Visible Hands

This book offers a new framework for analysing government policies relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in multinational corporations: direct and indirect policies for CSR. It is a must read for scholars and graduate students in CSR, sustainability, political economy and economic sociology, as well as policymakers and consultants in international development and trade.

This text shows how the visible hands of public participation and democratic governance are crucial in creating a decent society. The World Summit for Social Development in 1995 laid out an ambitious agenda to create an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment for social development. This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the progress to date, exploring efforts to reassert the value of equity and social cohesion in an increasingly individualistic world. It reveals the failings of unregulated markets and the importance of a well-run public sector, as well as a healthy and educated population.

This volume is a compilation of an United Nations research institute for social development report for Geneva in 2000. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the progress to date, exploring efforts to reassert the value of equity and social cohesion in an increasingly individualistic world.

To most people, the word "economics" sounds like homework. In Visible Hand, Wall Street Journal op-ed editor Matthew Hennessey brings basic economic principles vividly to life in plain English, without resort to numbers, graphs, or jargon. This isn't Fed policy or the stock market. This is the essential stuff: supply and demand, incentives and tradeoffs, scarcity and innovation, work and leisure. A teenager should be able to discuss these things intelligently. Sadly, too few of us can explain them even in adulthood. Visible Hand equips readers with the essential vocabulary necessary to understand and explain how we make the choices we do. In Hennessey's hands, economics is far from the dismal science. It's the sparkling art of decision making. No homework necessary.

The role of large-scale business enterprise—big business and its managers—during the formative years of modern capitalism (from the 1850s until the 1920s) is delineated in this pathmarking book. Alfred Chandler, Jr., the distinguished business historian, sets forth the reasons for the dominance of big business in American transportation, communications, and the central sectors of production and distribution.

The role of large-scale business enterprise—big business and its managers—during the formative years of modern capitalism (from the 1850s until the 1920s) is delineated in this pathmarking book. Alfred Chandler, Jr., the distinguished business historian, sets forth the reasons for the dominance of big business in American transportation, communications, and the central sectors of production and distribution. The managerial revolution, presented here with force and conviction, is the story of how the visible hand of management replaced what Adam Smith called the “invisible hand” of market forces. Chandler shows that the fundamental shift toward managers running large enterprises exerted a far greater influence in determining size and concentration in American industry than other factors so often cited as critical: the quality of entrepreneurship, the availability of capital, or public policy.

The role of large-scale business enterprise—big business and its managers—during the formative years of modern capitalism (1850s–1920s) is delineated in this pathmarking book. Alfred Chandler, Jr., sets forth the reasons for the dominance of big business in American transportation, communications, and central sectors of production and distribution.