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Canadian politics and government, Computers and internet
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This book will take readers from foundational concepts to practical applications, enabling them to transform raw data into meaningful insights.…
It covers key skills such as data collection, cleaning, organization, exploration, analysis, and impactful presentation—core competencies for navigating today&’s data-rich landscape. Each chapter is designed to build both theoretical understanding and hands-on expertise. The book&’s unique dual-approach structure introduces foundational data science concepts, followed by exercises in RStudio using real-world datasets from social fields. This blend of theory and practice ensures readers grasp the &‘how&’ and the &‘why&’ behind data-driven research, making it ideal for students, researchers, and professionals seeking to enhance their analytical capabilities. Spatial data analysis stands out as one of the most unique in this book because it focuses on spatial data, a topic rarely covered in data science references. While there are many resources on data science, few explore the unique aspects of spatial data. Nowadays, most data includes location information, which can greatly enhance data science and decision-making. The final chapter will discuss critical topics in data ethics and reproducibility, encouraging readers to think responsibly about data use. By the end, readers will gain not only technical skills but also ethical awareness, empowering them to conduct rigorous, reliable, and socially conscious research. No prior experience with data science is required—just an eagerness to explore the power of data in understanding and shaping society. This textbook is suitable for adoption in both undergraduate and graduate classes. The book will help students build a solid theoretical foundation in data science while gaining hands-on experience with RStudio.
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Business and economics, Economics, Canadian politics and government, Politics and government
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Inspired by Karl Polanyi's assertion that a self-adjusting market cannot persist without undermining the human and natural fabric of society,…
this book explores the critical role of market regulation in sustaining capitalism. It defends the thesis that "regulation is saving capitalism," while acknowledging the cyclical nature of market regulation: periods of regulation are often followed by waves of deregulation, creating &“a swinging pendulum&” phenomenon. Combining approaches from political economy and history of regulatory approaches in theory and practice, the book investigates the sensitivity of the pendulum to its driving forces incl. &“material causes,&” changes in a political power, competing interests, etc. It verifies the capacity of two main theories of regulation to explain this cyclical phenomenon. Part I. of the book examines, with a specific focus on regulation in the European Union, main goals of regulation, the redistributive effects of regulation, regulatory capture by vested interests including &“international policing mechanisms,&” risks of regulatory failure, the dangers of overregulation, and limits of self-regulation as well as questions the efficacy of the Better Regulation agenda. Part II. provides an in-depth analysis of financial regulation, it explores the key endogenous factors and some exogenous factors of financial instability (like COVID-19, climate change) which underline the need to regulate financial capitalism in order to maintain financial stability without jeopardising innovation, growth and competitiveness. It discusses the rapid evolution of European financial regulation since the 2007/8 financial crisis, including efforts to complete the European Banking Union, advance the European Capital Market, and promote Sustainable finance. Drawing on the author's scholarly as well as practical experiences as the former Deputy Prime Minister (1994) and Finance Minister (1998-2002) of the Slovak Republic, this book is written for both professionals in regulatory agencies and government institutions, as well as scholars with an interest in regulatory issues and economic policy.
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Politics and government, Business and economics, History, Economics, Canadian politics and government, Science and technology
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An extraordinary journey to understand the worldwide supply chain exposing both the fascinating pathways of manufacturing and transportation that bring…
products to your doorstep, and the ruthless business logic that has left local communities at the mercy of a complex and fragile network for their basic necessities
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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Every business faces the existential threat of competitors producing cheaper copies. Even patent filings, market dominance and financial resources can't…
shield them from copycats. So what can we do -- and, what can we learn from companies that have endured and even prospered for centuries despite copycat competition? In today&’s competitive environment where latecomers can replicate almost any product or service for less, and where intuition and market intelligence have been overtaken by machine algorithms, companies can no longer just be very good at what they do. The need to leap to new knowledge disciplines. The best leap repeatedly. And it&’s the combination of two skills – mastery of the old and new – that empowers them with the best competitive advantage. To discover how some companies not only survive but thrive for centuries, strategy expert Howard Yu identifies key trends from business history, skillfully extracting timeless lessons and applying them to today. He illustrates how managers can look to leverage technological shifts, increasingly ubiquitous connectivity, smart machines, and managerial creativity – in order to leap forward. Ultimately, Leap is a playbook for the future that shows how pioneering players can thrive by rethinking their business, their relationships with customers, and the very reasons they exist.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government, Politics and government
