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Explaining Inequality
by Maurizio Franzini Mario PiantaInequalities in incomes and wealth have increased in advanced countries, making our economies less dynamic, our societies more unjust and our political processes less democratic. As a result, reducing inequalities is now a major economic, social and political challenge. This book provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of the economics of inequality. Until recently economic inequality has been the object of limited research efforts, attracting only modest attention in the political arena; despite important advances in the knowledge of its dimensions, a convincing understanding of the mechanisms at its roots is still lacking. This book summarizes the topic and provides an interpretation of the mechanisms responsible for increased disparities. Building on this analysis the book argues for an integrated set of policies addressing the roots of inequalities in incomes and wealth Explaining Inequality will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners concerned with inequality, economic and public policy and political economy.
Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power
by James Mahoney Kathleen ThelenThis book contributes to emerging debates in political science and sociology on institutional change. Its introductory essay proposes a new framework for analyzing incremental change that is grounded in a power-distributional view of institutions and that emphasizes ongoing struggles within but also over prevailing institutional arrangements. Five empirical essays then bring the general theory to life by evaluating its causal propositions in the context of sustained analyses of specific instances of incremental change. These essays range widely across substantive topics and across times and places, including cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The book closes with a chapter reflecting on the possibilities for productive exchange in the analysis of change among scholars associated with different theoretical approaches to institutions.
Explaining International Production (Routledge Revivals)
by John H. DunningJohn Dunning’s general theory of international production, first propounded in the late 1970’s, has generated considerable debate. This work thoughtfully reassesses the paradigm, and extends the analysis to embrace issues of theoretical and empirical importance. In a collection of essays, the changing characteristics of international production are examined, and an interdisciplinary approach suggested for understanding the multinational enterprise in the world economy. This book, first published in 1988, will be of value not only to economists and international business analysts, but to scholars in other fields, notably organizational, marketing and management specialists.
Explaining Long-Term Trends in Health and Longevity
by Robert W. FogelExplaining Long-Term Trends in Health and Longevity is a collection of essays by Nobel laureate Robert W. Fogel on the theory and measurement of aging and health-related variables. Dr. Fogel analyzes historic data on height, health, nutrition, and life expectation to provide a clearer understanding of the past, illustrate the costs and benefits of using such measures, and note the difficulties of drawing conclusions from data intended for different purposes. Dr. Fogel explains how the basic findings of the anthropometric approach to historical analysis have helped reinterpret the nature of economic growth. Rising life expectancies and lower disease rates in countries experiencing economic growth highlight the importance of improving nutrition and agricultural productivity.
Explaining Management Phenomena: A Philosophical Treatise
by Eric W. TsangOne key objective of management research is to explain business phenomena. Yet understanding the nature of explanation is essentially a topic in philosophy. This is the first book that bridges the gap between a technical, philosophical treatment of the topic and the more practical needs of management scholars, as well as others across the social sciences. It explores how management phenomena can be explained from a philosophical perspective, and renders sophisticated philosophical arguments understandable by readers without specialized training. Covering virtually all the major aspects of the nature of explanation, this work will enhance empirical and theoretical research, as well as approaches combining the two. With many examples from management literature and business news, this study helps scholars in those fields to improve their research outcomes.
Explaining Monetary and Financial Innovation
by Peter Bernholz Roland VaubelThis book discusses theories of monetary and financial innovation and applies them to key monetary and financial innovations in history - starting with the use of silver bars in Mesopotamia and ending with the emergence of the Eurodollar market in London. The key monetary innovations are coinage (Asia minor, China, India), the payment of interest on loans, the bill of exchange and deposit banking (Venice, Antwerp, Amsterdam, London). The main financial innovation is the emergence of bond markets (also starting in Venice). Episodes of innovation are contrasted with relatively stagnant environments (the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire). The comparisons suggest that small, open and competing jurisdictions have been more innovative than large empires - as has been suggested by David Hume in 1742.
