What are the most fundamental differences among the political economies of the developed world? How do national institutional differences condition economic performance, public policy, and social well-being? Will they survive the pressures for convergence generated by globalization and technological change? These have long been central questions in comparative political economy. This book provides a coherent set of answers to them. Building on the new economics of organization, the authors develop an important theory about which differences among national political economies are most significant for economic policy and performance. Drawing on a distinction between "liberal" and "co-ordinated" market economies, they argue that there is more than one path to economic success. Nations need not converge to a single Anglo-American model. They develop a theory of "comparative institutional advantage" that transforms our understanding of international trade, offers explanations for the response of firms and nations to the challenges of globalization, and provides a theory of national interest to explain the conduct of nations in international relations.
Peter A. Hall and David Soskice: An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism; Part I: General Themes and Diverse Applications; Kathleen Thelen: Varieties of Labor Politics in the Developed Democracies; Robert J. Franzese, Jr.: Institutional and Sectoral Interactions in Monetary Policy and Wage-Price Bargaining; Margarita Estevez-Abe, Torben Iversen, and David Soskice: Social Protection and the Formation of Skills: A Reinterpretation of the Welfare State; Isabela Mares: Firms and the Welfare
State: When, Why, and How Does Social Policy Matter to Employers?; Orfeo Fioretos: The Domestic Sources of Multilateral Preferences: Varieties of Capitalism in the European Community; Part II: Case-Studies in Public Policy, Continuity, and Change; Stewart Wood: Business, Government, and Labour Market Policy in Britain and Germany; Pepper D. Culpepper: Employers, Public Policy, and the Politics of Decentralized Cooperation in Germany and France; Bob Hancke: Revisiting the French Model:
Coordination and Restructuring in French Industry; Part III: Corporate Governance, Firm Strategy, and the Law; Sigurt Vitols: Varieties of Corporate Governance: Comparing Germany and the UK; Mark Lehrer: Macro-Varieties of Capitalism and Micro-Varieties of Strategic Management in European Airlines; Steven Casper: The Legal Framework for Corporate Governance: The Influence of Contract Law on Company Strategies in Germany and the United States; Gunther Teubner: Legal Irritants: How Unifying Law
Ends Up in New Divergences; Jay Tate: National Varieties of Standardization