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How the euro survived a series of crises, and how to make it more resilientThe euro has survived crises unimagined…
at its founding: the financial meltdown of 2007–2009, the sovereign debt crisis of 2010–2012, the pandemic, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European Central Bank fought these crises with dramatic policy innovations, buying up vast amounts of debt and providing large loans to banks. But now everyone expects the ECB to intervene routinely, and the euro is more fragile as a result. Crisis Cycle recounts this history and offers recommendations for restoring a durable monetary union.Monetary and fiscal policy are intertwined, especially in a currency union like the eurozone. Member states can be tempted to borrow and spend too much, and then count on the ECB to rescue them by printing money to buy their bonds. To avoid these disincentives, the ECB was founded with a narrow mandate: use interest rates to pursue price stability, and don&’t buy sovereign debt. Debt and deficit rules would keep countries from getting into trouble.The ECB&’s emergency innovations brought back these disincentives. How can the EU avoid larger and larger bailouts? The authors argue that Europe needs a joint fiscal institution that can provide temporary help to sovereigns, a resolution mechanism so sovereign default is a motivating possibility, and bank reform that ensures sovereign default will not bring down the financial system. This timely book shows how to restore the euro&’s ambitious and effective founding framework. The unique group of authors combine extensive policy experience and authoritative academic credentials.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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This book examines the resurgence of debt crises in Africa following the Covid-19 pandemic. It deciphers the debt crisis phenomenon…
through the discourse of sovereign risk, which has been paid insufficient attention within the African context. It seeks to appreciate facets that continue to lead African states to a debt-default position.The book focuses on the pre-stages of default and debt default risks. It explores and investigates whether South Africa was and continues to be financially capable of servicing its International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, granted in 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic. While investigating how and why Ethiopia and Ghana have already defaulted on their post-pandemic loans from the IMF. It examines the idea of sovereign risk in Africa through a qualitative methodology and a case study research design, analyzing three countries borrowed from the IMF in 2020 or later, mainly prompted by the pandemic. The book distinguishes between African states that have not yet defaulted and those that have already defaulted on their debt servicing. Namely, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Ghana, two of which have already defaulted on their loan. The book also notes the resurgence of the IMF within the African continent while assessing the past narrative and impact of the international monetary system and how it has changed in the post-pandemic era. However, economic diversification has been noted as a prominent remedy that holds the potential of strengthening African economies and aiding their eradication of the debt crisis.The book is designed to appeal to numerous reading communities, namely scholars, researchers, advanced students and policymakers.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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This volume presents new research and trends in applied macroeconomics. It features contributions presented at the 2024 International Conference on…
Applied Economics (ICOAE) held in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia including country specific studies from 40 different countries. The contents of this volume are of interest to researchers, scholars, academics and policy makers within applied macroeconomics.
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Economics, Canadian politics and government, Politics and government
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This book presents a unique collection of contributions on modern topics in applied public economics, written by leading experts in…
the respective disciplines and their intersections from cultural economics to public choice. It features contributions on fundamental, methodological, and empirical issues regarding the role and effects of public intervention in a broad range of fields, such as cultural heritage, creative industries, regulation, public procurement, corruption, tax evasion, health economics, and public goods. The book was written in honor of Ilde Rizzo, on the occasion of her retirement, for her many contributions to applied public economics. Given its scope, it will appeal to researchers and PhD students who are interested in the latest developments in cultural and public economics.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government, General non-fiction
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Philanthropy Multidisciplinary Perspectives is a reference for academics and professionals engaged in philanthropy. It brings together scholars from fields such…
as economics, finance, law, philosophy, and sociology, showcasing the power of a multidisciplinary approach in providing a comprehensive view of this complex subject.The book addresses foundational questions in philanthropy and is divided into four parts. The first part asks the crucial question of why philanthropy matters, exploring the motivations behind giving and how beneficiaries are selected. The second part looks at the interaction between business and philanthropy. It examines the rise of social enterprises, the shift toward purpose-driven businesses, and the evolution of corporate social responsibility into sustainable enterprises. This part also addresses tax considerations that impact philanthropy's ability to scale. The book explores the synergies between finance and philanthropy to foster sustainable development and how philanthropy is addressing or could address specific SDGs. It concludes with key ingredients for good governance in philanthropy.The book tackles major challenges, such as diversity, compensation, and data management, while tracing the evolution of best practices in foundation governance. It identifies areas for improvement and discusses the relationships between governance in philanthropic organizations and important issues such as trust, equality, and democracy.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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The U.S. economy made impressive gains in the 20th century, but this progress makes it easy to forget a harsh…
