Showing papers in "OUP Catalogue in 2004"

New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood

Abstract: Neil Brenner has in the past few years made a major impact on the ways in which we understand the changing political geographies of the modern state Simultaneously analyzing the restructuring of urban governance and the transformation of national states under globalizing capitalism, 'New State Spaces' is a mature and sophisticated analysis of broad interdisciplinary interest, making this a highly significant contribution to the subject

Strategic Learning and its Limits

Abstract: In this concise book based on his Arne Ryde Lectures in 2002, Young suggests a conceptual framework for studying strategic learning and highlights theoretical developments in the area. He discusses the interactive learning problem; reinforcement and regret; equilibrium; conditional no-regret learning; prediction, postdiction, and calibration; fictitious play and its variants; Bayesian learning; and hypothesis testing. Young's framework emphasizes the amount of information required to implement different types of learning rules, criteria for evaluating their performance, and alternative notions of equilibrium to which they converge. He also stresses the limits of what can be achieved: for a given type of game and a given amount of information, there may exist no learning procedure that satisfies certain reasonable criteria of performance and convergence. In short, Young has provided a valuable primer that delineates what we know, what we would like to know, and the limits of what we can know, when we try to learn about a system that is composed of other learners.

The Economy of Esteem: An Essay on Civil and Political Society

Abstract: Introduction. Rediscovering the Economy of Esteem PART I. TOWARDS AN ECONOMICS OF ESTEEM 1. The Nature and Attraction of Esteem 2. The Demand for Esteem 3. The Supply of Esteem 4. The Economy of Esteem PART II. WITHIN THE ECONOMICS OF ESTEEM 5. A Simple Equilibrium in Performance 6. A More Complex Equilibrium in Performance 7. Multiple Equilibria and Bootstrapping Performance 8. Publicity and Individual Responses 9. Publicity and Accepted Standards 10. Seeking and Shunning Publicity 11. Voluntary Association 12. Involuntary Association PART III. EXPLOITING THE ECONOMICS OF ESTEEM 13. The Intangible Hand in Profile 14. The Intangible Hand in Practice 15. Mobilising the Intangible Hand

Economics of the Welfare State

Abstract: conomics of the Welfare State discusses the different parts of the welfare system,in particular, cash benefits, the health service and education. The text argues that the welfare state exists not just to help the underprivileged, but also for efficiency reasons in areas where private markets would be inefficient or would not exist at all. The book has a separate chapter on the economics of higher education and it contains increased references to developments in the EU. Also included are a number of largely forward looking topics: - extended discussion of insurance to cover disability and long-term care - challenges to the welfare state including demographic change, globalization, changes in family structure and changes in the structure of jobs - debates about the welfare state Suitable for students of both economics related disciplines, the book encourages greater accessibility for students and contains a non-technical appendix in every chapter, diagrams, additional readings, worked examples and end of chapter discussion questions. ONLINE RESOURCE CENTRE Includes PowerPoint slides, web links and further reading.

Periodic Time Series Models

Abstract: This book considers periodic time series models for seasonal data, characterized by parameters that differ across the seasons, and focuses on their usefulness for out-of-sample forecasting Providing an up-to-date survey of the recent developments in periodic time series, the book presents a large number of empirical results The first part of the book deals with model selection, diagnostic checking and forecasting of univariate periodic autoregressive models Tests for periodic integration, are discussed, and an extensive discussion of the role of deterministic regressors in testing for periodic integration and in forecasting is provided The second part discusses multivariate periodic autoregressive models It provides an overview of periodic cointegration models, as these are the most relevant This overview contains single-equation type tests and a full-system approach based on generalized method of moments All methods are illustrated with extensive examples, and the book will be of interest to advanced graduate students and researchers in econometrics, as well as practitioners looking for an understanding of how to approach seasonal data

Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract: Since its publication in 2000, Public Management Reform has established itself as the standard text in the field, presenting a comparative analysis of recent changes in Public Management and Public Administration in a range of countries in Europe, North America, and Australasia. This completely rewritten second edition radically expands, develops, and updates the original. Two countries have been added to the comparison (making twelve countries in all) and a much fuller treatment has been provided of the European Commission (including a commentary on the recent reforms led by Vice-President Kinnock). Empirical data has been brought up to date, so as to cover many key developments of the last few years. The theoretical framework of the book has been further developed, including a challenging new interpretation of the trends in continental Europe, which are seen here as markedly different from the Anglo-American style 'New Public Management'. This second edition provides an unparalleled synthesis of developments in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK, the USA, and the European Commission. It is organized in an integrated format, within an overall theoretical framework that identifies the main pressures for, and trajectories of, change. It includes a multi-dimensional analysis of the results of reform, and a chapter reflecting on the dynamic relationship between management reform and politics. Extensive appendices provide an invaluable information resource for students.

