bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Travelling On A Light Beam
Authors: Close Frank
Published: October 2023

Michelson and Morley’s experiment showed that the Earth does not measurably move relative to the ether. Lorentz and Fitzgerald had proposed that the ether distorts the measuring apparatus so as to mask the motion, but Albert Einstein realized that there was a more radical explanation: there is no ether at all!

The fact that the velocity of light is independent of the speed both of the source and of the receiver was an enigma, though it is not clear to what extent Einstein was aware of this result. In any event he had begun to muse about the symmetry of things with respect to motion. If there is no ether there is no absolute space and hence no absolute motion: only relative motion has physical meaning.
The New Void
Authors: Close Frank
Published: October 2023

One hundred and thirty-seven pages ago we started with the question ‘where did everything come from?’ Having surveyed over 2,000 years of ideas, we have arrived at the modern answer: ‘Everything came from nothing.’ Modern physics suggests that it is possible that the universe could have emerged out of the vacuum. ‘There could hardly be a more remarkable interconnection than this between “nothing” and “something” ‘, or more colloquially ‘The universe may be the ultimate free lunch.’ The idea is that our universe could be a gigantic quantum fluctuation with total ‘virtual’ energy so near to zero that its lifetime can be huge. This can occur because there are both positive and negative energies in the universe due to the all-pervading attraction of gravity. To illustrate this it is perhaps easiest first to recall how the electric forces within an atom discouraged invaders in Chapter 2.
International Economic Law
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

As conflict and cooperation among states turn to an ever greater extent on economic issues, this fully updated and expanded second edition presents a comprehensive exploration of the legal foundations of the international economy. It not only examines the current status of the law, but also explores the origins, political tensions and development of outcomes that are often difficult to comprehend. Lowenfeld examines the major elements of economic law in the international arena including the World Trade Organization and its antecedents; dumping, subsidies, and other devices that alter the market; the International Monetary System, including the collapse of the Bretton Woods system; the debt of developing countries; the law of foreign direct investment, including changing perceptions of the rights of host states and multinational enterprises; and economic sanctions. The book also contains chapters on competition law, environmental law, and new chapters on intellectual property and the various forms of arbitration; demonstrating how these subjects fit into the framework of international economic law. Professor Lowenfeld brings to his task a lifetime of practice and teaching experience to produce a book that will be of use to international lawyers and non-specialists alike.
The GATT/WTO System after the Uruguay Round: A Preliminary Survey
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

The Final Act of the Uruguay Round was formally signed at a Ministerial Meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco on 15 April 1994. The Ministers, rep resenting 111 nations, declared the work of the Trade Negotiations Committee to be complete and the Uruguay Round concluded. They com mitted themselves to seek to complete all steps necessary to establish the new World Trade Organization by 1 January 1995, and (in contrast to all prior deadlines) that deadline was kept. Altogether, the Agreements, Annexes, Ministerial Decisions and Declarations, and Understandings take up 558 printed pages, not counting the schedules of tariff concessions, specific commitments, and MFN exemptions submitted by Contracting Parties in the course of the Uruguay Round.
Agriculture
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

Agriculture was not formally excluded from the GATT, but it was never effectively brought within the GATT/WTO system. Many countries— developed and developing—granted subsidies of various kinds; import quotas were common; commodity agreements, which combined restraints on exports by developing countries with import restraints by developed countries, were accepted as a necessary departure from the GATT model; and wide-ranging waivers under GATT Article XXV(5) proliferated after an initial waiver granted to the United States in 1955 on products subject to the so-called Agricultural Adjustment Act. Both the United States and the European Community were committed to maintaining farm income by keeping domestic prices above world prices.
Intellectual Property Law and the World Trading System
Authors: Dreyfuss Rochelle C
Published: October 2023

The origins of intellectual property rights are buried in a mixture of guild rules, censorship practices, and government activities aimed at stimulating local industry and ensuring commercial morality. It is clear, however, that by the time of the Industrial Revolution, the creative sector strongly perceived a need for exclusive rights over the fruits of its intellectual endeavors. Those who invested money, time, and effort in developing new technologies sought protection from free-riders, who would otherwise compete down the price of new advances and erode the original creators ‘ opportunities to recoup their costs and capture compensation for the risky investments they made. The ease with which written materials could be reproduced led authors and composers to make similar demands. And the rise in impersonal trade required merchants to develop unambiguous signals with which to communicate with customers.
Evolving Standards of International Law on International Investment
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