reality: Americans were the victims of disastrous government policies that cost trillions of dollars in wasted resources, created mass unemployment, and kept millions of people in poverty who otherwise would have participated in the nation&’s growing prosperity.A complete dissection of the 10 most egregious economic blunders of the past century, this work provides the key lessons to help in avoiding such policy mistakes in the future. The Terrible 10 notes that, unlike the private sector, when the governance of the federal government fails, the role and scope of government is usually increased and that politicians from both parties tend to favor short-run benefits for friends while imposing costs on current and later generations. With issues and blame divided equally among Democrats and Republicans, this work stands as a highly readable history of how government economic blunders affect everyone.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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Have the antitrust actions by the Department of Justice against Microsoft and other firms really intended to protect consumers, or…
are they politically motivated attempts to help competitors achieve what they could not achieve in the marketplace?Can dominant companies in a market, such as Microsoft, "lock in" inferior technologies and thereby stifle innovation and would-be competitors? Do "network effects"—the fact that some products, such as telephones and fax machines, increase in value as more people use them—result in monopolies even if dominant companies do not seek to create monopolies? Do the current antitrust laws discourage entrepreneurship and innovation? Will the robust high tech competition and tremendous technological advances of recent years continue if government steps up its antitrust actions? Winners, Losers & Microsoft addresses such questions and sheds light on the real workings of the high tech markets. Through extensive research and insightful analysis, Professors Liebowitz and Margolis shatter many long-held beliefs about competition in the high technology industries. Among their surprising findings: Software prices fall dramatically in markets where Microsoft is a major player, but prices show no strong tendency to fall over time if Microsoft is not a factor in a given market. Claims that dominant but inferior technologies can &“lock out&” better competitive products are not supported by the data. This not only applies to software, but also to other technology markets (i.e. VHS vs. Beta video recorder battles). Superior products tend to dominate in high technology, even if inferior products are backed by lots of money. For example, Intuit&’s Quicken has dominated Microsoft Money for several years despite intensive efforts by Microsoft to promote Money. And AOL has significantly increased its market share in recent years even through Microsoft incorporated software for the Microsoft Network into its Windows operating system. Liebowitz and Margolis demonstrate how a high-tech company can go from a dominant market leader—as Lotus once was in spreadsheets—to an also-ran with astonishing speed. They show that free markets in high technology do a remarkable job of continually delivering better products at lower prices to consumers. Winners, Losers & Microsoft makes a compelling case that the real danger to American high technology leadership is a too powerful, too intrusive government which believes it knows consumer preferences and needs better than they do. This book is a cogent, tightly argued rebuttal to frequent calls for greater government intervention in the high technology markets.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government, Laws and statutes
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What if what we think we know about ecology and environmental policy is just wrong? What if environmental laws often…
make things worse? What if the very idea of nature has been hijacked by politics? What if wilderness is something we create in our minds, as opposed to being an actual description of nature?In 1934, former U.S. Forest Service offcial Aldo Leopold, a godfather to the modern environmental movement, wrote that &“restrictive laws&” had &“largely failed&” in their mission to conserve America&’s forests, rivers, and other natural resources. Less than forty years later, however, as various events pushed environmental concerns into the public spotlight, lawmakers from both parties championed legislation far more sweeping and restrictive than any Leopold had witnessed. How well did these &“restrictive laws&” work to right environmental wrongs? Why did so many miss the mark? And how should we go about improving our policies? In Nature Unbound, authors Randy Simmons, Ryan M. Yonk, and Kenneth J. Sim offer a devastating critique of federal environmental policy by scrutinizing it through the lenses of biological ecology and political ecology. This powerful framework, they show, reveals that environmental policy has been guided since the late 1960s by demonstrably false assumptions responsible for a host of ineffective or wasteful, command-and-control policies—on air pollution, water pollution, endangered species, wilderness, renewable energy, and more. The mistakes have also empowered political entrepreneurship in ways that have encroached on property rights, burdened the general public, and degraded the civic landscape. More than a critique of false assumptions and flawed policies, Nature Unbound offers bold principles to help us rethink environmental objectives, align incentives with goals, and af?rm the notion that human beings are an integral part of the natural order and merit no less consideration than Earth&’s other treasures. Ultimately, nothing less can succeed in our efforts to restore natural resources and revitalize our social and political ecosystem.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government, Politics and government
