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This chapter argues that the key Eurozone imbalances are not a failure of nation states. At the heart of the integration process is the convergence criteria – limits on government deficit, debt, interest rate, inflation, etc. While these were intended to eliminate asymmetries across countries, the conception of convergence was too narrow since the euro designers completely ignored the elephant in the room – that countries were on different technological frontiers. I show that this difference is an important determinant of the key macroeconomic imbalances across the Eurozone. It follows that the primary convergence criterion should be limits on non-price competitive gaps across countries. The chapter overturns the simplistic view of price competitiveness and illustrate that the regulating forces of competition originate from productive structures.

This chapter aims to discuss the challenges facing these countries building productive capacity for development. This chapter makes use of data published by international organizations as indicators for measuring the state of development in the Arab region. Several indicators are presented to compare Arab countries with other world regions. The use of data identifies some of the gaps that countries in the Arab region need to close to strengthen capacity building for development and fostering economic growth. The findings from the data presented reveal that the productive structure in most Arab countries remains weak to generate production linkages and provide incentives for investment in nonenergy sectors. The failure of the export-led growth model to diversify output and promote development in energy producing countries has increased the dependence of these countries on global trade. Fluctuations in commodity prices and uncertainty about global demand for energy have influenced the ability of the state to construct strategies for rapid transformation. Except for the energy sector, the productivity of nonoil sectors remains low reflecting inadequate incentives and ineffective entrepreneurial capabilities. The study examines the challenges for building productive capacity in the Arab world. It illustrates the failure of the led-export model and its inability to prompted economic diversification, especially in the Gulf countries. The study contributes to the literature on capacity building in the Arab world so that to encourage researchers and students of development conducting studies concerning the main development challenges facing these countries.

In order to make a thorough inquiry into the criterion of optimal product structure in the micro‐economic system (enterprise), this paper has proposed and demonstrated the benefit‐type linear programming model, and based on it, the concepts of enterprise's product structure, feasible structure and optimal structure have been discussed and the criterion of optimal structure has been revealed. In this paper, the methods of simplex iteration and sensitivity analysis are both used to approach necessarily the adjustment of product structure under the circumstances of varied or invaried environment inside and outside the system, and as a final, it has come to a conclusion that the variation of resource price vector P would not affect the optimal product structure in enterprise, but the variation of resource‐constrained vector b will cause negative effects both on optimal product structure in enterprise and on determination of criterion for optimal structure.

The chapter seeks to reflect on the dynamics of the reconstruction of family farming and peasant agriculture in agrarian reform settlements (“assentamentos”) in Brazil, exploring the limits and potential of government food purchases from family farming, particularly the Food Acquisition Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos – PAA), in the creation of alternative paths of rural development. The work analyzes the different strategies through which farmers and their organizations mobilize public policy instruments and market connections, expanding their room for maneuver and agency capacity. Research was conducted in the Baixo Sul Territory of the state of Bahia, focusing the heterogeneous web of social organizations involved in the implementation of the Food Acquisition Program in this setting.

In the Northern Ireland context, even though the debate about whether Catholics have experienced discrimination has raged for over two decades, there has been little attempt to relate the wide‐ranging and sophisticated USA debate to circumstances within the province. Takes the first steps to redress this shortcoming by outlining the key themes in the USA debate about unequal labour market treatment.

Since the end of the cold war, the arms industry has been experiencing a deep structural transformation. The logical consequence of such short-term and structural evolutions is that companies in the arms industry are looking to access markets beyond national borders. Such transformation becomes a policy concern, since the core regulatory framework has been built on a national basis and there are very limited structural and regulatory means for dealing with an international, or even a transnational, industry in such a sensitive activity as weapons development and production. This chapter wonders whether it is possible to qualify such transformation of the arms industry as an internationalisation process and whether it can be compared to the globalisation of commercial activities. It compares what has happened and continues to happen in the arms industry with the globalisation experienced by commercial industries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between estate transformations produced during the governments of the Citizen Revolution (CR) in Ecuador (2007-2017) and welfare regime transformations.

The CR’s project registers an array of specificities that make it a relevant case study to understand it. Among them, it articulated the transformation of the development model with a comprehensive state reform: emphasized both the modernization of the state and the productive structure, and the creation of the basic pillars of a welfare state. The ambitious project materialized in an ambivalent manner, revealing accomplishments and limitations.

The recovery of resources for the state, the efficient organization of resources, decentralization and deconcentration processes, public administration transformations and policy de-corporatization processes accompanied and even propelled important achievements in the social sphere in terms of decommodification, stratification, commodification and defamiliarization. Ecuador’s starting point, as a small and impoverished country with pubic and communal goods and services dismantled through neoliberal reforms, was quite precarious. But, progress was made. Beyond the identified limitations, its accomplishments must be highlighted because they are novel in comparison to other progressive government experiences, especially in the context of Central Andean countries.