Several developments came together in the latter part of the twentieth century to change the perceptions concerning international investment, the investment climate in developing countries, and the prevailing international law. First, even as some of the premises of classical international law came under attack, as shown in the two preceding chapters, the World Bank launched a major effort to provide ground rules for international arbitration of investment disputes between foreign private investors and host states. Second, following the revolution in Iran, the reversal of the previous Iranian policy of attracting foreign investment, the seizure of American hostages, and the freezing of Iranian assets by the United States, a settlement was reached between the United States and Iran establishing a Claims Tribunal that heard hundreds of investor–state claims over a period of about 15 years and made major contributions to the corpus of international law.
Other Institutions of the International Monetary System
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

While the International Monetary Fund is the centrepiece of international monetary law, it would be misleading to suggest that it is the only institution, or that its Articles of Agreement form the only code of conduct relevant to the many participants in the international financial arena. This chapter contains brief sketches of some of the other institutions, formal and informal, that together constitute the international monetary system.
The European Monetary System and the Rise of the Euro
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

Throughout the 1970s, the ups and downs of the US dollar described in the preceding chapter1 were in significant part reflected in downs and ups of the West German mark, much more than in the other European currencies. Thus the exchange rates among the currencies of the member states of the European Common Market underwent frequent changes, often quite unrelated to any developments within the European Community. Changes in the relative value of the currencies made agreement on such inherently controversial matters as agricultural support payments and contributions to community projects even more difficult to achieve, and subject to frequent need for realignment and recalculation.
United Nations and Other Collective Sanctions
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

The drafters of the United Nations Charter, as mentioned in the introduction to this Part, made provision for economic sanctions, along with other provisions not involving the use of force, in Articles 39 and 41 of the Charter. But the decision on sanctions was to be taken only in the event of a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, and both the determination of the existence of such a situation and the determination of what, if any, measures should be taken in response were committed to the Security Council. Thus sanctions under Articles 39 and 41 could only be required with the concurrence (or as it came to be understood, the abstention) of the five permanent members of the Security Council (Art. 27(3)).
Economic Sanctions without Benefit of Treaty
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F
Published: October 2023

It was once contended that any measures taken by a state for purposes of foreign policy or national security were contrary to international law. Article 16 of the Charter of the Organization of American States of 1948 (Art. 19 of the 1967 revision) gives some support to this argument, in that it provides: No State may use or encourage the use of coercive measures of an economic or political character in order to force the sovereign will of another State and obtain from it advantages of any kind. But this provision has not been observed, and as Professor Barry Carter has written, the frequent use of sanctions by the United States and many other countries constitutes persuasive evidence that no clear norm exists in customary law against the use of economic sanctions.
British India’s Native Agents in Bahrain
Authors: Onley James
Published: October 2023

As I am shortly proceeding to India, I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Agha Mahomed Rahim ibn Hajee Abdun Nabee [Safar], who has repeatedly proved of great use in obtaining correct information, the securing of which required much tact, delicacy of management, and personal influence. I have found him trustworthy, sincere, zealous, and ever willing to carry out any work entrusted to him to the best of his ability. He is well informed about local matters and, having a large circle of friends at Bushire, Busreh, & other ports in [the] Persian Gulf, correct information can always be obtained through him, & I feel quite certain that as a Confidential Agent his services are indispensable to the Bushire Residency.
Introduction: The Return of Energy Policy
Authors: Helm Dieter
Published: October 2023

It was fashionable in the 1980s and 1990s to treat energy as just another commodity, which could be left to market forces. The task of energy policy was to get the state out of the energy sector and the instruments were privatization, liberalization, and competition. The security-of-supply concerns which had dominated energy policy since the Second World War, and which had been ‘solved’ through public ownership and statutory mono-poly, were deemed to be illusory. Indeed, many went so far as to argue that state ownership and monopoly caused security-of-supply problems, and in Britain the dependency on coal (and coal miners) reinforced this view.
European Energy Policy: Securing Supplies and Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change
Authors: Helm* Dieter
Published: October 2023

For the past two decades Europe has focused overwhelmingly on the completion of the European energy market, and in particular on liberalization of electricity and gas markets (CEC, 1998, 1996). This process is close to completion, subject to the last phases of market opening and a number of ‘difficult’ cases. Europe’s energy is now supplied overwhelmingly by private companies competing in liberalized markets.
The Nature of Competitive Advantage
Authors: Mayson Stephen
Published: October 2023

I start from the proposition that law firms are know-how businesses (see Mayson 1997, chapter 3). From this flow certain fundamental preconditions for such a know-how business to be built and sustained (see chapter 3 above). But these preconditions cannot be met in the abstract: they require a context. This context is provided by common purpose, common values, and strategy. Common purpose and values are usually provided by a firm’s normative environment (see chapter 5). Strategy has two elements:
Building Capital for Competitive Advantage
Authors: Mayson Stephen
Published: October 2023

