Economics and Finance

Mandatory pension systems are a worldwide phenomenon. Many need reform. This book, a summary of a longer book, sets out an extensive but nontechnical explanation of the economics of pension design. The book recognizes the multiple objectives of pension plans: consumption smoothing, insurance, poverty relief, and redistribution. Analysis includes discussion of labor markets, capital markets, risk sharing, and gender and family. This is supplemented by discussion of implementation, and of experiences, both good and bad, in many countries, with particular attention to China and Chile.

While standard accounts of the theoretical debates in 1930s economic thought invariably pit John Maynard Keynes against Friedrich von Hayek, this reflexive dichotomy is in many respects exceedingly superficial. It is the argument of this book that both Keynes and Hayek developed their respective theories of the business cycle within the tradition of Swedish economist Knut Wicksell, and that this shared genealogy manifested itself in significant theoretical affinities between the two apparent antagonists. The salient features of Wicksell’s work, namely, the importance of money, the role of uncertainty, coordination failures, and the element of time in capital accumulation, all motivate the Keynesian and Hayekian theories of economic fluctuations, and contributed, The author argues to a fundamental convergence between the two economists during the course of the 1930s. Moreover, this shared, “Wicksellian” vision of the economic problem points to a very different research agenda from that of the Walrasian-style, general equilibrium analysis that has dominated postwar macroeconomics. The book aims not only to deconstruct some of the historical misconceptions of the Keynes versus Hayek debate but also to suggest how the insights thus uncovered can inform and instruct modern theory. While much of the analysis is quite technical, it does not assume previous knowledge of 1930s economic theory and thus should be accessible to economists, political scientists, and historians with general economics training, as well as to graduate students in these fields.

South Africa experienced a momentous change of government from the Apartheid regime to its first democratic government in 1994. This book provides an up-to-date assessment of South Africa's economic policies and performance under democracy. The book includes a stand-alone introduction and economic overview, as well as chapters on growth, monetary and exchange rate policy, fiscal policy, capital flows, and trade policy; investment, industrial, and competition policy; on the effect of AIDS in the macroeconomy; and on unemployment, education, inequality, and poverty. Each chapter, and the overview chapter in particular, also addresses prospects for the future.

This book examines the impact of the knowledge economy on the knowledge production of management studies. It highlights the important parts of theorizing that have emerged within the strategy and organization fields to accommodate those tendencies thought of as characterising the knowledge economy. It seeks to resolve existing tensions between ‘competence’ and ‘governance’ approaches to organization and strategy.

This book provides a bridge between actual, and expected, United States trade policies and the financial, marketing, operational, organizational, and strategic aspects of corporate business policy. It grew out of the first annual International Business Education and Research Program (IBEAR) Research and Management Workshop held at USC. Individual papers were written by different authors and have been heavily edited. The editors have also added a general introduction, introductions to the parts, and linking sections between chapters. The book is the only source for the ideas it presents, since the papers have not, and will not, be published elsewhere.

Applying the new economics of organization and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross‐national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterize the ‘varieties of capitalism’ found among the developed economies. Building on a distinction between ‘liberal market economies’ and ‘coordinated market economies’, it explores the impact of these variations on economic performance and many spheres of policy‐making, including macroeconomic policy, social policy, vocational training, legal decision‐making, and international economic negotiations. The volume examines the institutional complementarities across spheres of the political economy, including labour markets, markets for corporate finance, the system of skill formation, and inter‐firm collaboration on research and development that reinforce national equilibria and give rise to comparative institutional advantages, notably in the sphere of innovation where LMEs are better placed to sponsor radical innovation and CMEs to sponsor incremental innovation. By linking managerial strategy to national institutions, the volume builds a firm‐centred comparative political economy that can be used to assess the response of firms and governments to the pressures associated with globalization. Its new perspectives on the welfare state emphasize the role of business interests and of economic systems built on general or specific skills in the development of social policy. It explores the relationship between national legal systems, as well as systems of standards setting, and the political economy. The analysis has many implications for economic policy‐making, at national and international levels, in the global age.

Who is afraid of the WTO, the World Trade Organization? The list is long and varied. Many workers—and the unions that represent them—claim that WTO agreements increase import competition and threaten their jobs. Environmentalists accuse the WTO of encouraging pollution and preventing governments from defending national environmental standards. Human rights advocates block efforts to impose trade sanctions in defense of human rights. While anti-capitalist protesters regard the WTO as a tool of big business—particularly of multinational corporations—other critics charge the WTO with damaging the interests of developing countries by imposing free-market trade policies on them before they are ready. In sum, the WTO is considered exploitative, undemocratic, unbalanced, corrupt, or illegitimate. This book is in response to the many misinformed, often exaggerated arguments leveled against the WTO. The book explains the reasons for the WTO's existence and why it is a force for progress toward economic and non-economic goals worldwide. Although protests against globalization and the WTO have raised public awareness of the world trading system, they have not, the book demonstrates, raised public understanding. Clarifying the often-muddled terms of the debate, the book debunks some of the most outrageous allegations against the WTO and argues that global standards for environmental protection and human rights belong in separate agreements, not the WTO. Developing countries need more trade, not less, and even more importantly, they need a system of rules that gives them the best possible chance of pursuing their trade interests among the developed countries.