Global Economy in Transition: the European Union and Beyond

Edited by Linda Winkler, Wilkes University and Harold Codrington, Central Bank of Barbados

This volume covers various issues in global development and global economic transformation including factors affecting economies and development in the European Union (EU), the Ukraine, select countries in Africa, the Caribbean, the South Pacific as well as India and the United States. The global economy is in transition, from the 1990s' status quo to the “new normal” with heavy reliance on the internet, rapid communications, sophisticated payment systems, diminishing importance of size and distance and changing notions of the market. This volume discusses how this process is affecting economies across the globe and why an appreciation of it will help efforts by governmental bodies and the private sector to reassess societal relationships - both economic and political. This volume shows that challenges to policy-making and the achievement of social consensus on development issues are often quite similar in all countries, irrespective of size, geographical location, endowment and developmental status. The chapters speak to concerns that touch on a cross-section of issues which are driving transition and transformation at multiple levels. As a group, they compare economic factors across transnational economic or political associations (OECD, European Union, G20) or make comparisons across or within emerging markets or small states (BRICS, various African countries, the Caribbean, South Pacific). They include the presentation of a new model for transnational agreements, discussions of policies related to labor compensation and corporate governance, comparisons of nations across the world using indices of economic development and governance, an analysis of gender inequality in employment in the European Union, comparisons of tax burdens across the European Union and the USA, discussions of employee representation in corporate governance, and a look at grass-roots development and markets in developing economies. As a whole, in its breadth and cross-national perspective, the volume represents an important scholarly contribution to international economics.

Global Responsible Intergenerational Leadership

A conceptual framework and implementation guidance for intergenerational fairness

Julia M. Puaschunder, The New School

Today's grand policy dilemmas, from climate change, to over-indebtedness, to demographic shifts, have momentous long-term implications. Future generations will be constrained by our present decisions to an extent that is without precedent in advanced capitalist democracies. This book is an extensively researched and reasoned appeal in favor of intergenerational fairness - the ability to provide to future generations an at least as favorable standard of living as that enjoyed today. Intergenerational equity is an essential consideration in finding lasting solutions to the multifaceted crises of our time. As an implicit contract and transfer between living and future generations, intergenerational equity avoids discriminating against future generations. The book aims to theoretically define intergenerational equity and to frame it as a natural behavioral law, capturing human ethicality bounds. It follows a long and distinguished tradition of scholarly discourse in turning to natural law for solutions to major social predicaments. Outlining some of the causes of the current intergenerational imbalances regarding climate change and over-indebtedness it sets the basis for understanding their drivers and implications. A central proposition is that the natural human drive towards intergenerational fairness can be the basis for the necessary behavioral responses: the human-imbued moral compass of natural law can be a useful complement, if not alternative, to public policy. This book fills an important gap. Despite a resurgence of literature, the economic and social dimensions of intergenerational equity remain underexplored. Existing literature misses a holistic ethical framework of decision-making failures that addresses intergenerational concerns. Whilst evolutionary grounded, intergenerational fairness has not been recognized as a natural behavioral law – a human-imbued drive being bound by human fallibility. Practical implications and recommendations in advancing an agenda for the advancement of intergenerational equity are provided. Attention is drawn to the problem of providing the required leadership to promote the idea of intergenerational equity as a guiding principle in corporate, social and policy action. This book contributes both theoretical and practical insights and will be of interest to economists, sociologists, public policy makers and corporate executives tasked with tackling the most pressing contemporary challenges of mankind.

Stock-Flow-Consistent Models and Institutional Variety

Romar Correa, St Andrew’s College, India and Amelia Correa, St Andrew’s College, India

Orthodox macroeconomics is founded on microeconomics. Heterodox economists either reject micro foundations or experiment with behavioural relationships without paying attention to the principles that generate them. The book takes off from Michal Kalecki’s aphorism about economics being a science that confused stocks and flows. Kalecki was famous for presiding over a marriage between Marx and Keynes and all three figure prominently in the volume. However, the first part of the title is a homage to Wynne Godley who pioneered stock-flow-consistent modeling in our times. The authors exploit lagged values of variables emerging from the definitions. Lags also emerge in so-called stock-flow norms connecting the aggregates. Some moving and shaking of identities and a difference or differential equation emerges. The requirements for stability of the dynamic systems are illuminating and the reader can stop at structure and history with the first half of the book. The conversation with orthodoxy begins with the second part. The equivalent equation systems of the first part throw up different pairs of characters whose happiness must be maximised over time. The price to pay through the solution process is the confrontation with many ugly expressions but the explicit calculations are undertaken repeatedly only to reassure students through drillwork that tedium is not the same as difficulty. The payoffs are that variable transitions in capitalism (the second part of the title) are captured from a small clutch of identities. The movements from backward agriculture to capitalism, from ‘golden age’ capitalism to ‘financialization’, are modeled. A separate chapter is devoted to Europe. The policy prescriptions of heterodox economics do not compare with the richness of critique and positive analysis. ‘Positive’ and ‘normative’ are one in this work, the combination of stock-flow norms along with ‘forgotten’ policy variables like the tax rate promising order and stability to economies.

Agricultural Sector Issues in the European Periphery

Productivity, Export and Development Challenges

Edited by Persefoni Polychronidou, Central Macedonia Institute of Technology, Greece and Anastasios Karasavvoglou, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Greece

Over the course of the past two decades peripheral European economies in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe have experienced significant structural changes and have adapted to the global economic environment. Agriculture and the processing, using and trading of agricultural products play an important role in their economies. This volume covers several issues facing the contemporary agricultural sector in these countries, such as the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, the identification of an opinion leader portrait in agriculture, the characteristics of using Information and Communication Technologies as tools in the partnerships and internal processes of enterprises throughout the whole agro-food supply chain, the increased need of small-scale artisanal food businesses to seek new markets abroad, the perceptions of Greek olive oil importers in the UK, the barriers that Greek yogurt entrepreneurs face during their export activities, the reasons for the differences in economic performance and the role of tangible and less tangible factors influencing development outcomes. It will be of interest to researchers studying economic development, agricultural economists, businesses active in the primary sector and students of applied economic analysis.

Memes of Misinformation: Federal Spending

Unraveling the controversial, socio-economic and political issues behind those annoying social media memes

Julio C. Castañeda Jr.

In this first installment of the Misinformation series, the author tackles complex socio-economic and political topics related to the economy of the United States, such as the federal budget, wasteful spending, the national debt, unemployment and social security. By breaking down each subject into layman’s terms, the author clearly and concisely presents, in an unbiased manner, the facts behind the fake news, half-truths and general misinformation from the annoying headlines and memes cluttering social media on these volatile subjects.