In chapter 8, I suggested that competitive advantage derives from a combination of resources that secures difference, value to clients and the firm, and sustainability. These resources, and their contribution to competitive advantage, need to be understood, acquired, developed, coordinated, maintained, and protected. This chapter analyses these resources as types of capital.
The Principles of Valuation
Authors: Mayson Stephen
Published: October 2023

My interest in valuation in this book is principally in the value of the whole business as a going concern. Even so, I am contemplating situations not only of outright sale or (ultimately) public offerings, but also of partial investment where a new investor may only acquire part of the overall value of the firm. I am therefore focusing on circumstances where the owner or owners will probably want to reach as high a valuation as possible in order to benefit from a sale to others, from an investment by others, or in order to increase the amount available by way of loan.
The Implications of Valuation: The Firm As An Entity
Authors: Mayson Stephen
Published: October 2023

As demonstrated in chapters 10 and 11, valuation is not just about optimising the firm’s income; the perceived persistence of the income (and, as part of that, of the firm itself ) is also a central consideration. It is thus important for valuation purposes that individuals and teams should undertake activities and make contributions that will result in benefit for the firm rather than for themselves. This ‘split’ in beneficiaries suggests that the firm can and does exist independently of the individuals who comprise it. Valuation theory therefore assumes an entity to be valued—something that is, somehow, different and separate from the individuals who comprise it. There are theoretical challenges of such a proposition, and they are capable of having practical implications.
Aligning Strategy and Structure
Authors: Mayson Stephen
Published: October 2023

Few areas of law firm management are so subject to fads, fancies and mimetic behaviour as governance and firm structure (see paragraphs 5.2.2.1 and 13.4.4.2).Where one firm leads, others will surely follow—irrespective of whether another firm’s governance arrangements and organisational structure suit the normative environment and strategy of those that follow. But this is the important point. Strategy should be a statement of intended competitive advantage, part of which is the firm’s difference (see chapter 8). The firm’s governance and organisational structure should fi t with delivering that advantage and difference. Simply copying another firm’s structural arrangements carries no certainty that they fi t with strategy or normative environment. As such, arrangements that are merely copied carry a significant risk that they will inhibit or prevent the firm from achieving its strategic objectives.
Final Thoughts and Prospects for The Future
Authors: Mayson Stephen
Published: October 2023

The emerging marketplace for legal services will be characterised by greater competition among established law firms, the advent of licensed new entrants, and consolidation of firms into larger entities. This increased maturity in the market will mean that law firms will have to work hard for their profit. We are facing:

• a redistribution of work (among law firms; from law firms to new entrants; from lawyers to non-lawyers; and from people to technology);
Introduction
Authors: Swift Helen J .
Published: October 2023

In a verse debate between a Book and its Author, La Complainte du livre du Champion des dames à maistre Martin Le Franc son acteur, Martin Le Franc complains that his pro-feminine debate poem, Le Champion des dames (c.1442), was unjustly rejected by the Burgundian Duke, Philip the Good, whose patronage it sought to secure. Left on a shelf all alone to gather dust, the prosopopoeic Livre bemoans a fate which seems, in modern criticism as opposed to the medieval Burgundian court, to have befallen most imaginative literature written in defence of women that is now ranged under the umbrella term ‘la querelle des femmes’.3 Notwithstanding Livre’s complaint, literary defences enjoyed considerable popularity in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century France and Burgundy: they featured frequently amongst the commissionsmade by two generations of prominent female patrons at the princely and royal courts; they were amongst the first works to go to press with the advent of printing in Lyons, and were subsequently reproduced copiously in Paris in the 1520s and early 1530s.
Haunting Text and Paratext: Performing Intertextuality in Querelle Debates
Authors: Swift Helen J .
Published: October 2023

The Champion des dames is a debate poem in five books by the Provost of Lausanne and secretary to Amadeus VIII of Savoy, Martin Le Franc. The poem presents a series of exchanges between the ultimately triumphant pro-feminine Champion, Franc Vouloir, and five adversaries representing the Champion’s arch-enemy, Malebouche. Towards the, end of his debate with Trop Cuidier, at the close of Book III, the Champion takes issue both directly and indirectly with the totemic figure of late medieval literary misogyny, Jean de Meun, the late thirteenth-century continuator of Guillaume de Lorris’s Roman de la rose.
Introduction
Authors: Hogarth Robert
Published: October 2023

