This book analyzes the banking crisis and the events surrounding it in Hungary and other emerging EU member countries in 2007-2013. Written by Julia Kiraly, a former policymaker, and the Deputy Governor of the Hungarian Central Bank at the time of the crisis, it also offers a firsthand account of the processes in and responses to the financial crisis. While there is extensive literature on the crisis, most of it focuses on the US or the Eurozone, sometimes mentioning the "emerging world" in passing. However, Central and Eastern Europe experienced the crisis very differently than other emerging countries. In the pre-crisis years, the region in accession to the EU attracted abundant fresh capital, but the seemingly unconstrained global liquidity fuelled credit bubbles. After the Lehman crisis, capital rapidly fled these countries. In this part of the world, the recession proved to be much worse than elsewhere, with double-digit growth soon turning into a double-digit decline in GDP. Several countries had to turn to the IMF and the EU for stand-by credit. Based on her own inside experience as a top central banker, the author offers a personal yet professional analysis of the causes and consequences of the financial hurricane.

As the financial crisis engulfs the world economy, there is an ambitous agenda for regulatory reform. This book provides a comprehensive review of the analysis of finance, economics and the law and economics, illuminating past and current banking and financial regulation designed to prevent another credit/dollar crisis and global recession.

This book sheds light on the dollarization trends of four transitional economies in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Moving beyond the tendency to focus on the Latin American experience of dollarization and prolonged high inflation, the chapters in this book compare how payment dollarization has been more persistent than other types of dollarization in this region due to network externalities. The book illustrates that dollarization started in the underdeveloped financial system in these countries and that dollarization interacted with financial development, which is in contrast to dollarization in Latin America. This project extends the frontiers of empirical studies on dollarization. It will be of interest to students, researchers and policy makers concerned with dollarization and economics in Southeast Asia.

Despite the dynamic development of the discipline of economics, the ways in which economics is taught and how it defines its basic principles have hardly changed, resulting in economics being criticised for its inability to provide relevant insights on global challenges. In response, this book defines new principles of economics and seeks to establish economics as the science of markets. A New Principles of Economics provides an alternative conceptual framework for the study of economics, integrating recent developments and research in both economics and neighbouring social sciences. Adopting the structure of a standard principles text, it separates the study of markets as mechanisms and markets in their wider contexts. In doing so, a number of new perspectives are introduced, including approaching the economy as part and parcel of the Earth system; directly connecting the analysis of production with an analysis of technology and thermodynamic principles; explicitly treating markets as forms of social networks mediated by the institution of money; and reinstating the central role of distribution in political economy analysis. Drawing on the latest theories and research on the economy, and including both the natural and social sciences, this text provides a holistic introduction suitable for postgraduates and other advanced students.

Recent evidence suggests that macroeconomic outcomes are inferior in countries operating under presidential regimes compared with those with parliaments, with lower levels of economic growth, higher rates of inflation, and higher levels of income inequality in countries with presidential governments. Despite this, more heads of state look to consolidate and build their executive power. This book considers why presidential regimes, in particular, are so bad for the economy. Throughout the book, the authors comprehensively and simultaneously consider the impact of legal, political, and economic institutions on the mechanisms. It is first demonstrated that presidential countries have (on average) inferior outcomes relative to parliamentary states with respect to these institutions and, moreover, with respect to healthcare and human development indicators. Subsequently, the book explores the impact of constitutional choice (parliamentary versus presidential) on both institutions and macroeconomic outcomes. It is documented that having a presidential regime induces weaker institutions, but that quality institutions can mitigate some of the negative impacts of such regimes.

