Shamanomics
The global financial Crisis of 2008 demonstrated the comprehensive failure of Economics and of the theory of economic management which has dominated Economics for more than 50 years. It was, in particular, a disastrous failure for macroeconomists, those economists who deal with the big economic factors like growth, inflation and employment and who act as policy advisors to governments. This book explains the reasons for this failure. The strong growth and soaring financial markets of the 1980s and '90s led to a complacent belief that economists had definitively solved the central task of economic management: delivering durable, non-inflationary growth (We Did It!). The reputation and influence of Economics and economists soared in parallel with the markets. As the 2008 Crisis proved, this confidence was badly mistaken. This book identifies the guilty parties, whose uncritical belief in the dominant theory led to the Crisis, and the few 'wise virgins' who foresaw it. It describes the significant fallacies in the dominant theory and notes the end result of the dominant economic method: elaborate, opaque and abstract mathematics with negligible real usefulness masquerading as expert foresight. The book queries the mistaken belief that Economics is a true science, comparing the negligible progress in Economics with the extraordinary advances in genuine scientific fields such as chemistry, physics and medicine and, in engineering, the development of flight, from Kitty Hawk to the Voyager mission. It notes the unfortunate effect of the Nobel Economics Prize in perpetuating this belief. The inherent indeterminacy of Economics means that, rather than scientists or engineers, economists should more accurately be regarded as novelists. The book reviews the post-Crisis literature, including the accounts of the guilty parties (We Didn't Do It!), conference reports and the commentaries of central bankers, other professional economists and journalists. Finally, the recent work of some social and political thinkers, with the insights of behavioral economics and randomized controlled trials, are welcome signs of a future where moral and social consequences resume their rightful place as the proper yardsticks for measuring how useful Economics and economists really are. With very few exceptions macroeconomists have proven little better than shamans - witch doctors - muttering their opaque ritual incantations and failing in their social function. Yet they continue to enjoy an attention and respect which is wholly undeserved. It is time for this dangerous delusion to stop. The book is written in plain language for the average reader. The book's website - www.shamanomics.info - provides more detailed information.This book was written before the Corona virus struck but its conclusions remain fully valid.
Shamanomics
The global financial Crisis of 2008 demonstrated the comprehensive failure of Economics and of the theory of economic management which has dominated Economics for more than 50 years. It was, in particular, a disastrous failure for macroeconomists, those economists who deal with the big economic factors like growth, inflation and employment and who act as policy advisors to governments. This book explains the reasons for this failure. The strong growth and soaring financial markets of the 1980s and '90s led to a complacent belief that economists had definitively solved the central task of economic management: delivering durable, non-inflationary growth (We Did It!). The reputation and influence of Economics and economists soared in parallel with the markets. As the 2008 Crisis proved, this confidence was badly mistaken. This book identifies the guilty parties, whose uncritical belief in the dominant theory led to the Crisis, and the few 'wise virgins' who foresaw it. It describes the significant fallacies in the dominant theory and notes the end result of the dominant economic method: elaborate, opaque and abstract mathematics with negligible real usefulness masquerading as expert foresight. The book queries the mistaken belief that Economics is a true science, comparing the negligible progress in Economics with the extraordinary advances in genuine scientific fields such as chemistry, physics and medicine and, in engineering, the development of flight, from Kitty Hawk to the Voyager mission. It notes the unfortunate effect of the Nobel Economics Prize in perpetuating this belief. The inherent indeterminacy of Economics means that, rather than scientists or engineers, economists should more accurately be regarded as novelists. The book reviews the post-Crisis literature, including the accounts of the guilty parties (We Didn't Do It!), conference reports and the commentaries of central bankers, other professional economists and journalists. Finally, the recent work of some social and political thinkers, with the insights of behavioral economics and randomized controlled trials, are welcome signs of a future where moral and social consequences resume their rightful place as the proper yardsticks for measuring how useful Economics and economists really are. With very few exceptions macroeconomists have proven little better than shamans - witch doctors - muttering their opaque ritual incantations and failing in their social function. Yet they continue to enjoy an attention and respect which is wholly undeserved. It is time for this dangerous delusion to stop. The book is written in plain language for the average reader. The book's website - www.shamanomics.info - provides more detailed information.This book was written before the Corona virus struck but its conclusions remain fully valid.
