bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Global Agro-Food Complexes and the Refashioning of Rural Europe
Authors: Whatmore Sarah
Published: November 2023

The industrialization of agriculture in the post-war period has undermined its image as the mainstay of a traditional rural world in advanced industrial countries. At the same time, counter urbanization and a rural shift in secondary and tertiary employment against a steady decline in primary livelihoods has produced a dramatic, if uneven, reshaping of rural social and economic relations centred on the consumption of rurality as aesthetic and environmental capital for tourism, residence, and recreation (Cloke and Goodwin 1992). This dissociation of rural and agricultural space has produced a conceptual hiatus in research with the category rural repeatedly being declared theoretically redundant (Marsden et al. 1990). Critical research which has sought to engage with the theoretical projects of political economy and regulation theory has become increasingly bifurcated, with agriculture being reconceived in terms of a globally integrated industrial food complex (Friedland 1991), while those concerned with the restructuring of rural society have largely redefined their focus as the ‘non agricultural fractions (of capital]’ (Cloke 1989: 179).
Local and Regional Broadcasting in the New Media Order
Authors: Robins Kevin , Cornford James
Published: November 2023

To consider the media is to simultaneously raise questions of economics—production, distribution, and consumption—and questions of culture—meanings, identities, and ways of life. In the present period, both the media industries and media cultures are undergoing complex, and sometimes contradictory, processes of globalization. In this chapter, we trace out some of the consequences and implications of these processes for localities and regions. Using the example of place-based media policies and strategies in Britain, we are concerned to show how places are being forced to reconfigure and reimagine themselves in the context of the emerging global media order.
Global-Local Social Conflicts: Examples from Southern Europe
Authors: Hadjimichalis Costis
Published: November 2023

A few years ago it may have sounded anachronistic, not so radical (or Marxist) or even wrong, to insert notions such as place and local into the analysis of the uneven geography of capitalist development. On the one hand there was the tradition of community studies and that of places for ‘their own sake’ which justified mistrust and criticism. On the other, the preoccupation of most radical and Marxist studies with structural or systemic processes of accumulation, and a focus on ‘wider systems’, reduced places and localities to simple arenas of production and reproduction.
Holding Down the Global
Authors: Amin Ash , Thrift Nigel
Published: November 2023

This book’s chief concern has been with the territorial dimensions of globalization. Most particularly, its theme has been the apparent reassertion of the importance of territory that has run in parallel with globalization. Yet, what is clear is that in the several literatures concerned with this theme there is considerable confusion over what is the precise role of territory in globalization. This book has offered one solution to this dilemma through identifying the role of territory with the process of institutionalization, that is with the way in which local initiatives structure responses to processes of globalization and themselves become a part of processes of globalization. The chapters in this book have identified a number of different aspects of this thesis through the consideration of examples as diverse as the north-east of England, central Italy, eastern Germany, and the Swiss Jura.
Ownership, Organization, and Management: British Business and the Branded Consumer Goods Industries
Authors: Fitzgerald Robert
Published: November 2023

The failings of British management have been the target of prolonged adverse criticism, and this respectable and in many ways justifiable practice has recently been bolstered by the powerful assault of an authoritative source. It would be a revisionist, and undoubtedly foolhardy, historian who could dismiss the existence of some link between Britain ‘s relative economic decline, the loss of competitiveness, and the inadequate decisions and capabilities of business leaders, managers, and firms. Chandler ‘s Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism has a more ambitious objective than this acknowledgement of managerial weakness as one contributory factor amongst many. In relating national economic success to a particular form of capitalist enterprise and organizational structure, specifically the multidivisional corporation, it places the principal blame for British failure on the nature and composition of its industrial management. In order to illustrate the force of his thesis, Chandler directly criticizes a group of British industries which, as counterpoints to descriptions of decline in textiles, steel, shipbuilding, and engineering, have been distinguished as examples of sectoral competitive achieve ment.1 In his criticism of the failings of British management, specifically the continuance of business dynasties into an era when other forms of ownership and control were supposedly more appropriate, he is joined by Lazonick.2
An Impossible Merger? The French Chemical Industry in the 1920s
Authors: Daviet Jean-Pierre
Published: November 2023