The first stock exchange in Warsaw - capital city of the Kingdom of Poland- was established in 1817. Over the past 205 years, the fortunes of the capital market have been closely linked to the "bumpy road" of Polish history. The establishment of the GPW Warsaw Stock Exchange in 1991 was a landmark for transformation from a centrally planned communist economy to a market-driven capitalist one. Since the doors of the exchange reopened, Polish GDP per capita (current USD) increased eight times, translating into an average yearly growth rate of over 7%. The capital market has played a pivotal role in the economic success of Poland over the last three decades. It is not easy to precisely quantify the impact, as it was rather a spill-over effect. Economic growth has fostered the development of a capital market, and more efficient conversion of savings to investments via the capital market. The excellence of capital market institutions can be gauged with reference to various parameters. A synthetic measure is so-called market status. According to FTSE Russell (global index provider), Polish capital attained developed market status in 2018, being the first and only post-communist state to do so. It is fair to say that transformation has been completed and developed market status indicates clearly that the institutions and regulations are world class. The current challenge is competing with other developed markets for the best issuers and offering the most demanding investors an excellent trading experience. This book offers scientific insight into the Polish capital market story. Authored by a group of renowned scholars, with contributions aspiring to the highest academic standards for theoretical considerations and empirical research. The book covers various topics, including links between monetary policy and capital markets, micro and macro market structures, and investors and issuers' behaviour and strategies. All chapters are rooted in contemporary finance theory, supported by various econometric models based on the most recently available data. The book aims to provide academics and practitioners insight into the Polish capital market, appealing especially to those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of emerging markets' successful transformation into developed ones. It can also be used as supplementary reading for doctoral and master's students in finance, particularly relating to capital markets and economics - predominantly development economics and economic policy.

Social science theorists from various scholarly disciplines have contributed to a recent literature that examines how the finance industry has expanded and now wields increasing influence across a variety of economic fields and industries. In some cases, this tendency towards a more sizeable and influential finance industry has been referred to as "the financialization" of the economy. This book explains how what is referred to as the finance-led economy (arguably a more neutral and less emotionally charged term than financialization) is premised on a number of conditions, institutional relations, and theoretical propositions and assumptions, and indicates what the real economic consequences are for market actors and households. The book provides a theoretically condensed but empirically grounded account of the contemporary finance-led economy, in many cases too complicated in its design and rich in detail to be understood equally by insiders-empirical research indicates-and lay audiences. It summarizes the relevant literature and points at two empirical cases, the construction industry and life science venturing, to better illustrate how the expansion of the finance industry has contributed to the capital formation process, and how the sovereign state has actively assisted this process. It offers a credible, yet accessible overview of the economic conditions that will arguably shape economic affairs for the foreseeable future. The book will find an audience amongst a variety of readers, including graduate students, management scholars, policymakers, and management consultants.

The Financial Crisis, though originating in the US, is global and comparable with the Great Depression of the 1930s. The book takes both micro and macro view of the crisis. It examines the evolution of the global monetary system and looks at the crisis from a systemic angle. It examines the institutional changes in American capitalism and market mechanisms. The dynamics of the market and its cyclical characters are discussed. It examines the structural changes in the US economy. The role of globalization and international funds flow, their changing character and the growing interdependence among nations have been examined. At the micro level, the book discusses the subprime market and the gaps in the system that created the crisis. It deals with the supervisory structure and growing influence of the derivatives market and the synthetic products that are threatening the financial system. It also analyzes the fundamental changes in the global trading and payments patterns, which are influencing the US balance of payments and the US dollar. The secular changes in the structure of the US economy are impacting the global economy. The work deals with the measures taken to resolve the crisis both in the US and on a global scale. The reforms necessary to avoid the recurrence of the crisis are outlined. The study aims to underline these factors and draw a perspective for the US dollar. It is also proposed to draw a scenario for a more efficient and equitable global monetary system with a role for the US dollar along with a new vehicle for international payments and finance. This would also include the reform of the global economic system and the IMF. The special feature of the book is that it takes a holistic view of the problem. The systemic and macro issues are discussed in addition to its microanalysis.

The interaction between mathematicians and statisticians reveals to be an effective approach to the analysis of insurance and financial problems, in particular in an operative perspective.

The Maf2006 conference, held at the University of Salerno in 2006, had precisely this purpose and the collection published here gathers some of the papers presented at the conference and successively worked out to this aim. They cover a wide variety of subjects in insurance and financial fields.

Money is a social convention, but with what social consequences? In this innovative study, Rodney Bruce Hall argues that those who govern the parameters of money's creation, its destruction, and its valuation are responsible for the governance of international finance. The volume is an analysis of central banking as global governance, employing the institutional philosophy of John Searle as a theoretical basis for exploring the consequences of money as a social institution, and the social relations of credit and debt. While previous studies in this field have made forays into the political economy of monetary institutions, this book breaks new ground by offering a constructivist social analysis that identifies the mechanisms of governance as social rather than material processes. The volume will therefore be of great interest to a wide range of scholars and students, particularly those with an interest in international relations, international finance and international political economy.

