Based on the analysis of more than 35,000 company balance sheets, annual series of gross private investment have been constructed for 15 different sectors in Belgium between 1900 and 1995. The resulting data clearly show that the level of gross investment in the Belgian economy, expressed as a percentage of national income, was generally much lower than during the post world war two period. An international comparison demonstrates that Belgium usually invested far less than its major competitors. Moreover, the traditional coal and metal industries benefitted most of the investment effort instead of newer sectors like the chemical industry. Thus the present study contributes to explaining for the relatively poor growth performances of the Belgian economy prior to the 1960s.
Are there distinct European traditions in economics? Is modern economics homogenous and American? The volume includes case studies of the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece. Each of these examines the conditions relating to the supply of, and demand for, economists. These include: the growth of higher education, the development of postgraduate training in economics, international linkages, both within Europe and outside it, economic ideas and professionalization, and involvement in economic policy-making and public affairs. Whilst each chapter is attentive to particular national features, they also place the development of economics in the context of the postwar movement towards European integration.
After the French Revolution, Switzerland developed from a country in which German dominated linguistically into a confederation of four officially recognised language groups -- German, French, Italian, Romansh -- concentrated in different geographical areas and marked by distinctive cultures and lifestyles. Following a historical overview of this development and the social and political institutionalisation of the linguistic cleavages, McRae's study examines key elements in the functioning of modern Swiss society; political parties, federal and cantonal institutions, the media, educational and cultural policies, the relation between the linguistic cleavages and class and religion, the attitudes and behaviour of the four language groups to one another. It concludes by reviewing the various explanations advanced to explain the relative social and political stability of Switzerland.
An unconventional evaluation of the causes which, in the last ten years, have dramatically pushed down the rates of economic growth. The distinguished author, a member of the Club of Rome, argues that it is not simply a question of a new long term economic cycle of the types described by Schumpeter and Kondratieff, but is rather the effect of a fundamental change in the traditional, industrial modes of production. A clear evaluation of such change leads to the necessity of reformulating the notion of economic value, in order to find new strategies for developing a nation's wealth.