The purpose of this chapter is to examine an ambitious merger project that would have changed the history of the French chemical industry. In 1926-7 the creation of a national federation, uniting all firms within the indus try, under the ‘Union chimique frarn;aise ‘ banner, was considered; it would have been like the Union chimique belge or, a closer comparison, ICI in Great Britain or IG Farben in Germany. The companies which were involved thought the idea had come from bankers, and the Credit com mercial de France, founded in 1894 under the name of Banque suisseet franc;aise, was the bank most often cited. This plan started a process of consultation, and the firms which were involved showed an extreme reluctance. Though the initiative eventually failed to reach its original goals, it was none the less useful in many respects, and it contributed to the advancement of a new set of ideas. Analysing this project provides a deeper understanding of the historical development of France ‘s chemical industry, an industry which suffered from many ambiguities, but also displayed in the 1920s an increased awareness of the ties between the banking community and industry. This study also helps to understand the strategic and organizational characteristics of French companies during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Network Structure of Inter-Firm Relationships in the Southern Italian Mechanical Industry
Authors: Lomi Alessandro , Grandi Alessandro
Published: November 2023

Inter-firm relationships in the southern Italian mechanical industry are considered in terms of four different structures of interaction generated by supply relationships, quality control agreements, technology transfer, and equity relations. Network-analytic techniques are used to explore patterns of community structure emerging from the system of intercorporate connections among 106 organizations. The study of organizations has moved beyond focusing on single organizations to an examination of how populations of organizations relate to their environments (Aldrich 1979). In this perspective, the population-rather than the individual organization-is taken as the basic unit of analysis, and adaptation is seen as a collective response to the problem of interdependence at the population and community levels (Hawley 1986; Hannan and Freeman 1989). This perspective is in sharp contrast with earlier research traditions on organizational environments which promulgated a firmcentred perspective by focusing on the relationship between individual organizations and their immediate environment (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967).
The Forms, Costs, and Development Dynamics of Inter-Organizational Networking
Authors: Ebers Mark , Grandori Anna
Published: November 2023

In this concluding chapter we outline some specific implications for organizational theory and practice that may be derived from the chapters assembled in this volume. At the same time, we take this opportunity to point out what we believe to be some important issues for the further development of the field of inter-organizational network analysis. With regard to theoretical implications, we begin by returning to an issue discussed in the Introduction, namely the conceptualization and characterization of inter-organizational networks. A summary of the general explanatory argument for the formation of inter-organizational networks, as suggested by the chapters of this volume, follows. We then move on to discuss what we perceive to be two important yet under-researched areas in the study of inter-organizational networking, namely the possible costs and dynamics of networking. We end this concluding chapter by highlighting a number of practical implications that may be derived from the research reported in this book.
The Bank of England and Central Bank Co-operation 1970–1994
Authors: Pringle Robert
Published: November 2023

The modern era of central bank co-operation began in 1961, with the first in a series of bilateral arrangements that were to lead to a large ‘swap’ network of mutual credit lines among major central banks. The purpose of the arrangements, initiated by the US Treasury and taken over the following year by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was to defend the dollar, which had come under attack in the foreign exchange markets for the first time since World War II. The swaps made foreign currencies available to the United States to finance intervention in the foreign exchange market. The first was between the New York Fed and the Bank of France; the Fed agreed to pay $50m. into the account of the Bank of France in New York against payment of an equivalent sum (245m. frs.) by the Bank of France to the account of the Fed in Paris. This resulted in an increase in the foreign reserves at the disposal of both countries at the stroke of a pen. Swap credits were later used extensively by other countries, notably Britain. They were very flexible and short term; unless renewed, the swaps were unwound at the end of three months at the same exchange rate, eliminating exchange risk. They survived the move to floating rates. By 1994 the New York Fed had swap facilities totalling $30bn. with fourteen central banks and the Bank for International Settlements.
Towards a Model of Clustering in High-Technology Industries
Authors: Swann G M Peter
Published: November 2023

Drawing on the literature review, the aim of this chapter is to set out a simple model of clustering in high-technology industries that forms the basis of the empirical analysis in the later chapters. Much analysis of clusters has focused on the initial formative stages, or what could be called the riseof clusters. In these formative stages there is an important positive feedback mechanism which reinforces the development of clusters. But this positive feedback rarely continues indefinitely. Within most clusters, even the most successful, diminishing returns are liable to set in beyond a certain point. This means that the rate of growth of the cluster will start to decline. Eventually, indeed, the cluster will stop growing, and start to decline. Most analysis of clustering tends to stop there: the cluster enters a phase of decline from which there is no apparent recovery at this is not the inevitable outcome. In a few cases, clusters that reach maturity do not necessarily then decline into oblivion. Some of them experience a renaissanceor revival in a new age with a new set of industries.
Comparison and Interaction between Computing and Biotechnology
Authors: Prevezer Martha
Published: November 2023

