Transformation in Accounting (Business and Digital Transformation)
By Richard Busulwa, Nina Evans. 2021
Digital Transformation in Accounting is a critical guidebook for accountancy and digital business students and practitioners to navigate the effects of…
digital technology advancements, digital disruption, and digital transformation on the accounting profession. Drawing on the latest research, this book: Unpacks dozens of digital technology advancements, explaining what they are and how they could be used to improve accounting practice. Discusses the impact of digital disruption and digital transformation on different accounting functions, roles, and activities. Integrates traditional accounting information systems concepts and contemporary digital business and digital transformation concepts. Includes a rich array of real-world case studies, simulated problems, quizzes, group and individual exercises, as well as supplementary electronic resources. Provides a framework and a set of tools to prepare the future accounting workforce for the era of digital disruption. This book is an invaluable resource for students on accounting, accounting information systems, and digital business courses, as well as for accountants, accounting educators, and accreditation / advocacy bodies.In recent years, there have been a number of new developments in what came to be known as the "Capital…
Theory Debates". The debates took place mainly during the 1960s as a result of Piero Sraffa's critique of the neoclassical theory according to which the prices of factors of production directly depend on their relative scarcities. Sraffa showed that when income distribution changes, there are many complexities developed within the economic system impacting on prices in ways which are not possible to predict. These debates were revisited in the 1980s and again more recently, along with a parallel literature that has developed among neoclassical economists and has also looked at the impact of shocks on an economy. This book summarizes the debates and issues around the theory of capital and brings to the fore the more recent developments. It also pinpoints the similarities and differences between the various approaches and critically evaluates them in light of available empirical evidence. The focus of the book is on the price trajectories induced by changes in income distribution and the resulting shape of the wage rates of profit curves and frontier. These issues are central to areas such as microeconomics, international trade, growth, technological change and macro stability analysis. Each chapter starts with the theoretical issues involved, followed by their formalization and subsequently with their operationalization. More specifically, the variables of the classical theory of value and distribution are rigorously defined and quantified using actual input–output data from a number of major economies, but mainly from the USA, over long stretches of time. The empirical results are not only consistent with the anticipations of the theory but also further inform and therefore strengthen its predictive content raising new significant questions.Data and the American Dream: Contemporary Social Controversies and the American Community Survey
By Matthew J. Holian. 2021
This book paints a portrait of social life in America by providing an accessible discussion of empirical economics research on…
issues such as illegal immigration, health care and climate change. All the studies in this book use the same data source: individual responses to the American Community Survey (ACS), the nation's largest household survey.The author identifies studies that clearly illustrate core econometric methods (such as regression control and difference-in-differences), replicates key statistics from the studies, and helps the reader to carefully interpret the statistics. This book has a companion website with replication files in R and Stata format. The Appendix to this book contains a guide to using the free R software, downloading the ACS and other public-use microdata, and running the replication files, which assumes no background knowledge on the part of the reader beyond introductory statistics. By opening up the hood on how top scholars use core econometric methods to analyze large data sets, a motivated reader with a decent computer and Internet connection can use this book to learn not only how to replicate published research, but also to extend the analysis to create new knowledge about important social phenomena. A more casual reader can skip the online supplements and still gain data-driven insights into social and economic behavior. The book concludes by describing how careful empirical estimates can guide decision making, through cost-benefit analysis, to find public policies that lead to greater happiness while accounting for environmental, public health and other impacts.With its accessible discussion, glossary, detailed learning goals, end of chapter review questions and companion resources, this book is ideal for use as a supplementary volume in introductory econometrics or research methods courses.Legal Certainty and Central Bank Autonomy in Latin American Emerging Markets (European Yearbook of International Economic Law #15)
By Andrea Lucia Tapia-Hoffmann. 2021
This book provides a comparative analysis of the legal frameworks of six Latin American central banks to determine whether there…
