Alberto Quadrio Curzio Libri

This volume presents the proceedings from the international conference "Complexity and Industrial Clusters: Dynamics and Models in Theory and Practice," organized by Fondazione Comunita e Innovazione in Milan on June 19-20, 2001, under the auspices of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, one of the world's oldest scientific academies. The Fondazione promotes research and knowledge dissemination on social, economic, cultural, and civil issues, focusing on local production systems and industrial districts. Key areas of interest include the interactions between large companies and SMEs, the impact of industrial districts on community development and welfare, and the effects of globalization on local production systems. Established in Milan in 1999, the Fondazione supports studies, publications, and events, collaborating with corporations, research institutes, foundations, associations, and universities. It also provides scientific sponsorship for research aligned with its mission. The founding member is Edison, with other historical members including Ausimont, Tecnimont, Eridania, Accenture, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The enlargement of the European Union towards the East from May 2004 has generated an increase of about 100 million inhabitants in the EU population, and has especially brought along major challenges and important opportunities both for the „new“ countries and for the „old“ member states. That is the main focus of this volume, which is divided into three sections. The first analyses the effects of the enlargement on the functioning of Community institutions, on the relations with the other Eastern European countries, and finally on regional and global economic dynamics; the second section analyses in detail the role of the monetary politics of the European Central Bank and the activities of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; and the third deals with the importance of the entrepreneurial class in ensuring the success of the transition process of the Eastern European economies.

Implications of the scientific and technological challenge for the new Europe Explaining methods to measure research and technological innovation as well as EU policies and strategies for R and D Includes supplementary material: sn. pub/extras

Rent, resources, and technologies are three crucial issues to the understanding of history and economics. The scarcity of resources, its interplay with technology, and the role of rent in explaining both economic growth and income distribution are investigated by adopting a multi-sectoral and non-proportional model, where scarce resources impose several scale constraints that may slow growth, but may contribute to further development of new technologies. In this dynamic framework the category of rent acquires new dimensions with far-reaching implications for both the system of prices and the distribution of income. The analytical and formal-theoretical perspective of this book could be used as a basis for future historical and quantitative studies.