Explaining Railway Reform in China: A Train of Property Rights Re-arrangements (Routledge Contemporary China Series)
by Linda Tjia Yin-norHaving been state-owned for decades, the railway reform in China confused many people, particularly in terms of its ownership and property rights arrangements. Western literature always prescribes that the best model for railway reform is privatization. China’s leadership has also enunciated the state’s determination to re-arrange property rights and rejuvenate corporate governance. But is China’s railway reform really a story of convergence and will the Chinese government follow the western model of railway reform? Addressing these questions, this book provides a positive explanation of the reform in China’s railway sector between 1978 and the dissolution of the Ministry of Railways. It bridges the socialist reform and transport policy literature, and studies the empirical changes of the property rights arrangements in China’s railway system. Refuting the convergence theory, it concludes that the cyclical reform policies of decentralization and re-centralization were actually an exploratory and interactive mechanism of "assets discovery" and "assets recovery". This in-depth study is based on 21 face-to-face interviews with railway cadres as well as field trips to collect first-hand information in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Wuhan. As one of the only empirical studies on the reform of the railway sector in China, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of China studies, Transport studies and Political Economy.
Explaining Risk Analysis: Protecting health and the environment (Earthscan Risk in Society)
by Michael R GreenbergRisk analysis is not a narrowly defined set of applications. Rather, it is widely used to assess and manage a plethora of hazards that threaten dire implications. However, too few people actually understand what risk analysis can help us accomplish and, even among experts, knowledge is often limited to one or two applications. Explaining Risk Analysis frames risk analysis as a holistic planning process aimed at making better risk-informed decisions and emphasizing the connections between the parts. This framework requires an understanding of basic terms, including explanations of why there is no universal agreement about what risk means, much less risk assessment, risk management and risk analysis. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, the book illustrates the ways in which risk analysis can help lead to better decisions in a variety of scenarios, including the destruction of chemical weapons, management of nuclear waste and the response to passenger rail threats. The book demonstrates how the risk analysis process and the data, models and processes used in risk analysis will clarify, rather than obfuscate, decision-makers’ options. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of risk assessment, risk management, public health, environmental science, environmental economics and environmental psychology.
Explaining the Great Depression
by Joseph P. Gownder David A. MossAlthough the Great Depression stands as the most punishing economic event of the 20th century, there is still remarkably little consensus about its causes. This case presents a number of prominent explanations including those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, and Anna Jacobson Schwartz. Four additional theories are presented in the appendix.
Explaining the Performance of Human Resource Management
by Steve Fleetwood Anthony HeskethHuman resource departments increasingly use the statistical analysis of performance indicators as a way of demonstrating their contribution to organisational performance. In this book, Steve Fleetwood and Anthony Hesketh take issue with this 'scientific' approach by arguing that its preoccupation with statistical analysis is misplaced because it fails to take account of the complexities of organisations and the full range of issues that influence individual performance. The book is split into three parts. Part I deconstructs research into the alleged link between people and business performance by showing that it cannot explain the associations it alleges. Part II attributes these shortcomings to the importation of spurious 'scientific' methods, before going on to suggest more appropriate methods that might be used in future. Finally, Part III explores how HR executives and professionals understand their work and shows how a critical realist stance adds value to this understanding through enhanced explanation.
Explaining Wealth Inequality: Property, Possession and Policy Reform (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
by Benedict AtkinsonThis book discusses the origins of wealth inequality and explains how societies can reform to avoid the catastrophe of inequality-induced social breakdown. It develops a theoretical and practical understanding of the principles behind the concept of ownership and property, complete with historical examples. It proposes a new research perspective focusing on how the problem of wealth concentration is ameliorated by cooperative and collaborative initiatives to enhance the public sphere, without derogating from the private. The book is based on research data compiled from taxation and household data to explore the theme that wealth inequality is made inevitable by possessive behaviour expressed in possessive language. It shows that while inequality is inescapable, we can adopt policies where resources are more efficiently and broadly distributed for public benefit. Such policies are directed towards encouraging voluntary, as opposed to compulsory, wealth transfer to achieve public good. The primary market for the book consists of academics and students from the fields of economics, including growth and developmental economics, law, sociology, history, business and international trade. It also provides a practical resource for government policy analysts wanting to develop a more detailed understanding of the role played by wealth inequality in a range of social problems.
