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The literature on the history of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is reviewed in sections. These cover general works, case studies, industry studies, diplomatic history and the history of public policy, early history, emerging ideas, and business history journals.

Regional economic development is shaped by many policies, which are implemented by national governments, regional and state governments, and local governments. But local economic development policies in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area since 1970 had little to do with the economic divergence of these two regions. In reality, many so-called economic development policies have little to do with economic development as such, instead emphasizing land use changes and competition for sales tax revenue rather than industry and job development. Many of the problems with local planning and development policies in the United States in general are exemplified by the comparison of the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles.

This chapter examines the motivations of firms in designing pension plans, and why these motivations have resulted in plans that have the effect of encouraging early retirement. The study is based on the experience of twenty large U.S. corporations. In particular, the analysis draws on a series of discussions about policy history and objectives with executives at each company, and a review of internal business documents relating to the design of the policies. The analysis identifies a number of objectives and motivations for the design of business retirement policies, including, in some cases, the desire for older workers to retire. In most cases, however, retirement incentives were either unintentional or secondary to the policy's central motivation. In general, the companies were much more concerned with providing competitive retirement policies (policies similar in structure and in value to those of their competitors in the labor market), and policies that adequately provided for the well-being of their retirees.

The reforms initiated in the late 1970s took time to materialize the detailed form of new developmentalism. Conflicts between state policymakers and large corporations slowly produced adjustments through tedious attrition in the Roh Tae-woo (1988–92) and Kim Young-sam (1993–7) administrations. Large corporations wanted input-oriented volume expansionism, while economic bureaucrats pressed to change private corporations’ strategy toward specialization in core business. This chapter examines how industrial politics between the state and the private firms, as well as within the state, evolved in the Roh and Kim administrations, and why Korea continued state-led developmentalism by contentious adjustments. First this chapter examines the industrial politics between state and business, as well as among the ministries within the state during the Roh and Kim administrations. And before exploring the transformation following the Asian financial crisis, this chapter examines the electronics industry for a micro-level analysis of Korea’s new developmentalism.

This introductory chapter begins with discussions of misguided property titling and business formalization policies, and how public registries reduce the transaction costs of impersonal trade. It then describes the book's organization and methodology and exposition.