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Exploring the forceful renewal of the boom-and-bust cycle after several decades of economic stability, this book is a research-based review…
of the factors that caused the 2008 recession. It offers cutting-edge diagnoses of the recession and prescriptions on how to boost the economy from leading economists.Congress created the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to tame the business cycle once and for all. Optimists believed central banking would moderate booms, soften busts, and place the economy on a steady trajectory of economic growth. A century later, in the wake of the worst recession in fifty years, Editor David Beckworth and his line-up of noted economists chronicle the critical role the Federal Reserve played in creating a vast speculative bubble in housing during the 2000s and plunging the world economy into a Great Recession. As commentators weigh the culpability of Wall Street&’s banks against Washington&’s regulators, the authors return our attention to the unique position of the Federal Reserve in recent economic history. Expansionary monetary policy formed the basis of the soaring housing prices, excessive leverage, and mispricing of risk that characterized the Great Boom and the conditions for recession. Yet as Boom and Bust Banking also explains, the Great Recession was not an inevitable result of the Great Boom. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the Federal Reserve in fact tightened rather than loosened the money supply in the early days of the recession. Addressing a lack of critical studies of recent Federal Reserve policy, Boom and Bust Banking reveals the Federal Reserve&’s hand in the economy&’s deterioration from slowdown to global recession. At the close of the most destructive economic episode in a half-century, Boom and Bust Banking reconsiders the justifications for central banking and reflects on possibilities for reform. With the future ripe for new thinking, this volume is essential for policy makers and concerned citizens who wish to learn from recent history.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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Today&’s insurance regulation in the United States is at a crossroads: while some segments of the insurance industry are moving…
away from a state-based approach toward regulation, others favor a greater role for the federal government—despite the opposition from other stakeholders. Written by leading scholars in risk management, this book addresses some of the most important questions facing the future of state and federal regulation of the insurance industry.Insurance regulation in the United States is at a crossroads. It used to be a given that the insurance industry would resist efforts to move away from state-based approaches toward regulation—but no more. Some now favor a greater role for the federal government, while others oppose calls to transition to a federal system. In any case, might not a competitive and innovative system of free-market insurance be preferable to best serve the interests of consumers? The current debate over insurance regulation is increasingly a struggle between competing interest groups and opposing ideologies about the proper scope of government—a conflict that affects individuals&’ decisions about how much risk to undertake, whether those decisions involve driving a motorcycle in dense urban traffic or building a home in a flood, fire, hurricane or other high-risk zone. But what types of reforms would best serve the interests of consumers? And what lessons can be learned from previous reform efforts? In Risky Business: Insurance Markets and Regulation, edited by Lawrence S. Powell, leading scholars in risk management address some of the most important questions about the future of insurance regulation and the potential for market-based alternatives. The book examines not only the impetus behind various reform proposals, but also the historical development of insurance regulation in the United States. In so doing, Risky Business examines alternative regulatory and deregulatory frameworks used in the United States and in the European Union, and whether such options are beneficial or not.
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Canadian politics and government, Business and economics, Health and medicine
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—a.k.a. Obamacare—remains highly controversial and faces ongoing legal and political challenges. Polls show that…
by a large margin Americans remain opposed to the healthcare law and seek to &“repeal and replace&” it. However, the question is: Replace it with what?In A Better Choice, John C. Goodman clearly and concisely provides the compelling answer—no small feat, considering the complexity and intransigence of problems that have long plagued American healthcare. His prescription of four key reforms may garner the greatest attention as policymakers and the public search for a way out of the healthcare quagmire. For anyone who wants to learn about some of the boldest prescriptions designed to remedy our healthcare system, Goodman&’s book is a must-read.
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Canadian politics and government, Business and economics
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After Prohibition ended in 1933, many states passed laws regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages, now known as Franchise Termination…
Laws. Ostensibly intended to protect wholesalers from shady suppliers, and the public from the harmful effects of alcohol, these laws in fact created government-protected monopolies.In Strange Brew, one of the first studies of this topic, economist Douglas Glen Whitman subjects these laws to critical scrutiny. Strange Brew demonstrates that the &“monopoly protection laws&” in the alcoholic beverage industry reflect powerful special interests in the political process who use such measures to restrict markets, shield themselves from competition and consumer preferences, and set higher prices with relative impunity. It also shows how the notion that alcohol consumption is a &“sin&” in need of legal restraint substitutes the choices and moral judgment of politicians for that of consumers.
