A small country perspective

Edited by Stefan Markowski, Peter Hall, Robert Wylie

In many countries, defence acquisitions comprise the largest component of all government procurement and in most, equipment acquisitions alone account for 25-30% of defence budget. Yet despite the scale, complexity and importance of defence procurement, it remains a relatively under-researched area amongst economists, lawyers and social scientists, with the majority of research that has been conducted concentrating on the USA.

Government procurement policies can influence the size, structure, performance and profitability of domestic defence industry, and in this sense, government defence procurement and industry polices tend to be strongly interrelated. This revealing book looks at defence procurement from the point of view of smaller, but nevertheless significant countries including Israel and Australia, and those involved in the second Gulf war, such as Poland and Spain.

This topical book will be an excellent resource for postgraduate and research students in the fields of international relations, business and corporate strategy and industrial economics.

ISBN: 9780415362887

Published July 01 2009 by Routledge.

Liquidity Preference Theory and the Global Financial Crisis

By Jorg Bibow

This book provides a reassessment of Keynes’ theory of liquidity preference. It argues that the failure of the Keynesian revolution to be made in either theory or practice owes importantly to the fact that the role of liquidity preference theory as a pivotal element in Keynes’ General Theory has remained underexplored and indeed widely misunderstood even among Keynes’ followers and until today. The book elaborates on and extends Keynes’ conceptual framework, moving it from the closed economy to the global economy context, and applies liquidity preference theory to current events and prominent hypotheses in global finance.

Jörg Bibow presents Keynes’ liquidity preference theory as a distinctive and highly relevant approach to monetary theory offering a conceptual framework of general applicability for explaining the role and functioning of the financial system. He argues that, in a dynamic context, liquidity preference theory may best be understood as a theory of financial intermediation. Through applications to current events and prominent hypotheses in global finance, this book underlines the richness, continued relevance, and superiority of Keynes’ theory of liquidity preference; with Hyman Minsky standing out for developing Keynes’ vision of financial capitalism.

ISBN: 9780415352628

Published June 29 2009 by Routledge.

Edited by Clive Spash

Edited by a leading scholar in the field, this new four-volume Routledge Major Work brings together canonical and cutting-edge research in ecological economics. In tracing both the development of thought in the field, as well as exploring the most recent scholarship, diverse elements of the rapidly expanding literature are brought together for the first time, providing an overview of—and vision for—ecological economics.

While the roots of ecological economics can be traced back to the late 1800s the modern movement developed from diverse writings in the following century. The field became fully established and institutionalized in the late 1980s. This collection shows how research questioning the basis of mainstream economics combined with a concern for environmental degradation and limits to growth to produce ecological economics. There are also many academics who, while not calling themselves ecological economists, have ideas which are directly of relevance. The common interest, as shown especially in Parts 1–3 of the collection, has been to move beyond standard economic approaches and towards a new political economy which takes note of learning in other sciences.

Besides identifying and collecting seminal works, the editor has also chosen pieces for their ability cogently to summarize and explain developments and ongoing thinking. Ecological economics is now a vibrant and dynamic field, but it has to date lacked a coherent guide to its rapidly expanding literature. Aided by the collection’s thematic organization and the editor’s newly written general and volume introductions, this Routledge Major Work will enable users to make sense of the wide range of approaches, theories, and concepts that have informed research in ecological economics to date. It is an essential collection destined to be valued as a vital research resource by all scholars and students of the subject.

ISBN: 9780415431453

Published June 26 2009 by Routledge.

A Reconciliation

Edited by Philip Lawn

Mounting evidence suggests that GDP growth is damaging the natural environment and unlikely to be ecologically sustainable in the long-run. At the same time, an annual GDP growth rate of around three percent is regarded as the minimum necessary to prevent unemployment from escalating. Clearly, a trade-off exists between environmental goals and employment goals, yet this trade-off has been largely ignored or denied.

This book aims to resolve the environment-employment dilemma by suggesting ways and means to achieve low rates of unemployment, or preferably full employment, in the context of a low-growth or steady-state economy. In search of a solution to this dilemma, this book seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What existing paradigms offer a possible foundation for further investigation into issues dealing with both the environment and employment?

1. What specific initiatives can be implemented to deal with unemployment given that any potential solution must be consistent with responsible macroeconomic policy?

1. To what extent can ecological tax reform provide a solution to the environment-employment dilemma?

1. Under what circumstances is it clear that certain forms of employment generation are antithetic to the goal of ecological sustainability?

1. How can more favourable employment-generating opportunities be exploited in ways which lower unemployment or achieve full employment without the need for ecologically-destructive GDP growth?

This book will no doubt stimulate a broader discussion on the issue, and it may just begin a process that leads to the eventual emergence of a viable policy strategy to generate a sustainable, full employment future. This book will be of interest to decision-makers, civil servants, researchers, and NGO employees as well as students of environmental and ecological economics and issues related to employment and unemployment.

ISBN: 9780415448796

Published June 26 2009 by Routledge.

Edited by Elizabeth Howard

Retailing in the countries of Asia Pacific is changing dramatically. Changes which took decades, even centuries, elsewhere are happening in a few years. The growth of larger firms and the arrival of international retailers are changing the business landscape, bringing the consistent supply and presentation of wider ranges of goods to consumers, and leading to the development of new kinds of retail stores and modern shopping malls, often in new locations. All of these developments are important for economic growth and for consumers and their lifestyles, They raise questions for governments about foreign investment, about social and environmental change, and about the fate of traditional retailers. This book examines the trends, seeking to understand how far they are global and how local circumstances affect developments. International retailers have spread across the region, but not always successfully. Studies in several countries look at their processes of growth and some of the reasons for success and failure. A review of changing regulation across the region suggests regulators should be concerned to avoid the problems of overconcentration of retail power, and country studies reflect on the effects of regulation as well as cultural and other influences on change.