Construction accounts for around ten per cent of the UK economy and is also one of its most hazardous industries. According to the Health and Safety Executive ‘s current statistics, the industry employs 2.2 million people. For the year 2006/7, seventy-seven out of 241 fatal industrial accidents recorded were construction related. In the previous year there were 4,607 non-fatal major injuries and 8,291 necessitating more than three days off work. Construction also entails a higher than average rate of occupational ill-health, with the emphasis on musculoskeletal disorders, vibration and hearing injuries, dermatitis, and asbestos- related illnesss.
Claims
Authors: Hogarth Robert
Published: October 2023

Policies intended to respond only to physical damage or personal injury, both physical liability and first party, will normally be written on an ‘occurrence’ basis. For the purpose of such policies an insured loss occurs when physical events cause injury or damage. This date will usually coincide with that of the event that caused the loss. For example, where a builder negligently causes a flood which damages the Works, the date of the flood and the date of the initial damage to property will be the same (although causally connected damage could continue to occur after the flood).
Product Recall, Product Guarantee, And Financial Loss Insurance Policies
Authors: Hogarth Robert
Published: October 2023

In contrast with product liability policies, which cover only liabilities to third parties, product recall policies insure first party expenditure incurred when, to prevent products causing personal injury or property damage, they are withdrawn from a direct customer or from a party further along the supply chain. However insurance cover for certain liabilities to third parties can be obtained by extensions to product recall policies. A product guarantee extension indemnifies the Insured for its costs of repairing or replacing the defective products. A financial loss extension covers liability for a third party ‘s financial losses, as opposed to liability for personal injury or damage to property, which are covered under a product liability policy. Neither injury nor damage to property is a prerequisite of financial loss cover, which covers liability for ‘pure economic losses’, for example where a third party has carried out a recall of its product and the Insured is liable for the cost of this.
Premises Pollution Liability Insurance
Authors: Hogarth Robert
Published: October 2023

Although this form of cover is described as liability insurance it includes a significant first-party element and is written as a mixture of claims-made and occurrence- based cover. For those engaged in construction operations on brownfield sites there are a number of risks which neither a contractor nor an owner may be prepared to take. They include: a) The discovery during the process of preliminary clean-up or during construction work that the extent or harmfulness of pollutants on site is much greater than initial site investigation revealed.
Captive Insurance
Authors: Hogarth Robert
Published: October 2023

A typical large construction company will carry most of the covers described in this book. The total cost will be significant and subject to wide fluctuations in premium rates and terms according to market conditions. A common way for a large group to manage this cost is by using a captive insurance company. This is in effect a self-insurance programme through a separate corporate entity that receives premium and pays losses to the related Insured company. The role of a captive has been described by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors ( ‘IAIS’)
Standard Form Building Contracts: Introduction
Authors: Hogarth Robert
Published: October 2023

The primary objective of the contractual provisions is to make sure that a party is clearly identified to take the responsibility for insurance during construction, that means both placing and paying for the policy. A secondary objective is to achieve economy so that if possible the parties do not purchase multiple insurances to cover the same risk. At first sight multiple policies might appear good business for Insurers, but in practice ‘communal’ policies avoid the costs Insurers might otherwise incur arguing amongst themselves which of them should meet the costs of an accident. What the industry might gain in additional premiums would quickly be lost in duplication of claim costs. As an example of how things can become complicated, see the case of Tate Gallery v Duffy at para 3.30 above.
Foundations for the Future: the building of modern machinery in Shanghai after the Pacific War
Authors: Elvin Mark
Published: October 2023

The transfer of what was, by contemporary standards, high-level foreign engineering technology to Chinese firms in Shanghai was successfully accomplished in the two generations before the Pacific War in 1937. To the extent that mastering modem machine-building technology is the first phase of Kuznetsian modem economic growth, it may be concluded that in a restricted, though important, locality and in a qualitative though not quantitative sense, Chinese society had already created such a core in the pre¬ Communist period.
Pre-reform Economic Development in China
Authors: Lin Justin Yifu , Cai Fang , Li Zhou
Published: October 2023

With the implementation of the first five-year plan, the traditional economic system started to take shape. This system solved the problem of how to increase the rate of accumulation to 15 per cent or more in a backward economy,1 and established in a rather short period of time a relatively complete industrial structure in China. However, in terms of economic efficiency, the cost of implementing this strategy was extremely high.
Economic Growth and Stability in China
Authors: Garnaut Ross , Ma Guonan
Published: October 2023

High inflation and external deficits in the late 1980s in China raised questions about the viability of Chinese official ambitions to sustain strong growth. Inflation helped to set the scene for the political unrest in 1989, which itself raised doubts about the political feasibility of sustained gradual reform. Some commentators drew attention to an apparently deteriorating trade-off between growth and stability through the 1980s, with given rates of growth being associated with higher inflation and external payments deficits later in the decade (Gamaut 1990, 1992).
China’s Macroeconomic Performance and Management during Transition
Authors: Yusuf Shahid
Published: October 2023

