Bøker utgitt av De Gruyter Open

The book provides a comprehensive approach to the assessment of the nature of exporting activity, combining well-established theoretical reasoning with empirical evidence, and also signalling important economic policy recommendations. It is suitable for a wide range of recipients, ranging from scholars and students, to policy-makers or local/regional authorities engaged in the process of designing/implementing regional policies. Regional authorities show more interest in export potential because globalisation makes the regional economies more open and vulnerable to external economic shocks. The international trade channel has become an important factor influencing the region's economic performance, including dynamics and volatility of economic growth as well as labour market performance. Due to economic transition and the accession to the EU, Poland's regions have become more open than ever. For regions of both Poland and Spain (an EU country similar to Poland in terms of size and the number of administrative units), being part of the EU's internal market with a free circulation of goods and capital - exerts competitive pressure, which can be regarded a stress test showing the regional adaptive capacity and competitiveness. Apart from the in-depth review of the regional export activity of Poland and Spain, the book also provides similar insights for Canada and Australia, in terms of their regional export performance and trade policy. About authors: Stanislaw Uminski (PhD), professor at the University of Gdansk, Department of International Economics and Economic Development. Co-founder and vice-president of the Institute of Development. BI consultant, ABSL, Poland. Participant and head of research projects on FDI, foreign trade and regional development, carried on for instance for European Commission, National Bank of Poland, Ministry of Regional Development, National Science Centre. Author and co-author of publications in the fields of FDI, competitiveness, the foreign trade of regions and special economic zones. Jaroslaw M. Nazarczuk (PhD), assistant professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. Participant of research projects concerning: operation of special economic zones, regional export activity, the role of institutions in firms' location decisions, economic development of selected regions, evaluation of regional operational programmes, high-tech clusters, regional marketing, financed from National Science Centre or carried for regional marshals' offices and other public entities. Author and co-author of publications on SEZs, regional export performance, FDI, smart specialisation, location determinants, public aid effectiveness.

Waves of military technological changes have swept through the Eurasian land mass since the dawn of civilization. Military technological changes decisively shaped geopolitics and the fortunes of states, empires and civilizations. In his book Jimmy Teng claims that to understand the impacts of these military technological changes is in fact to understand the causes behind the following major historical puzzles or important facts: the leading position of the Near East during the dawn of civilization; the splendid achievements of Greece, India and China during the axial era; the classical golden age of India under the Gupta Empire; the Abbasid Golden Age of the Islamic world and the Sung Puzzle of China during the medieval era; and the rise of the West during the early modern and modern era.

The monograph disseminates the very topical issue of retirement and its timing as the key to one of the greatest challenges facing ageing societies. Postponing retirement is now almost universally regarded as indispensable in order to relieve European welfare states from the demography-related financial pressures. This seminal study, derived from a statistical analysis of a large-scale survey data, provides a thorough understanding of the micro- and macro-level determinants of retirement timing in contemporary Western Europe. The book is the first monograph to combine the analysis of the retirement attitudes with the analysis of the retirement behaviour within one research. It tackles the question as to whether early retirement can be explained by "e;early exit culture"e;, triangulating life course theory with a social stratification approach. The author used a novel and innovative approach to obtain the results. The methodology includes: tobit models of proscriptive age norms; simulations of the impact of class structure on a country's average retirement age; competing risks models of different work-exit modalities; duration selection models of retirement timing.

Giulia Parola's Environmental Democracy at the Global Level: Rights and Duties for a New Citizenship can be seen as a manifesto that is both traditional and revolutionary at the same time. It calls for the construction of a new civilisation centred on the environment, while drawing on the traditional notions of democratic government. It adopts an approach that is focused on the power of individuals rather than governments, as ways to protect and improve the environment. It proposes that environmental rights and ecological duties are self-evident and inalienable, and should be treated as the cornerstones of a new democracy. Parola's book is a thought provoking and intriguing work that will be of interest to scholars of environmental studies as well as to legal practitioners and non-specialists.Giulia Parola has studied Environmental Law at the University of Torino, at the University of Rene Descartes in Paris, (where she obtained PhD in Public Law) and at the University of Iceland ( LLM in Natural Resources Law and International Environmental Law).In 2011, she was appointed by the University of Laval (Canada, Quebec) as a researcher and a lecturer in Environmental Law.