* 4th edition has more emphasis on inequality, ownership structures, financialization, the changing nature of work, and global as well as economy-wide change and uncertainty * Several chapters include discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 on economic well-being and other macroeconomic outcomes like health and labour markets * General updates, including new data, new exercises and discussion questions * The first three chapters of 3rd edition have now been condensed to two chapters in the 4th edition * Differs from other principles books on the market in its pluralist approach. It covers everything the student needs to know, whilst also placing issues in their historical, institutional, social, political, and ethical context. * Introduces students to different schools of thought in economics. Perspectives include neoclassical economics, Keynesian economics, ecological economics, institutional economics and feminist economics. * Logical building-block structure, providing student with a clear sequential approach to macroeconomic models. * Companion website with student study guide, PPT slides and teaching materials (including test bank)

This book covers all important financial innovations for SME financing, and combines theoretical analysis and real world practices employed in China's financial market. As China is increasingly becoming a key player in the global economy, the book helps readers gain a better understanding of the current structure and operation of, as well as future changes in, the Chinese economy. Given the high likelihood of RMB joining the IMF's SDR in the near future, this book offers a well-timed publication that will prove valuable for a broad readership, either as a reference book or as a guide to understanding, researching, teaching on and making business decisions about China and related issues.

For a long time, economic research on Africa was not seen as a profitable venture intellectually or professionally-few researchers in top-ranked institutions around the world chose to become experts in the field. This was understandable: the reputation of Africa-centered economic research was not enhanced by the well-known limitations of economic data across the continent. Moreover, development economics itself was not always fashionable, and the broader discipline of economics has had its ups and downs, and has been undergoing a major identity crisis because it failed to predict the Great Recession. Times have changed: many leading researchers-including a few Nobel laureates-have taken the subject of Africa and economics seriously enough to devote their expertise and creativity to it. They have been amply rewarded: the richness, complexities, and subtleties of African societies, civilizations, rationalities, and ways of living, have helped renew the humanities and the social sciences-and economics in particular-to the point that the continent has become the next major intellectual frontier to researchers from around the world. In collecting some of the most authoritative statements about the science of economics and its concepts in the African context, this handbook (the first of two volumes) opens up the diverse acuity of commentary on exciting topics, and in the process challenges and stimulates the quest for knowledge. Wide-ranging in its scope, themes, language, and approaches, this volume explores, examines, and assesses economic thinking on Africa, and Africa's contribution to the discipline. The editors bring a set of powerful resources to this endeavor, most notably a team of internationally-renowned economists whose diverse viewpoints are complemented by the perspectives of philosophers, political scientists, and anthropologists. The set of analyses and reflections presented here try to endow each subject with depth and discovery.

This book surveys big data tools used in macroeconomic forecasting and addresses related econometric issues, including how to capture dynamic relationships among variables; how to select parsimonious models; how to deal with model uncertainty, instability, non-stationarity, and mixed frequency data; and how to evaluate forecasts, among others. Each chapter is self-contained with references, and provides solid background information, while also reviewing the latest advances in the field. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, professional forecasters, and students of quantitative economics.

Any enquiry into the nature, performance, role, demerits, growth, efficiency, or other aspects of financial services such as banking and insurance activities, requires rigorous estimates of their economic output, i.e., the economic contributions made by these firms, as well as by the industries as a whole. Accordingly, this book condenses several theoretical, methodological, empirical, and philosophical issues in conceptualizing, measuring, and empirically operationalizing the economic output of the banking and insurance industries. The analytical focus is on both Global and Emerging Markets perspectives. The book synthesizes applied and conceptual evidence to locate the chosen theme's analytical patterns, consensus, and disagreements. The selected subject matter is studied within the firm-level and aggregate settings, bringing literature of varied scopes together. Contributions from various international academics, practitioners, and policymakers further enrich the narrative. The book concludes with data-driven case studies that analyze the extent to which the critical performance parameters of the banking and insurance industries in the BRIICS economies - including estimation of aggregate industry-level partial factor productivities, total factor productivity, technical efficiency, and returns to scale - vary concerning alternate measures of their output. The present work also provides a brief note on the inputs measurement dimension, following which there is a discussion on the limitations, future scope, and conclusions. This work will be valuable for researchers and policymakers undertaking performance analyses related to banking and insurance activities. It shall provide them with the examination of a plethora of analytical options and related issues on the theory and praxis of output measurement, all finely organized into one single volume.