Dividend Policy and Corporate Governance

Abstract: Dividends are not only a signal about a firm's prospects under asymmetric information, but they can also act as a corporate governance device to align the management's interests with those of the shareholders. Dividend Policy and Corporate Governance is the first comprehensive volume on the relationship between dividend policy and corporate governance, and examines in detail empirical studies and current theories. Reviewing the interactions between dividend policy and other corporate governance mechanisms, it compares results for the UK and the US with those for other countries such as France, Germany, and Japan, and provides new empirical evidence on corporate governance in continental Europe and its impact on dividends. Focusing on one of the main representatives of this system, Germany, it highlights major differences between the dividend policies of German firms and those of UK or US firms. Conventional wisdom states that German dividends are lower than UK or US dividends, yet on a published-profits basis the exact converse is true. In addition, the authors demonstrate a link between corporate control structures and dividend payouts, report evidence that the existence of a loss is an additional determinant of dividend changes, and demonstrate that the tax status of the controlling shareholder and the firm's dividend payout are not linked. The conclusions reached in this book have important implications for the current debate on corporate governance, making it invaluable for academics, finance professionals, regulators, and legal advisors.

London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200-1500

Abstract: This is the first full account of the evolution of the government of London from the tempestuous days of the Commune in the late twelfth century to the calmer waters of Tudor England. Caroline Barron shows how the elected rulers of London developed ways of dealing with both demanding monarchs and quarrelsome city inhabitants. The remarkable survival of the city's own records makes it possible to trace, in unexpected detail, the inner workings of civic politics and government over three hundred years. London was by far the most populous and wealthy city in the kingdom, and its practices were widely copied throughout England. It was, as the Londoners claimed in 1339, the 'mirror and example to the whole land'. Contributors to this volume - Anne Lancashire

The Glitter of Gold: France, Bimetallism, and the Emergence of the International Gold Standard, 1848-1873

Abstract: This book studies the so far unexplored operation of the international monetary system that prevailed before the emergence of the international gold standard in 1873. Conventional wisdom has it that the emergence of gold as a global anchor was both an inescapable and desirable evolution, given the exchange rate stability it provided and Britain's economic predominance. This study draws on a wealth of archival sources and abundant new statistical evidence (fully detailed in the appendix) to demonstrate that global exchange rate stability always prevailed before the making of the gold standard. This was despite the heterogeneity among national monetary regimes, based on gold, silver, or both. The reason for the stability before the establishment of the gold standard is France's bimetallic system. France, by being in a position to trade gold for silver, and vice versa, effectively pegged the exchange rate between gold and silver at its legal ratio of 15.5. Part I of the book studies exactly how this mechanism worked. Part II focuses on the respective behaviour of private concerns and arbitrageurs on the one hand, and authorities such as the Bank of France on the other hand, in order to underline the constraints and opportunities that were associated with bimetallism as an international regime. Finally, Part III provides a new view on the collapse of bimetallism and its replacement by a gold standard. It is argued that bimetallism might well have survived, and that the emergence of the gold standard was by no means inescapable. Rather, it resulted from a massive coordination failure at both national and international levels - a failure that was a preview of the interwar collapse of the gold standard.

A History of Water Rights at Common Law

Abstract: Water resources were central to England's precocious economic development in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then again in the industrial, transport, and urban revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Each of these periods saw a great deal of legal conflict over water rights, often between domestic, agricultural, and manufacturing interests competing for access to flowing water From 1750 the common-law courts developed a large but unstable body of legal doctrine, specifying strong property rights in flowing water attached to riparian possession, and also limited rights to surface and underground waters The new water doctrines were built from older concepts of common goods and the natural rights of ownership, deriving from Roman and Civilian law, together with the English sources of Bracton and Blackstone Water law is one of the most Romanesque parts of English law, demonstrating the extent to which Common and Civilian law have commingled Water law stands as a refutation of the still-common belief that English and European law parted ways irreversibly in the twelfth century Getzler also describes the economic as well as the legal history of water use from early times, and examines the classical problem of the relationship between law and economic development He suggests that water law was shaped both by the impact of technological innovations and by economic ideology, but above all by legalism