Economy of Nicaragua. How the political crisis impacts the economic development
Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 2, University of Vigo, language: English, abstract: This essay will examine how the political crisis impacts on the economic development by analysing some of the characteristic numbers of the Nicaraguan economy. First it will explain poverty and inequality which are one of the main problems in the country. Then, it will focus on economic growth and the importance of the tourism sector. After that it will take a short look at Nicaragua's performance in the GCI. Earlier this year Nicaragua was named "The other Venezuela of Latin America" by the economic newspaper Portafolio due to its economic crisis which is the worse of the last thirty years caused by socio-political and humanitarian conflicts. Although Nicaragua is considered one the poorest country in Latin America it had one of the fastest-growing economies. Since April 2018, Nicaragua has been in a severe crisis. After the violent suppression of pro-tests against a social security reform, 325 people died, more than 2000 were injured and about 800 people were arrested. Furthermore, around 70.000 people left the country - most of them are fleeing south for Costa Rica. International human rights organizations accuse the state of systematic and serious human rights violations. The government rejects the accusations and accuses its opponents of a political campaign. According to its constitution, Nicaragua is a presidential democracy with a one-chamber parliament. Daniel Ortega has been president since 2007. After the Sandinista revolution against the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, he ruled the country authoritarian for eleven years with a social reform agenda. Government, administration, judiciary and the ruling party Frente Sandinista de Liberaci籀n Nacional (FSLN) are closely intertwined. The 2016 elections took place without international election observation. The international community is engaged in various ways t
Human Capital as Key Factor for Business Success. The Importance of Human Capital
Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - Other, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the questions of how important human capital is for business success. With this intention it is first defined what human capital is before there are evaluated several measurement approaches concerning the valuation of human capital in a company. Consequently, embedded into a case study, the value of this asset is calculated with the Lev & Schwartz model at an Indian tech company called Infosys technology limited. As a result of the case study it is pictured that human capital and the returns of Infosys are highly correlated, which underlines the hypothesis that human capital is a key factor for business success. To generalise the stated findings there is also a view on a macro economical level. The main result of this paper is that human capital actually can be said to be the most important aspect for business success. In a last part the author criticises that many companies do not pay enough attention at human capital.
Ethiopian Export Efficiency. A Stochastic Frontier Analysis Approach
Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - Foreign Trade Theory, Trade Policy, grade: Excellent, course: Development Economics, language: English, abstract: This study is conducted to investigate Ethiopian exports efficiency by using a stochastic frontier analysis model with panel data to estimate if countries operated at the frontier with its major trading partners. Export efficiency is defined as the ratio of actual exports to the maximum possible volume. In addition, the study investigates the factors of export efficiency, focusing on Ethiopia's exports to its major trading partners during the period 2006 to 2017. The arable land, gross domestic product and population of Ethiopia and of the trade partner's countries, distance between Ethiopia and trade partners' countries, gross capital formation, and geographical location of trade partner's countries determines the export flows of Ethiopian export. As a result the estimated coefficient of determinants shows that population and gross domestic product have significantly and positively affect the Ethiopian export sector. The empirical results show that the volume of Ethiopian actual exports is far below the estimated efficient level, and that there is considerable room for increasing Ethiopia's exports. The trend of agricultural export efficiency shows some improvement over the stated years while manufacturing sector shows decreases. Those findings imply that Ethiopia should search the redemption policy that enables the country to maximize the efficiency of the sector by using all possible potential.
Assessment of Condominium Houses Affordability
Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2020 in the subject Economics - Other, grade: 1, Ethiopian Civil Service University (IGAD), language: English, abstract: This study has been conducted in Addis Ababa city of Akaki Kality sub city administration, Gelan condominium site with the general objective of assessing condominium houses affordability. It also attempted to identify the factors which affected the low income households for affording the condominium house and as well as to assess whether the condominium housing project benefits this targeted groups. Among other condominium sites Gelan site was chosen purposively. The study used mixing qualitative and quantitative methods and used primary and secondary data sources. To select the target population a researcher used simple random and purposive sampling technique. The study found that, majority of the residents of the condominium in the study area can afford the cost of condominium house because they were getting high income per month. However, the households with low income could not afford the price of condominium house. Furthermore, in the study area, condominium housing beneficiaries were not those who were classified as low and middle income categories rather households with higher income categories were benefited more. Majority of the housing units are owned by non targeted groups. The study also showed that, the intended objectives of condominium housing programs to provide 30 percent of the housing unit for female headed households has been well applied in to the study area. Additionally, the study revealed that, external factors such as poor investigation of the real problems on the ground, weak institutional evaluation and monitoring system of the program, the unparticipatory of the program and corruption practices was the main challenging factors that affects the households to benefited from the program. Based on the finding the researcher suggests the following to minimize the current problems of housing in
Worker Cooperatives in America
Worker Cooperatives in America maps the past, present, and possible futures of democratic enterprise in the United States, arguing--against the grain of corporate inevitability--that firms owned and governed by workers can address stubborn problems of unemployment, productivity, and workplace alienation. Edited by Robert Jackall and Henry M. Levin, the volume moves from vivid historical arcs--co-ops formed by striking nineteenth-century artisans, New Deal-era self-help ventures--to contemporary case studies of plywood mills, reforestation crews, and urban collectives. Across these sites, contributors probe the hard mechanics of democratic firms: capitalizing without ceding control, balancing egalitarian norms with market exigencies, rotating jobs to build skill and solidarity, and designing governance that is both participatory and effective. Empirical chapters engage Mondrag籀n as a global benchmark, report comparative productivity advantages, and show how cooperatives preserve jobs when conventional owners shutter plants. The result is a rigorous, data-grounded challenge to managerial common sense. Equally attentive to limits, the book confronts the structural headwinds co-ops face in a legal and financial ecosystem optimized for hierarchical corporations. Essays on Employee Stock Ownership Plans, membership rights, and cooperative law demystify vehicles that can either enable or erode self-management. Analyses of culture, training, and decision rules illuminate why some democracies falter while others endure. Throughout, the editors press a central question: how can enterprises reconcile internal commitments to voice and equity with external demands of competitive markets? With clear-eyed assessments and practical design lessons--revolving credit funds, representative/assembly hybrids, counter-cyclical work-sharing--this collection offers scholars, organizers, and policy makers a usable blueprint. Worker cooperatives, the contributors show, are not a panacea; they are a durable, American repertoire for linking productivity to dignity, enterprise to citizenship, and work to democracy. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Assessment of COVID-19 Response in the Republic of Korea
This report examines the governance structures and economic and social responses that contributed to the success of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in coping with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The effective response of the ROK to the pandemic has been recognized worldwide. The report examines key areas of the government's response efforts including testing, tracing, and treatment approaches as well as economic stimulation initiatives. The report identifies important lessons and insights for other countries to deal with the pandemic and its societal aftershocks.
