Nicolas Spulber - Böcker

Redefining the State examines in historical perspective the changes of the role of the state with regard to public ownership and the scope of welfare in the main industrial and transitional economies. These changes have given rise to illuminating debates on the state's size, range, and function, and have involved important transformations concerning the boundaries between the public and private sector, the forms and extent of privatization, and the nature and content of public welfare. These debates and transformations are of critical importance to understanding the actual and potential scope of the state in any economy.

Russia's Economic Transitions examines the three major transformations that the country underwent from the early 1860s to 2000. The first transition, under Tsarism, involved the partial break-up of the feudal framework of land ownership and the move toward capitalist relations. The second, following the Communist revolution of 1917, brought to power a system of state ownership and administration - a sui generis type of war-economy state capitalism - subjecting the economy's development to central commands. The third, started in the early 1990s and still unfolding, is aiming at reshaping the inherited economic fabric on the basis of private ownership. The three transitions originated within different settings, but with a similar primary goal, namely the changing of the economy's ownership pattern in the hopes of providing a better basis for subsequent development. The treatment's originality, impartiality and historical breadth have cogent economic, social and political relevance.

In this volume, which was originally published in 1979, an essay of analysis prefaces a collection of translated papers from Eastern Europe. The juxtaposition of analysis and original documents from Eastern European authorities (both revered there and disgraced) enables the reader to join in the experience of interpretation. The essay (Part I) provides an analysis of the mechanisms of Soviet-type economies. It concentrates on four issues: decision-making processes; the limits upon the choices made; practical implementation of the choices; and the objectives implied by them. This ends with an explanation of the relatively scant application of economic principles to the operation of this type of economic system. Part II is a reader consisting of appropriately chosen original texts from Eastern European sources grouped into sections on administration, resource allocation, planning and incentives. The issues are examined in relation to the special conditions which brought them to a head.

This work focuses on the economic challenges the American economy has faced during the post-World War II era, and on the new challenges - represented notably by the competing economies of Japan, Germany, and of the entire European Union - which confront it as the twenty-first century approaches. Professor Spulber presents a detailed critique of the thesis alleging that the American economy has experienced some kind of decline, and also argues that the economy will continue to move forward energetically and successfully if growth and change are primarily left to emerge from the impulses and incentives of the private economy.

Redefining the State examines in historical perspective the changes of the role of the state with regard to public ownership and the scope of welfare in the main industrial and transitional economies. These changes have given rise to illuminating debates on the state's size, range, and function, and have involved important transformations concerning the boundaries between the public and private sector, the forms and extent of privatization, and the nature and content of public welfare. These debates and transformations are of critical importance to understanding the actual and potential scope of the state in any economy.

This work focuses on the economic challenges the American economy has faced during the post-World War II era, and on the new challenges - represented notably by the competing economies of Japan, Germany, and of the entire European Union - which confront it as the twenty-first century approaches. Professor Spulber presents a detailed critique of the thesis alleging that the American economy has experienced some kind of decline, and also argues that the economy will continue to move forward energetically and successfully if growth and change are primarily left to emerge from the impulses and incentives of the private economy.

Russia's Economic Transitions examines the three major transformations that the country underwent from the early 1860s to 2000. The first transition, under Tsarism, involved the partial break-up of the feudal framework of land ownership and the move toward capitalist relations. The second, following the Communist revolution of 1917, brought to power a system of state ownership and administration - a sui generis type of war-economy state capitalism - subjecting the economy's development to central commands. The third, started in the early 1990s and still unfolding, is aiming at reshaping the inherited economic fabric on the basis of private ownership. The three transitions originated within different settings, but with a similar primary goal, namely the changing of the economy's ownership pattern in the hopes of providing a better basis for subsequent development. The treatment's originality, impartiality and historical breadth have cogent economic, social and political relevance.

This is a work which probes the fundamental concepts concerning the regulation and privatization of water resources, of water pricing, and of public policies concerning the allocation of water supplied to users. It also examines all of the issues involved in a truly market-determined framework. The book is suitable for courses on water-resource management and planning, and economics of water resources, and as a basic reference work on water resources in general. Whilst the underlying data has been expanded and updated for this second edition, the basic division of the book into four parts has been maintained. The first part presents the conceptual framework within which are examined the interacting elements in the management of water resources and the role of market in water pricing and in quality-graded quantity of water. The book then focuses on water-quality control, on the nature and impact of pollution, on water recycling and re-use, and on the prevailing policy instruments.The third part points to the deficiencies of engineering solutions in the choice of public expenditures needed for the construction of water systems, and stresses the role of privatization and of centralization at the level of river basins. Finally, the book underlines the need for co-ordinating all supply programmes, projected demand, recycling and re-use.