This compilation explores the unique form of Dutch government taken at the time, and its relationship with trade policy successes of the most prosperous semi-gubernatorial body of the early modern period - the Dutch East India Company (VOC). By examining the unique form of government taken by the Dutch Republic, the authors work out the nature of the relationship between the Dutch polity and the VOC, attempting to discern the link between the successes of the company and government policies. Afterwards, the authors analyse the main contributions of scientific literature so as to demonstrate that tourism, although having certain limitations as an instrument of economic development in some countries, may be an interesting tool for the improvement of a population's living conditions under specific circumstances. This book compiles the world's main tourist destinations according to the growth of the economic performance of the tourist activity and of the tourist and economic development experienced during the last decade. With this objective, the authors combine information from a set of tourist and economic indicators for the main 45 tourist destinations over the period between 2000 and 2010. Destinations are ranked with respect to their average growth rate over the sample period. A paper is included which focuses on competitiveness research and examines the nature of tourism to provide a rationale for a Tourism Destination Competitiveness (TDC) model specific to tourism by evaluating the literature on the meaning of competitiveness and different perspectives of the concept. An assessment of the main arguments for and against comparative advantage and competitive advantage aids in building a better understanding on tourism flows on the basis of an integrated TDC model. Afterwards, the export structure and export performance of Macedonian economy is analysed, as a less developed transitional CEE country, in order to identify the main export opportunities for future economic growth by applying new structural economics and product space theory. In order to better inform related resource allocation and policy-level decisions, as well as to generate a rationale for continued support for health and development programs in Papua New Guinea, the book examines a range of related development constraints and develops a series of recommendations for their resolution based on smart intervention design, with a specific focus on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) components. Lastly, this collection examines the effect of financial development on economic growth conditions at the level of institutional quality for a panel of 21 Sub-Saharan African countries in the period of 1986-2010. This evidence suggest the existing institutions has not enhanced the finance-growth relationship in the region.