Taming the Fringe
Offers the first extended study of the payday lending and pawnbroking markets in Britain, and the only one to examine over 160 years of financial results and market dataAnalyses the motivation, content and outcome of critical regulatory episodes that have shaped fringe bankingAdds to our knowledge of fringe banking and the evolving role of financial regulation to protect the working poor
The Price of Peace
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An "outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit" (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas "A timely, lucid and compelling portrait of a man whose enduring relevance is always heightened when crisis strikes."--The Wall Street Journal WINNER: The Arthur Ross Book Award Gold Medal - The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism FINALIST: The National Book Critics Circle Award - The Sabew Best in Business Book Award NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times - The Economist - Bloomberg - Mother Jones At the dawn of World War I, a young academic named John Maynard Keynes hastily folded his long legs into the sidecar of his brother-in-law's motorcycle for an odd, frantic journey that would change the course of history. Swept away from his placid home at Cambridge University by the currents of the conflict, Keynes found himself thrust into the halls of European treasuries to arrange emergency loans and packed off to America to negotiate the terms of economic combat. The terror and anxiety unleashed by the war would transform him from a comfortable obscurity into the most influential and controversial intellectual of his day--a man whose ideas still retain the power to shock in our own time. Keynes was not only an economist but the preeminent anti-authoritarian thinker of the twentieth century, one who devoted his life to the belief that art and ideas could conquer war and deprivation. As a moral philosopher, political theorist, and statesman, Keynes led an extraordinary life that took him from intimate turn-of-the-century parties in London's riotous Bloomsbury art scene to the fevered negotiations in Paris that shaped the Treaty of Versailles, from stock market crashes on two continents to diplomatic breakthroughs in the mountains of New Hampshire to wartime ballet openings at London's extravagant Covent Garden. Along the way, Keynes reinvented Enlightenment liberalism to meet the harrowing crises of the twentieth century. In the United States, his ideas became the foundation of a burgeoning economics profession, but they also became a flash point in the broader political struggle of the Cold War, as Keynesian acolytes faced off against conservatives in an intellectual battle for the future of the country--and the world. Though many Keynesian ideas survived the struggle, much of the project to which he devoted his life was lost. In this riveting biography, veteran journalist Zachary D. Carter unearths the lost legacy of one of history's most fascinating minds. The Price of Peace revives a forgotten set of ideas about democracy, money, and the good life with transformative implications for today's debates over inequality and the power politics that shape the global order. LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE
Guidebook for Transitioning to an Electric Fleet
"Guidebook for Transitioning to an Electric Fleet" is a plain language, step-by-step description of how to target a starting point, assess risks, select vehicles, and get electrical charging, while ensuring a positive financial result. Special situations, e.g., school buses, large multi-site fleets, government fleets, are described in more detail. The booklet describes the overall sequential flow of a pilot project. Each phase has references to Appendices containing very detailed data collection and tasks to complete. Your pilot project will lay a solid foundation of assets and experience which can be extended into a large, successful rollout program across your organization.
The United States of America
The US will have a 1-billion population by 2061. The author believes that an active and open immigration policy is beneficial to the United States in the long run. The bipartisan duopoly must be broken in order to incubate a more competitive election ecology. Five hundred regional economy engines (REE) are proposed to be built across the United States to revitalize the community economy. A New Marshall Plan is recommended to expand the whole-spectrum presence of the US globally. For the benefits of the people of both the US and China and world peace, the author boldly conceived that the USA and China to form a union to create a trans-Pacific "Pacific Union" by peaceful negotiation, not war. The author does not consider that the pandemic, protests, mass looting, two-party struggles, vote-counting, Occupying the US Capitol, bias media, economic difficulties, illegal immigration, and international rivals, and so on pose a real threat to the United States. The various "symptoms" that have manifested indicate that the United States is facing an unprecedented, comprehensive transition period. However, the nation has not fully awakened, so it is necessary to have a reminder. The book has eleven chapters, including (1) The Mirror of History, (2) The United States in 1946, (3) Korean War, Vietnam War, and Star Wars, (4) President Donald John Trump, (5) President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., (6) Cultural transformation, (7) US Economy, (8) US Foreign Affairs in 2020 and Comments, (9) The US during 1944-2020, (10) Strategy, (11) Script: Dreams, and Outlook. There are descriptions of and comments on events in 2020 from brand-new perspectives. The starting point of the book is to place the interests of the country and the people of the United States first. The book will be a good friend to those who are serious about the future of the United States, whether they are voters, the US presidents, or members of Congress, governors, mayors, members of nonpartisan political organizations, teachers and students in political science, researches in American studies, and anyone who cares about world peace. You will surely get unprecedented inspiration and useful advice from it. This is the book that deserves every American to read. It will help you in the next forty years.