Alone among the former socialist economies, China has led a charmed life. It was not by any means the first to experiment seriously with market institutions-that distinction belongs to Hungary. Nor did it attempt to ‘cross the chasm in a single leap’. Nor has China’s assimilation of market forms been buffered by a major infusion of resources, as in East Germany. Starting with the agriculture sector (Ash 1993), the country has transformed itself, a step at a time, always ensuring that each economic initiative passed the test of sociopolitical acceptability before it was widely implemented. Instead of a risky Big Bang, China’s reform can be most aptly described as a series of small controlled explosions, which maintained the momentum of change while minimising the risk of instability.
Township, Village and Private Industry in China’s Economic Reform
Authors: Byrd William , Gelb Alan
Published: October 2023

For most economists, seventeen articles and a book on comparative economic systems and reform would constitute a sizable volume of output. In the case of Bela Balassa, this work is dwarfed by his prodigious output in other areas. Nevertheless, his deep interest in this topic is only natural. From its early stages, he has analysed the Chinese economic reform process, comparing it with developments in Eastern Europe, especially his native Hungary. Anotable characteristic of Balassa’s analysis, for example, in ‘China’s Economic Reforms in a Comparative Perspective’ (1987), is a strong focus on the incentive structures linking performance and rewards. This emphasis, natural to one so involved in analysing trade (and other) regulatory regimes, provides a unifying thread for analysis of the spread of ‘responsibility systems’ in agriculture and industry and of the evolving balance between planning and markets for both products and factors that characterise the reform process.
Surrounding the Cities from the Countryside
Authors: Findlay Christopher , “Watson Andrew
Published: October 2023

In the late 1920s and early 1930s Mao Zedong developed a revolutionary strategy of ‘surrounding the cities from the countryside’. The strategy, forged in the midst of intense debate within the Chinese Communist Party, was based on an evaluation of the relative political strengths of city and country in achieving the aims of the revolution. Akey issue in the reforms since 1978 has also been the relationship between city and countryside, though the strategic goal this time has been to accelerate economic growth through economic reform. The rural reforms have provided the stimulus for a phase of rapid growth and, simultaneously, presented new challenges for the urban economy. One of the most significant aspects of this process has been the impact of the growth of non-agricultural rural enterprises on state-run urban industry. These enterprises, which have profoundly influenced the economic relationship between China’s cities and countryside, are leading to structural changes in the economy and generating new types of conflict between urban and rural industrial systems. In terms of the strategic aims of the reforms, they offer again, in some ways, a chance to surround the cities from the country¬ side and help solve some of the difficult problems of urban enterprise reform.
Enterprise Reform in Chinese Industry
Authors: Jefferson Gary H , R.awski Thomas G
Published: October 2023

The Chinese economy commands attention because of its immense size, and because China’s unique combination of dynamic performance and unusual institutional arrangements challenges many popular notions about the reform of socialist systems. Industry, which by Chinese convention includes mining and utilities as well as manufacturing, exemplifies this arresting mix of scale, dynamism, and unexpected structural features. Industry is the largest sector of China’s economy, accounting for 50 per cent of total output and 80 per cent of exports, and employing 102 million workers in 1992 (Zhongguotongji zhoiyao 1993). Its robust growth, amounting to well above 10 per cent annually during the1980s (Table 1), undergirds China’s standing as the world’s fastest-growing economy.
The SOE Sector Under Reform
Authors: Sachs Jeffrey , Woo Wing Thye
Published: October 2023

China’s reform of its state enterprise sector has been undoubtedly incremental and experimental. Reforms have typically taken the form of new practices being allowed for a small number of SOEs, and then being more widely adopted over time. Furthermore, before full coverage was reached, another set of new measures would be implemented on an experimental scale which might then in tum be expanded in scope. So, at most points in time, there may be the preponderance but not exclusive existence of a particular reform configuration.
Fiscal Decentralisation and Growing Regional Disparities in Rural China
Authors: West Loraine A , P.W.Wong Christine
Published: October 2023