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first compares the processes of clustering in the two industries—computing and biotechnology—and traces differences back to the nature of the technologies. The second part looks at the interaction between the technologies, and specifically the effect computing has had on biotechnology and the implications for clustering. Chapters 4 and 5, 6 and 7 have analysed clustering in computing and biotechnology in both the USA and the UK. We have looked at the process through the entry of firms into clusters and at the effect on the growth of incumbent firms of being situated in clusters, and we have found different factors have affected entry and growth. We have compared these processes of entry and growth in the US and UK computing industries, and, less formally.
Management Accounting Changes The Belgian Experience
Authors: Bruggeman Werner , Slagmulder, Regine , Waeytens Dominique
Published: November 2023

During the last years we have seen many innovative practices and new methods in the field of management accounting. For different subject areas it was advocated that existing concepts and techniques were obsolete and create dysfunctional behaviour. It has been suggested that the so-called traditional systems should be replaced by new approaches.

In capital budgeting, there is a call for strategic investment appraisal instead of traditional discounted cash flow methods. In cost accounting, activity-based costing is becoming popular. Also, new concepts and theories are being sought for measuring performance.
The Bretton Woods System: Concept and Practice
Authors: Panić Mića
Published: November 2023

The first (discouraging) thought that occurs to anyone asked to write about the Bretton Woods system is that there is nothing, no aspect of the subject, that has failed to attract careful and lengthy scrutiny over the last fifty years. The existing literature must be at least as voluminous as that on the classical gold standard; and the number of devotees of the System is probably greater than the one that admired for so long its much debated nineteenth century precursor.
International Capital Movements: Some Proposals for Reform
Authors: Akyüz Yzlmaz , Cornford Andrew
Published: November 2023

The recent trend towards liberalization of international capital movements in most parts of the world economy has been accompanied by growing agreement concerning the potential benefits of long-term international investment, so long as it is subject to certain restrictions and conditions. But there is no such consensus as to the benefits of short-term capital movements, even though these too are now increasingly covered by measures of liberalization. Policy makers’ concerns regarding short-term capital movements derive mainly from the volatility of many of the transactions through which such movements are effected. Unless offsetting action is taken, this is easily translated into volatility of the exchange rate, asset prices and interest rates, foreign exchange reserves, and the supply of domestic financing. Therefore such movements are capable of exerting a powerful influence on the economy as a whole, including resource allocation, consumption, and investment.
Social Preferences, Equity, and Non-Expected Utility Theory
Authors: Farina Francesco
Published: November 2023

This chapter enquires into the kind of behavioural pattern to be followed by an ethical decision-maker so as to make a concern for equity influence social preferences. Following Harsanyi’s ‘constructivistic’ model of social choice, the ‘veil of ignorance’ assumption is adopted. Each individual evaluates the possible outcomes of random prospects by assigning an ‘equal probability’ to the event of being placed in the objective position (a given state of the world x, with x = I, ... , h) and in the subjective position i (with i = 1, ... , n) of everyone else. This corresponds to introducing a decision maker who overcomes possible conflicts between self-interested individuals. Social preferences are then determined by means of interpersonal utility comparisons employing a uniform conversion index between each individ ual’s own and other individuals’ utility units. With reference to the ex ante approach to social welfare, expectational utility functions will be interpreted as mathematical instruments by which the ethical decision-maker expresses social preferences. The utility differences resulting from interpersonal com parisons will then be deemed not as measurements of pleasure but as the determinants of judgements of social welfare.
Introduction
Authors: Goto Akira
Published: November 2023

Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in national innovation systems (see Dosi et al. 1988; Lundvall 1992; and especially Nelson 1992). As the globalization of the economy proceeds with increasing speed, the arena of competition has become world-wide, and technology is now the key factor in this global competition. Still, innovation systems differ from country to country, and the innovative activities of firms are by and large conditioned by the innovation system of their home country.
Intrafirm Transfers of Engineers in Japan
Authors: Kusunoki Ken , Numagami Tsuyoshi
Published: November 2023

This chapter focuses on intrafirm personnel transfers of Japanese engineers. We present an in-depth description of the engineering personnel transfer system in Japan, using an unusually comprehensive data set collected from a large Japanese R&D-oriented firm. Although much research concerning Japanese technology management has called attention to intrafirm transfers of Japanese engineers, there has been surprisingly little quantitative research that directly sheds light on the actual frequencies or patterns of engineering transfers within firms. This is the first quantitative research that provides substantial findings on actual intrafirm transfers of Japanese engineers.
Introduction: Historical Roots of Family Policy
Authors: Phipps Shelly
Published: November 2023

