個案總覽

Supergrid is a mammoth wind-power development scheme for Europe, recently proposed by Airtricity. This firm, founded in 1997, is a fast growing power-development company focused on wind. Already having built about 600 megawatts of wind turbines in Scotland and Ireland, Airtricity has now expanded to the United States. But its "Supergrid" proposal, to build offshore wind turbines with capacity of 30,000 megawatts of power would change the face of European energy networks, use new technology, and help several European countries meet their Kyoto targets for reducing CO2. The issues are whether a small company like Airtricity has the human and capital resources to pull this off, and whether the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and the EU can be made to cooperate on such a project.

By 2005, Japan's debt had risen to 163% of GDP. For more than a decade, the government had run huge deficits, trying unsuccessfully to stimulate economic growth. Interest rates, meanwhile, had been zero for years. But with slow growth and banks in crisis, nothing had worked very well until some recovery in 2004. Now, the government is trying to repair its fiscal damage in the face of continuing slow growth and huge pension and health care obligations to a population that is aging fast. Hezio Takenaka, the minister for economy and postal privatization, faces a imposing agenda--to restart the economy while lowering the deficits and reforming social security.

Covers the phenomenon of outsourcing jobs from the United States. Reviews the evolution of Mexico's Maquiladoras, manufacturing special economic areas in China, and information technology and service-sourcing in India. Also reviews exports/imports, exchange rates, wages, and jobs. Considers major outsourcer General Electric's moves to these countries and its plans. Compares Mexico and China, and India and China, asking what the United States and GE should be doing.

After suffering years of volatility and crises, Turkey desperately sought macroeconomic and political stability in an ever-worsening region of the world. In the short term, Turkey had to repay its debt, which amounted to more than 80% of GDP. By January 2004, Turkey had entered the final stages of the IMF's latest $17 billion loan program. Each review required that Turkey meet specific goals of monetary control (e.g., reducing inflation), restructuring the banking sector, reforming the public sector, and increasing privatization. The country's long-term goal, joining the European Union, would be reached only if the EU's required criteria were met. Elected in November 2002 and the first absolute majority in Parliament in 15 years, the AKP party promised to meet both IMF and EU requirements. Although his AKP party had Islamic roots, Prime Minister Erdogan planned to prove that Turkey was a stable, secular democracy. After Turkey met the EU's requirements, the question remained: Would the EU's "Christian club" accept a Muslim Turkey?

Supplements the case Japan: Beyond the Bubble.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 703-050.

By 2003, India had been growing at almost 6% annually since 1992, after it suffered a financial collapse, abandoned import substitution, and moved gradually to adopt the Washington Consensus. Now, financial controls and competition barriers are less burdensome, inflation is lower, and the current account is balanced. However, the finance minister faces difficulties with massive fiscal deficits and continuing disturbances with Pakistan that seem to deter foreign direct investment (FDI). The question facing him is whether India can reduce these deficits (in the face of a 2004 election) or whether to let them slide, hoping that India's entrepreneurs and high-tech southern states will carry the day.

In early 2003, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong is assessing Singapore's development strategy--tax cutting combined with an industrial policy focused on six "clusters," including biomedical sciences. After 36 years of stupendous growth, Singapore has slowed down and faces intense competition in exports and foreign direct investment, especially from China. Is its new strategy the right choice? This case examines several key aspects of Singapore's growth, including organizational/cultural arrangements, the savings/investment balance, and total factor productivity growth.

Summarizes world markets for oil and natural gas from 1980-2001. Examines the rise of OPEC, two oil shocks, Gulf War efforts, and recent pricing issues facing Saudi Arabia.

Provides a vehicle to explore Islamic development and political issues within BGIE (business, government, and international economy). Set in early 2002, the case focuses on Crown Prince Abdullah's efforts to liberalize a failing rentier state, that had been dependent on petroleum for too long. His efforts to liberalize, however, come at a politically and socially sensitive time--just after September 11, 2001, and in the midst of the Palestinian intifada. In a desperate effort to maintain oil prices, OPEC has recently reduced output by 1.5 million barrels daily, with Saudi Arabia bearing the largest cut.

Noranda is a $7 billion international mining and smelting company headquartered in Canada. It has been cited for its fine environmental record. This case explores the issue of sustainability--in this case, for a mining company. Over time, and under nongovernmental organization and governmental pressure, Norando moves gradually to goals approximating sustainability. At issue is the sustainability of Noranda's expenditures on environmental mitigation and the degree to which Noranda employs (or should employ) "best country" standards everywhere it operates.

By the summer of 2001, Japan's economy had been generally stagnant for nearly 10 years--since the collapse of the bubble economy in 1990-91. The development strategy that drove the nation during earlier decades was fulfilled, and by 1989 Japan's GDP per capita exceeded that of the United States. Facing another downturn, Prime Minister Koizumi seemed ready politically to undertake real change. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

President Vincente Fox takes over in Mexico on December 1, 2000--a political revolution ending 71 years of PRI rule. In the past five years, Mexico has solved a number of macroeconomic problems and had a good run of economic growth. But a host of microeconomic problems have been largely ignored for years--poverty, income distribution, education, labor reform, energy and the environment, crime, and drugs. The Fox administration is trying to lay out plans for mitigating all of these problems at once--a very ambitious strategy. Do they have the problems right, and will it work?

Supplements Japan: "Free, Fair, and Global?"

Supplements The World Trade Organization: After the Seattle Protests.

Updates the case.

Supplements Shock Therapy in Eastern Europe: The Polish and Czechoslovakia Economic Reforms. Designed as an in-class handout.

Supplements the case.

Supplements Mexico in Debt.

Updates the case. Designed as an in-class handout. A rewritten version of an earlier supplement.