Increasing regional and sectoral inequality and its possible consequences for social and economic instability are of growing concern in China. This is reflected in the ninth Five Year Plan adopted in September 1995, which has included among its key targets the amelioration of regional income disparities during the plan period (1996-- 2000). A priori, the process of transition to a market economy is expected to produce large income shifts and increase income disparities as the realignment of prices and resource allocation by market forces bring changes to the distribution of income across sectors, regions, and households, and as the mechanisms by which planned economies effect equalisation (such as restrictions on private property rights, wage setting, and trade restriction) are dismantled. In fact, however, one of the pleasant surprises of the Chinese reform experience was the diminution of income differentials during the1979-84 period (World Bank 1985; Adelman and Sunding 1987; Denny 1991; Sicular 1991; Tsui 1991).
Wage Determination and Occupational Attainment in the Rural Industrial Sector of China
Authors: Gregory R G , Meng Xin
Published: October 2023

As Eastern European countries struggle to transform their economies the process of moving successfully from a planned to a market economy has become a major challenge. In this paper we analyse some labour market aspects of a very successful reform process, the dismantling of centralised controls of the Chinese rural industrial sector. This economic history is particularly interesting because it demonstrates the considerable economic success that can be achieved by the combination of extensive product market liberalisation and minimal liberalisation of the labour market.
The Role of Foreign Trade and Investment in China’s Economic Transformation
Authors: Lardy Nicholas R
Published: October 2023

In the almost two decades since economic reform began in China the role of the foreign sector has burgeoned in ways that no one anticipated. The volume of foreign trade and the role of foreign capital are both far greater than could have been foreseen based on the modest Chinese economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s. By the mid 1990s China had become one of the world’s largest trading nations, the recipient of more foreign direct investment than any other country in the world, the largest borrower from the World Bank, the largest recipient of official development assistance in the form of low-interest, long-term concessionary loans from industrialised countries, and, except for the Czech Republic, the only transition economy with ready access to international capital and equity markets.
Institutional Change, Trade Composition and Export Supply Potential in China
Authors: Ligang Song
Published: October 2023

The main objectives of this paper are to analyse the changing composition of China’s trade within the context of the reform of the Chinese economy and to discuss its export supply potential with reference to the experience of other developing economies in Asia. The paper presents the following key arguments. First, the rapidly changing composition of trade in China during the past 15 years is the result of a convergence of its trade pattern toward market-determined comparative advantage. Such convergence is primarily due to institutional reform, particularly trade system reform, aimed at introducing market mechanisms into economic and trading activities. Second, China’s export supply potential will be very much determined by progress in further trade liberalisation that leads to a dynamic change of its comparative advantage. Progress may be examined in the context of the contribution of exports to economic growth in China and its economic integration into the world economy, namely, how the scale of China’s expected future trade expansion will transform its stature in world trade.
Post-war Tax Revenue Trends
Authors: Messere Ken , Kam Flip de , Heady Christopher
Published: October 2023

This chapter mainly covers post-war trends in both total tax ratios (TTRs) and the share of receipts from particular taxes in total tax revenues (tax structures or the tax mix). Although comparisons of tax levels and structures of OECD countries are aimed to answer two separate questions—how much tax revenues and what tax mix, respectively—data on tax structures could be simply derived from those on tax levels by some multiplication and division. It would accordingly be superfluous to reproduce all the information twice and more detailed country comparisons are confined to tax structure data. Indeed, it is useful for a number of reasons to have some separate information on tax structures. If total tax receipts rather than GDP at market prices is chosen as the denominator, trends as between different kinds of tax are more clearly revealed, not only because the numbers are larger, but also because trends in particular tax ratios can conceal trends in the relative share of receipts from particular taxes in total tax revenue.
Consumption Taxation
Authors: Messere Ken , Kam Flip de , Heady Christopher
Published: October 2023

In addition to personal and corporate income, consumption constitutes a major tax base in all OECD countries. Section 9.2 discusses the rationale for taxing consumption, after which some comments on terminology and a brief history of consumption taxation are provided. Section 9.2.4 discusses the influence of the European Union (and its predecessors the Common Market and the European Communities) on consumption taxation of its fifteen member countries which has been far greater than in any other area of taxation.

Section 9.3 examines in greater detail why value-added tax (VAT) is almost universally preferred to other forms of general consumption taxes. After an attempt to clarify what VAT means in theory and in practice, the defects of manufacturing sales taxes (MSTs), wholesale sales taxes (WSTs) and cascade taxes are described.
Tax Choices of OECD Countries
Authors: Messere Ken , Kam Flip de , Heady Christopher
Published: October 2023

This rushed tour of twenty-five OECD countries aims at identifying similarities and differences between their main choices with regard to tax levels, structures and systems—in many cases over the last forty or fifty years, but for rather shorter periods for the newly joined members of OECD in the transitional economies, Korea and Mexico. The chapter also tries to pick up what might be called ‘tax eccentricities’, choices made by particular countries, not to be found elsewhere. Such features are summarized in Tables 11.1 and 11.2. The chapter also covers major tax reforms and tax aspects of fiscal federalism, but does not refer to recent minor changes to the tax law.
Transition: The First Ten Years
Authors: Flemming John S
Published: October 2023