Canada as a nation has never developed a comprehensive and explicit set of family policies, although the province of Quebec has taken this initiative since the late 1980s. Instead, policies affecting families with children are implicitly embedded within all social and economic policies. This means that any analysis of Canadian family policy must include a more general discussion of income security programmes, public health insurance, labour market policies, and income tax regulations.
Introduction: Themes in the American Tradition
Authors: Shirley Ian , Pool Peggy Koopman-Boyden Ian , John St.
Published: November 2023

The United States has no explicit national, comprehensive family or child policy, nor has there been any such policy or cluster of policies in the past. Nonetheless, over the past century, even as European welfare states were being shaped, the US too developed many of the institutional supports and commitments to what in Europe would be called a welfare state (or in Germany, a social market). Among these, from time to time, were measures directed at children or families with children. These enactments were in considerable part concentrated in several ‘bursts’ during periods of reform: the Progressive Era (approximately 1895-1920), the New Deal and its aftermaths (1932-54), the War on Poverty and the Great Society (1960–74). A hundred years after the Progressive Era, at the beginning of the Clinton Administration, there were new child and family initiatives, but by the middle of his term a wave of conservative reaction had begun to dismantle a sixty-year history of increasing social entitlements.
The Formation of Families
Authors: Shirley Ian , Pool Peggy Koopman-Boyden Ian , John St.
Published: November 2023

Since the early 1970s, both popular and scholarly literature in the United States have highlighted issues of family change. Although the debate has been couched in terms of whether the family is failing as society’s primary institution of child socialization, it was stimulated by the growing awareness of significant changes occurring within families. That the family has changed, in particular over the last three decades, is a subject of general agreement. That the major changes have to do with the declining significance of ‘traditional’ families—two-parent, husband/wife families with children, in which the husband works outside the home in the paid labour force and the wife works inside the home as an unpaid family worker—is also a source of general agreement.
Families and the Division of Labour: Employment and Family Work
Authors: Shirley Ian , Pool Peggy Koopman-Boyden Ian , John St.
Published: November 2023

Whether referred to as a ‘subtle revolution’ or as the most significant social change of the twentieth century, changes in gender roles have had enormous implications for families. In particular, women’s entry into the labour force and their continued attachment to it have had a major impact on the household and family economy, the lifestyle of husbands and wives, the viability of single-parent families, and the ways that children are reared and cared for. Of particular importance have been the increased labour force participation of married mothers, especially those with young children; the sustained labour force attachment of women regardless of pregnancy, maternity, and child-rearing; and the rise in full-time, year-round work by married women with children.
The Income of Families: Earnings and Transfers
Authors: Shirley Ian , Pool Peggy Koopman-Boyden Ian , John St.
Published: November 2023

The economic situation of families with children is largely contingent on five factors: the rate of employment; the level of wages; the number of earners in the family; and the size and the composition of the family, i.e., the number of children and whether the family is headed by one or two parents. Government income transfers can offset some of the consequences of the other four factors, but in the US such transfers have been modest.

Except during the 1930s, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose steadily from the beginning of the twentieth century. Per capita real GDP increased by about two-thirds between World War II and 1974 but only by about one-fourth between 1974 and 1992. Families’ standard of living improved steadily between World War II and 1974 but later stagnated, with different consequences for different types of families. The rnid-1970s may be thought of as the post-World War II watershed in the economic situation of families. The slowdown in economic growth following the first world-wide oil shortage had significant consequences for family economic well-being. Family income inequality increased during the latter period, with shares in family income rising only for the highest quintile, declining for the three lowest, and remaining stable for the fourth (US Bureau of the Census, 1992). The economic situation of the poor also worsened during these years.
The Politics and Institutionalization of Family Policy
Authors: Shirley Ian , Pool Peggy Koopman-Boyden Ian , John St.
Published: November 2023

It is no surprise that a country with the belief systems and political tendencies listed in the historical introduction has not developed a holistic and national family policy. The doctrine of separation of Church and State and the strong commitments to states’ rights, individualism, voluntarism, and family privacy have precluded contrary initiatives. Presidents, leaders in all walks of life, and citizens responding to public opinion polls routinely and fluently affirm that the family is the ‘cornerstone of society’ but—with few exceptions and with regard to most circumstances—do not advocate that it be interfered with or even strongly supported if that might create the possibility of interference.
Technology Management and the Role of the Research and Technology Infrastructure
Authors: Tsipouri Lena
Published: November 2023

