Siro Lombardini – författare

The opening up of Eastern Europe raises new questions for the design of environmental policies and for international policy co-ordination. These questions are even more striking when the uncertainty of the political and economic context is taken into account. The essays should provide helpful background information to the understanding of the environmental consequences of the formerly planned economies in Eastern and Central Europe. The book contains the selected and edited proceedings of the Conference on "Europe between East and South" held in the early 90s, organized jointly by the Confederation of the European Economic Association (C.E.E.A.) and the Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei (FEEM).

Growth and Economic Development shows how the different theories of growth - from the classical to the endogenous growth and Schumpeterian theories - can be brought together to develop a satisfactory explanation of the varying rates of growth between countries.A concise survey of the many theories of growth and development, which provides a context for understanding how different models can co-exist, is followed by an exploration of how Solow's growth models assess the effects of technological progress. The author then enlarges Schumpeter's theory of economic development by using the theory of natural evolution and selection. Professor Lombardini uses a simple model to show how innovation can account for growth and an evolutionary model to determine conditions in which selection can produce growth. Both these models deal with the economy as a whole. In addition, a new method - computational economics - is used to develop useful generalizations about the roles of different factors for development.

At the end of 1991, the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei hosted the Integration Symposium of the Confederation of European Associations of Economists on "Europe between East and South". This volume brings together the selected and edited proceedings of the conference. The focus of the book is the transformation of the formerly planned economies in Eastern and Central Europe from an international perspective. The opening up of the Eastern bloc adds a new and extremely challenging dimension to the relationship between the more and the less developed economies. Almost all developing countries implemented liberalisation policies throughout the Eighties, thereby dramatically increasing the market orientation of their economies. The "recipes" used in the South are also being applied virtually unmodified, in Eastern Europe. The symposium was one of the first forays comparing the two sets of experiences, showing that the lessons from the South are of great value for Eastern European reforms. Reforms in Eastern European countries equally affect economic flows between Europe and developing countries, and create new challenges for European countries themselves. Eastern Europe is an enclave of cheap and relatively skilled labour, thus a dramatic competitive threat for other developing countries and poorer EC regions. Furthermore, the strategic relevance of this area for the western world is likely to cause a diversion of public resources previously earmarked for the development of southern economies. All these issues could have tremendous consequences for the environment.