In a conference with as broad a coverage as this, a broad brush treatment of the first decade of transition seemed appropriate. In what follows I focus in particular on selected topics from the definition and duration of the transition to the diversity of the origins and destination of the twenty five individual countries. There are reasons for the process not being smooth and I examine relationships between reform and recovery as well as the nexus of corporate privatization, restructuring, and finance. Finally, reference is made to other welfare measures and criticisms of the reforms are addressed.
Privatization and Institutions in Developing and Transition Economies
Authors: Nabli Mustapha K
Published: October 2023

Within the scope of factors that determine the success of privatization, there is the increasing belief among development practitioners that the institutional framework has an important role to play. In fact, some institutional factors--such as the degree of regulation, government accountability, red tape, judiciary efficiency, and corruption-are becoming increasingly recognized as critical elements that can either fasten or stand in the way of privatization.
Separation of Powers and Development
Authors: Laffont Jean-Jacques
Published: October 2023

It is well recognized now that the design of proper institutions is the key to development. Among the characteristics of governmental institutions, separation of powers stands as a shining cornerstone of democracy.
Global Governance for Environment: Equity and Efficiency
Authors: Tubiana Laurence
Published: October 2023

The past decade shows that there has been major progress in governance related to global environmental problems. By the same token, however, the shortfalls, weaknesses, and inadequacy of institutional responses to these problems have proved particularly acute. The improvements have been reflected in the progress made in international negotiations on environmental issues, arising from a growing awareness of the risks involved and their widespread impact. Governments, together with the scientific community, the media, environmental organizations, and major corporations in a large number of industrialized countries, have taken part in the debate in order to assess the extent of the risks and to reflect on possible solutions and the required means for implementation. Networks of parties directly or indirectly involved in public decision-making and negotiations have been established in response to major issues regarding the global environment.
Financial Fragility, Crises, and the Stakes of Prudential Control
Authors: Aglietta Michel
Published: October 2023

During the last two decades, most countries progressing towards financial liberalization have been faced with a combination of banking crises and declining asset prices (property, equity, foreign currency). This phenomenon is so widespread that it can be assumed not to be circumstantial or transitional but to be tied to the intrinsic operation of the financial systems themselves. Crises seem to be part of the dynamism of finance when capital markets emerge. This assumption tends to be borne out by history, with its long list of known international financial crises.
Introduction
Authors: Gregory Mary , Salverda Wiemer , Bazen Stephen
Published: October 2023

Combining economic efficiency with social equity is an ongoing challenge, with the terms of the debate and the trade-offs it presents continually reshaped by events. Low-wage employment is one of the key areas where this challenge is currently posed. The 1980s saw the emergence ofhigh and persistent unemployment throughout much of the European Union, in many instances involving groups who had not previously been affected. As inflation receded over the decade, combating unemployment was restored to a central place on the policy agenda. The 1990s, however, saw growing recognition that unemployment is only one dimension in an increasingly complex set of unsatisfactory labour market outcomes. Many countries are now confronting a growing gap between those who benefit from the new career opportunities created by technological developments and rising prosperity, and those who do not. This gap manifests itself in a number of ways. Alongside the well-paid new jobs that are being generated, the fastest employment growth has been in ‘atypical’ work, part-time, limited term, or outside conventional employment contracts, often offering little in the way of security or continuity. While salaries and incomes have been rising, so has the extent of low-paid work. This has led to the sharp rise in earnings inequality already pronounced in the UK, and increasingly evident elsewhere. As sluggish employment growth has limited job opportunities, a new pattern of ‘joblessness’ has become established. Premature withdrawal from the labour force, which emerged initially as a trend towards earlier retirement, now involves substantial numbers of men in mid-career or even earlier. This movement out of economic activity can be a more important source of joblessness than unemployment. The distribution of work has become polarized in some countries, as two-earner and no-earner households have become common, replacing those with a single breadwinner. This range of developments has put issues of income distribution, inequality, and social justice back on the policy agenda.
Wage Inequalities and Low Pay: The Role of Labour Market Institutions
Authors: Lucifora Claudio
Published: October 2023

