At the heart of our intellectual journey in this book lies the profound realiza-tion that in order to redefine capital, we must first engage in a transforma-tive discourse that places (redefining) value at its very core. In the face of an imminent convergence of ecological and social crises, it becomes increas-ingly evident that the immense influence wielded by capital is at the core o…
In classical accounts of economic development, economic growth is seen to beaccompanied by a decline in informal employment.¹ Yet, in most developingcountries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and less so in EastAsia and Latin America, informal forms of economic activity remain a persis-tent phenomenon in spite of rapid economic growth in recent decades (Kanbur2017). Informal …
On the third floor of a stately hotel, investment conference participants were spilling into a buzzing reception area. Long tables draped in white tablecloths held clusters of gleaming silver coffee urns surrounded by a lavish array of refreshments: tropical fruit salad, pastries, giant chocolate chip cookies, tiny crustless sandwiches, the work…
Chinese intellectuals like to blame things on institutions. After all, Chinese people areindustrious, prudent, and entrepreneurial. Yet modern Chinese history since theopium war has been characterized by one humiliation after another, and althoughthe founding of communist China gave the country independence, it came at the costof being self-isolated from the world and having a poor economy. Wha…
In 1969, an influential volume arising from a conference at LSE began with a declaration phrased to echo Marx and Engels: ‘A spectre is haunting the world: the spectre of populism’ [1]. More than half a century has gone by, and the warning re-mains timely. Donald Trump may be gone from the White House, but populism is still a powerful force in world politics. …
We regard Economic Theory as a collection of models, each viewed as a storyor a fable rather than as a testable scientific model to be verified or refuted(seeRubinstein(2012)). Models in Economic Theory are “useful” in the samesense that fables are.Perhaps, there is no boy who literally “cried wolf”,but we nevertheless tell the story to teach our children about…
Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and Jame…
Finance theory is a phrase that encompasses under its umbrella portofolio theory, the capital asset pricing model, call option pricing, and arbitrage pricing theory; in sum, it includes those models most often associated with financial economics. In the late 1960s and early 1970's, the field was most closely associated with the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), as evidenced by the emergence o…
The post-socialist transformation of CEE can be considered to be one of the greatest developments in modern history. Unexpectedly, a group of countries emerged from an autocratic political system and centrally planned economy and within the space of a single generation was able to build pluralistic democracies and open market economies. Economic development proceeded quickly. Of …
The Eurozone crisis began in late 2009. It followed in the wake of the globalfinancial crisis and quickly developed into one of the most serious economic andpolitical crises in the history of the European Union (EU). Nonetheless, after adecade of unsuccessful attempts to resolve the fundamental structural and insti-tutional issues that underlie the Eurozone’s problems, a long-term reform that…
Europe’s cities are global leaders. Though they lack the clout that comes with ten million-plus populations or the headquarters of the world’s largest firms, on important international agendas such as cultural production, public health, knowledge and education, and sustainability, the European metropolis leads. Europe’s cities win on many measures of liveability and resilience, and these…
With the signing in 2016 of the Amsterdam Pact1, the EU Member States committed to an Urban Agenda designed to encourage and promote integrated planning and development in pursuit of a more sustainable and equitable settlement pattern. The Urban Agenda acknowledges the significant role that cities have played in Europe’s development following the industrial revolution. It also recognises the …
Many people have grown up, lived, worked and died on Indian tea plantations. Although a small number have left in search of a better life elsewhere, they have often been replaced by their relatives. However, most workers have not experienced a life outside the plantations, which have cocooned their families for generations. Therefore, when long-standing owners be…
This book is about white working-class American men who opposed social democratic labor unions and politics in the century that culminated in the New Deal. It follows five generations of miners who, beginning in the 1850s, discovered and developed a rich swath of zinc and lead that straddled the boundaries between Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. By the 1920s, the Tri-State district le…
What is capitalism? Is capitalism the same everywhere? Is there an alternative? The word 'capitalism' is one that is heard and used frequently, but what is capitalism really all about, and what does it mean? The book begins by addressing basic issues such as 'what is capital?' before discussing the history and development of capitalism through three detailed and absorbing case studies rangin…
Economics has the capacity to offer us deep insights into some of the most formidable problems of life, and offer solutions to them too. Combining a global approach with examples from everyday life, Partha Dasgupta describes the lives of two children who live very different lives in different parts of the world: in the Mid-West USA and in Ethiopia. He compares the obstacles facing them, and the…
Are you at risk of being trapped in an uncompetitive business? Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now. In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks that were desig…
History, not ideology, holds the key to growth. Brilliantly written and argued, Concrete Economics shows how government has repeatedly reshaped the American economy ever since Alexander Hamilton’s first, foundational redesign. This book does not rehash the sturdy and long-accepted arguments that to thrive, entrepreneurial economies need a broad range of freedoms. Instead, Steve Cohen an…
Finance has gone farming. Since the financial and food price crises of 2007/ 8, the world has seen a stark rise in financial investments in farmland and agri-cultural production by investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, private equity funds, insurance companies, family offices, endowment funds and high- net-worth individuals (HNWIs). Indeed, finance has been …
