This study of Australian business institutions and practices places the rise of big business in Australia in a comparative context through a study of its 100 largest firms in the first six and a half decades of the 20th century. Unlike many of the wealthy economies of the northern hemisphere, Australia's lists of the 100 largest firms were dominated up to World War II by those from the resource and service industries. The high levels of foreign direct investment in the resources and manufacturing industries is also highlighted. Other chapters employ 21st-century theories of the firm to explore business behaviour in more depth.

Despite efforts to curb tobacco use, global tobacco addiction remains as strong as ever. Smoking rates are declining very slowly in advanced countries, and they are increasing in the developing world. Yet, researchers still do not fully understand what drives smoking decisions. Life-Course Smoking Behavior presents smoking trajectories of different generations of women and men from ten of the world's most visible countries, with nation-specific representative samples spanning more than eighty years of recent history. To inspire hypotheses on the determinants of smoking behavior, the authors place these data in economic, political, social, and cultural contexts, which differ greatly both across countries at a particular time and over time in a given country. Though significant research has been conducted on smoking statistics and tobacco control policies, most descriptions of smoking behavior rely on cross-sectional "snapshot" data that do not track individuals' habits throughout their lifespan. Lillard and Christopoulou's work is a unique and necessary text in its comparative life-course approach, making it a long overdue complement to the existing literature.

This resource presents smoking trajectories of different generations of women and men from ten of the world's most visible countries, with nation-specific representative samples spanning more than eighty years of recent history. To inspire hypotheses on the determinants of smoking behaviour, the authors place these data in economic, political, social, and cultural contexts, which differ greatly both across countries at a particular time and over time in a given country.