This volume's aim is to promote thought in readers interested in what kind of economic policies, market systems, welfare systems, and socialist systems should each pursue under the pressures of accelerating change? Should there be more government or less government? This is the central question addressed by this internationally drawn group of experts. The book features major case studies on the People's Republic of China, Canada, Ghana, Great Britain, South Africa, Taiwan, and West Germany. Contributors include, Richard L. Brinkman, from the United States, James C.W. Ahiakpor and Tillo E. Kuhn from Canada, Dieter Loesch and Herbert Schmidt from Germany, and Geert L. deWet from South Africa. For technical economists interested in world trade, business people concerned with expanding markets, and policy analysts concerned about how technology, culture and politics drive economic systems, this book is essential reading. As the editor points out, indicative targeting, as the latest weapon in the arsenal of economic science, makes it possible to systematically discover signals that could become points of reference--landmarks--for the way into the future. The approach taken by the authors enables us to trace future trends by extrapolating current data onto new territory. It will help the policy maker identify desirable trends and ideas; and at the same time, provides some early warning signals about high-risk trends and patterns. Bodo B. Gemper is professor of economics at the University of Siegen in Germany. He previously edited a Transaction volume, Structural Dynamics of Industrial Policy, and in German, Protectionism in the World Economy.

Here is a comprehensive edited volume that outlines the historical roots and state-of-the-art debates on the role of structural change in the process of economic development, including both orthodox and heterodox perspectives and contributions from prominent scholars in this field.

Economic development is a process of continuous technological innovation and structural transformation. Development thinking is inherently tied to the quest for sustainable growth strategies. This book provides a neoclassical approach for studying the determinants of economic structure and its transformation and draws new insights for development policy. The market is the basic mechanism for effective resource allocation at each level of development. However, economic development as a dynamic process entails structural changes, including industrial upgrading and diversification and corresponding improvements in hard and soft infrastructure. Such upgrading and improvements require coordination and go hand in hand with large externalities to firms' transaction costs and returns to capital investment. Thus, in addition to an effective market mechanism, the government should play an active role in facilitating structural changes. The book provides empirical evidence in support of this framework as well as concrete advice to development practitioners.

This book presents a selection of contributions on the timely topic of structural reforms in Western economies, written by experts from central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and leading universities. It includes latest research on the impacts of structural reforms on the market economy, especially on the labor market, and investigates the results of collective bargaining in theory and practice. The book also comprises case studies of structural reforms. A literature survey on the topic serves as a valuable source for further research. The book is written by and targeted at both academics and policy makers.

The current paradigm shift in the world economy is challenging the traditional competitiveness and growth theories with their few explanatory variables. This book offers a more holistic framework to synthesise the key findings of the various branches of competitiveness and growth research. The author illustrates this framework with a new long wave theory of socio-economic development. This theory emphasises the competitiveness and growth benefits of rapid structural adjustment in the rapidly changing techno-economic environment. Based on thorough analysis the author argues that both markets and governments have become less efficient due to the current transformation of the world economy. His empirical data from 22 OECD countries in the 1980s and 1990s illustrates that efficiency and growth-oriented governments have significantly contributed to their countries' economic success. National Competitiveness and Economic Growth will furnish its readers with a better understanding of the interdependencies of many important but seemingly unrelated aspects of modern economies and societies, for example the dynamics of business and technology, and cultural and institutional change. It will appeal to economists, business professionals and policymakers with a special interest in the competitiveness and growth of firms and national economies as well as the long-term development of socio-economic systems.

The ongoing process of revising and rethinking the foundations of economic theory leads to great complexities and contradictions at the heart of economics. ‘Economics of innovation’ provides a fertile challenge to standard economics, and one that can help it overcome its many criticisms. This authoritative book from Cristiano Antonelli provides a systematic account of recent advances in the economics of innovation. By integrating this account with the economics of technological change, this exceptional book elaborates an understanding of the effects of the introduction of new technologies. This excellent, comprehensive account from respected expert Antonelli will be much appreciated within the innovation economics community, yet it is also a book that should be read by all those with either a private or professional interest in economic theory.

Between 1989 and 1992 three colloquia on transformation problems were held at the Ludwig-Reimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg. At the end of the 1980s the collapse of the Soviet-type socialist economic system had become clear and, hence, the necessity to transform these systems into an entirely different eco nomic order. Similar processes have happened and still happen in other his torical constellations, for instance in developing countries. It has been the aim of the Transformation Colloquium to gain more theoretical insight into these phenomena. The object of research has been transformation defined as transition from a given economic order (socialist planned economy e.g.) to a consistent new or der (market economy). This is a highly complex phenomenon which occurred, above all, during the 20th century: introduction and abolition of socialist sys tems, transition from war economies to peace-time market economies. Histori cal experience allows perhaps for certain generalizing abstractions. The central problem discussed at all (up to now) three colloquia is the question whether the object is amenable for theoretical analysis and which approaches eventually are promising.

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the transformation of the economies of Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. However, a growing demand for policy advice, technical assistance and expertise is also coming from Asian reforming countries such as China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In addition, business communities abroad are increasingly interested in exploring investment and marketing opportunities in these reforming countries. Such developments are too important to overlook or ignore.The transformation of socialist economies towards market-based systems entails an unusually wide range of problems. Studies of related topics are complicated by the speed of the changes and the lack of clear historical precedents. Although the structural features of Asian reforming economies are in important ways different from those of the Eastern European economies, all socialist economies share similar fundamental conditions on the eve of economic reform which raise a similar set of reform issues.This volume brings together a rich collection of expertise and information in an attempt to shed some light on the transitional process in Asia. The contributions are by no means exhaustive. However, they provide the reader and analyst with an excellent starting point to the problems and prospects which are specific to Asian transforming economies.