Drivers Of Competitiveness

Drivers Of Competitiveness

Author: Diego Comin

Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company

Published: 2016-03-08

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 981470475X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this day and age, technology has become ever more prominent and omnipresent in our lives. As technological developments emerge and become more ubiquitous, it becomes vital to understand and analyze the impact of technology on society.Drivers of Competitiveness focuses on technology and seeks to analyze its causes and consequences on productivity and competitiveness and to examine the dynamic relationships between the different factors in various contexts. Building on state-of-the-art research, the book illustrates the global, institutional and technological factors that shape the performance of business and countries.Unlike most existing books in the field, Drivers of Competitiveness is a self-contained case book ideal for classroom use. The cases in the book are brand new. All of them are written in the context of the global financial crisis, providing a new perspective on the crisis that sheds light on its effect on competitiveness and on the diversity of responses by companies and countries. The cases and the analytical framework that emerges from the book constitute an essential kit for current and future managers, policy-makers and observers of global dynamics.


Unions, Central Banks, and EMU

Unions, Central Banks, and EMU

Author: Bob Hancké

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-04-25

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 019163820X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines the crisis of EMU through the lenses of comparative political economy. It retraces the development of wage-setting systems in the core and peripheral EMU member states, and how these contributed to the increasing divergence between creditor and debtor states in the late 2000s. Starting with the construction of the Deutschmark bloc, through the Maastricht process of the 1990s, and into the first decade of EMU, this book analyzes how labour unions and wage determination systems adjusted in response to monetary integration and, in turn, influenced the shape that monetary union would eventually take. Before the introduction of the Euro, labour unions were disciplined by central banks and governments, after social conflict in the north of the continent and with the use of social pacts in the others. Since controlling inflation had become the main goal of macro-economic policy, national central banks acted as a backstop to keep militant unions and profligate governments under control. Public sector wages thus were subordinated to manufacturing wages, a set-up policed by export sector unions, aided by the central bank. With the introduction of the single currency, the European Central Bank replaced the national central banks and, as a result, their capacity to control labour unions disappeared. The strong links between wages in the public sector unions and wages in the manufacturing export sector weakened dramatically in many countries, wage inflation re-emerged, and the stage was set for the current account divergences at the basis of the crisis of EMU.


Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies

Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies

Author: Anke Hassel

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-01-14

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0192635824

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies takes stock of the major economic challenges that advanced industrial democracies have faced since the early 1990s and the responses by governments to them. It has three goals: firstly, to further our understanding of how political economies have transformed over the past decades; secondly, to analyse the contribution of governments to these changes, by looking at their growth strategies and thirdly, to highlight and analyse the role of the reforms of welfare systems in this transformative change. In a nutshell, this book maps and provides general understanding of the evolution of growth regimes in advanced capitalist countries. It identifies five main growth regimes in contemporary advanced capitalist economies (three export-led and two domestic demand-led ones). To do so the book combines a supply side approach to economic growth as advocated by the Varieties of Capitalism Literature (OUP, 2001) with a demand side perspective as the recent discussion on growth models has exemplified. It argues that all political economies consist of growth regimes, which are based on a set of institutions that shape the supply side of the economy as well as on demand drivers such as government spending and private consumption. Both supply and demand are heavily shaped by the welfare state which provides for skills through education systems and stimulates demand through high social spending and private pension funds. The book focuses on the analysis of welfare reforms as growth strategies pursued by governments in an era characterised by financialization and the rise of the knowledge economy.


Research Agendas in EU Studies

Research Agendas in EU Studies

Author: M. Egan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-11-27

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 0230279449

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Leading scholars explore the complex questions arising from the ongoing transformation of Europe through the deepening and widening effects of European integration. Based on authoritative analyses, the book takes account of the many national, transnational and international processes and contexts in which European integration has become embedded.


A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis

A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis

Author: Bruno Dallago

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-24

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1317281160

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The financial and economic crisis in Europe is not over, and the radically opposing strategies on how to proceed has only increased the complexity of problems in the region, revealing the shortcomings of the EU’s architecture. The European Union, perhaps for the first time in its history of more than seventy years, is being perceived as a threat to the financial and monetary stability of the world. A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis explores the connection between internal EU actions and institutions and the external factors that influence the ongoing response to the European crisis. With a unique collection of international and interdisciplinary essays, this book considers the complex macroeconomic and challenging political landscape of Europe, looking at how and why the European Union is untenable in its current state. The chapters outline what should be done to make the common currency area more resilient, and explain why external events are particularly problematic for the EU, ultimately offering suggestions for what Europeans should do in order to avoid harmful internal consequences. This volume confronts the causes of the crisis’ persistence, its economic and political consequences, and the impact of more recent events and policy decisions. It will be of interest to researchers and policy-makers keen to understand the EU relations and the influence of international organizations in the European economic crisis.