An Explanation of Constrained Optimization for Economists
by Peter MorganIn a constrained optimization problem, the decisionmaker wants to select the "optimal" choice - the one most valuable to him or her - that also meets all of the constraints imposed by the problem. Such problems are at the heart of modern economics, where the typical behavioral postulate is that a decisionmaker behaves "rationally"; that is, chooses optimally from a set of constrained choices.Most books on constrained optimization are technical and full of jargon that makes it hard for the inexperienced reader to gain a holistic understanding of the topic. Peter B. Morgan's Explanation of Constrained Optimization for Economists solves this problem by emphasizing explanations, both written and visual, of the manner in which many constrained optimization problems can be solved. Suitable as a textbook or a reference for advanced undergraduate and graduate students familiar with the basics of one-variable calculus and linear algebra, this book is an accessible, user-friendly guide to this key concept.
Explanatory Model Analysis: Explore, Explain, and Examine Predictive Models (Chapman & Hall/CRC Data Science Series)
by Tomasz Burzykowski Przemyslaw BiecekExplanatory Model Analysis Explore, Explain and Examine Predictive Models is a set of methods and tools designed to build better predictive models and to monitor their behaviour in a changing environment. Today, the true bottleneck in predictive modelling is neither the lack of data, nor the lack of computational power, nor inadequate algorithms, nor the lack of flexible models. It is the lack of tools for model exploration (extraction of relationships learned by the model), model explanation (understanding the key factors influencing model decisions) and model examination (identification of model weaknesses and evaluation of model's performance). This book presents a collection of model agnostic methods that may be used for any black-box model together with real-world applications to classification and regression problems.
Explo Leisure Products
by Richard G. HamermeshTim Trowac and Dave Rahall, two former investment bankers, skillfully execute the leveraged buyout of a golf ball recycling company after working intensely on their due diligence, writing a business and financial plan, and developing the investment memorandum. Six months later, they question the competency of their management team, which they had assembled from former Explo employees rather than conduct extensive searches. Now financial results are poor. Trowac and Rahall need to explain the poor performance and come up with an action plan for their investors.
Exploding the Myth?: The Peace Dividend, Regions and Market Adjustment (Routledge Studies in Defence and Peace Economics)
by Derek BraddonFrom a cold war peak of some $1000 billion per annum, world military expenditure has declined by about 40% since 1990, reaching its lowest level for thirty years. With such significant decline in global public expenditure committments to the defence sector, a substantial and lasting peace dividend was anticipated. Most governments believed that market forces, left more or less to their own devices, would deal effectively with this major exogenous shock and generate sufficient new economic activity to allow increased public expenditure on health, education and welfare. The approach of this book is to challenge the fundamental but flawed belief that a substantial and lasting peace dividend could be secured through market solution alone. The principal assertion is that market adjustment by itself cannot deliver such a dividend.The book focuses on the major aspects of the economic, business and security consequences of post Cold War defence expenditure reduction. Key problems obstructing optimal market response are identified and possible remedial action by government and others is considered.
Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell
by Philip LapsleyBefore smartphones, back even before the Internet and personal computer, a misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and outlaws figured out how to hack the world's largest machine: the telephone system. Starting with Alexander Graham Bell's revolutionary "harmonic telegraph," by the middle of the twentieth century the phone system had grown into something extraordinary, a web of cutting-edge switching machines and human operators that linked together millions of people like never before. But the network had a billion-dollar flaw, and once people discovered it, things would never be the same. Exploding the Phone tells this story in full for the first time. It traces the birth of long-distance communication and the telephone, the rise of AT&T's monopoly, the creation of the sophisticated machines that made it all work, and the discovery of Ma Bell's Achilles' heel. Phil Lapsley expertly weaves together the clandestine underground of "phone phreaks" who turned the network into their electronic playground, the mobsters who exploited its flaws to avoid the feds, the explosion of telephone hacking in the counterculture, and the war between the phreaks, the phone company, and the FBI. The product of extensive original research,Exploding the Phone is a ground-breaking, captivating book.
