Research, Quality, Competitiveness : European Union Technology Policy for the Information Society
The book is divided into three sections: an introduction to the structure of the EU, a review of EU competitiveness, and an analysis of research and technology policy in the EU. … may be useful to extract as an introduction for newcomers. It will also be useful for those coming to the book … with no knowledge of the EU.This book focuses on issues of European science and technology policy. … Overall, the book is interesting and pedagogically valuable. … it is very useful for understanding the institutional context of EU science and technology policy. Also the social and economic data the book provides are very rich.
Research and Technological Innovation : The Challenge for a New Europe
To explain the importance of scientific research and technological innovation for industrial countries and in particular for the EU, in order to improve or to maintain economic leadership, is the central idea of this volume. It starts with a historical and theoretical perspective on scientific-technological innovation and its importance for industrial growth. Then it analyzes EU policy framework and strategies for R&D and it presents several national success stories both from EU and non-EU countries to confirm the theoretical perspective.
Regulatory and Economic Challenges in the Postal and Delivery Sector
Worldwide, there is considerable interest in postal and delivery economics. Governments, particularly in the European Union, are examining closely the roles of the two systems and how best to regulate them. This volume brings together 20 essays originally presented at the 12th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held in Cork, Ireland in June 2004. Contributors include researchers, practitioners, and senior managers from throughout the world.
Regionalisation, Growth, and Economic Integration
The purpose of this book is to analyse the process of regionalisation and to plot its future development. Regionalisation is a common feature of the changing territorial organisation of European states today. Regionalisation alone, however, cannot produce any of the benefits we attribute to it without looking into the conditions in which it occurs. Therefore, this book tackles the following questions, bringing together theory and empirical applications: What are the main determinants and implications for regional policy? How does economic policy affect the growth and integration process? Why is innovation important for regional economic development? Why is the regional dimension important for the innovation promotion? What has been our policy response so far and what lesson did we learn from it? And finally, what are our action lines for the future
Regional Disparities in Small Countries
This volume revisits the common conception that countries characterized by small land area and small population sizes do not exhibit significant regional inequalities. … Together, these chapters convincingly demonstrate that small countries do not seem to have significantly small regional gaps than large ones, and inequalities are shown to have increased over time. … The book is recommended to any scholar studying spatial inequalities … peace researchers interested in the inequality-conflict nexus.All in all, the book stands out from many other edited volumes by being clearly focused on one particular topic, rather than being a collection of loosely related individual papers.
Reform Options for the EU Own Resources System
Develops a reform proposal for the future revenue system of the EU budget. The findings strongly reject the idea that a reform based on an EU tax-based own resource would remedy current problems. Against the background of the status quo analysis the authors present a reform model which includes the complete phasing out of the VAT resource, a financing of the budget completely on the basis of the GNI resource and a generalised but limited correction mechanism (GLCM). The GLCM would make a clear distinction between policies having an intentional distributive effect or not. A further element of the reform proposal is a move towards a stronger financial contribution of regions to EU spending.
Rationality at Work : Logics of Collective Action in the Labour Market
Wage setting arrangements are widely seen as key ingredients to macro-economic success. Examining their micro-foundations is an urgent task. Drawing on a treasure chest of empirical insights amassed by other social scientists, this ground-breaking book argues that economists have neglected the institutional underpinning of wage bargaining at their peril. Starting from Olson's insight that workers and firms often fail to pursue their collective interests, the book explains how self-reinforcing effects can promote group action – and how this contributed to the shifts in fortune of countries such as Sweden, Ireland and Austria. This book should cause heated scholarly debates. But it assumes no prior knowledge and is highly readable. A short foreword, largely self-contained chapters and a glossary make it easy to navigate. The tools it presents will prove useful to scholars, practitioners, policy-makers or indeed anyone interested in the economic effects of unions and employer associations.
Random Curves : Journeys of a Mathematician
These autobiographical memoirs of Neal Koblitz, coinventor of one of the two most popular forms of encryption and digital signature, cover many topics besides his own personal career in mathematics and cryptography - travels to the Soviet Union, Latin America, Vietnam and elsewhere, political activism, and academic controversies relating to math education, the C. P. Snow two-culture problem, and mistreatment of women in academia. The stories speak for themselves and reflect the experiences of a student and later a scientist caught up in the tumultuous events of his generation.
Quantitative Economic Policy : Essays in Honour of Andrew Hughes Hallett
Quantitative economic policy and econometrics were developed along with macroeconomics in the 1930s. Econometric techniques and models are still being used extensively in the business of forecasting and policy advice. In particular, policy simulations with econometric models have become standard tools for evaluating and designing macroeconomic stabilization policies. For instance, such studies provided important arguments for the popularization of the recent steps towards European integration such as the European Single Market, the European Monetary Union, and the Enlargement of the European Union. In this book, some recent advances in the theory and applications of quantitative economic policy are presented, with particular emphasis on fiscal and monetary policies in a European and global context. Andrew Hughes Hallett, a pioneer and major scientist in quantitative economic policy analysis, is being honoured by this volume, whose contributors are among his friends and former students.