Ports and Logistics Scoping Study in Carec Countries
This study analyzes seaports and multimodal corridors serving landlocked countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program. It provides up-to-date information about ports and logistics developments in the region. CAREC members rely on open-sea ports of third-party countries outside borders as conduits for exports and imports. These open-sea ports are located mostly in non-CAREC countries and act as international oceanic trade nodes to connect CAREC freight across cross-border railways, highways, inland sea shipping, and on river and canal barges. The study seeks to identify areas and potential activities that will require cooperation among member countries and development partners within the framework of the CAREC Program.
Resource and Environmental Economics
This important book deals with the essential principles of resource and environmental economics, provides applications to contemporary issues in this field, and outlines and assesses policies being used or proposed for managing the use of environmental and natural resources. Covering specific contemporary topics such as agriculture and the environment, water use, greenhouse gas management, biodiversity conservation, tourism and the environment, and environmental economics and health, leading issues in resource and environmental economics are outlined and analyzed in an innovative manner. Institutional economics (both new and traditional) is applied and compared with other approaches such as neoclassical economics, behavioral economics and the Austrian School of Economics. This heterogeneous, multi-perspective approach enables problems to be considered from several different angles, thus enhancing the reader's comprehension of the subject matter. Furthermore, using minimal technical jargon, the book takes into account aspects of modern economic analysis such as the costs of and constraints on decision-making and the transaction costs involved in policy implementation.
Climate Change and Economics
This textbook provides a broad introduction to the relationship between climate change, economics, and climate policy for young readers and future generations. It highlights the problem of intergenerational gaps and burden sharing on climate change. Taking on major contentious issues of today, it is rich with behavioural strategies and real life experiences which are explained in an accessible and engaging way. A diverse range of topics are covered, including farm animals of Sub-Sahara, Latin American rainforests, Indian monsoon agriculture, tropical cyclones in Bangladesh, sublime grasslands, energy revolutions, hydroelectric dams of China, backstop technologies, ocean exchanges with the atmosphere, mass extinction of species, commercial fisheries, infectious diseases and pandemics, and a climate policy big deal. Climate Change and Economics: Engaging with Future Generations with Action Plans aims to engage with young readers and offer action plans for activists. It is relevant to students interested in environmental economics and environmental science.
The Economics of Water Resources
Population growth and rising living standards, on the one hand, and changing climate, on the other hand, have exacerbated water scarcity worldwide. To address this problem, policymakers need to take a wide view of the water economy - a complex structure involving environmental, social, economic, legal, and institutional aspects. A coherent water policy must look at the water economy as a whole and apply a comprehensive approach to policy interventions. Written by two of the world's leading scholars on economics of water, this is the first graduate-level textbook on the topic. The book discusses water resource management within a comprehensive framework that integrates the different, yet highly entwined, elements of a water economy. It follows the steps needed to develop a well-designed set of policies based on detailed analyses of intervention measures, using multi-sectoral and economy-wide examples from a variety of locations and situations around the world.
Virtual Trade and Comparative Advantage
The main purpose of this book is to expose economics graduate students and researchers to the most significant development in international trade that has taken place in the recent past. Service transactions now make up a sizeable portion of global trade. Trade in both final and intermediate inputs is done virtually through information and communication networks, raising afresh the question of the basis of trade and calling for in-depth investigation. This book succinctly comes up with a relatively new explanation for the basis of trade, thus it adds a new dimension to three existing building blocks: technology, endowment, and returns to scale. Against a backdrop of standard Ricardian and Heckscher-Ohlin competitive models of trade, the chapters of this book nicely introduce the issue of communication cost and the difference in time zones between two trading nations. Then follow many intricate phenomena such as informality, skill formation, growth, wage inequality, and decisions regarding foreign direct investment (FDI). However, imperfectly competitive models are not dealt with in great detail as they deserve more space than can be allotted to them here. Given the nonexistence of any research-oriented in-depth analyses of competitive trade models with time-zone differences, this book is a valuable addition to the resources available to researchers and policymakers interested in deciphering recent developments in global trade patterns and the subsequent welfare effect.