It has been stressed in the earlier chapters that technology management is a strategic function for industry and that the actual choices enterprises make depend not only on the competences they have already acquired (i.e. competence feeds competence), but also on the outside resources to which they have access. Studying technology management from a policy perspective helps to understand not only what capabilities are involved at the level of firms but also how outside resources can further nourish them, thus providing a basis for policies designed to improve technology management. It has also been emphasized that policies do not directly influence technological change, they do so only indirectly by influencing the behaviour of firms.
Free-Standing Companies in Tsarist Russia
Authors: Ģurushina Natalia
Published: November 2023

The majority of British companies involved in conducting business in Russia at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries followed an identical organizational pattern. The distinctive feature of this pattern was the existence of complex, multilevel structures that included intermediary companies, special companies for financing, Russian-affiliated enterprises, and Russian and British banks. Many British companies that financed business in Russia were so called free-standing companies. This term was first introduced by Mira Wilkins, who defined a free-standing company as an ‘administratively as well as legally independent ‘ venture the purpose of which was to obtain capital by bringing together profitable or potentially profitable operations overseas with British investors seeking financial opportunities superior to those at home The free-standing companies would provide an institutional framework that minimized risks, managed the savings of British investors, and could attract foreign as well as British investment. Free-standing companies did not originate from a domestic manufacturing base. They were floated in the UK and had their head offices in London, but conducted business overseas. The difference between freestanding companies and investment companies was that the latter usually operated ‘ solely within Britain as institutional portfolio investors ‘.
Economic Reform and Poverty: An Overview
Authors: Sahn David E
Published: November 2023

Has economic reform hurt the poor in Africa? Little disagreement exists that most African countries faced an economic crisis in the early 1980s, characterized by worsening budget and balance-of-payments deficits, stagnant growth, and slow improvement in social indicators. Far less consensus exists, however, on the appropriateness and effectiveness of macroeconomic and sectoral economic reforms that such conditions motivated. More contentious still is the subject of this book: the impact of economic reforms on poverty and income distribution in Africa.
Rents and Exchange Rates: Redistribution through Trade Liberalization in Madagascar
Authors: Dorosh Paul
Published: November 2023

In Madagascar, as in a number of countries, IMF stand-by agreements in the early 1980s were followed by a succession of World Bank and bilateral structural adjustment and sectoral loans designed to restore macroeconomic balances and liberalize markets. No representative household survey data exists with which to trace the actual evolution of household incomes and expenditures in Madagascar during the 1980s. Using available information on prices, household income and expenditure patterns, Dorosh, Bernier, and Sarris (1990) provided evidence suggesting that in Madagascar, the adverse effects of adjustment policies, per se, were more limited. This study, based on computable general equilibrium (CGE) model simulations of external shocks and policy changes, attempts to shed more light on the important linkages between macroeconomic adjustment and welfare of lower-income households in Madagascar.
Do Cheap Imports Harm the Poor? Rural-Urban Tradeoffs in Guinea
Authors: Arulpragasam fehan , Ninno Carlo del
Published: November 2023

The markets for food commodities have been profoundly affected by structural adjustment in Guinea. Trade, exchange, and price reform have jointly altered both the quantities of food items available on domestic markets and the prices at which they are sold. The reform of Guinea’s exchange regime, together with concurrent liberalization of trade, have led to a massive influx of food imports into the country. Between 1983 and 1992 the volume of rice imports increased by 227 percent, the volume of wheat flour increased by 81 percent, sugar by 472 percent, and cooking oil by 517 percent. In the five years between 1987 and 1992 alone, the volume of rice imports increased by 109 percent, the volume of wheat flour by 18 percent, sugar by 18 percent, and cooking oil by 125 percent. Data on foreign exchange sales show that the value of total food imports increased by 16 percent between 1989 and 1992. Food import purchases accounted for approximately 50 percent of total private sector foreign exchange demand during this period.
The Course of my Accounting Research
Authors: Someya Kyojiro
Published: November 2023

It wasn’t something I planned at the outset, but looking back over the course my accounting research has followed, I find that-almost inevitably-my research is deeply rooted in the economic development of Japan over the past half century, beginning with economic reconstruction in the post-war period and continuing through the surge in economic inter nationalization beginning in the latter half of the 1960s.
Accounting ‘Revolutions’ in Japan
Authors: Someya Kyojiro
Published: November 2023

Accounting history is the study of the evolutionary process in accounting thought, practices, and institutions. The focal point of such study is the dynamic interaction between accounting and its environment. This consideration of the accounting history of Japan focuses on two significant events in the modern history of Japan that had revolutionary impacts on its accounting system.
The Use of Funds Statements in Japan
Authors: Someya Kyojiro
Published: November 2023

