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Indianapolis, Indiana, has been a leader in the trend toward efficiency in government. Since 1992, when Stephen Goldsmith became mayor, the city has opened up more than 70 services to competitive bidding. It has reduced its operating budget, lowered taxes twice, and cut its non-public-safety workforce. It has also increased the public-safety budget, invested millions to rebuild the city's infrastructure, and increased budget reserves. According to Goldsmith, the business community has been slow to grasp the significance of government's move toward increased efficiency. There are many opportunities for businesses to help municipal governments lower costs and increase revenues. He offers seven guidelines to help pioneering companies succeed in what could be their next big market.

With the failure of foreign aid and similar development projects, many analysts are saying that poor countries should just free up their economies and let markets do the work. The Heritage Foundation's 1997 Index of Economic Freedom expands on this line of reasoning in a survey of government intervention and economic development. In his review, Harvard Business School Professor Bruce Scott contends that although some of the Index's claims make sense, the editors have mistaken the chain of causation in many cases. Governments in South Korea and Taiwan, for example, liberalized only after their heavy-handed actions brought their economies a degree of prosperity. Some freedoms, such as an internal market without barriers, promote economic development, but free trade for a developing country can actually get in the way. It is not clear that the magic of the marketplace can take care of everything. Citizens still need government for some things--and a broader framework of analysis than the Index for tackling economic choices.

Describes Mexico's political and economic system in the 1960s and 1970s. Focuses on: 1) the causes of the debt crisis in 1982; 2) elements of President de la Madrid's restructuring efforts between 1982-88; President Salinas's attempts to complete restructuring and bring the macroeconomy into a period of high growth with low inflation; NAFTA; and the events leading up to Mexico's 1995 currency crisis.

Examines the prospects for private management in U.S. public schools. Focuses on the education and business strategies of firms seeking to expand as a result of charter school legislation that allowed for-profit entities to enter and compete for students with access to public funding. Focuses on the business and education strategies of three leaders in for-profit education, the Edison Project, Sabis International, and Education Alternatives, Inc. (EAI). Asks whether any of these firms have devised a sustainable strategy for the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead. Uses the education sector to suggest the business imperative not only to devise a strategy to create value, but to establish an overall structure that allows firms to claim a predictable portion of the value they create. Focuses on the opportunities presented by charter school legislation.

The study of business interests adds an important dimension to our understanding of the development of international environmental agreements. The contrasting role of business interests in the cases of ozone depletion and climate change is critical to explaining why climate change is a much more difficult issue for the international community to tackle. In the case of ozone depletion, industry concentration and the technological factors provided incentives for industry leaders to invest in alternative products and processes. By contrast, fossil fuel substitutes present a long-term strategic threat to the major sectors that produce and use these fuels. Where relatively few actors were involved in ozone depletion, it will be much more difficult to craft an agreement that is acceptable to the broad range of industries affected by climate change. However, business does have substantial influence over the timing and shape of international environmental agreements, even when there is considerable disunity within the business ranks.

Describes the exchange rate system adopted at Bretton Woods in 1994.

Presents seven examples (i.e., incidents) of conflict concerning foreign direct investment. The incidents lay the framework for discussion of issues such as the jurisdiction of the WTO and the U.S. position, the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 and its political implications, and campaign contributions from foreign corporations backing U.S. Democrats--and the controversy therein.

Provides an update to Microsoft in the People's Republic of China--1993.

Conventional wisdom has it that the best way to do business in China is through an equity joint venture (EJV) with a well-connected Chinese partner. But pioneering companies are starting a trend toward a new way to enter that market: as a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, or WFOE. Increasingly, says the author, joint ventures do not offer foreign companies what they need to succeed in China. By contrast, the author asserts, WFOEs are faster to set up and easier to manage; and they allow managers to expand operations more rapidly. That makes them the perfect solution, right? The answer is a qualified yes. First, foreign companies will still need sources of guanxi, or social and political connections. Second, managers must take steps to avoid trampling on China's cultural or economic sovereignty. Third and perhaps most important, foreign companies must be prepared to bring something of value to China--usually in the form of jobs or new technology that can help the country develop. Companies willing to make the effort, says the author, can reap the rewards of China's burgeoning marketplace.

Describes the evolution of the Mexican economy and its relation with the international capital markets in the period leading up to the Peso crisis of December 1994. Emphasizes the role of "Washington consensus" policies in stimulating the inflows, and the inability of the Mexican banking system to intermediate them efficiently.

Describes the response of the Mexican authorities and the international community to the Mexican Peso crisis of 1994 and the banking, financial, and macroeconomic crisis that followed it.

Describes the evolution of the Mexican economy from 1945 to 1982. Describes the import-substituting industrialization strategy pursued in the aftermath of World War II. Discusses briefly why this failed in the late 1960s and then analyzes the change of strategy toward a state-led development financed by bank-borrowing from abroad that culminated in the debt crisis. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Describes the response of the Mexican authorities and the international community to the "Third World Debt Crisis" that came to the forefront of global economic concerns in the early 1980s. Focuses on the respective roles of the private sector, governments (Mexican and foreign), and the international community in addressing the crisis.

Provides information on economic reform programs in Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1990. Students are asked to compare and contrast the economic situations in the two countries, as well as the political constraints on reform.

A small team of Canadian managers from the Bank of Nova Scotia are faced with the challenge of managing a recently acquired Mexican operation. Managers must cope with a language barrier and cultural differences as they try to restructure the over-staffed Mexican financial institution.

A large, lucrative power plant is negotiated for construction/operation by an American power company in India's evolving privatized power sector. The process of incorporating the project is captured in this case. The American company will own and operate the plant in India, which will sell power to India.

A new administration takes power in a state in India and cancels a power project agreed upon by the previous state government and a U.S.-based energy company. The project cancellation is based on allegations of irregularities, exorbitant costs, and political pressures.

Offers a brief overview of economic thinking about the nature of money and about how the central bank can affect the economy through monetary policy.

Describes the construction of the balance of payments and defines frequently used measures taken from the balance of payments.

A manager's ability to build profitable firms depends upon the business environment within which firms interact. This note presents a framework to help understand, anticipate, and perhaps foster changes in the business environment. Describes building a picture of the business environment as country analysis. The country analysis framework has three interdependent components of strategy, context, and performance. Focuses on identifying and evaluating the national and international context. In particular, clarifies the role state actors, nonfirm organizations, and "rules of the game" can play in firm decision making.