This article vindicates the need to link state transformation processes to welfare regime transformations, as well as the academic literature that informs both fields. The description of what took place in Ecuador in the field of social welfare during the ten years of the CR continues to confirm the theoretical potential of the concept of welfare regime with the necessary translations and appropriations that allow for the analysis of countries in the region. It enables an approach to a more theoretically and methodologically elusive object that is at the same time tremendously potent in analytical terms and in its contributions to social transformations. An object that alludes to areas gravely affected during neoliberal hegemony, linked to public institutionality, state capacity and state autonomy. This is why everything that affects the state and the management of public goods and services must be incorporated into the analysis.

Despite the great technological, economic, and social advances and the significant progress achieved by women from the last century until today, there is still a clear division between men and women in the labor market: more women are working, but their salaries are lower, as are their positions and their possibility of full development is reduced.

The gender problem is global, which forces the business sector, as one of the main agents of the market, to build policies around gender equality and the recognition of women as agents who generate growth and economic and business development. In this sense, business projects that seek to reduce gender gaps also impact the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), because they increase opportunities for equity, freedom, and dignity, for men and women in equal conditions.

What are the challenges and opportunities in gender equity presented by economic analyses in Colombia in a Latin American context?

According to the question, a Latin American economic context of gender gaps is presented, from the perspective of socioeconomic inequality and poverty, sexual division of labor, patriarchal cultural patterns, and concentration of power. Similarly, the effects of the pandemic on women’s employment and income are reviewed. When talking about gender gaps and professional contribution to the economy, it is not only a solution to inequalities, it is analytically undoing this cultural conception to give it a new structure of dominance.

There is a lack of conversation about economics and gender because the analysis is found from a macroeconomic perspective when writing that regardless of who performs care work or domestic work can also question the assumptions of economic science that, by convention, in national accounts, it ignores the value of domestic work and almost always deals with scarcity, selfishness, and competition, and rarely of abundance, altruism, and cooperation.

It must be recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic gave importance to childcare for national economies in general and women’s economic participation in particular, which has stimulated a renewed interest in childcare policy in many countries that have implemented lockdowns, as well as women, who provided most of the unpaid care, not only did they lose income due to demands for care but also they struggled to access needs, with some reporting increased personal insecurity.

The economic crises of the last century reflected recessions that had a greater impact on the employment of men since they are usually employed in sectors where employment tends to be unstable or as the economy is called cyclical employment. However, in the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, given their particular conditions, it is women who are mainly affected.

Challenges and opportunities in terms of gender equity present economic analyses in Colombia in a Latin American context, in this context, it is reviewed: the national survey of time use and its findings; the incorporation of the care economy in the measurement of economic growth and poverty indicators by gender and its effects on improvements in the quality of life of the population and its impact on the economy.

Among the advantages of incorporating the gender perspective in the economic analysis, the following perspectives are analyzed:

• The similarities of the experiences of the gender gap and its effect on the economy suggest that the response of public policies of recovery and preparedness with the corresponding recognition, women absorb the costs of care work, with possible long-term negative effects on health, and well-being.

• A greater stimulus to growth, as women bring new skills to work, productivity, and growth gains from greater female participation in the labor force. And, greater productivity and reducing gender barriers.

The similarities of the experiences of the gender gap and its effect on the economy suggest that the response of public policies of recovery and preparedness with the corresponding recognition, women absorb the costs of care work, with possible long-term negative effects on health, and well-being.

A greater stimulus to growth, as women bring new skills to work, productivity, and growth gains from greater female participation in the labor force. And, greater productivity and reducing gender barriers.

The goal of this paper is to analyze the views of Frank Knight and Ludwig von Mises on the topic of uncertainty and how it influences the theory of individual decision-making and to trace out the implications of the same for the theories of entrepreneurship, equilibrium, and the firm. The paper adopts a historical approach in its analysis of the theory of uncertainty, with an extended discussion of the primary writings of Knight and Mises on this topic. It then uses the insights gleaned from this discussion in order to address issues and topics that have found a prominent place in the modern literature on entrepreneurship, equilibrium, and the firm that draws its inspiration from the Austrian School. The paper offers three main findings: in the realm of entrepreneurship it argues that there can be no theory of the entrepreneur without the concept of uncertainty provided by Knight and Mises, whereas with regard to the theory of equilibrium it focuses on highlighting the concept of an equilibrium with error prevalent in the Austrian tradition and on the implications that an explicit introduction of uncertainty has for the existence of a process of equilibration that pushes the economy toward a state of general equilibrium in real time. As regards the theory of the firm we find that a proper understanding of uncertainty ultimately reverses the direction of any causal explanation of economic organization, making the firm an outcome of dealing with uncertainty rather than a means to do so.

This chapter examines the historical relationship between Honduran Lenca worldview and how ecological resources are managed through ritual practice. The way in which the Lenca conceive of the biophysical environment is an active process of meaning-making that takes place through their interaction with the environment. The Lenca codify this relationship in the compostura, a complex set of ceremonial performances linked to economic practices that mediate human needs and desires with those of the ancestors who animate the landscapes surrounding households and communities. Through an examination of contemporary, historical, and archeological cases in western Honduras, this chapter explores how ritual economy shapes, and is shaped by, environmental worldview.