Changing the Rules
Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Tanzania provides a comprehensive examination of Tanzania's informal economy, highlighting its critical role as both a survival mechanism and a force for political and economic change. Amid the economic crises of the 1980s, Tanzanians increasingly turned to informal activities to bridge the vast gap between formal wages and the cost of living. This shift not only redefined economic participation but also challenged the statist and socialist frameworks that had dominated Tanzania's post-independence policies. The book explores how the informal economy reshaped dependencies, strengthened grassroots initiatives, and exerted pressure on the state to adapt through liberalization and reform. The study delves into the socio-political dynamics underlying this transformation, from the emergence of new economic practices to the state's reluctant acknowledgment of these activities. By documenting the interplay between everyday resistance and policy shifts, the book reveals how informal economic strategies undermined restrictive state norms and forced significant institutional changes. Through chapters that analyze household dynamics, gendered economic roles, and shifting state-society relations, the author presents a nuanced picture of how Tanzanians redefined survival and governance. This book is essential for understanding how grassroots economic adaptations can drive systemic transformation in developing nations. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.
The Economics of Intellectual Property and Openness
This book focuses on the economic aspects of intellectual property. It includes considerations of the wider category of intangible assets however, the primary focus is devoted to patents which, the author argues, are the most vivid example of the Tragedy of Intangible Abundance (TIA).
Economic Development and Export Growth
Economic Development and Export Growth: A Study of Northern Rhodesia, 1920-1960 explores the economic history of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) during the colonial period, focusing on the key role of export growth in the region's development. Conducted under the Ford Foundation's Foreign Area Training Fellowship, the research primarily took place between 1960 and 1961, with an additional visit in 1962. The study examines the transformation of Northern Rhodesia's economy from the 1920s through the 1960s, before the country gained political independence in 1964 and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved. While the book does not address the post-independence economic changes, it provides a detailed analysis of the period leading up to Zambia's independence. It outlines the impact of the export-driven economy, driven largely by the copper industry, on the region's development and its relationship with colonial structures. The author acknowledges the historical and political context of the time but refrains from incorporating recent political shifts, as the full effects of the newly independent government's policies are yet to be understood. The study offers valuable insight into the economic history of Zambia, highlighting the role of export growth in shaping the country's economic landscape before independence. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1966.
London's Global Office Economy
London's Global Office Economy: From Clerical Factory to Digital Hub is a timely and comprehensive study of the office from the very beginnings of the workplace to its post-pandemic future. The book takes the reader on a journey through five ages of the office, encompassing sixteenth-century coffee houses and markets, eighteenth-century clerical factories, the corporate offices emerging in the nineteenth, to the digital and network offices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.While offices might appear ubiquitous, their evolution and role in the modern economy are among the least explained aspects of city development. One-third of the workforce uses an office; and yet the buildings themselves - their history, design, construction, management and occupation - have received only piecemeal explanation, mainly in specialist texts. This book examines everything from paper clips and typewriters, to design and construction, to workstyles and urban planning to explain the evolution of the 'office economy'.Using London as a backdrop, Rob Harris provides built environment practitioners, academics, students and the general reader with a fascinating, illuminating and comprehensive perspective on the office. Readers will find rich material linking fields that are normally treated in isolation, in a story that weaves together the pressures exerting change on the businesses that occupy office space with the motives and activities of those who plan, supply and manage it. Our unfolding understanding of offices, the changes through which they have passed, the nature of office work itself and its continuing evolution is a fascinating story and should appeal to anyone with an interest in contemporary society and its relationship with work.
Fulfillment
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice"A grounded and expansive examination of the American economic divide . . . It takes a skillful journalist to weave data and anecdotes together so effectively." --Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles TimesAn award-winning journalist investigates Amazon's impact on the wealth and poverty of towns and cities across the United States. In 1937, the famed writer and activist Upton Sinclair published a novel bearing the subtitle A Story of Ford-America. He blasted the callousness of a company worth "a billion dollars" that underpaid its workers while forcing them to engage in repetitive and sometimes dangerous assembly-line labor. Eight decades later, the market capitalization of Amazon.com has exceeded $1.5 trillion, while the value of the Ford Motor Company hovers around $30 billion. We have entered the age of one-click America--and as the coronavirus makes Americans more dependent on online shopping, Amazon's sway will only intensify. Alec MacGillis's Fulfillment is not another expos矇 of our most conspicuously dominant company. Rather, it is a literary investigation of the America that falls within that company's growing shadow. As MacGillis shows, Amazon's sprawling network of delivery hubs, data centers, and corporate campuses epitomizes a land where winner and loser cities and regions are drifting steadily apart, the civic fabric is unraveling, and work has become increasingly rudimentary and isolated. In Seattle, high-paid workers in new office towers displace a historic Black neighborhood. In Ohio, cardboard makers supplant auto manufacturers, and in suburban Virginia, homeowners try to protect their town from the environmental impact of a new data center. When a warehouse replaces a fabled steel plant on the outskirts of Baltimore, a new model of work becomes visible. Fulfillment also shows how Amazon has become a force in Washington, D.C., ushering readers through a revolving door for lobbyists and government contractors and into CEO Jeff Bezos's Kalorama mansion. With empathy and breadth, MacGillis demonstrates the hidden human costs of the other inequality--not the growing gap between rich and poor, but the gap between the country's winning and losing regions. The result is an intimate account of contemporary capitalism: its drive to innovate, its dark, pitiless magic, its remaking of America with every click.
