個案總覽

Collectively owned township and village enterprises (TVEs) played a pivotal role in China's rapid growth during the 1980s and 1990s. Although they originated in the policies and institutions of the Maoist era, TVEs thrived only after Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms redistributed property rights, taxing powers, and responsibility for the provision of public goods. These reforms made local governments dependent on their TVEs for tax revenues and gave party cadres powerful incentives to promote economic growth. Local officials often helped TVEs under their jurisdiction to gain access to technologies, capital, and production permits. Instead of rapidly privatizing its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), China gradually liberalized aspects of its economy in a controlled manner, often establishing a "market track" alongside its planned system. As the SOEs' share of output and employment shrank, that of the TVEs dramatically increased. By the mid- to late 1990s, TVEs accounted for nearly 40% of China's industrial output and had created about 100 million jobs. Nevertheless, party officials questioned whether the TVEs were a viable form of organization for an economy with ever-larger firms, more complex products and production processes, and the need for more capital and more skilled managers.

GDP per person in northern Italy caught up with average incomes in Britain, France, and Germany in the 1970s, but incomes in southern Italy (the Mezzogiorno) fell further behind. This was partly due to cultural and societal differences that dated to the Renaissance, but even more obviously to northern dominance of the new nation in 1860 and Mafia dominance of much of the south. This case focuses on 50 years of efforts to correct this problem. Italy, with its north-south income divergence, is a good metaphor for the global economy with its divergence between First World and Third World incomes. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

In 1992, a corruption investigation and two assassinations created a crisis that prompted the Italian government to dispatch 7,000 troops to Sicily to "retake the island" from the Mafia. This case examines the crisis and the efforts of both the Italian state and the city of Palermo to deal with it. Also explicitly contrasts two development theories in an attempt to explain the economic problems of the South: one cultural (proposed by Robert Putnam); the other political (contained in the writings of Samuel Huntington, Sidney Tarrow, and Simona Piattoni). A rewritten version of an earlier case.

CEMEX is a Mexican company that has become a major international competitor in cement while maintaining a higher level of profitability than other, longer-established majors. CEMEX's superior profitability supplies a basis for discussing the sources of superior performance in a global context. In addition, the wide array of benefits that CEMEX derives from its operations in different countries broadens conventional notions of why firms globalize.

Taiwan has enjoyed remarkable growth since 1950. This case presents differing views of the role and contribution of the state in this process. Then it explores recent industrial policy in semiconductors.