Exploit Chaos
by Jeremy GutscheThe hottest trend spotter in North America reveals powerful strategies for thriving in any economic climate. Did you know that Hewlett?Packard, Disney, Hyatt, MTV, CNN, Microsoft, Burger King, and GE all started during periods of economic recession? Periods of uncertainty fuel tremendous opportunity, but the deck gets reshuffled and the rules of the game get changed. EXPLOITING CHAOS is the ultimate business survival guide for all those looking to change the world. Topics include: SPARKING A REVOLUTION, TREND: HUNTING, ADAPTIVE INNOVATION and INFECTIOUS MESSAGING.
Exploit the Product Life Cycle
by Theodore LevittThe product life cycle measures the likelihood, character, and timing of competitive and market events. A product strategy that includes some sort of plan for a timed sequence of conditional moves provides an offensive rather than a reactive move. Most successful products pass through certain recognizable stages. Awareness of these stages affects decisions on marketing factors such as pricing, product identity, and sales and distribution networks. New uses and new customers extend the product life cycle. Planning in the early stages for product life extension helps to guide the direction of ongoing technical research in support of the product.
Exploited Earth: Britain's aid and the environment (Aid and Development Set)
by Teresa HayterHow do ''types'' of aid differ? Why are there different kinds? When is one more appropriate than another? How can you tell ''good'' aid from ''bad''? Friends of the Earth commissioned Teresa Hayter, author of Aid as Imperialism and Aid: Rhetoric and Reality, to examine Britain's aid policy and practice, paying particular attention to its effects on the worlds forests. In this book she describes the history of the different forms of aid and their effects. On behalf of one of the West's most effective environmental lobbies, Exploited Earth show how and why British aid needs to change. Originally published in 1989
Exploiter la valeur du foncier pour financer les infrastructures urbaines
by George E. PetersonLe financement d'infrastructures urbaines à partir du foncier prend de l'importance dans les pays en développement. Pourquoi est-il si difficile de financer des investissements d'infrastructure urbaine lorsque l'augmentation de la valeur des terrains est généralement supérieure au coût des investissements ? L'ouvrage intitulé - Exploiter la valeur du foncier pour financer les infrastructures urbaines - examine la théorie qui sous-tend divers instruments de financement par le foncier, tels que les prélèvements sur les plus-values, les contributions des promoteurs, les taxes sur l'impact et l'échange de biens fonciers publics contre des infrastructures. À l'aide de nombreuses études de cas, l'ouvrage montre comment les instruments de financement basé sur le foncier ont été mis en oeuvre et décrit les enseignements tirés de ces expériences. Ce guide pratique vise à accroître le rôle du financement reposant sur le foncier dans les budgets d'équipement des villes de manière à renforcer le financement des infrastructures urbaines et les marchés fonciers urbains.
Exploiting Future Uncertainty: Creating Value from Risk
by David HillsonWhatever the future holds, one thing is sure: nothing is certain except uncertainty. Prediction is always hard, especially about the future, but the biggest risk is not taking any risk at all. All businesses face significant levels of uncertainty these days. To succeed you need to exploit future uncertainty, turning it to your advantage by managing risk effectively. This book shows you how. In his role as The Risk Doctor, international risk consultant Dr David Hillson has advised many major organisations across the globe, showing them how to create value from risk. Now you can benefit from his unique approach and insights. Exploiting Future Uncertainty contains more than sixty focused briefings, each addressing a key part of the risk challenge. Using five themes, David covers the links between better business and risk-taking, basic risk concepts, making risk management work in practice, people aspects, and managing risk in the wider world. Each section is packed with clear practical advice with specific how-to tips and guidance. David Hillson is one of the most influential writers and consultants on risk and in Exploiting Future Uncertainty he offers his prescription for effective risk management in 21st Century businesses.