Crisis and Continuity
Offers a critical reassessment of the Reconquest of Castile from the Moors in the fifteenth century. Explores the land and climate of northern Castile, the urban and rural society, and the demography and fiscal oppression of the Reconquest.
Economic Data Utilized in Wage Arbitration
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Seasonal Variations in Employment in Manufacturing Industries
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Financial Markets in the Capitalist Process
The preoccupation of financial theory with static, timeless, equilibrium analysis has given rise to an orthodoxy that avoids the problems of uncertainty in the world. This work establishes new perspectives from which contemporary financial theory can be evaluated. Echoing Keynes' observation that "Human decisions . . . cannot depend on strict mathematical expectation," Douglas Vickers explains why most decisions in economics and finance are not made under conditions to which the calculus of probability applies. The author proposes a "new realism" in financial theory that takes into account the uncertainty in personal and economic decisions. Both business firms and financial investors, he contends, acquire an important perspective on their alternatives by focusing on the transitional, disequilibrium processes in financial markets rather than on their sup­ posed equilibrium conditions. This involves for economic decisions an understanding of "time" as "historic" in a genuine operational sense rather than as merely a logical variable. The notion of probability should be replaced by that of possibility, the concept that the British economist G. L. S. Shackle has called "potential surprise." In Part I, Vickers' innovative approach leads to a careful study of the "false trading" that occurs in real and financial markets. Part II provides an exposition and an evaluation of the equilibrium theory of financial asset prices. The new analytical apparatus is applied in Part Ill to investment decision making in the firm and to the choice of financial asset portfolios, as well as to the questions of asset trading and changes in portfolio composition. A scholarly and constructive work, Financial Markets in the Capitalist Process will generate controversy among professionals and debate among students for many years to come.
The Theory of Free Competition
Theories of the classical and English systems, reviewed in relation to the question of what part government should play in the competitive order.
Wharton Assembly Addresses, 1938
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Economics and the Real World
Drawing on a lifetime of distinguished work in economic research and policymaking, Andrew Kamarck details how his profession can more usefully analyze and solve economic problems by changing its basic approach to research. Kamarck contends that most economists today strive for a mathematical precision in their work that neither stems from nor leads to an accurate view of economic reality. He develops elegant critiques of key areas of economic analysis based on appreciation of scientific method and knowledge of the limitations of economic data. Concepts such as employment, market, and money supply must be seen as loose, not exact. Measurement of national income becomes highly problematic when taking into account such factors as the so-called underground economy and currency differences. World trade analysis is based on inconsistent and often inaccurate measurements. Subtle realities of the individual, social, and political worlds render largely ineffective both large-scale macroeconomics models and micro models of the consumer and the firm. Fashionable cost-benefit analysis must be recognized as inherently imprecise. Capital and investment in developing countries tend to be measured in easy but irrelevant ways. Kamarck concludes with a call for economists to involve themselves in data collection, to insist on more accurate and reliable data sources, to do analysis within the context of experience, and to take a realistic, incremental approach to policymaking. Kamarck's concerns are shared by many economists, and his eloquent presentation will be essential reading for his colleagues and for those who make use of economic research.
The International Economic Position of Argentina
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Historical Survey of Labor Arbitration
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Removing Obstacles to Economic Growth
The unsatisfactory performance of the United States economy during the 1970s generated considerable debate over potential new directions for economic policy. This volume, the result of the second Wharton/Reliance Symposium held in May 1983, presents and analyzes a range of economic policy options. The focus of the volume is on potential policy remedies for the economic problems of slow real output and productivity growth. Given the range of issues covered and the alternative viewpoints presented, this collection does not search for an overall policy consensus. To focus on consensus would have required narrowing both the subject matter and the distinctive viewpoints that are presented here. The result is an open discussion of a set of existing and innovative policy options. Contributors include Henry A. Kissinger, former Secretary of State; Nobel Laureate Lawrence R. Klein, Lester C. Thurow, Professor of Economics and Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Senator Alan Cranson; Alfred E. Kahn, Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability under President Carter; William W. Winpisinger, International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and Justine Farr Rodriguez, Senior Economist with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, among many others.
