Corporate Governance and Sustainable Prosperity

How can we explain the persistent worsening of the income distribution in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s? What are the prospects for the re-emergence of sustainable prosperity in the US economy over the next generation? Situating these questions within a wider context through historical analysis and comparisons with Germany and Japan, this book focuses on the microeconomics of corporate investment behaviour, and the macroeconomics of household saving behaviour. Specifically, the contributors analyze how the combined pressures of excessive corporate growth, international competition, and intergenerational dependence have influenced corporate investment over the past two decades. They also offer a perspective on how corporate investment in skill bases can support sustainable prosperity, with studies drawn from the machine tool, aircraft engine, and medical equipment industries.

Author Biography

WILLIAM LAZONICK is Professor in the Department of Regional Economics and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Co-Director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness, and at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD). His books include Competitive Advantage on the Shop Floor, Business Organization and the Myth of the Market Economy and Organization and Technology in Capitalist Development. – MARY O’SULLIVAN is Research Associate of the Levy Institute and STEP Group, and a faculty affiliate of Harvard University’s Center for European Studies. She joined INSEAD in January 1997 and won the INSEAD teacher of the year award for an elective MBA course, Innovation, Strategy, and Corporate Governance taught in March and April 1997.