Free to succeed . . . Whether in troubled economic times or during years of prosperity,there is a proven way for companies to boost productivity, profits,and growth. Remarkably, it costs nothing––whether cost is measuredin terms of monetary resources or time– –and is simply based on thebelief that, if only people can be free to act in the bestinterests of their company, the results will be tremendous.Freedom, Inc. presents the evidence that this is not thePollyannaish wish of a few dreamers, but a reality built bybottom-line-focused leaders. . . . The culture of freedom works–and Freedom, Inc. reveals thesecrets of a successful business paradigm based on a trusting,nonhierarchical, liberated environment. The visionary leaders profiled here performed near-miracles indriving their companies to unheard-of levels of success, often fromunlikely or disheartening beginnings. Businesses as diverse asinsurance company USAA, winemaker Sea Smoke Cellars, Gore Associates,

This book describes the statistical mechanics of classicalspin systems with quenched disorder. The first part of the bookcovers the physics of spin-glass states using results obtainedwithin the framework of the mean field theory of spin glasses. Thetechnique of replica symmetry breaking is explained in detail,along with a discussion of the underlying physics. The second partis devoted to the theory of critical phenomena in the presence ofweak quenched disorder. This includes a systematic derivation ofthe traditional renormalization group theory, which is then used toobtain a new 'random' critical regime in disordered vectorferromagnets and in the two-dimensional Ising model. The third partof the book describes other types of disordered systems, relatingto new results at the frontiers of modern research. The book issuitable for graduate students and researchers in the field ofstatistical mechanics of disordered systems.

Presenting a thorough analysis of the Dutch participation inthe transatlantic slave trade, this book is based upon extensiveresearch in Dutch archives. The book examines the whole range ofDutch involvement in the Atlantic slave trade from the beginning ofthe 1600s to the nineteenth century.

本书是中国科学院“丝路环境”研究专项的重要成果，是本系统且深入研究“一带一路”建设案例的著作，由数十位中外学者共同执笔完成。基于包容性优选化理论视角和大量海外实地调研，本书首先总结了“一带一路”建设的

This 1992 book examines alternative methods for achievingoptimality without all the apparatus of economic planning (such asinformation retrieval, computation of solutions, and separateimplementation systems), or a vain reliance on sufficiently'perfect' competition. All rely entirely on the self-interest ofeconomic agents and voluntary contract. The author considersmethods involving feedback iterative controls which require theprior selection of a 'criterion function', but no prior calculationof optimal quantities. The target is adjusted as the results foreach step become data for the criterion function. Implementation isbuilt in by the incentive structure, and all controls rely onconsistency with the self-interest of individuals. Theapplicability of all the methods is shown to be independent of theform of ownership of enterprises: examples are given for industrieswhich are wholly privately owned, wholly nationalized, mixed andlabour-managed.

This 2006 textbook discusses the fundamentals and applicationsof statistical thermodynamics for beginning graduate students inthe physical and engineering sciences. Building on the prototypicalMaxwell–Boltzmann method and maintaining a step-by-step developmentof the subject, this book assumes the reader has no previousexposure to statistics, quantum mechanics or spectroscopy. The bookbegins with the essentials of statistical thermodynamics, pauses torecover needed knowledge from quantum mechanics and spectroscopy,and then moves on to applications involving ideal gases, the solidstate and radiation. A full introduction to kinetic theory isprovided, including its applications to transport phenomena andchemical kinetics. A highlight of the textbook is its discussion ofmodern applications, such as laser-based diagnostics. The bookconcludes with a thorough presentation of the ensemble method,featuring its use for real gases. Numerous examples and promptedhomework problems enrich the text.

A collection of Peter Ferdinand Drucker's legendary essays onbusiness, management, economics and society, written between 1972and 1980. They reflect an international viewpoint and are concernedwith what Drucker called "social ecology" and especiallyinstitutions - governments, organized science, business orschools. This hardcover release is being published as part of the HarvardBusiness Press Drucker Library.

