Confronting Decline

Confronting Decline

Author: David Koistinen

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2016-09-22

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 0813059755

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"Koistinen puts the ‘political’ back in political economy in this fascinating account of New England’s twentieth-century industrial erosion. First-rate research and sound judgments make this study essential reading."--Philip Scranton, Rutgers University--Camden "Well-organized and clearly written, Confronting Decline looks at one community to understand a process that has become truly national."--David Stebenne, Ohio State University "Koistinen’s important book makes clear that many industrial cities and regions began to decline as early as the 1920s."--Alan Brinkley, Columbia University "Sheds new light on a complex system of enterprise that sometimes blurs, and occasionally overrides, the distinctions of private and public, as well as those of locality, state, region, and nation. In so doing, it extends and deepens the insights of previous scholars of the American political economy."--Robert M. Collins, University of Missouri The rise of the United States to a position of global leadership and power rested initially on the outcome of the Industrial Revolution. Yet as early as the 1920s, important American industries were in decline in the places where they had originally flourished. The decline of traditional manufacturing--deindustrialization--has been one of the most significant aspects of the restructuring of the American economy. In this volume, David Koistinen examines the demise of the textile industry in New England from the 1920s through the 1980s to better understand the impact of industrial decline. Focusing on policy responses to deindustrialization at the state, regional, and federal levels, he offers an in-depth look at the process of industrial decline over time and shows how this pattern repeats itself throughout the country and the world.


Troubled Industries

Troubled Industries

Author: Robert M. Uriu

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1501739034

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Robert M. Uriu analyzes the industrial policy-making process in Japan for industries faced with sudden economic decline. He takes exception to the traditional view that policy bureaucrats in Japan are autonomous and insulated from societal pressures, arguing that the private sector in Japan has been actively involved in developing and implementing industrial policy. After carefully defining his conceptual framework, Uriu presents case studies of four industries: cotton spinning, steelmaking in minimills, synthetic fibers, and ship building, along with less detailed examinations of coal mining, aluminum smelting, paper, and steelmaking in integrated mills. These industries, he suggests, have sought public policies that enable them to manage competition domestically. In particular, they have fostered cartels to control production or capacity levels in an attempt to stabilize their industry's conditions. In textiles, steel, and ships, Uriu focuses on several of the industries most important to Japan's early postwar economic successes, the very ones first to confront the problems of decline and adjustment. Uriu also shows how Japan's policy choices more recently have become constrained by changes in the domestic antitrust environment and in Japan's external relations. In particular, pressures from Japan's trading partners have limited the policy tools available to Tokyo. As a result, industries have experienced increasing difficulties over time in managing competition in the domestic market. Analysts need to integrate domestic and international factors more carefully, Uriu argues, in order to trace more accurately the interactions between industry actors and the policy environment they face.


The Political Economy of Italy's Decline

The Political Economy of Italy's Decline

Author: Andrea Lorenzo Capussela

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0198796994

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Italy is a country of recent decline and long-standing idiosyncratic traits. A rich society served by an advanced manufacturing economy, where the rule of law is weak and political accountability low, it has long been in downward spiral alimented by corruption and clientelism. From this spiral has emerged an equilibrium as consistent as it is inefficient, that raises serious obstacles to economic and democratic development. The Political Economy of Italy's Decline explains the causes of Italy's downward trajectory, and explains how the country can shift to a fairer and more efficient system. Analysing both political economic literature and the history of Italy from 1861 onwards, The Political Economy of Italy's Decline argues that the deeper roots of the decline lie in the political economy of growth. It places emphasis on the country's convergence to the productivity frontier and the evolution of its social order and institutions to illuminate the origins and evolution of the current constraints to growth, using institutional economics and Schumpeterian growth theory to support its findings. It analyses two alternative reactions to the insufficient provision of public goods: an opportunistic one- employing tax evasion, corruption, or clientelism as means to appropriate private Goods- and one based on enforcing political accountability. From the perspective of ordinary citizens and firms such social dilemmas can typically be modelled as coordination games, which have multiple equilibria. Self-interested rationality can thus lead to a spiral, in which several mutually reinforcing vicious circles lead society onto an inefficient equilibrium characterized by low political accountability and weak rule of law. The Political Economy of Italy's Decline follows the gradual setting in of this spiral as it identifys the deeper causes of Italy's decline.


The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK

The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK

Author: Froud BERRY

Publisher: Building Progressive Alternatives

Published: 2021-02-28

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9781788213394

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Industrial strategy has been back on the agenda of UK policy elites since the 2008 financial crisis. How should we understand this shift? This collection of essays by leading academics and practitioners including Victoria Chick, Kate Bell, Simon Lee, Karel Williams, Susan Himmelweit, Laurie Macfarlane and Ron Martin - among many others- considers the effectiveness of recent industrial policies in addressing the UK's economic malaise. In offering a broad political economy perspective on economic statecraft and development in the UK, the book focuses on the political and institutional foundations of industrial policy, the value of "foundational" economic practices, the challenge of greening capitalism and addressing regional inequalities, and the new financial and corporate governance structures required to radicalize industrial strategy.


The American Political Economy

The American Political Economy

Author: Jacob S. Hacker

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-11-11

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 1316516369

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Drawing together leading scholars, the book provides a revealing new map of the US political economy in cross-national perspective.