The Paradox of Scientific Authority
Assessing the influence of scientific advice in societies that increasingly question scientific authority and expertise.Today, scientific advice is asked for (and given) on questions ranging from stem-cell research to genetically modified food. And yet it often seems that the more urgently scientific advice is solicited, the more vigorously scientific authority is questioned by policy makers, stakeholders, and citizens. This book examines a paradox: how scientific advice can be influential in society even when the status of science and scientists seems to be at a low ebb. The authors do this by means of an ethnographic study of the creation of scientific authority at one of the key sites for the interaction of science, policy, and society: the scientific advisory committee. The Paradox of Scientific Authority offers a detailed analysis of the inner workings of the influential Health Council of the Netherlands (the equivalent of the National Academy of Science in the United States), examining its societal role as well as its internal functioning, and using the findings to build a theory of scientific advising. The question of scientific authority has political as well as scholarly relevance. Democratic political institutions, largely developed in the nineteenth century, lack the institutional means to address the twenty-first century's pervasively scientific and technological culture; and science and technology studies (STS) grapples with the central question of how to understand the authority of science while recognizing its socially constructed nature.
Arbeitsbuch Zu Grundlagen Der Mikro繹konomik
Beinhaltet eine einzigartige Vielfalt an Fragen und ?bungen f羹r Studierende der "Grundlagen der Mikro繹konomik"Enth瓣lt Multiple-Choice Fragen, mathematische ?bungen und offene Fallstudien2. Auflage wurde um zahlreichen neue ?bungsaufgaben und L繹sungen erweitert
What We Owe Each Other
From one of the leading policy experts of our time, an urgent rethinking of how we can better support each other to thrive Whether we realize it or not, all of us participate in the social contract every day through mutual obligations among our family, community, place of work, and fellow citizens. Caring for others, paying taxes, and benefiting from public services define the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. Today, however, our social contract has been broken by changing gender roles, technology, new models of work, aging, and the perils of climate change. Minouche Shafik takes us through stages of life we all experience--raising children, getting educated, falling ill, working, growing old--and shows how a reordering of our societies is possible. Drawing on evidence and examples from around the world, she shows how every country can provide citizens with the basics to have a decent life and be able to contribute to society. But we owe each other more than this. A more generous and inclusive society would also share more risks collectively and ask everyone to contribute for as long as they can so that everyone can fulfill their potential. What We Owe Each Other identifies the key elements of a better social contract that recognizes our interdependencies, supports and invests more in each other, and expects more of individuals in return. Powerful, hopeful, and thought-provoking, What We Owe Each Other provides practical solutions to current challenges and demonstrates how we can build a better society--together.
Growth and International Trade
Growth and International Trade: Introduction and Stylized Facts.- PART I. GROWTH.- Modeling the Growth of the World Economy: The Basic Overlapping Generations Model.- Steady State, Factor Income, and Technological Progress.- Economic Growth and Public Debt in the World Economy.- "New" Growth Theory and Knowledge Externalities in Capital Accumulation.- Endogenous Technological Progress and Infinite Economic Growth.- Human Capital, Religion, and Economic Growth.- Economic Growth With Bubbles.- Involuntary Unemployment in an OLG Growth Model with Public Debt and Human Capital.- Robots, Human Capital Investment, Welfare, and Unemployment in a Digital World Economy.- PART II. INTERNATIONAL TRADE. International Parity Conditions in a Two-Country OLG Model Under Free Trade.- Factor Proportion, Inter-Sectoral Trade, and Product Life Cycle.- Product Differentiation, Decreasing Costs, and Intra-sectoral Trade.- Globalization, Capital Accumulation, and Terms of Trade.- Innovation, Growth and Trade in a Two-Country OLG Model.- Real Exchange Rate and Public Debt in a Two-Advanced-Country OLG Model.- Public Debt Reduction in Advanced Countries and Its Impacts on Emerging Countries.- External Balance, Dynamic Efficiency and Welfare Effects of National Climate Policies.- Nationally and Internationally Optimal Climate Policies.- Modeling the Debt Mechanics of the Euro Zone.- Financial Integration and House Price Dynamics in an OLG Model with Intra-EMU and Asian-US Trade Imbalances.- Why Religion Might Persist in a Globalized Market Economy.
Global Taiwanese
In Global Taiwanese, Fiona Moore explores the different ways in which Taiwanese expatriates in London and Toronto, along with professionals living in Taipei, use their shared Taiwanese identities to construct and maintain global and local networks.Based on a three-year-long ethnographic study that incorporates interviews with people from diverse backgrounds, generations, and histories, this book explores what their different experiences tell us about migration in "tolerant" and "hostile" regimes.Global Taiwanese considers the implications in leveraging their Taiwanese ethnic identity for both business and personal purposes. As people become increasingly mobile, ethnic identity becomes more important as a means of negotiating transnational encounters; however, at the same time, the opportunities it offers are rooted in local cultural practices, requiring professionals and other migrants to develop complex social strategies that link and cross the global and local levels.With rich ethnographic detail, this book contributes to the understanding of the migrant experience and how it varies from location to location, how migration more generally changes in response to wider socioeconomic factors, and, finally, of the specific case of Taiwan and how the distinctive nature of its diaspora emerges through wider discourses of Chineseness and pan-Asian identity.