In the classroom, ABC looks like a great way to manage acompany’s resources. But many executives who have tried toimplement ABC on a large scale in their organizations have foundthe approach limiting and frustrating. Why? The employee surveysthat companies used to estimate resources required for businessactivities proved too time-consuming, expensive, and irritating toemployees. This book shows you how to implement time-driven activity-basedcosting (TDABC), an easier and more powerful way to implement ABC.You can now estimate directly the resource demands imposed by eachbusiness transaction, product, or customer. The payoff? You spendless time and money obtaining and maintaining TDABC data—and moretime addressing problems that TDABC reveals, such as inefficientprocesses, unprofitable products and customers, and excesscapacity. The authors also show how to use TDABC to link strategicplanning to operational budgeting, to enhance the due diligenceprocess for mergers and acquisitions, and to supp

Of the many different ways in which economists have tried toanalyse public expenditure, the most relevant to Indian economicdevelopment is that which links the level of public expenditurewith the rate at which the state can accumulate capital. Theabstract theory of this link, however, must be complemented by ahistorical account of the degree to which a state accumulationpolicy was understood by Indian policy makers, and of the other(often inconsistent) elements in the economic strategy of Indiannationalism. After attempting to provide accounts both of theabstract theory and of the institutional and policy context withinwhich it was applied, this book analyses original empirical data onpublic expenditure in India between 1960 and 1970. The real growthrate of public expenditure, its functional and economic compositionat the all-India level are presented, and the strong contrastbetween the patterns of the first and last five year periods iselucidated. The effect of the 1965-67 droughts and bad harvests in

This study introduces 'time-specific' analysis of economicprocesses. Economic processes are conventionally analysed from onepoint in time to another over a series of time units - days, weeks,or years. By contrast, these time-specific models focus on thetemporal character of events within the unit time - their timing,duration, and sequence - utilizing the information that is lost inthe macroscopic time perspective of standard economic theory. Whattime-specific analysis reveals are economic and technologicalcharacteristics of goods and services - prices and cost behaviourand temporal mobility or immobility within the unit time - thataffect capital productivity and its utilization, optimal schedulesof production, work, and consumption, least-cost methods ofproducing time-shaped outputs, and efficient welfare-maximizingbehavior in time-specific, including peak-load, markets.

This unique text uses Microsoft Excel workbooks toinstruct students. In addition to explaining fundamental conceptsin microeconomic theory, readers acquire a great deal ofsophisticated Excel skills and gain the practical mathematicsneeded to succeed in advanced courses. In addition to theinnovative pedagogical approach, the book features explicitlyrepeated use of a single central methodology, the economicapproach. Students learn how economists think and how to think likean economist. With concrete, numerical examples and novel, engagingapplications, interest for readers remains high as live graphs anddata respond to manipulation by the user. Finally, clear writingand active learning are features sure to appeal to modernpractitioners and their students. The website accompanying the textis found at www.depauw.edu/learn/microexcel .

Of the twenty most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001. Is this an omen of what the 21st century will be? How might we behave in this new, uncertain and more dangerous environment? Will our actions be rational or irrational? A select group of scholars, innovators, and Nobel Laureates was asked to address challenges to rational decision making both in our day-to-day life and in the face of catastrophic threats such as climate changes, natural disasters, technological hazards, and human malevolence. At the crossroads of decision sciences, behavioral and neuro-economics, psychology, management, insurance, and finance, their contributions aim to introduce readers to the latest thinking and discoveries. The Irrational Economist challenges the conventional wisdom about how to make the right decisions in the new era we have entered. It reveals a profound revolution in thinking as understood by some of the greatest minds in our day, and underscores the growing role and

This book explains how changing technology and economizingbehaviour induce vast changes in productivity, resource allocation,labour utilization, and patterns of living. Economic growth is seenas a process by which businesses, regimes, countries, and the wholeworld pass through distinct epochs, each one emerging from itspredecessor, each one creating the conditions for its successor.Viewed from a long-run perspective, growth must be characterized asan explosive process, marked by turbulent transitions in social andpolitical life as societies adapt to new opportunities, the demiseof old ways of living, and to the vast increase and redistributionof human populations. The book is based on a synthesis of classicaleconomics and contemporary concepts of adaptation and economicevolution. Although it is based on analytical methods, the text hasbeen stripped of all equations and with few exceptions is devoid oftechnical jargon.

In an important contribution to educational policy, DanieleChecchi offers an economic perspective on the demand and supply ofeducation. He explores the reasons why, beyond a certain point,investment in education has not resulted in reductions in socialinequalities. Starting with the seminal work of Gary Becker,Checchi provides an extensive survey of the literature on humancapital and social capital formation. He draws on individual dataon intergenerational transmission of income and education for theUSA, Germany and Italy, as well as aggregate data on income andeducational inequality for a much wider range of countries. Checchiexplores whether resources spent in education are effective inraising students' achievement, as well as analysing alternativeways of financing education. The Economics of Education thusprovides the analytical tools necessary to understand the complexrelationships between current income inequality, access toeducation and future inequality.