is legal certainty regarding central bank autonomy. Based on this, it ascertains whether the way in which legal institutions are designed – specifically those that rule the autonomy of the central bank – provides reasons to believe that central banks can keep inflation at bay even if governments face fiscal problems or pursue contradictory objectives. The analysis covers three key areas: a constitutional analysis, a detailed study of the central bank statutes and a study of a number of underexplored threats to central bank autonomy. After defining and identifying different types of legal certainty and linking them to the credibility of government promises, the author goes on to examine the grounds that the law provides for confidence that central banks operate independently of political influence. The second part of the book focuses on a granular analysis of the legal design of the central banks’ objectives and autonomy. Lastly, the third part features two case studies that represent little-known and unusual institutional threats to legal certainty relating to central bank autonomy, such as the interventions by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in the autonomy of the Colombian central bank, and the interventions of the Argentinean executive and legislative branches in the autonomy of Argentina’s central bank through stabilization plans introduced via emergency laws and decrees.In sum, the book suggests that there are serious doubts about the ability of Latin American central banks to maintain price stability over time. Although central banks were granted a degree of autonomy, authorities in Latin American countries are able to affect central bank decisions. Most importantly, a lack of clarity, inconsistencies, or generous exceptions in the law provide ways for authorities to influence central banks even without bending or disregarding the rules.Nachhaltigkeits- bzw CSR-Reporting wird zunehmend zu einem Standard f r Gro unternehmen 94 …
der 250 gr ten Unternehmen der Welt legen bereits einen Bericht zu den entsprechenden Aktivit ten vor Dabei erfolgt zunehmend eine Orientierung an den Vorgaben der Global Reporting Initiative die sich mehr und mehr als internationale Leitlinie durchsetzt Obschon sich also eine gewisse Standardisierung hinsichtlich der Inhalte durchsetzt gibt es noch immer gro e Unterschiede hinsichtlich der zur Verf gung gestellten Information Dies gilt besonders im internationalen Vergleich Dieses Buch gibt Ihnen einen Einblick in die bestehenden Unterschiede und zeigt wie CSR- und Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung erfolgreich implementiert werden kann Dabei wird insbesondere auf die Chancen und Risiken zur Verf gung stehender Medien eingegangenDevelopment Economics: Theory and Practice
By Elisabeth Sadoulet, Alain De Janvry. 2021
This second edition of Development Economics: Theory and Practice continues to provide students and practitioners with the perspectives and…
tools they need to think analytically and critically about the current major economic development issues in the world. Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet identify seven key dimensions of development—growth, poverty, vulnerability, inequality, basic needs, sustainability, and quality of life—and use them to structure the contents of the text. The book gives a historical perspective on the evolution of thought in development. It uses theory and empirical analysis to present readers with a full picture of how development works, how its successes and failures can be assessed, and how alternatives can be introduced. The authors demonstrate how diagnostics, design of programs and policies, and impact evaluation can be used to seek new solutions to the suffering and violence caused by development failures. In the second edition, more attention has been given to ongoing developments, such as: pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals continuously rising global and national inequality health as a domestic and international public good cash transfers for social protection carbon trading for sustainability This text is fully engaged with the most cutting-edge research in the field and equips readers with analytical tools for impact evaluation of development programs and policies, illustrated with numerous examples. It is underpinned throughout by a wealth of student-friendly features, including case studies, quantitative problem sets, end-of-chapter questions, and extensive references. The companion website contains Excel and Stata exercises for students alongside materials for instructors. This unique text is ideal for those taking courses in development economics, economic growth, and development policy, and will provide an excellent foundation for those wishing to pursue careers in development.Democratic Economic Planning (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
By Robin Hahnel. 2021
Democratic Economic Planning presents a concrete proposal for how to organize, carry out, and integrate comprehensive annual economic planning, investment…
planning, and long-run development planning so as to maximize popular participation, distribute the burdens and benefits of economic activity fairly, achieve environmental sustainability, and use scarce productive resources efficiently. The participatory planning procedures proposed provide workers in self-managed councils and consumers in neighbourhood councils with autonomy over their own activities while ensuring that they use scarce productive resources in socially responsible ways without subjecting them to competitive market forces. Certain mathematical and economic skills are required to fully understand and evaluate the planning procedures discussed and evaluated in technical sections in a number of chapters. These sections are necessary to advance the theory of democratic planning, and should be of primary interest to readers who have those skills. However, the book is written so that the main argument can be followed without fully digesting the more technical sections. Democratic Economic Planning is written for dreamers who are disenamored with the economics of competition and greed want to know how a system of equitable cooperation can be organized; and also for sceptics who demand "hard proof" that an economy without markets and private enterprise is possible.The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work
By Jan Eeckhout. 2021
A pioneering account of the surging global tide of market power—and how it stifles workers around the worldIn an era…