In July 1959 we conducted a survey of selected Japanese companies under the sponsorship of the Sangyo Keiri Kyokai (The Industrial Management and Accounting Institute) in an attempt to determine how funds statements are used in this country. A total of 563 companies were chosen for the survey, as shown in Table 16.1, from the 601 incorporated companies whose stocks were listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 1 April 1959. Two companies in liquidation and thirty-six banking and insurance companies were excluded. The survey was conducted by mailing a questionnaire to the companies and later sending interviewers for replies. In designing the questionnaire, we considered it most important to make it structurally comparable to those employed in similar surveys in the United States and Canada. However, Japanese companies were in such peculiar circumstances that cash flow statements had to be treated separately from other funds statements. This necessitates caution in comparing the results with those of similar studies conducted in the United States and Canada.
The Babcock & Wilcox Company: Strategic Alliance, Technology Development, and Enterprise Control, circa 1860-1900
Authors: Bruland Kristine
Published: November 2023

The late nineteenth century was a period of major technological change—the so-called ‘Second Industrial Revolution’, during which some of the major technologies of the modern era emerged, and in which new industries were created to exploit them. These technologies included electrical technologies, new chemical products and processes, and transport systems. This period was also one in which technologies developed in the early nineteenth century, particularly those to do with mechanization and the application of power systems, were widely applied, and widely diffused internationally. The impact of steam and mechanical technologies on early industrialization is often overstated, but during the later nineteenth century their promise was realized.
The Top Management of Large-scale Enterprises in Post-war Japan
Authors: Morikawa Hidemasa
Published: November 2023

Much has been written about management in Japan and the particular contribution it has made to the success of Japanese firms. This chapter explores this contribution, focusing in particular on the top management in post-war Japan’s economic miracle.
Changes in the Industrial System I: Administrative Reforms and Industrial Reorganization
Authors: Chai Joseph C H
Published: November 2023

Early attempts to reform the Chinese industrial system centred on administrative streamlining and industrial reorganization. The measures introduced included simplification of the industrial hierarchy, the delegation of industrial enterprises to key cities, and the promotion of inter-enterprise lateral linkages. Most of these reforms were implemented in the period from 1981 to 1985 (Xie and Luo, 1990: 218). This chapter examines the pressures that brought about these changes and analyses the nature, limit, and impact of these changes.
Changes in the Industrial System Ill: Incentive Reforms
Authors: Chai Joseph C H
Published: November 2023

Changes in the decision-making structure necessitate corresponding changes in the incentive system. Since both theory and practice suggest that in a decentralized decision-making environment proper incentives to allocate resources efficiently over time exist only under private ownership (Blommestein and Marrese, 1991: 50) decentralization of decision making needs to be accompanied by privatization. However, privatization of state industrial enterprises is ideologically unacceptable in China. Hence, an alternative incentive system needs to be found. Since the late 1970s China has experimented with numerous new incentive systems in an attempt to enhance the financial discipline of its state industrial enterprises. This chapter analyses these incentive changes and evaluates how effective they have been in motivating enterprise management and workers to strive for greater industrial efficiency.
Reforms of the Financial System
Authors: Chai Joseph C H
Published: November 2023

Prior to the reforms financial resources in China were highly centralized. The mobilization and allocation of financial resources was done mainly through the state budget in conjunction with the state plan. This is evident from Table 7.1 which shows that household savings accounted for only 3 per cent whereas the state budget accounted for 46 per cent of total national savings on the eve of the reforms in 1978. Since the government was the main saver and investor financial intermediaries were neither necessary nor allowed. Hence, financial markets were closed, financial instruments were prohibited, and all financial institutions had been either confiscated or nationalized and were merged with the Peoples’ Bank of China (PBC) (Jao, 1989: 2).
China’s Transition: Overview and General Assessment
Authors: Chai Joseph C H
Published: November 2023

China’s strategy of transition to a market economy is often held up as superior to the one adopted by the Central and Eastern European countries (Gordon, 1992). For it seems that China, in contrast to the latter, was able not only to improve the standard of living of its population while it was undergoing reforms but to achieve rapid economic growth as well as a reasonable degree of political and social stability. This chapter assesses China’s relative success up to the early 1990s in its transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. An objective evaluation of the relative success of China’s transition would ideally require a point by point comparison of the strategies adopted by the Central and Eastern European countries and China. However, such a detailed comparison is beyond the scope of this book. Instead this chapter will focus only on the differing initial conditions of the Central and Eastern European countries and China and their short run transition costs. It will attempt to explain why China was able to avoid some of the short-run transition costs that the Central and Eastern European countries have incurred.
Social Development in High-Achieving Countries: Common Elements and Diversities
Authors: Mehrotra Santosh
Published: November 2023