This study examines the influence of commercial interests onthe expansion of the British Empire in Western India in the age ofCornwallis and Wellesley. It questions some of the assumptionswhich have been accepted as explanations of British imperialism inthat part of India. The chief of these is that the reform of theEast India Company's administration in the 1780s brought the policyof the Bombay presidency under the firm control of thegovernor-general in Bengal and of the Court of Directors and theBoard of Control in London.

This book, based largely on the Cambridge World History ofFood, provides a look at the globalization of food from the days ofthe hunter-gatherers to present-day genetically modified plants andanimals. The establishment of agriculture and the domestication ofanimals in Eurasia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas are alltreated in some detail along with the subsequent diffusion offarming cultures through the activities of monks, missionaries,migrants, imperialists, explorers, traders, and raiders. Muchattention is given to the 'Columbian Exchange' of plants andanimals that brought revolutionary demographic change to everycorner of the planet and led ultimately to the European occupationof Australia and New Zealand as well as the rest of Oceania. Finalchapters deal with the impact of industrialization on foodproduction, processing, and distribution, and modern-dayfood-related problems ranging from famine to obesity to geneticallymodified food to fast food.

Sixty-three stellar academics, consultants, and practitioners look at the future of human resources The follow-up to the bestselling Tomorrow's HR Management (978-0-471-19714-0), this book presents an international panel of expert contributors who offer their views on the state of HR and what to expect in the future. Topics covered include HR as a decision science, understanding and managing people, creating and adapting organizational culture, the effects of globalization, collaborative ventures, and investing in the next generation. Like its bestselling predecessor before it, The Future of Human Resource Management offers the very best thinking on the future of HR from the most respected leaders in the field.

The economic background to the dismemberment of Czechoslovakiaat Munich in 1938 has not received the attention it deserves. Thisbook helps to redress this imbalance by analysing in depth the webof foreign interests – direct foreign investment, foreign long-termloans and the activities of international cartels in Czechoslovakiain the interwar period. After the First World War Central andSoutheast Europe became one of the major regions of the world towhich capital from France, Great Britain and the United States wasexported. Czechoslovakia played a central part in this development:foreign capital sought to invest in Czechoslovak industrialenterprises and banks, to make loans to the state, publicinstitutions and private economic organizations and to influenceproduction, prices and the market through cartel agreements. DrTeichova discusses in detail the influence of foreign capital andbusiness organizations in mining, the metallurgical industries,engineering, electrical industries, chemical industries and bank

If all measures of human advancement in the last hundredcenturies were plotted on a graph, they would show an almostperfectly flat line—until the eighteenth century, when theIndustrial Revolution would cause the line to shoot straight up,beginning an almost uninterrupted march of progress. In The Most Powerful Idea in the World , William Rosen tellsthe story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution andthe machine that drove it—the steam engine. In the process hetackles the question that has obsessed historians ever since: Whatmade eighteenth-century Britain such fertile soil for inventors?Rosen’s answer focuses on a simple notion that had become enshrinedin British law the century before: that people had the right to ownand profit from their ideas. The result was a period of frantic innovation revolvingparticularly around the promise of steam power. Rosen traces thesteam engine’s history from its early days as a clumsy but sturdymachine, to its coming-of-age driving the wheels of

A collection of Peter Ferdinand Drucker's legendary essays onbusiness, management, economics and society, written between 1972and 1980. They reflect an international viewpoint and are concernedwith what Drucker called "social ecology" and especiallyinstitutions - governments, organized science, business or schools.This hardcover release is being published as part of the HarvardBusiness Press Drucker Library.

For over 20 years Hal Varian's "Intermediate Microeconomics" has given students the most current and complete coverage of intermediate microeconomics at an appropriate mathematical level. The Eighth Edition includes contemporary case studies and

This book expands our understanding of the distinctive policyanalysis produced between 1919 and 1950 by economists and othersocial scientists for four major international organizations: theLeague of Nations, the International Labor Organization, the Bankfor International Settlements, and the United Nations. Thesepractitioners included some of the twentieth century's eminenteconomists, including Cassel, Haberler, Kalecki, Meade,Morgenstern, Nurkse, Ohlin, Tinbergen, and Viner. Irving Fisher andJohn Maynard Keynes also influenced the work of theseorganizations. Topics covered include: the relationship betweeneconomics and policy analysis in international organizations;business cycle research; the role and conduct of monetary policy;public investment; trade policy; social and labor economics;international finance; the coordination problem in internationalmacroeconomic policy; full employment economics; and therich-country-poor-country debate. Normative agendas underlyinginternational political economy are