Public Administration in Germany
This book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany’s public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector
Promoting social dialogue in European organizations : Human resources management and constructive conflict management
This volume focuses on describing the social dialogue system in organizations from an Human Resources Management perspective. Based on the NEIRE model for industrial relations, key factors are determined contributing to creative social dialogue in European organizations. Actual data from surveys and interviews from more than 700 CEO and HR managers in eleven European countries give insights in the experiences with and expectations of employers of social dialogue. The volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the historical context and current situation in social dialogue in these countries. This context helps to understand the current major challenges in each country when it comes to a vital social dialogue.
Preferences and Procedures : European Union Legislative Decision-Making
Preferences and Procedures presents and tests game-theoretic models of European Union legislative decision-making. It is inspired by the idea of linking statistical testing strategies firmly to formal models of EU policymaking. After describing salient features of the EU legislative process and comparing different models of how the EU negotiates new legislative measures, the models' predictive power is evaluated. On a more general level, Preferences and Procedures answers questions regarding the empirically recognizable effects of institutional arrangements on joint bargaining outcomes.
Pollution of the Sea : Prevention and Compensation
In May 2005, the International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs organized an international conference addressing marine pollution. At the conf- ence venue, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, academics and practitioners debated recent developments from an interdisciplinary perspective. The papers shed light upon ecological aspects, upon the efforts of the international community to prevent and combat marine pollution by appropriate institutions and regulations, and upon the compensation of losses which have occurred despite those efforts. The present volume collects the papers of the conference and at the same time conveys an impression of the diversity of subjects discussed in the International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs.
Political Economies of Landscape Change : Places of Integrative Power
Examines the complex relationships between political economy and landscape change. It encompasses perspectives ranging from radical landscape interpretation to sustainable livelihoods, real estate economics, institutions, international landscape policies, and global finance. It asks what difference "design", can make within the broader structural contexts of landscape change. The perspectives in this book share a common concern for what economist and futurist Kenneth Boulding termed "integrative power" – the power of human solidarity, respect, and love – to direct political and economic change toward paths of sustainable landscape design.
Policy Challenges and Political Responses : Public Choice Perspectives on the Post-9/11 World
In Policy Challenges and Political Responses, leading public choice scholars confront the most significant problems facing democratic societies at the dawn of the 21st century. Ranging widely across the policy spectrum, this authoritative volume demonstrates the vibrancy and continuing relevance of the public choice research program by applying its ideas and methods to constitution-making in the European Union, terrorism, the growth of government, political campaign finance, vote-counting technologies, participatory democracy, corporate governance, school choice, and tort reform. Essays assessing the present state of the social contract and the enduring tensions between capitalism, socialism, and democracy broaden the book’s perspective.
Plantation Technology in Tropical Forest Science
This book is intended to be a record of the Biotechnology-Assisted Re/Afforestation Project in the Asia-Pacific Region (BIO-REFOR) since 1992, conducted in coop eration with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (lUFRO). The purpose of the project is to promote exchanges of information of fundamental research on indigenous species in the Asia-Pacific Region in order to restore natural forests.
Physics of the Life Sciences
Originally developed for the author's course at Union College, this text is designed for life science students who need to understand the connections of fundamental physics to modern biology and medicine. Almost all areas of modern life sciences integrally involve physics in both experimental techniques and in basic understanding of structure and function. Physics of the Life Sciences is not a watered-down, algebra-based engineering physics book with sections on relevant biomedical topics added as an afterthought. This authoritative and engaging text, which is designed to be covered in a two-semester course, was written with a thoroughgoing commitment to the needs and interests of life science students.
PHP 8 Solutions : Dynamic Web Design and Development Made Easy
Design and build dynamic PHP-based web sites and applications / Get started right away through practical examples that you can reuse / Incorporate PHP 8 elements including named attributes, constructor property promotion, and union types / Understand the subtle, but important differences between switch and match / Work with the latest PHP 8 techniques, innovations, and best practices
Pharmacovigilance in the European Union : Practical Implementation across Member States
Presents the results of an in-depth comparative study assessing the implementation of the EU Pharmacovigilance Directive in six EU Member States. By going beyond legal transposition and instead focusing on practical implementation, this study aims to close a gap in EU compliance research. Based on qualitative interviews with relevant actors in Germany, Poland, Portugal, France, Finland and the UK, the authors identify perceived challenges and best-practices, issue recommendations, and thereby contribute to a better understanding of the factors that incentivize or impede the practical implementation of EU law at the national level.
Perceptions of the Independence of Judges in Europe : Congruence of Society and Judiciary
This book is about the perception of the independence of the judiciary in Europe. Do citizens and judges see its independence in the same way? Do judges feel that their independence is respected by the users of the courts, by the leadership of the courts and by politicians? Does the population trust the judiciary more than other public institutions, or less? How does independence of the judiciary work at the national level and at the level of the European Union? These interrelated questions are particularly relevant in times when the independence of the judiciary is under political pressure in several countries in the European Union, giving way to illiberal democracy



