The ultimate objective of state action in all countries should be the enhancement of human capabilities. This is so for all countries, but more so for developing countries. Capability consists of the basic capacity to avoid ignorance, undernutrition, disease, and early mortality and lead a fuller, longer life, and be able to participate in decision-making in the community (Sen, 1985; Dreze and Sen, 1989). The capability to avoid undernourishment may depend not only on a person’s intake of food, but also on the person’s access to health care, medical facilities, basic education, drinking-water, and sanitary facilities. The notion of capabilities goes beyond a person’s command over income, and in that sense comes much closer to the concept of human development that has recently influenced development thinking (UNDP, 1990).
Health and Education Policies in High-Achieving Countries: Some Lessons
Authors: Mehrotra Santosh
Published: November 2023

In the preceding chapter, we analysed the common elements which help to explain the remarkable achievements of the selected countries in social development, while recognizing the considerable diversities between them. These common elements were: public provision of basic social services for all; investment in health and education early in the development process; public health and education expenditures well above their regional average; and elimination of male—female differentials in social indicators and enabling conditions which favoured the ‘agency’ role of women. In addition, among these common elements are specific kinds of intervention in the health and education sectors. This chapter looks more closely at these specific health and education interventions and policies with a view to deriving some lessons of policy significance from the experience of these countries. The discussion avoids contextual factors which explain improvements in the social indicators since that can be found in the case-studies in Part II, and tends to focus on the policy related variables. The first section is devoted to health policies and includes discussion of nutritional and water and sanitation interventions. The second section discusses education policies. The chapter closes with some policy lessons which seem to emerge from the case-studies.
Botswana: Social Development in a Resource-rich Economy
Authors: Duncan Tyrrell , Jefferis Keith , Molutsi Patrick
Published: November 2023

Botswana is a landlocked country traversing the Tropic of Capricorn. The country is largely arid or semi-arid and is prone to droughts that are often prolonged. With a land area of 582,000 sq. km. (roughly the same size as France) and a population of 1.3m. in 1991, it is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. More than two-thirds of the country is covered with the thick sand layers of the Kgalagadi (Kalahari) Desert; only 5 per cent of the land area is arable. Most of the population lives in the eastern part of the country, along the line of the north-south railway, where rainfall and soil conditions are moderately better.
Malaysia: Social Development, Poverty Reduction, and Economic Transformation
Authors: Heng Leong Choon , Hoey Tan Siew
Published: November 2023

Malaysia has recorded impressive achievements in both social and economic development, especially when seen in relation to the situation at the time of independence in 1957. The country then was beset with deep communal and religious differences and wide economic disparities, which divided its population and threatened the viability of the new nation. The major ethnic groups were the Malay (Bumiputra or indigenous) population (49.5 per cent), Chinese (37.2 per cent), and Indian (11.7 per cent).
Barbados: Social Development in a Small Island State
Authors: Bishop Myrtle D , Corbin Rosalyn , Duncan Neville C
Published: November 2023

The World Summit in Copenhagen in March 1995 defined social development as the improvement and enhancement of the quality of life for all people, requiring democratic institutions, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, increased and equal economic opportunities, the rule of law, promotion of respect for cultural diversity and rights of persons belonging to minorities, and an active involvement in civil society. It is manifested in the active involvement of all members of society in the affairs of the communities in which they live; gender equality and equity in all economic, social, and political activities; full access to education, health-care services, and decision-making processes; productive employment; recreational enjoyment, and spiritual expression.
Introduction
Authors: Freyssenet Michel
Published: November 2023

The ‘received wisdom’ about the history of the automobile industry is common to those who study it and those who work in it. Between 1920 and 1950, following a primarily ‘craft’ -based phase, both American and European automobile companies are said to have adopted the mass production system, characterized by a search for economies of scale, a sequential and segmented organization of design and production, and the utilization of an unskilled workforce. Because of this system’s inherent rigidity, it is said to have been thrown into crisis by the transition to a diversified and unstable replacement market increasingly open to international competition. Conversely, Japanese companies are deemed to have learned early how to rapidly adapt design and production to market changes and make profits in any conditions, thanks to a trained workforce who participate in cost reduction and quality improvement.
The Globalization of Honda s Product-Led Flexible Mass Production System
Authors: Mair Andrew
Published: November 2023