Minority Games: Interacting agents in financial markets

Abstract: The Minority Game is a physicist's attempt to explain market behaviour by the interaction between traders. With a minimal set of ingredients and drastic assumptions, this model reproduces market ecology among different types of traders. Its emphasis is on speculative trading and information flow. The book first describes the philosophy lying behind the conception of the Minority Game in 1997, and includes in particular a discussion about the El Farol bar problem. Then it reviews the main steps in later developments, including both the theory and its applications to market phenomena. This book gives a colourful and stylized, but also realistic picture of how financial markets operate.

The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries

Abstract: In The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's role in sixteen industries, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the U.S economy. In addition, to this account of computers' impact on industry, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, economists, and anyone interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and its future possibilities in a wide array of industries. A detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there, The Digital Hand is a sweeping survey of how computers transformed the American economy. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/management/9780195165883/toc.html

The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice

Abstract: In a capitalist economy, taxes are the most important instrument by which the political system puts into practice a conception of economic and distributive justice. Taxes arouse strong passions, fueled not only by conflicts of economic self-interest, but by conflicting ideas of fairness. Taking as a guiding principle the conventional nature of private property, Murphy and Nagel show how taxes can only be evaluated as part of the overall system of property rights that they help to create. Justice or injustice in taxation, they argue, can only mean justice or injustice in the system of property rights and entitlements that result from a particular regime. Taking up ethical issues about individual liberty, interpersonal obligation, and both collective and personal responsibility, Murphy and Nagel force us to reconsider how our tax policy shapes our system of property rights. Available in OSO:

Partners for Democracy: Crafting the New Japanese State under MacArthur

Abstract: In 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the United States and its allies, thereby planting the seed from which would spring one of the world's most successful and stable democracies. In an age when democracy is often pursued, yet rarely accomplished, in which failed democracies are found throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Japan's transformation from an utterly defeated military power into a thriving constitutional democracy commands attention. It has long been assumed that postwar Japan was largely the making of America, that democracy was simply imposed on a defeated land. Yet a political and legal system cannot long survive, much less thrive, if resisted by the very citizens it exists to serve. The external imposition of a constitution does not automatically translate into a constitutional democracy of the kind Japan has enjoyed for the past half-century. Apparently Japan, though under military occupation, was ready for what the West had to offer. Ray A. Moore and Donald L. Robinson convincingly show that the country's affirmation of democracy was neither cynical nor merely tactical. What made Japan different was that Japan and the United States-represented in Tokyo by the headstrong and deeply conservative General Douglas MacArthur-worked out a genuine partnership, navigating skillfully among die-hard defenders of the emperor, Japanese communists, and America's opinionated erstwhile allies. No dry recounting of policy decisions and diplomatic gestures, Partners for Democracy resounds with the strong personalities and dramatic clashes that paved the way to a hard-won success. Here is the story of how a devastated land came to construct--at times aggressively and rapidly, at times deliberately and only after much debate-a democracy that stands today as the envy of many other nations. Available in OSO:

The Bridges of Medieval England: Transport and Society 400-1800

Abstract: Medieval bridges are startling achievements of design and engineering comparable with the great cathedrals of the period, and are also proof of the great importance of road transport in the middle ages and of the size and sophistication of the medieval economy. Dr Harrison has undertaken the first thorough study of bridges and in this book he rewrites their history from early Anglo-Saxon England right up to the Industrial Revolution, providing new insights into many aspects of the subject. Dr Harrison looks at the role of bridges in the creation of a new road system, which was significantly different from its Roman predecessor and which largely survived until the twentieth century. He examines the design of bridges, which were built in the most difficult circumstances - broad flood plains, deep tidal waters, and steep upland valleys - and withstood all but the most catastrophic floods. He also investigates the immense efforts put into their construction and upkeep, ranging from the mobilization of large work forces by the old English state to the role of resident hermits and the charitable donations which produced bridge trusts with huge incomes. The evidence presented in The Bridges of Medieval England shows that the network of bridges, which had been in place since the thirteenth century, was capable of serving the needs of the economy on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. This has profound implications for our understanding of pre-industrial society, challenging accepted accounts of the development of medieval trade and communications, and bringing to the fore the continuities from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the eighteenth century. This book is essential reading for those interested in architecture, engineering, transport, and economics, and any historian sceptical about the achievements of medieval England.

