History

This book places the development of Italian railways in a European context, solidly linking railway history with the principal themes of European economic history. It addresses the question of state or private ownership of public utilities in a comparative way, and thereby also provides powerful insights into the actual state of this debate. The construction of Italian railways, for instance, is compared with Germany's and some remarkable differences and similarities are detected.
It is shown that from the 1840s, when the first lines were built in Italy, until nationalization in 1905, the Italian state continuously interfered in railway matters, without ever being capable of creating viable conditions for the railway companies. The effects of the successive changes in railway legislation on the transport sector is assessed. Due to this incapacity of the Italian state to come to grips with `the railway question', it continued to have a pernicious and divisive influence on Italian political life.
The railways' impact upon economic growth and development was limited, due principally to the low quality of railway regulation. The railways' contribution to the creation of a national market and the economic unification of the country could not be but meagre. Nevertheless, the investments in railways were massive. In the author's view these funds sunk into an over-expanded railway infrastucture, impaired other investments which would have contributed more directly to Italian development, making the opportunity costs of having railways too large.
Italian social and economic statistics were studied for all regions before and after political unification in 1860 in order to obtain a deeper insight in the continuing disparity between Northern and Southern Italy, which is the long term riddle of Italian economic development. It is shown that the railways contributed only little to the economic unification of Italy and the positive effects were mostly felt in the twentieth century.
Reviews of the book were published in several historical journals.

"In general, in developing countries, unfortunately, markets do not perform well. Hernando
de Soto (2003) has pointed out the "hard" conditions such as the absence of property rights
and the high cost of obtaining operating permits. Amartya Sen (1999) citing Adam Smith’s
Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) has emphasized the "soft" conditions connected to
behavioural and institutional obstacles, in particular the role of trust for a functioning
market economy. Sen conceptualizes trust as one of the principal conditions for a
functioning market economy,
First, we analyzed the concept of trust in Adam Smith’s writings. He places trust as a central
element in all human interactions, including production, consumption and trade. In his view,
the enforcement of contracts by the state causes trust levels to rise, markets to function,
and trustworthy behaviour to increase. Conversely, trust is also a necessary condition for
successful functioning of markets. We know from recent advances in complexity economics,
that positive feedback loops can have quite substantial effects in complex systems
(Beinhocker 2006), and therefore the positive feedback of trusting and trustworthy
behaviour could be quite substantial. It seems Smith had an intuitive and quite sophisticated
understanding of this.
Regarding the role of trust in a market economy the direction of the causality is hard to
determine. Do functioning markets develop trust, or does higher trust level cause stronger
development of market institutions?
In order to investigate this, we carried out a classical trust experiment (Berg, Dickhaut and
McCabe 1995)in Costa Rica, comparing trust level and experienced market operators and
inexperienced operators, i.e. economics undergraduates (Alpízar 2004). Indeed, relatively
low trust levels were found among the students, but experience market operators exhibited
high trust levels. There are implications for educational policy in business education. A
possible extension of this work is to measure trust levels among inexperienced market
operators in developing and developed economies before and after market training.
Next, we undertook an analysis of a series of trust experiments in developing countries.
From this literature evidence emerges functioning markets create trust, and not the other
way around. We would recommend therefore that policy focus primarily on creating the
appropriate "hard" conditions for market functioning, rather than attempting to influence
trust levels in “soft” ways, by promoting dialogue of business codes of good behaviour.
Results from economic experiments therefore show that Amartya Sen, but not Adam Smith
seem to have confused too narrowly on trust as a condition, and fails to contemplate the
effects of trusting and trustworthy behaviour on the functioning of markets.
2
References
Alpízar, F., Till Requate and Albert Schram (2004). "Collective versus Random Fining: An Experimental
Study on Controlling Non-Point Pollution." Environmental and Resource Economics 29(2):
231-52.
Beinhocker, E. D. (2006). The Origin of Wealth. Evolution, Complexity and the Radical Remaking of
Economics. London, Random House.
Berg, J., J. Dickhaut, et al. (1995). "Trust, Reciprocity, and Social History." Games and Economic
Behavior 10: 122-42.
De Soto, H. (2003). The Mystery of Capital Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails
Everywhere Else. New York, Basic Books.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York, Oxford University Press.
Smith, A. (1759). The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London, A. Millar."