Honda became the world’s largest motorcycle producer twelve years after it was founded in 1948. The company entered the automobile industry during the early 1960s. It then grew continuously for three decades, overtaking established auto mobile producers to rank tenth in the world and become one of a Japanese ‘Big Three’ alongside Toyota and Nissan. During this period Honda developed an image as a ‘different’ company with an idiosyncratic trajectory led by innovative products (Mair forthcoming a). Growth was seriously challenged in the 1990s. Yet by now Honda had deepened and globalized an industrial model of ‘flexible mass production’. Accordingly, Honda remained profitable during the 1990s Japanese recession. At the same time the crisis forced a rethink of the product innovation strategy.
The Unique Trajectory of Mitsubishi Motors
Authors: Shimizu Koichi , Shimokawa Koichi
Published: November 2023

The Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) is a member of the Mitsubishi group (formerly zaibatsu), so most of the company’s investments have been financially supported by members of the group. However, this means that interest payments have sometimes weighed heavily on MMC’s profitability. MMC produces all types of vehicles: passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and industrial vehicles as well as minicars. The company’s diversity saved MMC when it ran into difficulties during the transition to mass production of passenger cars. From the latter half of the 1980s, MMC pursued a balanced course of development having at last discovered how to combine technological and commercial innovation in the design of its products so as to meet market demands.
Introduction
Authors: Michie Jonathan
Published: November 2023

With the end of the long post-war boom in the early 1970s, the world economy has experienced varying degrees of relatively large-scale unemployment. From an assumption that the ‘unemployment problem’ had been solved, and that a state of full employment could be maintained through demand management techniques, we now live in an entirely different world. Any suggestion of a return to full employment is immediately met with questions of whether such a thing is really possible, whether it would not lead to inflation or to excessive trade union power, or in the case of individual economies, to unsustainable balance of payment deficits. It is asked whether the economic policies required for a return to full employment would be affordable, or would they not inevitably lead to yawning fiscal deficits, which in turn would in the end require a U-turn in policy with unemployment reappearing.
Expansionary Policy for Full Employment in the United States: Retrospective on the 1960s and Current Period Prospects
Authors: Pollin Robert , Zahrt Elizabeth
Published: November 2023

As is by now thoroughly documented, the material well-being of the majority of people in the United States has been stagnating or declining for roughly a quarter-century. The USA has become an increasingly difficult place to find a secure job and to earn a living wage. Permanent jobs offering good benefits and training opportunities, organized mostly through internal labour markets, have increasingly been supplanted by contingent work arrangements established through employment contractors or leasing firms. Average incomes have correspondingly fallen and poverty has increased. At the same time, income and wealth have soared for the richest 1 per cent of households, as inequality has also risen sharply.
Economic Policy, Accumulation, and Productivity
Authors: Harcourt Geoff
Published: November 2023

We live in an increasingly competitive environment, nationally and internationally, both with regard to industrial and commercial capital, and to financial capital. One consequence of attempts to cope with this situation has been the emergence of sustained mass unemployment in the advanced capitalist economies. Yet inflation still remains stubbornly persistent in most countries and there has also been a decline in the rate of growth of productivity in some of them. We have witnessed as well instability in major markets-those for foreign exchange, labour, property, and financial assets-and great variability in the rate of accumulation around unsatisfactory average levels in many industries and in economies as wholes.
Demographic Consequences of Structural Adjustment: The Case of Brazil
Authors: Rios-Neto Eduardo , Carvalho Jose Alberto Magno De
Published: November 2023

The Brazilian economy has experienced numerous economic cycles during this century. These have occurred in the larger context of an expansionary secular trend marked by different phases of industrialization and economic development. Al though the century has witnessed several periods of ‘stabilization crises’-the slowdown of economic activity induced by anti-inflationary policies-it has been, on the whole, a century characterized by industrialization and economic development. Although the interactions between population and the economy can be studied both in the short and in the long run, the short-term analysis pursued here has the advantage that the relations can be evaluated without ambiguity with respect to the possibility of reverse causality, something that cannot be controlled for in the long’ term studies. One classical theoretical framework, well suited to the analysis of the impact of annual fluctuations in the vital rates, is the Malthusian model. This framework postulates a positive check whereby real wages and mortality are negatively associated, and a preventive check that implies a positive correlation between real wages and fertility. The Malthusian framework was first applied to the study of short-term fluctuations in pre-industrial Europe (Lee 1981; Galloway 1985; 1986; 1988; and others). This chapter intends to apply the Malthusian framework to the study of short-term fluctuations in the contemporary reality of a developing country. in order to assess the demographic consequences of crises and structural adjustments in modem Brazil. In this contemporary context, other economic variables in addition to price fluctuations are included in the model, such as aggregate production and the unemployment rate.