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Canadian politics and government, Business and economics, Health and medicine
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In this long-awaited updated edition of his groundbreaking work Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, renowned healthcare economist John Goodman ("father"…
of Health Savings Accounts) analyzes America&’s ongoing healthcare fiasco—including, for this edition, the failed promises of Obamacare.Goodman then provides what many critics of our healthcare system neglect: solutions. And not a moment too soon. Americans are entangled in a system with perverse incentives that raise costs, reduce quality, and make care less accessible. It&’s not just patients that need liberation from this labyrinth of confusion—it&’s doctors, businessmen, and institutions as well. Read this new work and discover: why no one sees a real price for anything: no patient, no doctor, no employer, no employee; how Obamacare&’s perverse incentives cause insurance companies to seek to attract the healthy and avoid the sick; why having a preexisting condition is actually WORSE under Obamacare than it was before—despite rosy political promises to the contrary; why emergency-room traffic and long waits for care have actually increased under Obamacare; how Medicaid expansion spends new money insuring healthy, single adults, while doing nothing for the developmentally disabled who languish on waiting lists and children who aren&’t getting the pediatric care they need; how the market for medical care COULD be as efficient and consumer-friendly as the market for cell phone repair... and what it would take to make that happen; how to create centers of medical excellence, which compete to meet the needs of the chronically ill; and much, much more... Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and decidedly humane in its concern for the health of all Americans, John Goodman has written the healthcare book to read to understand today&’s healthcare crisis. His proposed solutions are bold, crucial, and most importantly, caring. Healthcare is complex. But this book isn&’t. It&’s clear, it&’s satisfying, and it&’s refreshingly human. If you read even one book about healthcare policy in America, this is the one to read.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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Economic historians have made great progress in unraveling the causes of the Great Depression, but not until Scott Sumner came…
along has anyone explained the multitude of twists and turns the economy took.In The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression, Sumner offers his magnum opus—the ?rst book to comprehensively explain both monetary and non-monetary causes of that cataclysm. Drawing on ?nancial market data and contemporaneous news stories, Sumner shows that the Great Depression is ultimately a story of incredibly bad policymaking—by central bankers, legislators, and two presidents—especially mistakes related to monetary policy and wage rates. He also shows that macroeconomic thought has long been captive to a false narrative, which continues to misguide policymakers in their quixotic quest to promote robust and sustainable economic growth. The Midas Paradox is a landmark treatise that solves mysteries that have long perplexed economic historians and corrects misconceptions about the true causes, consequences, and cures of macroeconomic instability. Like Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz&’s A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, it is one of those rare books destined to shape future research and debate on the subject.
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Business and economics, Canadian politics and government
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Environmental activists, politicians and celebrities have touted the wisdom of "sustainable development" as though its meaning and value were clear.…
But the concept has barely been defined, let alone subjected to scientific, economic, and philosophical scrutiny.Oxford University economist Wilfred Beckerman puts "sustainable development" to the test, questioning several of its core claims: Will economic growth burn itself out by depleting the natural resources it requires? Will global warming wreak widespread havoc? Does human activity threaten to throw a delicate planet dangerously "out of balance"? Do future generations possess rights that morally override the claims of those alive today? At what price? After examining the evidence, Beckerman finds "sustainable development" lacking on both scientific and moral grounds. Although millions of people lack clean air and water, and are plagued by deteriorating ecosystems, these problems are caused not by "unsustainable development" but by poverty, poorly defined property rights, and lack of freedom of opportunity. And, Beckerman concludes, because "sustainable development" recommends policies that would worsen these conditions (for present and future generations), it hardly occupies the moral high ground, as its supporters claim. A Poverty of Reason provides a critical examination of this highly controversial topic and will prove essential in the ongoing debate about environmental and economic practices.
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Canadian politics and government, United States history
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A politically created crisis of epic proportions is brewing in California and elsewhere across the United States.For decades, public pension…
officials and politicians of both parties have promised their employees increasingly generous retirement benefits—while low-balling the contributions from government agencies and employees that are needed to cover these promises—presenting our greatest financial challenge since the Great Depression. Pushing the pension liability from today and onto our children and grandchildren leaves them with a depleted future and a potentially bankrupt California. State and local governments will scramble to find funds, forcing them to raise taxes, slash public services, and/or declare bankruptcy. Schools, parks, emergency services, and public-employee retirement benefits will be at risk. Politicians will defer until circumstances force them to reckon with a disaster of their own making. The problem? For far too long, state and local governments have promised their employees increasingly generous retirement benefits—but without ensuring that sufficient funds will be on hand when the pension payments come due. In California Dreaming, Lawrence J. McQuillan pulls back the curtains covering this unfunded liability crisis. He describes the true extent of the problem, explains the critical factors that are driving public pension debt sky-high, and exposes the perverse incentives of lawmakers and pension officials that reward them for not fixing the problem and letting it escalate. Finally, he offers the six crucial reforms needed to restore the financial health of California and other threatened jurisdictions. If California Dreaming&’s roadmap for reform is adopted, the prospects for achieving a thriving, balanced and equitable future are highly favorable in California and any state or municipality facing its own public pension problem. If not, the many opportunities that once made the Golden State seem like a Promised Land will quickly evaporate.