Rethinking Territorial Development Policies
This book provides an analytical framework and toolkit for anyone involved - theoretically or practically - with the economic, social, ecological or cultural development of a territory. This work provides an overview of the various territorial development processes, inclusive of both individual and collective actions.In pursuance of its objectives, the book re-examines the classical concepts of governance and regulation in order to position them in an integrative model of the initiatives which contribute dynamically to territorial development.According to this model, the concepts of governance and regulation become two axes, revealing four main reference situations which differentiate between the local initiatives (ground-up) and public actions (top-down) that coexist in a territory. The model emphasizes the need to consider the place of territorial stakeholders in regulatory processes. The book enriches this concept, familiar in a legislative context, and describes it as an area of influence of and negotiation with stakeholders. It contributes to a territorial governance system which encourages development offers.It reveals the inseparable link between influence and development processes that lead to value creation. The logic of governance specifies the various sources of value creation, while the logic of regulation seeks to maximize the acceptability of such value creation by making it into an attractive proposition for stakeholders.
Facing the Era of Great Transformation
​This book collects essays from Chinese economic sage who was the mastermind of the reform and opening and persistent champion of market-driven development. In the essays, he outlines his vision of the systemic reform needed for today's China, from rule of law to completion of the market system and reform of state-owned enterprises. Dr. Wu's thoughts are always of interest, but at this pivotal moment of Chinese economic recalibration, his views will be of more value than ever, to scholars, economists, journalists, and those in civil society.
Unexpected Prosperity
Only a handful of economies have successfully transitioned from middle to high income in recent decades. One such case is Spain. How did it achieve this feat? Despite its relevance to countries that have yet to complete that transition, this question has attracted only limited attention. As a result, Spain's development into a prosperous society is a largely under-reported and often misunderstood success story. Unexpected Propserity takes a different look at the questions that usually frame the debate about Spain's economic development. Instead of asking why Spain's catching up was delayed, Calvo-Gonzalez asks how it happened in the first place; instead of focusing on how bad institutions undermined economic prospects, as the literature has done, he explains how growth took place even in the presence of poor institutions. This wider view opens new perspectives on Spain's development path. For example, comparisons are drawn not only with the richest countries but also with those that were in a similar stage of development as Spain. Drawing on a wide range of material, from archival sources to text analytics, the book provides a new account of why reforms were adopted, the role of external and internal factors, as well as that of unintended consequences. The result is an original interpretation of the economic rise of Spain that speaks also to the wider literature on the political economy of reform, the role of industrial and public policy more broadly, and the enduring legacy of political violence and conflict.
Social Institutions and Gender Index Sigi 2021 Regional Report for Southeast Asia
Achieving gender equality and tackling discriminatory laws, social norms and practices set a direct path toward a more inclusive economy and society. The SIGI 2021 Regional Report for Southeast Asia provides new evidence-based analysis on the setbacks and progress in achieving gender equality between 2014 and 2019 in 11 countries.
West African Studies Conflict Networks in North and West Africa
Conflicts in North and West Africa have become more violent and widespread than in the past. They have also become more difficult to resolve due to the complex relationships between a growing number of belligerents with diverging agendas. This report maps conflict networks and the evolution of rivalries and alliances in 21 North and West African countries.
OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Belgium 2021
Belgium has made progress in decoupling several environmental pressures from economic growth, in improving wastewater treatment and in expanding protected areas. Regions have achieved high levels of recovery and recycling, and have pioneered circular economy policies. However, further efforts are needed to progress towards carbon neutrality, reduce air and water pollution, reverse biodiversity loss and consolidate results of circular economy initiatives.
Social and Economic Development in Central and Eastern Europe
This book identifies and analyses the key post-1990 developments across the New Member States at the sub-national and national levels, with frequent country-level and regional comparisons.
Amartya Sen and Rational Choice
This book examines commitment as it has evolved in Sen's critique of orthodox rational choice theory.
Peak Performance
Company and operational performance is always a topic of concern for corporations as they seek to provide quality products and services to their customer base. The Peak Performance Model discussed in this book is introduced to aid companies in identifying ways to improve company performance that can be sustained.
Poverty Alleviation Through Tourism Development
The book offers a comprehensive and integrated approach to the topic of tourism development and its contribution to the fight against poverty. Tourism development is credited to be a powerful source of regional development and improvement in developing countries, and the focus of the book is on the world's poorest areas and how tourism connects to the poor and unlocks opportunities to escape the poverty trap. This book takes a comprehensive and unique approach by combining a decade of research on the effects of tourism development on poverty reduction in Latin America. The book explores poverty and its impact on development at the macro and micro levels. Then, it goes on to focus on tourism development and its effects on growth, inequality, and poverty reduction and how these dynamic relationships affect the most vulnerable groups of society. The research also documents on how the poor perceive tourism development on their lives and if they see it as an important vehicle to help them escape from poverty. Lastly, the authors map the conditions under which tourism can reach the poor and how tourism can offer opportunities for impoverished areas and their residents. Combining tourism dynamics, development economics, poverty reduction, business practices, and a sustainable perspective, the book takes a broad look at this important issue. The book will be informative and valuable to a higher educational audience, including academia and researchers, as well as practitioners, policymakers, and international organizations, and graduate students.