Why International Cooperation is Failing

Why International Cooperation is Failing

Author: Thomas Kalinowski

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0198714726

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ten years after the global financial crisis of 2008/09 there is widespread scepticism about the ability to curb volatile financial markets and achieve true international cooperation. Changes in the global rules of finance discussed in the G20 during the last decade remain limited, and it is uncertain whether they are suitable to help mitigate and manage future crises to come. This book offers an alternative to the popular notion that this failure is the result of the 'nature' of international relations, the clash of national egoisms, or ineffective national leadership. It instead provides an understanding of recent lapses in international cooperation by revealing their deeper structural origins in the competing models of capitalism operating across the globe. US finance-led, EU integration-led, and East Asian state-led capitalism complement each other globally yet have conflicting preferences on how to complement their distinct domestic regulations at the international level. This interdependence of capitalist models is relatively stable but also prone to crises caused by volatile financial flows, global economic imbalances, and 'currency wars'. To understand international economic cooperation, we must understand the diverse dynamics of the different models of capitalism on a domestic level, not only in financial markets but also in areas of corporate structure, labour markets, and welfare regimes. By establishing a deeper integration of approaches from International Political Economy and Comparative Capitalism, this book shows that regulating international finance is not a technocratic exercise of fine-tuning the machinery of international institutions, but rather a political process dependent on the dynamic of institutional change on a national and regional level


The Digital Transformation of Labor

The Digital Transformation of Labor

Author: Anthony Larsson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-11-11

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1000731081

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process causes (or may cause) the autonomy of various labor functions, and its impact in creating (or stymieing) various job opportunities on the labor market. This book also seeks to illuminate what actors/groups are mostly benefited by the digitalization/digital transformation and which actors/groups that are put at risk by it. This book takes its point of departure from a 2016 OECD report that contends that the impact digitalization has on the future of labor is ambiguous, as on the one hand it is suggested that technological change is labor-saving, but on the other hand, it is suggested that digital technologies have not created new jobs on a scale that it replaces old jobs. Another 2018 OECD report indicated that digitalization and automation as such does not pose a real risk of destroying any significant number of jobs for the foreseeable future, although tasks would by and large change significantly. This would affects welfare, as most of its revenue stems from taxation, and particularly so from the taxation on labor (directly or indirectly). For this reason, this book will set out to explore how the future technological and societal advancements impact labor conditions. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching and controversial take on how various aspects of the labor market can be (and are) affected the ongoing digitalization trend in a way that is not covered by extant literature. As such, this book intends to cater to a wider readership, from a general audience and students, to specialized professionals and academics wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the possible future developments of the labor market in light of an accelerating digitalization/digital transformation of society at large.


Macroeconomic Paradigms and Economic Policy

Macroeconomic Paradigms and Economic Policy

Author: Nicola Acocella

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-05-31

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 131667942X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The recent financial crisis has demonstrated the dangers of ignoring the factors that led to previous crises, and the effectiveness of the policies designed to deal with them. Over time, these macroeconomic policies have evolved, oscillating between state intervention and a free-market approach. Following a story that runs from the pre-Great Depression era up until the Financial Crisis of 2007–11, this book reveals an intimate connection between new macroeconomic ideas and policies and the events in the real economy that inspired them. It does this in an accessible, easy-to-follow style, first by focusing on the developments of economic theories and policies, and then by concentrating on the design of domestic and international institutions and economic governance. Written by three leading experts on the history of economic policy, the book is ideal for graduates and undergraduates studying macroeconomics, monetary policy and the history of economic thought.


The European Monetary Union

The European Monetary Union

Author: Nicola Acocella

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-08-27

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1108840876

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Analyzes the roots of Europe's economic decline, examining institutions of the European Union and exploring possibilities for reform.


Parties, Elections, and Policy Reforms in Western Europe

Parties, Elections, and Policy Reforms in Western Europe

Author: Kerstin Hamann

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-08-30

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1136949879

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides a comparative assessment of social pacts between governments, labor unions and employer organizations in Western Europe. Using a dataset covering 16 European countries, as well as eight in-depth country case studies, the authors argue that governments’ choice of social pacts or legislation is less influenced by economic problems, but is strongly influenced by electoral competition.