Exploiting Institutional Voids as Business Opportunities: How to Gain Competitive Advantage in Emerging Markets
by Krishna G. Palepu Tarun KhannaIn developed economies, dozens of institutions-like credit card systems, market regulation, and comprehensive market research-facilitate the smooth functioning of markets. Developing economies, on the other hand, present unique challenges for companies precisely because they lack these crucial intermediary institutions. While institutional voids are the source of many obstacles to doing business in emerging markets, they can also be a source of advantage for entrepreneurial companies-foreign or domestic-that have the capabilities to help fill these voids. In this chapter, two experts in emerging market strategy describe how companies can identify and exploit opportunities to build businesses by filling in institutional gaps. Detailed examples of companies like Blue River Capital in India, Deremate.com in Argentina, and Li & Fung in Asia illustrate the importance of identifying opportunities, as well as the sometimes wrenching challenges companies face when executing their strategies in emerging markets. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 3 of "Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution."
Exploiting Linkages for Building Technological Capabilities
by Mai FujitaOne of the key ingredients of success in building internationally competitive industries lies in amassing a sizeable pool of competent suppliers of parts, components and accessories. This monograph examines how in developing countries suppliers of mechanical components at the low end of the technological trajectory build up key capabilities over time. The focus is on Vietnam's motorcycle industry, which was rapidly transformed from a small, highly protected market to the world's fourth largest motorcycle producer. This rare success resulted from intense competition between leading Japanese motorcycle manufacturers and local Vietnamese assemblers of imported Chinese components both attempting to gain supremacy in the emerging market. In particular, the book analyzes how local Vietnamese suppliers of motorcycle components exploited participation in contrasting types of value chains developed by the two groups of leading manufacturing firms, referred to here as Japanese and/or Vietnamese-Chinese chains, for accumulating strategic know-how. On the basis of historical evidence and recent empirical data collected through repeated rounds of in-depth fieldwork the analysis finds first, those suppliers' learning trajectories evolved over time resulting in a divergence in learning performance extending across suppliers in later phases of industrial development. In the later stage, high-performing suppliers amassed basic innovative expertise, constituting the bedrock of this fast-growing industry. Second, the analysis finds that the diverging performance can be explained by the combination of roles played by lead firms in inducing and facilitating supplier learning and those of suppliers in mobilizing their own sources of knowledge. These conclusions not only provide dynamic, insightful accounts of supplier learning in developing country contexts but also make key theoretical and methodological contributions to the research on value chain participation and supplier learning.
Exploration and Production of Oceanic Natural Gas Hydrate: Critical Factors For Commercialization
by Michael D. Max Arthur H. JohnsonThis second edition provides extensive information on the attributes of the Natural Gas Hydrate (NGH) system, highlighting opportunities for the innovative use and modification of existing technologies, as well as new approaches and technologies that have the potential to dramatically lower the cost of NGH exploration and production.Above all, the book compares the physical, environmental, and commercial aspects of the NGH system with those of other gas resources. It subsequently argues and demonstrates that natural gas can provide the least expensive energy during the transition to, and possibly within, a renewable energy future, and that NGH poses the lowest environmental risk of all gas resources.Intended as a non-mathematical, descriptive text that should be understandable to non-specialists as well as to engineers concerned with the physical characteristics of NGH reservoirs and their production, the book is written for readers at the university graduate level. It offers a valuable reference guide for environmentalists and the energy community, and includes discussions that will be of great interest to energy industry professionals, legislators, administrators, regulators, and all those concerned with energy options and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Exploration and Settlement
by Rebecca StefoffFirst Published in 2015. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.