Lectures on Economic and Financial Sector Reforms in India

Abstract: 'This is both a chronicle of financial reforms as also an insider's view of managing the process.' -- Business World 'A must for anyone tracking the Indian financial sector.' -- The Economic Times 'Reddy's book, which deals with the various reforms undertaken in the financial sector during the last decade, comes as a welcome fresh breeze.' -- Economic and Political Weekly 'Reddy... is absolutely right in saying that, as the least globalized part of the world, South Asia has more to gain than lose from globalization, provided the respective governments follow sensible public policies.' -- Business Standard 'The lectures carry Dr Reddy's inimitable style of debate, dissent, and progress and it is a book serious student of Economics cannot ignore.' -- The Financial Express The essays in this volume are based on lectures delivered by Y V Reddy in various parts of the world. They discuss the complex but under-documented structur al micro-aspects of economic reforms in India, examining the process from conceptualization of policy to its development, refinement, and implementation. The book explores dilemmas and issues faced by policy-makers in meeting the evolving uncertainties.

The Mighty Experiment: Free Labor versus Slavery in British Emancipation

Abstract: By the mid-eighteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade was considered to be a necessary and stabilizing factor in the capitalist economies of Europe and the expanding Americas. Britain was the most influential power in this system which seemed to have the potential for unbounded growth. In 1833, the British empire became the first to liberate its slaves and then to become a driving force toward global emancipation. There has been endless debate over the reasons behind this decision. This has been portrayed on the one hand as a rational disinvestment in a foundering overseas system, and on the other as the most expensive per capita expenditure for colonial reform in modern history. In this work, Seymour Drescher argues that the plan to end British slavery, rather than being a timely escape from a failing system, was, on the contrary, the crucial element in the greatest humanitarian achievement of all time. The Mighty Experiment explores how politicians, colonial bureaucrats, pamphleteers, and scholars taking anti-slavery positions validated their claims through rational scientific arguments going beyond moral and polemical rhetoric, and how the infiltration of the social sciences into this political debate was designed to minimize agitation on both sides and provide common ground. Those at the inception of the social sciences, such as Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus, helped to develop these tools to create an argument that touched on issues of demography, racism, and political economy. By the time British emancipation became legislation, it was being treated as a massive social experiment, whose designs, many thought, had the potential to change the world. This study outlines the relationship of economic growth to moral issues in regard to slavery, and will appeal to scholars of British history, nineteenth century imperial history, the history of slavery, and those interested in the history of human rights.

Economic Management in Pakistan 1999-2002

Abstract: Pakistan has been faced with a serious financial crisis since May 1998. The new government, which assumed office in October 1999. embarked upon a serious programme of economic revival to get the country out of the debt trap. Policices pursued have begun to pay dividends and despite sereval shocks to the economy the country has been able to achieve stability. This book describes the process through which the economy was managed during 1999 - 2000.

International Human Resource Management: A Multinational Company Perspective

Abstract: This new textbook provides comprehensive coverage of the key issues facing multinational corporations (MNCs) in their management of human resources across diverse national boundaries. It attempts to answer the question, "Can there be a uniform set of best human resource management (HRM) practices applicable across a spectrum of nations irrespective of cultural and institutional individualities?" The book takes a broad definition of HRM and begins with a summary of key discussions and models in this area before setting them in the international context of the MNC. Adopting an integrated approach, the book covers the theories and practices of international HRM and sets them in context with numerous reference to news stories and case studies developed from the author's own extensive research. The book is student-focussed with strong learning features including learning objectives, chapter summaries, reading lists and an activities section in each chapter.

The Rise of "The Rest": Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies

Abstract: After World War II a select number of countries outside Japan and the West--those that Alice Amsden calls "the rest"--gained market share in modern industries and altered global competition. By 2000, a great divide had developed within "the rest", the lines drawn according to prewar manufacturing experience and equality in income distribution. China, India, Korea and Taiwan had built their own national manufacturing enterprises that were investing heavily in R&D. Their developmental states had transformed themselves into champions of science and technology. By contrast, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico had experienced a wave of acquisitions and mergers that left even more of their leading enterprises controlled by multinational firms. The developmental states of Mexico and Turkey had become hand-tied by membership in NAFTA and the European Union. Which model of late industrialization will prevail, the "independent" or the "integrationist," is a question that challenges the twenty-first century. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/0195139690/toc.html