Giorgio Barba Navaretti - Böcker

As we reach the turn of the millennium, the disparity between developed and developing world is of increasing concern. Labour, Poverty, and Development brings together a worldwide mix of contributors from both the academic and practitioner sides of the current debate, combining rigorous economic analysis and broader-based theorizing to provide a detailed picture of the causes, effects, and implications of the current situation in the developing world. All the contributions stress the vertical relationship between macro trends and micro functionings of markets. Part I deals with the interaction between employment and growth and trade policy, investigating the positive relationship betwen growth and emplyment, and the connection between trade liberalization and better working conditions. Part II looks at the situation in urban areas: the crucial and often hidden role that the informal sector plays in the urban employment market and its connection to the formal labour sector, and the collective decision-making involved in gender differentials in education. Finally, Part III investigates the other side of the ruralurban divide, with a detailed micro-study of labour supply in rural communes in China, and an analysis of a common developing-world poverty trap: the spiralling relationship between destitution and low productivity.

Depending on one's point of view, multinational enterprises are either the heroes or the villains of the globalized economy. Governments compete fiercely for foreign direct investment by such companies, but complain when firms go global and move their activities elsewhere. Multinationals are seen by some as threats to national identities and wealth and are accused of riding roughshod over national laws and of exploiting cheap labor. However, the debate on these companies and foreign direct investment is rarely grounded on sound economic arguments. This book brings clarity to the debate. With the contribution of other leading experts, Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Anthony Venables assess the determinants of multinationals' actions, investigating why their activity has expanded so rapidly, and why some countries have seen more such activity than others. They analyze their effects on countries that are recipients of inward investments, and on those countries that see multinational firms moving jobs abroad.The arguments are made using modern advances in economic analysis, a case study, and by drawing on the extensive empirical literature that assesses the determinants and consequences of activity by multinationals. The treatment is rigorous, yet accessible to all readers with a background in economics, whether students or professionals. Drawing out policy implications, the authors conclude that multinational enterprises are generally a force for the promotion of prosperity in the world economy.

Is knowledge an economic good? Which are the characteristics of the institutions regulating the production and diffusion of knowledge? Cumulation of knowledge is a key determinant of economic growth, but only recently knowledge has moved to the core of economic analysis. Recent literature also gives profound insights into events like scientific progress, artistic and craft development which have been rarely addressed as socio-economic institutions, being the domain of sociologists and historians rather than economists. This volume adopts a multidisciplinary approach to bring knowledge in the focus of attention, as a key economic issue.