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AbstractLiterature on post‐socialist transformation usually deals with the political, economic and social sides of it, although there have also been important changes in the field of technical advance in the last twenty years. One of capitalism's main virtues is the strong incentive it gives to dynamism, enterprise and the innovation process. Every revolutionary new product (for civilian use) has been brought about by the capitalist system. The socialist system was capable at most of developing new military products. The article analyzes how far the radical difference can be explained by the innate tendencies and basic attributes of the two systems. Our daily lives have been transformed by these new products (for instance, the sphere of information and communications by the computer, the mobile phone and the internet). While many people see all these as favourable changes, fewer discern the causal relation between the capitalist system and rapid technical progress. Yet the usual syllabus of microeconomics does not enlighten students on this important virtue of capitalism, neither it is not adequately emphasized in the statements of leading politicians.

Literature on post-socialist transformation usually deals with the political, economic and social sides of it, although there have also been important changes in the field of technical advance in the last 20 years. One of capitalism's main virtues is the strong incentive it gives to dynamism, enterprise and the innovation process. Every revolutionary new product (for civilian use) has been brought about by the capitalist system. The socialist system was capable, at most, of developing new military products. The article analyzes how far the radical difference can be explained by the innate tendencies and basic attributes of the two systems. Our daily lives have been transformed by these new products (for instance, the sphere of information and communications by the computer, the mobile phone and the internet). While many people see all these as favorable changes, fewer discern the causal relation between the capitalist system and rapid technical progress. Yet the usual syllabus of microeconomics does not enlighten students on this important virtue of capitalism, which is not adequately emphasized in the statements of leading politicians either.

This book is the outcome of a multi-annual study of Chinese and European research institutions that addresses the partnership between the EU and China and its political and economic implications. The book's distinct focus is to situate this multipurpose relationship within the context of the multidisciplinary academic debate about China's interregional relations with specific regions (i.e. Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East), notably the Belt and Road initiative (BRI). Both the economic and political dimensions of the international rise of China are critically analysed, with special attention to opportunities, risks, challenges and controversial issues. The international set of authors uniquely combines academics and decision makers as well as experts and think tank leaders.

AbstractHow can a marketplace introduce mechanisms to overcome inefficiencies caused by adverse selection? In this article, I use a unique data set that follows eBay sellers to show that reputation is a major determinant of price variations. I develop a model of sellers' dynamic behavior where sellers have heterogeneous qualities unobservable by buyers. Using reputation as a signal of quality, I structurally estimate the model to uncover buyers' utility and sellers' costs and underlying qualities. I show that removing the reputation mechanism increases low‐quality sellers' market share, lowers prices, and consequently reduces sellers' profit by 66% and consumer surplus by 35%.

Governments perpetually align their policies to satisfy shifts in voters' relative demand for economic growth versus social equality. Following such shifts, increases (decreases) in government interventions lower (raise) both inequality and growth. This mechanism generates a positive co-movement between inequality and growth. The pattern is weaker in countries where a culturally determined belief that the rich are deserving renders equality a less important objective in the first place. I develop this analytical result in the theoretical framework of Alesina and Angeletos (2005), and I provide robust empirical support for it in a panel of 38 countries over the period 1964-2004.

The paper investigates the spatial patterns of industrial location and environmental pollution in a new-economic-geography model. Factors of production and their owners are mobile, but factor owners are not required to live in the region in which their factors are employed. Under laisser-faire, a chase-and-flee cycle of location is possible: people, who prefer a clean environment, are chased by polluting industries, which want to locate geographically close to the market. Locational patterns under optimal environmental regulation include concentration, separation, dispersion and several intermediate patterns. Moreover, it is shown that marginal changes in environmental policy may induce discrete changes in locational patterns.

This article examines the Prison Service's cross‐posting policy, its key strategy for compliance with the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. The impact on the development of cross‐posting policy of two influential industrial tribunals and a dispute with the prison officers' union' illustrate the confusion and lack of commitment within the Service to this policy, as well as the general misunderstanding of the intent of the law. Research shows that while administrators have focused on promoting secondary equality programmes, integration has been strongly influenced by sexual stereotyping and an informal and arbitrary application of the deployment policy.

New Brunswick's economic reform policies and gender equity initiatives in education are examined in light of the promises made at Beijing and found wanting. By embracing "economic restructuring" and the language of feminism the Province has masked who has access to education and who is left out. ; Les politiques de reforme economique du Nouveau-Brunswick et les initiatives d'equite entre les sexes dans l'education sont etudiees a la lumiere des promesses faites a Beijing et qui se relevent insuffisantes. En incluant "la restructuration economique" et langage feministe la province a masque qui a acces a l'education et qui est exclus.

Why do investment rates differ so markedly across countries in the developing world? This paper tries to explain these differences by studying a political model of institutional reform. The model implies that countries with more unstable and polarized political systems will have more inefficient legal systems, resulting in poorly enforced property rights and, thus, lower levels of domestic investment and higher levels of nonmarketable production and capital flight. These predictions of the model hold up when confronted with cross-country data for 101 countries. Extensive sensitivity analysis shows that the empirical results are robust to an ample of prospective statistical problems.