Scarcity and Frontiers

Scarcity and Frontiers PDF Author: Edward B. Barbier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139493469
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 767

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Book Description
Throughout much of history, a critical driving force behind global economic development has been the response of society to the scarcity of key natural resources. Increasing scarcity raises the cost of exploiting existing natural resources and creates incentives in all economies to innovate and conserve more of these resources. However, economies have also responded to increasing scarcity by obtaining and developing more of these resources. Since the agricultural transition over 12,000 years ago, this exploitation of new 'frontiers' has often proved to be a pivotal human response to natural resource scarcity. This book provides a fascinating account of the contribution that natural resource exploitation has made to economic development in key eras of world history. This not only fills an important gap in the literature on economic history but also shows how we can draw lessons from these past epochs for attaining sustainable economic development in the world today.

Scarcity and Frontiers

Scarcity and Frontiers PDF Author: Edward B. Barbier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139493469
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 767

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout much of history, a critical driving force behind global economic development has been the response of society to the scarcity of key natural resources. Increasing scarcity raises the cost of exploiting existing natural resources and creates incentives in all economies to innovate and conserve more of these resources. However, economies have also responded to increasing scarcity by obtaining and developing more of these resources. Since the agricultural transition over 12,000 years ago, this exploitation of new 'frontiers' has often proved to be a pivotal human response to natural resource scarcity. This book provides a fascinating account of the contribution that natural resource exploitation has made to economic development in key eras of world history. This not only fills an important gap in the literature on economic history but also shows how we can draw lessons from these past epochs for attaining sustainable economic development in the world today.

Industrial Development in a Frontier Economy

Industrial Development in a Frontier Economy PDF Author: Yovanna Pineda
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804759839
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Industrial Development in a Frontier Economy is pioneering microanalysis of 59 Argentinean corporations between 1890 and 1930 that explains Argentina's failure to develop an efficient manufacturing sector, even as countries in similar circumstances successfully modernized.

Commodity Frontiers and Global Capitalist Expansion

Commodity Frontiers and Global Capitalist Expansion PDF Author: Sabrina Joseph
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9783030153212
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This interdisciplinary edited collection explores the dynamics of global capitalist expansion through the concept of the ‘commodity frontier’. Applying an inductive approach rather than starting at the global level, as most meta-narratives have done, this book sheds light on how local dynamics have shaped the process of capitalist expansion into ‘uncommodified’ spaces. Contributors demonstrate that ultimately the evolution of frontier zones and their reconfiguration over time have transformed human ecology, labour relations and social, economic and political structures across the globe. Chapters examine agricultural and pastoral frontiers, natural habitats, and commodity frontiers with fossil fuels and mineral resources located in various regions of the world, including South America, Asia, Africa and the Arabian Gulf.

New Developments in Productivity Analysis

New Developments in Productivity Analysis PDF Author: Charles R. Hulten
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226360644
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
The productivity slowdown of the 1970s and 1980s and the resumption of productivity growth in the 1990s have provoked controversy among policymakers and researchers. Economists have been forced to reexamine fundamental questions of measurement technique. Some researchers argue that econometric approaches to productivity measurement usefully address shortcomings of the dominant index number techniques while others maintain that current productivity statistics underreport damage to the environment. In this book, the contributors propose innovative approaches to these issues. The result is a state-of-the-art exposition of contemporary productivity analysis. Charles R. Hulten is professor of economics at the University of Maryland. He has been a senior research associate at the Urban Institute and is chair of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Michael Harper is chief of the Division of Productivity Research at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Edwin R. Dean, formerly associate commissioner for Productivity and Technology at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is adjunct professor of economics at The George Washington University.

Frontier Making in the Amazon

Frontier Making in the Amazon PDF Author: Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030385248
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This book discusses the outcomes of more than ten years of research in the southern tracts of the Amazon region, and addresses the expansion of the agricultural frontier, consolidation of the agribusiness-based economy, and expansion of regional infrastructure (roads, dams, urban centres, etc). It combines extensive empirical evidence with the international literature on frontier-making and regional Amazonian development, and adopts a critical politico-geographical perspective that will benefit scholars in various other disciplines. This book is intended to push the current theoretical and methodological boundaries regarding the controversies and impacts of agribusiness in the region. A new international scientific network, led by the author, is investigating the broader context of the themes analysed here.