of technological progress and easy communication, it might seem reasonable to assume that the world’s working people have never had it so good. But wages are stagnant and prices are rising, so that everything from a bottle of beer to a prosthetic hip costs more. Economist Jan Eeckhout shows how this is due to a small number of companies exploiting an unbridled rise in market power—the ability to set prices higher than they could in a properly functioning competitive marketplace. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research and telling the stories of common workers throughout, he demonstrates how market power has suffocated the world of work, and how, without better mechanisms to ensure competition, it could lead to disastrous market corrections and political turmoil.The Profit Paradox describes how, over the past forty years, a handful of companies have reaped most of the rewards of technological advancements—acquiring rivals, securing huge profits, and creating brutally unequal outcomes for workers. Instead of passing on the benefits of better technologies to consumers through lower prices, these “superstar” companies leverage new technologies to charge even higher prices. The consequences are already immense, from unnecessarily high prices for virtually everything, to fewer startups that can compete, to rising inequality and stagnating wages for most workers, to severely limited social mobility.A provocative investigation into how market power hurts average working people, The Profit Paradox also offers concrete solutions for fixing the problem and restoring a healthy economy.This book pleads for a new orientation of government economic policy, as well as central bank policy, rejecting the traditional…
government stabilization policy that leads to a dead-end of economic instability and social inequality in the long run.Growing economic instability and increasing state stabilization characterize the development of the capitalist market economy since the major world economic crises of the last century. The book examines these crises and the measures states take to overcome them. Additionally, it addresses the effectiveness and consequences of state intervention. In presenting the main features of Keynes’ and Minsky’s macroeconomics, the book provides a conceptual basis for an outlook on government stabilization in a changing market economy. It thus also offers a suitable framework for current economic policy discussions. Finally, the book examines the wider context of economic history for lessons to be learned.This book is a must-read for scholars and students of economics, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, interested in a better understanding of macroeconomics, central bank policy, and the results of state intervention.Financial Sustainability of Pension Systems: Empirical Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries (Financial and Monetary Policy Studies #52)
By Stefania Amalia Jimon, Florin Cornel Dumiter, Nicolae Baltes. 2021
The sustainability of public pension systems has become an important aspect for governments and institutions worldwide. This book addresses the…
multiple elements that influence the sustainability of pension systems with a special focus on central and eastern European countries. Supported by the results of econometric empirical studies, the authors discuss and analyse areas like social economy versus capitalist economy, globalization versus glocalization, population aging versus birth and fertility, emigration versus immigration, early retirement versus prolongation versus professional activity, the sustainability of public pension systems versus the adequacy of benefits provided, public pension systems compared to private pension funds and taxation of salary incomes versus subsidization of state social insurance.The time of their lives!
By Keith Smith. 1993
China in the Asian Financial Crisis (Routledge Studies on the Chinese Economy)
By Peter Nolan. 2021
The widely held view of the Asian Financial Crisis is that it had no substantial impact on China. In fact,…
the country was far more vulnerable than most people realized, due to the high possibility of financial contagion entering the system from Hong Kong through Guangdong province. This book analyzes the severe policy challenge that it presented for China’s leaders. The crisis in Guangdong’s financial institutions provided a forewarning of the difficulties that lay ahead as China’s integration with the global financial system deepened. The experience of Guangdong in the Asian Financial Crisis provided a profound lesson for China’s policy-makers as they planned the country’s strategy for financial reform in the following years. China was able to avoid disaster by astute and difficult policy choices, in the face of fierce pressure from outside the country, as well as from different domestic interests at many different levels. The successful resolution of the crisis provided a breathing space for the leadership. It gave it time to undertake necessary reforms in the country's financial system in the decade that followed the crisis.Inclusive Finance in China
By Lin Wang, Yan Li. 2021
This book explores for the first time the world of micro-finance, Chinese startups, and the digitalization of the Chinese economy.…
Through the cases such as the Ant Financial Services Group, CFPA Microfinance, micro-financial projects of China Minsheng Bank, Meixing in Nanchong, and more, this book introduces the practical exploration in the recent years from the perspectives of microfinance, financing of small and medium sized enterprises, digital inclusive finance, and credit. From the perspective of management, it especially integrates an enterprise’s task, vision, and value into the design of organization process, deeply explores how to realized the double bottom lines of social and financial performances, manifests how microfinance’s marginal cost is reduced by digital finance such as data, internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the advantages of digital finance in providing convenient, low-cost, and touchable service, and discusses its huge technological bonus to small-amount, decentralized, and large-quantity microfinance. This book will be of value to journalists, economists and researchers.