We are seriously concerned with global climate change, the higher frequency of extreme weather conditions, the rise of sea level, the acidification of the oceans, the salinisation of sweet water in small islands, the dramatic reduction in biodiversity, and ubiquitous pollution. But we are optimist that mitigation is still possible if the world reacts with extreme energy and cohesion.

Economics as a science has been reducing the issue of climate change to prices and quantities, interest rate and utility functions, converting health and security issues in tradable commodities. Neoclassical economics with all its empirical and logical flaws risks to provide unsufficient advice to goverments and firms, while neglecting technological and fairness issues.

At the same time, economic aspects of any mitigation strategy will be crucial for its success. So we have solicited economists to devise, develop and articulate innovative economic policies and measures to be integrated in effective and fair climate change mitigation efforts at every geographical and industry level.

Scholars from such a wide range of countries as Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, France, Kenya, Hungary, India, Italy, Iran, Mauritius, The Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, United Kingdom have accepted this challenge, providing a unique international and multi-polar perspective.

New insights from evolutionary economics, environmental economics, sociology, law, marketing and managerial disciplines have been linked with the experience on the terrain of real policy-making in ministries and environmental agencies.

Instead of framing climate change mitigation as a cost, we feel it is a huge opportunity for innovation, profits, business growth, employment, wages and improvement of real quality of life.

The book is going to be submitted to national and international authorities before the Copenhagen summit, where the new Treaty will be signed and whose recomendations could be implemented in the following months and years.

Influencing the debate, the outcome and the implementation of decisions is the practical goal of this initiative, while helping the consolidation of a new attention in those strand of economics for real policymaking.

Themes

Main themes of the symposium are climate change mitigation policies aimed at the transition towards a low-carbon economy in terms, mainly but not excusively, of:

Industrial structure and techno-economic paradigms
Firm behaviour
Consumers/Households purchases and behaviour
Government negotiation, legislation and activities

In terms of domains of application, we are focusing on policies for international agreements, national strategies (both in developed and developing countries), regional intervention (e.g. in heavy polluting regions), city planning.

"A theoretical framework for environmental management is offered that takes into account energy and resource efficiency, human resources management, and stakeholder relations in the context of CSR. A survey was held among a 55 Green Globe certified hotels in Mexico and the Caribbean. The program is evaluated positively, and perceived by all respondents as having a good return to investment. As a recommendation, the program could try to publicize the best practices among its members, since we see that not all hotels manage to take advantage of all the full set of opportunities an EMS can offer.
"

This policy review assesses the results of four research projects on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which were financed under the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) for Research and Technological Development. Financed within the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH) programme, the four projects – CSR PLATFORM, ESTER, RARE and RESPONSE – are assessed, taking into account current policy developments, with the goal of identifying possible gaps in public policy, lessons learnt for policy makers, and pointing out under-researched or emerging
research themes.

At the core of CSR is that a company is a so-called ‘moral agent’ in society, having some degree of responsibility beyond its shareholders to a wider circle of stakeholders. This  premise is now widely accepted. Indeed, the intellectual ‘battle’ on defining CSR has been won, with the term ‘socially and environmentally responsible’ no longer seen as going against a company’s competitiveness.

Nevertheless, by defining CSR as ‘beyond compliance’ and ‘voluntary’, the European Commission has created an environment where there is limited scope for binding regulation and enforcement. Although the European Parliament has repeatedly promoted harmonisation and application of CSR reporting standards, for example, the European Commission has shied away from this type of ‘regulated CSR’, preferring a ‘stimulated CSR’ approach that is explained in greater detail throughout this policy review.

The ESTER project assumes that far-reaching regulation is required, while the RESPONSE project seems averse to creating any restrictions for businesses. The RARE project seems to favour a middle way, broadly in line with a stimulated CSR approach, while the CSR PLATFORM project was mainly concerned with stimulating and moderating a dialogue between academia, business and policy
makers, including discussions on the future CSR research agenda.

In general, the projects’ main contributions are at a conceptual level. Today, we can observe that the field of interdisciplinary CSR research has started to achieve a level of maturity, in which more rigourous empirical research – namely information gathered by means of observation, experience, or experiment – promises to bear fruit. The projects also draw attention to the importance of international CSR standards and instruments, which respond to the needs of global companies.

Given the wide scope and dynamics of the field, researchers recommend that the setting-up of a CSR observatory for Europe may be useful.