In recent decades a number of industrialized countries have experienced significant changes in the distribution of earnings. Various factors, economic and institutional, have contributed to reshaping the structure of wage differentials across different groups of workers. Major changes have also occurred in the distribution of employment and unemployment within the labour force, with declining employment rates and growing joblessness particularly in European countries. In this context, some have argued that there is a trade-off between the extent of joblessness and overall wage dispersion, advocating greater labour market flexibility, especially in wage setting, to reduce unemployment. However, in the face of the increase in earnings inequality, concern has emerged for those individuals located at the bottom end of the earnings distribution who have been most strongly affected, in terms of social exclusion and poverty, by the changing economic conditions. In particular, the low paid, the low skilled, and less protected groups generally, such as women, young workers, and older men, appear to have borne most of the burden, in terms both of lower earnings and of the higher incidence of unemployment (OECD 1996a).
Minimum Wages and Low-Wage Employment
Authors: Bazen Stephen
Published: October 2023

The role of minimum wages and the analysis of their labour market impact changed in the 1990s. This was partly due to new research in the USA that undermined the apparent consensus that had emerged in the early 1980s. However, it was also due to the lack of convincing evidence that minimum wages are responsible for the high unemployment rates in Europe. These developments led in many quarters to a change of attitude towards minimum wage setting. Instead of being regarded as harming those they are intended to help owing to their assumed negative effect on employment, minimum wages came to be regarded by many as a protective measure for vulnerable workers, and an element of the level playing field for competition among firms. Evidence of such a change is present in the First Report of the Low Pay Commission, which recommended the initial level for the national minimum wage that was introduced in the UK in April 1999.
Trade or Technological Change? Which is Working against the Low Skilled?
Authors: Gregory Mary , Machin Stephen
Published: October 2023

Across the advanced economies the last twenty years of the twentieth century saw a sustained decline in the relative demand for low-skilled workers. Within the EU the persistent high levels of unemployment that characterized most member states in the 1980s and 1990s in substantial part reflect the poor employment prospects of the low skilled. The effects of this, in the marked deterioration in the position of low-skilled workers in the labour market, are now widely documented (Glyn and Salverda, this volume). Throughout the EU unemployment rates for low-skilled workers are several times greater than for the higher skilled, and the low skilled predominate among the long-term unemployed (Nickell and Bell 1995). Worse, these unemployment rates seriously understate the marginalization of the low skilled. Falling employment rates and growing non-participation in the labour force, even among prime-age men, indicate a degree of exclusion from work that may be as large again as overt unemployment among the low skilled. Developments in the relative wage position of the low skilled are less clear-cut. In a number of countries, notably within the EU, the earnings distribution has remained relatively stable; in others, however, the shift in the employment structure has been accompanied by growing wage inequality, as relative earnings for the high skilled have increased while those for the low skilled have declined. The USA presents the most extreme case, with real earnings for workers in the lowest deciles of the distribution declining markedly, in absolute as well as relative terms, between the 1970s and the mid-1990s. In the UK, although wages for workers at the bottom of the distribution have not fallen in real terms, none the less growth has been much slower for low-wage workers than for higher earners, and wage inequality has widened (Machin 1996a, 1998, 1999).
Skills and Low Pay: Upgrading or Overeducation?
Authors: Borghans Lex , De Grip Andries
Published: October 2023

A significant development in labour markets has been the trend towards people with higher levels of education, notably college graduates, holding jobs previously held by people with lower levels of education, such as school-leavers. This chapter examines the principal explanations of the processes giving rise to this. The ‘overeducation’ view sees it as evidence of the underutilization of skills, which is socially wasteful. The ‘upgrading’ view, on the other hand, emphasizes the higher skills now required within occupations; although the job is formally the same, it now involves greater complexity. Both views, however, have pessimistic implications for the position of low-skill workers. On the overeducation view the increased supply of more educated workers pushes the low skilled into the least-favoured jobs, or even crowds them out altogether from the working population. The upgrading view sees low-skill workers as increasingly marginalized as their skill levels no longer meet the minimum requirements of the labour market. In the literature it is often assumed that this bumping-down process results from rigid markets in which so-called job competition regulates allocation. We will show, however, that even in a perfect market, with wage competition, bumping-down might result. Crucial for these processes are the elasticities of demand for each skill level and elasticities of substitution between skill levels. Interpretation of these developments is crucial for public policies towards education and training. In the case of bumping-down, additional investment in education is not effective. Upgrading, on the other hand, requires an increase in educational investment. However, training that increases educational levels below those where upgrading tendencies occur only further stimulates the process of bumping-down.
Japan’s Big Bang and the Transformation of Financial Markets
Authors: Ito Takatoshi , Melvin Michael
Published: October 2023

The “Big Bang” of Japanese financial markets was proposed in November 1996 by the Hashimoto government. This was the beginning of the end to the “convoy” system-no failure and regulatory protection-that had ruled the Japanese financial markets since the end of the Second World War. It is a bold idea to deregulate and liberalize the financial sectors, if not belatedly.