An issue-driven introduction to industrial organization, thoroughly updated and revised. The study of industrial organization (IO)—the analysis of the way firms compete with one another—has become a key component of economics and of such related disciplines as finance, strategy, and marketing. This book provides an issue-driven introduction to industrial organization. Although formal in its approach, it is written in a way that requires only basic mathematical training. It includes a vast array of examples, from both within and outside the United States. This second edition has been thoroughly updated and revised. In addition to updated examples, this edition presents a more systematic treatment of public policy implications. It features added advanced sections, with analytical treatment of ideas previously presented verbally; and exercises, which allow for a deeper and more formal understanding of each topic. The new edition also includes an introduction to such empirical methods as demand estimation and equilibrium identification. Supplemental material is available online.
Ernest Solvay, philanthropist and organizer of the world-famous Solvay conferences on physics, discovered a profitable way of making soda ash in 1861. Together with a handful of associates, he laid the foundations of the Solvay company, which successfully branched out into other chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Since its emergence in 1863, Solvay has maintained world leadership in the production of soda ash. This is the first scholarly book on the history of the Solvay company, which was one of the earliest chemical multinationals and today is among the world's twenty largest chemical companies. It is also one of the largest companies in the field to preserve its family character. The authors analyze the company's 150-year history (1863–2013) from economic, political and social perspectives, showing the enormous impact geopolitical events had on the company and the recent consequences of global competition.
This collection analyzes the affinities and interactions between Indic and Judaic civilizations from ancient to contemporary times. The contributors propose a new, global understanding of commerce and culture, to reconfigure how we understand the way great cultures interact, and present a new constellation of diplomacy, literature, and geopolitics.
"Around the globe the importance of infrastructure as the motor of economic development rising owing to increasing mobility and the need to make urban territories accessible. As a result, infrastructure networks are among the most complex and significant design tasks today. This book investigates how the design of infrastructure actively influences the organization of the inhabited landscape. Works of infrastructure are analyzed as footprints of civilization, as physical presence, as transformers of perception, and as new vessels of collective life. The authors identify these characteristics, together with the conditions that influence them, and suggest a typology of design attitudes as revealed in recent practice around the world. Each chapter is illustrated with key works by some of the world's most inspiring designers, including Vito Acconci, Paul Andreu, Benthem Crouwel, Dietmar Feichtinger, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Terry Farrell, Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimshaw, Antoine Grumbach, Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, Bruno Mader, Maxwan, Montgomery Sisam, OMA, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, UN Studio, and Zwarts & Jansma. The authors demonstrate how the combined creative potential of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design is essential to putting into place an efficient, modern infrastructure. The result is an indispensable instrument for everyone involved in the design of infrastructure, and for all observers of the contemporary city. "--