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The aim of this paper is to study the relation between intellectual capital (IC) and economic development (ED). The analysis presented aims to have both theoretical and practical relevance. The main hypothesis assumed is that IC, although fundamental, is not sufficient to assure the existence of ED. Instead, argues that, for a developing country to become a modern economy some facts have to happen. Those facts are: a process of stable political democratisation; a process of economic stabilization; a process of economic and political integration; a process of investment in development tools, like physical capital and intellectual capital. Furthermore, it is shown that the process of investment in IC implies the development of active social policies, but it is difficult for a developing county to make those social policies by itself. In consequence, in the future, due to the need of economic and political stability, the growing globalisation and the lack of development resources (IC, infrastructures, etc.) in developing countries, some Economic and Political Unions (EPUs) may emerge, or consolidate. Those EPUs are the European Union, the American Union (around Canada and the USA), the Asian Union (centred in Japan), the African Union (based in South Africa), the Oceanic Union (beginning with Australia and New Zealand), and the Arab Union (mainly constituted by Middle East oil producers).

"Americans today face no shortage of threats to their financial well-being, such as job and retirement insecurity, health care costs, and spiraling college tuition. While one might expect that these concerns would motivate people to become more politically engaged on the issues, this often doesn't happen, and the resulting inaction carries consequences for political debates and public policy. Moving beyond previously studied barriers to political organization, American Insecurity sheds light on the public's inaction over economic insecurities by showing that the rhetoric surrounding these issues is actually self-undermining. By their nature, the very arguments intended to mobilize individuals--asking them to devote money or time to politics--remind citizens of their economic fears and personal constraints, leading to undermobilization and nonparticipation. Adam Seth Levine explains why the set of people who become politically active on financial insecurity issues is therefore quite narrow. When money is needed, only those who care about the issues but are not personally affected become involved. When time is needed, participation is limited to those not personally affected or those who are personally affected but outside of the labor force with time to spare. The latter explains why it is relatively easy to mobilize retirees on topics that reflect personal financial concerns, such as Social Security and Medicare. In general, however, when political representation requires a large group to make their case, economic insecurity threats are uniquely disadvantaged. Scrutinizing the foundations of political behavior, American Insecurity offers a new perspective on collective participation"--

Focuses on failures of policies to control wages, prices, and credit during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations.

Concern over the rising cost of medical care has focused policy attention on methods of paying MDs. Controls on fees paid by public medical programs (Medicare, Medicaid) adversely affect those programs' primary objective: making MD care available to the poor & elderly. Another policy instrument, therefore, is needed to control private medical fees. The Economic Stabilization Program (ESP) provides the only recent US experience with a system which constrained both MDs' private charges & public payments. Using Medicare & Medicaid claims data for a sample of 1,261 northern Calif MDs, a simulation is made of what MDs' private charges & supplies of services would have been in the absence of ESP. The simulations suggest that without ESP, private charges would have been higher, & the quantity of services provided to poor & elderly patients lower, during the study period (1972-1974) than were actually observed. 3 Tables, Appendix. Modified HA.