This book was published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

ISBN: 9780415483421

Published June 26 2009 by Routledge.

Readings and Perspectives

Edited by Thomas Clarke, Jean-Francois Chanlat

For decades, Europe has sought to become more financially integrated with the United States and thus European legal institutions, regulatory, governance and accounting practices have faced pressures to adapt to international competitive markets. Against this backdrop, European corporate governance systems have been criticized as being less efficient than the Anglo-American market based systems.

This textbook examines the unique dimensions and qualities of European corporate governance. Reforms of key institutions, the doctrine of shareholder value and the seemingly irresistible growth of CEO power and reward are critically analyzed. The book brings out the richness of European corporate governance systems, as well as highlighting historical weaknesses that will require further work for a sustainable corporate governance environment in the future.

In light of the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s, this intelligent look at European corporate governance is a vital textbook for courses on corporate governance and a great supplementary textbook on a host of business, management and accounting classes.

ISBN: 9780415405331

Published June 24 2009 by Routledge.

A Critical History

By John Pullen

The Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution (MPTD) claims that in a free-market economy the demand for a factor of production will depend upon its marginal product – where "marginal product" is defined as the change in total product that is caused by, or that follows, the addition or subtraction of the marginal unit of the factor used in the production process, with all other inputs held constant. From its inception in the early nineteenth century the MPTD has been claimed by some economists to be a solution to the ethical problem of distributive justice, i.e. to be a means of determining fairness in wages, profits, interest and rent. Other economists have rejected this ethical claim, but have seen the MPTD as a valid demand-side criterion in the determination of equilibrium and efficiency.

This book argues that the MPTD is valid, neither as a normative theory of social justice, nor as a positive law of economics. It suggests that economics is yet to develop a satisfactory theory of distribution that is scientific in the quantitative or mathematical sense. Through a survey of the origin and subsequent evolution of the MPTD in the writings of over 50 contributors over 150 years, John Pullen presents a critical history of the concept. The book begins by examining the conceptual tools that have been deployed to facilitate this analysis of past contributions to the MPTD and then looks at various economists and their contribution to the debate including its supporters such as Wicksteed, Marshall, Wicksell and Stigler, and its critics such as Pareto, Hobson, Edgeworth, Adriance and Cassel.

ISBN: 9780415487122

Published June 24 2009 by Routledge.

Edited by David Bailey, Lisa De Propris

After years of near ‘disrepute’ in official circles, Industrial Policy has made something of a comeback over the last few years and is now very much back on the agenda at national and EU levels, driven by concerns over globalisation, deindustrialisation, unemployment and perceived poor growth in the EU. Simultaneously, the European Commission’s Fourth Report on Economic and Social Cohesion has kicked off the debate over challenges to cohesion, the shape of EU Cohesion policy beyond 2013, and how resources should be managed. This debate will find added momentum with the imminent ‘mid-term’ review being launched by the Commission. Discussions over the success or not of the Lisbon Agenda, on-going debates over cluster policies, and recent developments in policy evaluation have also contributed to a burgeoning academic literature over the last eighteen months. This edited volume is especially pertinent given such developments and pulls together a diverse range of contributions from leading authorities in the field to add to these debates and to illustrate connections between them.

This book was published as a special issue of Policy Studies.

ISBN: 9780415498227

Published June 23 2009 by Routledge.

Property Rights and Property Wrongs

By Michael Lipton

Land reforms are laws that are intended, and likely, to cut poverty by raising the poor’s share of land rights. That raises questions about property rights as old as moral philosophy, and issues of efficiency and fairness that dominate policy from Bolivia to Nepal. Classic reforms directly transfer land from rich to poor. However, much else has been marketed as land reform: the restriction of tenancy, but also its de-restriction; collectivisation, but also de-collectivisation; land consolidation, but also land division.

In 1955-2000, genuine land reform affected over a billion people, and almost as many hectares. Is land reform still alive, for example in Bolivia, South Africa and Nepal? Or is it dead and, if so, is this because it has succeeded, or because it has failed? There has been massive research on land reform and this book builds on some surprising findings.

• Small farms’ share in land is rising in most of Asia and Africa.
• This is not driven (as widely claimed) by growth in rural population or farm productivity, but by the relative efficiency of small farms, and in some cases by land reform.
• Whether land reform helps the poor depends not only on land transfers, but at least as much on its effects through employment, non-farm activity, GDP growth and distribution, as well as the village status and power of the poor.
• Avoidance, evasion and even distortion of land reform laws sometimes advance their main aims.
• Liberalisation and its accompaniments (such as supermarkets) can be powerful friends or fatal foes of small farms and land reform.

This book will be of great interest to students, researchers and consultants working on agriculture, farm organisation, rural development and poverty reduction, with special emphasis on developing countries.

ISBN: 9780415096676

Published June 23 2009 by Routledge.

EU-Africa relations in transition

Edited by Gerrit Faber, Jan Orbie

The Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union and the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries have drastically restructured Europe’s trade architecture towards the third world. This volume examines the consequences of EPAs for development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Starting from the observation that the establishment of free trade as such will substantially impact upon economic development, the different contributions focus on the potential contribution of non-traditional aspects of EPAs. More specifically, the authors analyze the role of Aid for Trade schemes, regulatory integration issues and broader foreign policy considerations. How can these non-market access aspects stimulate development in Africa, and how have they been addressed in the EPAs? In short, this brings us to the question whether the ‘light version EPAs’ as they currently stand are a missed chance or a blessing in disguise?

ISBN: 9780415482608

Published June 17 2009 by Routledge.