This body of research can now be complemented by more focussed management research related to business processes on the following themes:
• mainstreaming CSR in firms’ strategic processes, including SMEs,
• the linkage between CSR and innovation,
• performance and impact indicators, and
• global supply chain management.

Research on the internal strategic processes and mainstreaming CSR in business processes, as well as research on the wider societal outcomes of CSR programmes, both require more research effort in the coming years. In addition, in the face of continuing globalisation, a more profound analysis of the implications of global supply chains on CSR, and the factors limiting uptake of CSR in developing countries and new EU Member States deserve more attention in European research.

Without similar, interdisciplinary management research, it will not be possible to identify and disseminate best practices in CSR and increase the uptake of CSR activities by Small- and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs) and in new Member States. The explicit inclusion of a section on policy developments and a vision for the future in all research projects would greatly enhance their policy relevance.

University success and access to higher education are intrinsically linked. A financially successful university will be able to guarantee equity of access to those with talent, by providing scholarships. In this paper we will mainly focus on Universities financial success and how to attain it. I will point out the opportunities that exist in large grants programmes such as the EU's Seventh Framework and the Life-Long Learning programmes. I will also stress the importance of entrepreneurial universities for generating revenue. In addition, producing graduates with entrepreneurial skills helps avoiding brain drain, since the national job markets can not always be expected to absorb all graduates. I will also emphasize the importance on implementing a strategic management, which is essential to assure that new activities contribute to the desired development of the University. General  key performance indicators for each of the 3 missions of the university will be proposed within a framework of a Balanced Score Card strategic management system.

Despite their resource constraints, SMEs may be uniquely positioned to capture some of the benefits of CSR, which would more than justify the costs in producing positive social and environmental externalities.  Due to their strong ties with providers and the local community, CSR may be better able to define and select which activities directed towards alleviating social issues – such as poverty or social exclusion – and integrate it with their business strategy. 

For companies seeing CSR as an opportunity to innovate and hence enhance efficiency, extend markets and increase sales is the key to success.

Strategic integration assures maximum social benefits as well as maximum private benefits for the company are achieved. SMEs should therefore produce explicit business strategies. Strategic alignment problems between managers and other stakeholders also will tend to be smaller than in large companies, since the distance between the managers and stakeholders tend to be smaller. Given the SMEs difficulty in finding the right personnel for the right price, enhancing their reputation in the community, may make it easier to attract personnel and retain them. Possibly, the largest benefits of community involvement may be in lowering the cost of personnel recruitment, the ease of retaining highly productive personnel, and the lowering of training costs. With the new generation Y, or milenials coming to the labour market, CSR programs can provide “meaning” to work, which is what these generations look for (Heskett 2010).

Subsidies can help to off-set some of the initial investment costs. The responsibility for policy makers is to create an enabling environment for CSR in SMEs. Interest in CSR can be increased among SMEs by sharing information and cases of success. Transaction cost for training can be made lower by clustering SMEs in groups.

In all, SMEs should learn to think of CSR in terms of a strategic opportunity instead of something better left to Multi-National Cooperations, who as some cases have shown in the last years are frequently struggling with their CSR programs.

"The main messages of this presentation are the following First of all, the development of universities in L/MIC is most of all a leadership and management challenge. Technology and globalization seem to have produced an ever increasing rate of change.

Secondly, a support team for project-based research, teaching and service needs to be set up. UNITECH's strategic targets can only be achieved if sufficient resources are secured. These will come from the government of PNG, but additional resources from grants and private organizations will need to be secured. Tax exemptions and increased revenue from larger student numbers will not allow you to fully implement your plans. In order to obtain external resources, first a strategic management system will need to be created.

Thirdly, an entrepreneurship programme and a business incubator will allow students, university staff and external stakeholders to create viable and profitable spin-offs, in which the university will have a share."

• Competitividad–macro: Cuando un país se ha integrado en la economía mundial por su capacidad de producir bienes y servicios de forma innovadora que permitan colocar productos atractivos en el mercado internacional, haciendo un uso eficiente y sostenible de los insumos necesarios. Asimismo, cuando en el país existe un buen clima de negocios y de inversión.(Nota: En el estudio de INCAE Costa Rica logró puesto 43 en el ranking de 59 países)–micro: Cuando una empresa lograr a mantener una rentabilidad mayor del ...