Political Economy of Malaysia’s Industrial Policy

Political Economy of Malaysia’s Industrial Policy

Author: Firdausi Suffian

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-02-22

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 9813369019

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This book examines the national automotive policy in Malaysia to help readers gain an understanding of the country’s industrial policy-making processes. Addressing a gap in analysis of the political economy of the national automotive policy, the research presented combines the new institutional theory and the developmental state approach to provide new insights into elite policymakers’ measures to shield domestic automotive enterprises from pro-market reforms. The formation of the national car project marks a turning point for Malaysia's industrial development as a country, which it envisions will lead to it becoming a major player in the global automotive market. However, the domestic institutional factors embedded in ethno-economic interests and patronage constrain national car-makers, limiting their potential to grow, and instead causing a slowdown in the industry. Allowing readers to understand the background to Malaysia’s heavy industrialisation programme and the birth of its national car projects, this book critically discusses the significance of institutional context in policy outcomes, and highlights how institutions and policies have impact growth or decline. It is a valuable resource relevant to analysts, researchers and students who are interested in the political economy of the national industrial policy and automotive industry in Malaysia and beyond.


The Decline of the Welfare State

The Decline of the Welfare State

Author: Assaf Razin

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2005-01-21

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9780262264365

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An analysis of the welfare state from a political economy perspective that examines the effects of aging populations, migration, and globalization on industrialized economies. In The Decline of the Welfare State, Assaf Razin and Efraim Sadka use a political economy framework to analyze the effects of aging populations, migration, and globalization on the deteriorating system of financing welfare state benefits as we know them. Their timely analysis, supported by a unified theoretical framework and empirical findings, demonstrates how the combined forces of demographic change and globalization will make it impossible for the welfare state to maintain itself on its present scale. In much of the developed world, the proportion of the population aged 60 and over is expected to rise dramatically over the coming years—from 35 percent in 2000 to a projected 66 percent in 2050 in the European Union and from 27 percent to 47 percent in the United States—which may necessitate higher tax burdens and greater public debt to maintain national pension systems at current levels. Low-skill migration produces additional strains on welfare-state financing because such migrants typically receive benefits that exceed what they pay in taxes. Higher capital taxation, which could potentially be used to finance welfare benefits, is made unlikely by international tax competition brought about by globalization of the capital market. Applying a political economy model and drawing on empirical data from the EU and the United States, the authors draw an unconventional and provocative conclusion from these developments. They argue that the political pressure from both aging and migrant populations indirectly generates political processes that favor trimming rather than expanding the welfare state. The combined pressures of aging, migration, and globalization will shift the balance of political power and generate public support from the majority of the voting population for cutting back traditional welfare state benefits.


A Social History of Economic Decline

A Social History of Economic Decline

Author: John T. Cumbler

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780813513744

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Nineteenth-century Trenton, New Jersey, was a booming commercial and manufacturing center for iron, rubber, steel cables, machine tools, and pottery. Trenton's golden age lasted until the 1920s, when many local industries were bought out by national companies. The story of the subsequent social, political, and economic decline of Trenton is also the story of twentieth-century urban America. John Cumbler analyzes the decline of Trenton in terms of the transition from civic capitalism to national capitalism.


Privileging Industry

Privileging Industry

Author: Fiona McGillivray

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2004-03-14

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9780691027708

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The goal of this study is to explain when governments use trade and industrial policy for political goals, and to show why aiding an industry can be a politically efficient way for government to redistribute resources from one industrial sector to another.


The Great Reversal

The Great Reversal

Author: Thomas Philippon

Publisher: Belknap Press

Published: 2019-10-29

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0674237544

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A Financial Times Book of the Year A ProMarket Book of the Year “Superbly argued and important...Donald Trump is in so many ways a product of the defective capitalism described in The Great Reversal. What the U.S. needs, instead, is another Teddy Roosevelt and his energetic trust-busting. Is that still imaginable? All believers in the virtues of competitive capitalism must hope so.” —Martin Wolf, Financial Times “In one industry after another...a few companies have grown so large that they have the power to keep prices high and wages low. It’s great for those corporations—and bad for almost everyone else.” —David Leonhardt, New York Times “Argues that the United States has much to gain by reforming how domestic markets work but also much to regain—a vitality that has been lost since the Reagan years...His analysis points to one way of making America great again: restoring our free-market competitiveness.” —Arthur Herman, Wall Street Journal Why are cell-phone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question, but the search for an answer took one of the world’s leading economists on an unexpected journey through some of the most hotly debated issues in his field. He reached a surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition. In the age of Silicon Valley start-ups and millennial millionaires, he hardly expected this. But the data from his cutting-edge research proved undeniable. In this compelling tale of economic detective work, we follow Thomas Philippon as he works out the facts and consequences of industry concentration, shows how lobbying and campaign contributions have defanged antitrust regulators, and considers what all this means. Philippon argues that many key problems of the American economy are due not to the flaws of capitalism or globalization but to the concentration of corporate power. By lobbying against competition, the biggest firms drive profits higher while depressing wages and limiting opportunities for investment, innovation, and growth. For the sake of ordinary Americans, he concludes, government needs to get back to what it once did best: keeping the playing field level for competition. It’s time to make American markets great—and free—again.