In this book leading European economists examine the current status of social pacts and their future. Particular focus is placed on the role of trade unions, and the positive role they can play for economic and social stability by agreeing to set wages on the basis of a target rate of inflation. As the European Union expands and social change accelerates, this insightful book will be of interest to all concerned with social and economic developments across Europe.

This highly illuminating book marks a significant stage in our growing understanding of how the development of national traditions of economic thought has been affected by both internal and external factors. The expert contributors set an explicit agenda for the study of the dissemination of economic ideas across four centuries, acknowledging that the history of dissemination is also a history of the flux of economic beliefs, rendering any generalisation difficult, if not impossible. Topics explored include systems of political economy, European and American interactions, the diffusion of economic ideas in South-Eastern Europe and beyond, and the exchange of ideas between Japan and the rest of the world. This book will prove a fascinating and stimulating read for scholars and researchers in the field of economics generally, and more specifically in heterodox economics, the history of economic thought and economic theory.