Think big, buy small. Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards?as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put y…
Beside Inventory, the title of the book refers to Analytics. Thisis nowadays a concept that has been inflated with a plethora ofmeanings, so that it becomes difficult to understand exactly whateach of us means when we refer to it. The Cambridge Dictionary11Cambridge Dictionary,https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/analytics?q=Analyticsdefines Analytics as “a process in which a c…
The spread of capitalism worldwide has made people wealthier than ever before. But capitalism’s future is far from assured. The global financial meltdown of 2008 nearly produced a great depression. Economies in Europe are still teetering. Income inequality, resource depletion, mass migrations from poor to rich countries, religious fundamentalism?these are just a few of the threats to continui…
Agri-food is more than a strategically important economic sector. It is also crucial for society, because it provides affordable and sustainable nutrition for the population. An increasingly growing part of society, especially the young, are willing to pay more for sustainable food. This is important, as the sector is extremely sensitive to price changes. Crowdfunding can give more financing to…
his interdisciplinary collection—spanning the disciplines of engineering, law and planning—draws helpfully on a range of practical and theoretical perspectives. It is the collaborative effort of leading experts in the fields of infrastructure project initiation and financing, and is based on international research conducted by the University of Melbourne, Universitas Indonesia and Universit…
One of the most valuable lessons of the Italian kitchen is to make the most of everything you have available and never to throw anything away. No crumbs or bones are ever thrown in the bin. In a certain sense, a ragù is nothing more than a sauce made with leftover scraps of meat or fish or vegetables. In the classic Italian cookbook …
Water falls from the heavens, runs into streams, flows into groundwater, feeds lakes, then evaporates. It fuels biodiversity, sustains our crops and animals, helps generate energy and supports our towns and villages. Its scarcity affects people’s daily lives, even if we tend to forget this all too often in the developed world, as water tre…
sat that evening in the back of the auditorium where the first Senate session of the academic year was being held. The table on the stage was draped with a green tablecloth that reached the floor. Seated at the table were the patricians of the university, which is situated north of an almost dry riverbed. A microphone was connected to scratchy loudspeaker…
We live in an era when ideals of human rights have moved centerstage both politically and ethically. A lot of political energy is put into promoting, protecting, and articulating their significance in the construction of a better world. For the most part the concepts circulating are individualistic and property-based and, as such, do nothing to challenge hegemonic liberal and neoliberal market …
In this volume, Mark Luccarelli pushes past unproductive mind/body debates by rooting the rise of environmental awareness in the political and geographical history of the US. Considering history in terms of the categorical development of space - social, territorial and conceptual - the book examines the forces that drove people to ignore their surroundings by distancing culture from place and b…
The “digital economy” is a conceptual umbrella referring to markets, organizations and their networks that are based on digital technologies, communication, data processing and e-commerce. It is multidimensional and its dynamic structure must be analysed from various dimensions, such as economic – changes in the nature of resources, production factors and economic processes; technological…
This open access book examines the chronic underperformance of economies with respect to inclusion, sustainability and resilience. It finds that the standard liberal economic growth and development model has evolved over the past century in a fundamentally unbalanced manner that underemphasizes the crucial role of institutions – legal norms, policy incentives and public administrative capacit…
Capitalism has gone astray. Today we face ecological exhaustion, persistent inequality, financialization, stress on communities, short-termism, and new power concentrations. An avalanche of new economic thinking and a reorientation of European values show the way toward a different economy. A new perspective is necessary if we want to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and if we consid…
Although the global food system increasingly is viewed as unsustainable for human and planetary health, the policy pathways for transforming the status quo are often highly contentious. This book brings together inter-disciplinary scholars to analyze the political economy dynamics central to food system transformation and to identify pathways for enhancing the political feasibility of necessary…
The governor exudes power. Rachel watches him from across the conferencetable. His occasional laughter is loud, his knowing smile invites others tospeak, but not for too long. Today is his first visit to the institute. Theinstitute’s director has introduced the senior researchers sitting around thetable, Rachel among them, and two of her colleagues have already ma…
What do we expect when we say something to someone, and what do they expect when they hear it? When is a conversation successful? The book considers a wide set of two-person conversations, and a bit of game theory, to show how conversational statements and their interpretations are governed by beliefs. Thinking about beliefs is suitable for communication analysis because beliefs are well-define…
Internationally, the tourism economic sector is dominated by small businesses that provide goods and services to a visiting tourist clientele. Community based tourism (CBT) is a form of tourism that seeks to empower communities to manage tourism growth and achieve community aspirations relating to their well-being, and includes economic, social and environmental sustainable development. Therefo…
The program adopted by the German Social Democracy at Erfurt in 1891 divides itself into two parts. In the first place it outlines the fundamental principles on which Socialism is based, and in the second it enumerates the demands which the Social Democracy makes of present day society. The first part tells what Socialists believe; the second how they propose to make their belief effective. We …