The Changing Frontier

The Changing Frontier PDF Author: Adam B. Jaffe
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022628672X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
In 1945, Vannevar Bush, founder of Raytheon and one-time engineering dean at MIT, delivered a report to the president of the United States that argued for the importance of public support for science, and the importance of science for the future of the nation. The report, Science: The Endless Frontier, set America on a path toward strong and well-funded institutions of science, creating an intellectual architecture that still defines scientific endeavor today. In The Changing Frontier, Adam B. Jaffe and Benjamin Jones bring together a group of prominent scholars to consider the changes in science and innovation in the ensuing decades. The contributors take on such topics as changes in the organization of scientific research, the geography of innovation, modes of entrepreneurship, and the structure of research institutions and linkages between science and innovation. An important analysis of where science stands today, The Changing Frontier will be invaluable to practitioners and policy makers alike.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

The Significance of the Frontier in American History PDF Author: Frederick Jackson Turner
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 014196331X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
This hugely influential work marked a turning point in US history and culture, arguing that the nation’s expansion into the Great West was directly linked to its unique spirit: a rugged individualism forged at the juncture between civilization and wilderness, which – for better or worse – lies at the heart of American identity today. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

High-Growth Firms

High-Growth Firms PDF Author: Arti Grover Goswami
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464813701
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Remarkably, a small fraction of firms account for most of the job and output creation in high-income and developing countries alike. Does this imply that the path to enabling more economic dynamism lies in selectively targeting high-potential firms? Or would pursuing broad-based reforms that minimize distortions be more effective? Inspired by these questions, this book presents new evidence on the incidence, characteristics, and drivers of high-growth firms based on in-depth studies of firm dynamics in Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, and Turkey. Its findings reveal that high-growth firms are not only powerful engines of job and output growth but also create positive spillovers for other businesses along the value chain. At the same time, the book debunks several myths about policies to support firm dynamism that focus on outward characteristics, such as firm size, sector, location, or past performance. Its findings show that most firms struggle to sustain rapid rates of expansion and that the relationship between high growth and productivity is often weak. Consequently, the book calls for a shift toward policies that improve the quality of firm growth by supporting innovation, managerial skills, and firms’ ability to leverage global linkages and agglomeration. To help policy makers structure policies that support firm growth, the book proposes a new ABC framework of growth entrepreneurship: improving Allocative efficiency, encouraging Business-to-business spillovers, and strengthening firm Capabilities. This book is the third volume of the World Bank Productivity Project, which seeks to bring frontier thinking on the measurement and determinants of productivity to global policy makers. 'Policy makers often get carried away by the disproportionate contributions of high-growth firms to job and output growth and commit to pursuing policies targeting the potential ‘stars.’ This book separates fact from fiction underpinning such interventions through a comprehensive analysis of high-growth firms across a range of developing countries, making a compelling argument that public policy to pick prospective winners is neither possible nor desirable. Policy makers would be wise to consult its arguments and policy advice when designing the next generation of policies to support the growth of firms.' William R. Kerr Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University; author of The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy and Society 'How to ignite and sustain high firm growth has eluded both economic analysis and thought leaders in policy and business. Through its meticulous and thoughtful analysis, this important new book provides a tractable framework to guide policy to harness the growth and productivity potential of firms in the developing-country context.' David Audretsch Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University .

Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa

Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa PDF Author: Dorte Verner
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464817677
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Interestingly, some relief from today's woes may come from ancient human practices. While current agri-food production models rely on abundant supplies of water, energy, and arable land and generate significant greenhouse gas emissions in addition to forest and biodiversity loss, past practices point toward more affordable and sustainable paths. Different forms of insect farming and soilless crop farming, or hydroponics, have existed for centuries. In this report the authors make a persuasive case that frontier agriculture, particularly insect and hydroponic farming, can complement conventional agriculture. Both technologies reuse society's agricultural and organic industrial waste to produce nutritious food and animal feed without continuing to deplete the planet's land and water resources, thereby converting the world's wasteful linear food economy into a sustainable, circular food economy. As the report shows, insect and hydroponic farming can create jobs, diversify livelihoods, improve nutrition, and provide many other benefits in African and fragile, conflict-affected countries. Together with other investments in climate-smart agriculture, such as trees on farms, alternate wetting and drying rice systems, conservation agriculture, and sustainable livestock, these technologies are part of a promising menu of solutions that can help countries move their land, food, water, and agriculture systems toward greater sustainability and reduced emissions. This is a key consideration as the World Bank renews its commitment to support countries' climate action plans. This book is the Bank's first attempt to look at insect and hydroponic farming as possible solutions to the world's climate and food and nutrition security crisis and may represent a new chapter in the Bank's evolving efforts to help feed and sustain the planet.

Frontiers in Economics

Frontiers in Economics PDF Author: Klaus F. Zimmermann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783540432548
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
Economic Theory, academic policy analysis and public policy design are becoming more interdependent. Hence, the demands for close interactions between the policy community and the research community have been rising significantly. This book assesses how recent economic thinking has advanced under these influences. Furthermore, it evaluates the important contribution economics can add to the design and evaluation of public policy, now more than ever before. The study is of interest to policy makers, policy analysts, researchers and students of economics at all levels. The authors, which include many of Germany's most eminent economists, draw on their wide experience in research and consultancy to present a coherent view of where European economic theory stands today and how it can play a role in the management of the economy of the new millennium.