This book offers a thorough introduction to the highly promising complex agent-based approach to economics, in which agent-based models (ABMs) are used to represent economic systems as complex and evolving systems composed of heterogeneous agents of limited rationality who interact with each other, generating the system's emergent properties in the process. This approach represents a response to the limitations of the dominant theory in economics, which does not consider the possibility of a major crisis, and to the inability of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory to generate empirically falsifiable propositions. In the new perspective, the focus is on identifying the elements of instability rather than the triggering event. As the theory of complexity demonstrates, the interactions of heterogeneous agents produce non-linearity: this puts an end to the age of certainties. With ABMs, the methodology is "from the bottom up". The individual parameters and their distribution are estimated, and then evaluated to verify whether aggregate regularities emerge on the whole. In short, not only micro, but also meso and macro empirical validation are employed. Moreover, it shows that the mantra of growth should be supplanted by the concept of a growth . Given its depth of coverage, the book will enable students at the undergraduate and Master's level to gain a firm grasp of this important emerging approach. "This book is flower blossomed by one of the two greatest Italian economists." Bruce Greenwald, Columbia University "The author's - the ABM prophet's - thoughts on economics have been at the forefront of the world. Without a firm belief in and dedication to human society, it is impossible to write such a book. This is a work of high academic value, which can help readers quickly understand the history and current situation of complex economic theory. In particular, we can understand the basic viewpoints, academic status, advantages and shortcomings of various schools of economic theory." Jie Wu, Guangzhou Milestone Software Co., China

This book is the culmination of and a collection of distinguished scholar Lawrence Officer's principal research over 50 years of scholarly activity. The collection consists primarily of three topics on which the author has spent the major part of his research: purchasing power parity, standard of living, and monetary standards. There is also a unique chapter on economics and economic history in science fiction. This volume is ideal for academics, graduate and undergraduate students, and practitioners.

The aim of Bernard Schmitt's analysis of the monetary economy of production was twofold: to introduce and to explain the logical character of the macroeconomic laws governing our economies and to explain the origin of the pathologies that follow if these laws are not complied with. Schmitt's main original contributions concern the theories of value, profit, and capital, as well as his explanation of inflation, unemployment and international payments, unified as quantum macroeconomic analysis. This book expounds on the key principles of quantum macroeconomic analysis as he conceived and developed them. Schmitt's starting point was the analysis of bank money and the way it is associated with produced output. His macroeconomics was not founded on microeconomics nor derived from the aggregation of microeconomic variables. Schmitt's theory does not rely on mathematics and modelling either; instead, it is based on logical laws derived from the nature of money and monetary payments. Part I of this book deals with the quantum macroeconomic analysis of capitalism and its pathologies developed by Schmitt and provides the elements necessary to understand its 'structural' mechanism. Parts II and III deal with the principles of two reforms that enable the passage from capitalism to post-capitalism and from the present non-system of international payments to an orderly system. This book provides essential reading for all those interested in heterodox approaches to macroeconomics, monetary economics, banking, international economics, and the history of economic thought.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the structure, conduct, and performance of the centrally planned economies of Eastern Europe, the USSR, Communist China and the Marxist LDCs, looking at 26 nations in all. The author focuses on reform, perhaps the most important issue facing countries such as the USSR, Poland, Hungary, and China. Bureaucracy, soft budget constraints, markets, and the nature of the socialist state are the central issues that arise in the course of reforming a socialist economy. The first half of the book deals with 'classical socialism' and provides a theoretical summary of the main features of a now closed period of history. The second half deals with the processes of reform and concludes that the reform of classical socialist systems is doomed to failure as they are unable to renew themselves internally.

State and Local Public Finance provides a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of state and local government public finance practices and issues, using the basic tools of economics. This fifth edition maintains its focus on key local services such as education, health care, and transportation and brings in new coverage of land use and housing, applications from behavioral economics, and more international comparisons. This textbook provides an examination and analysis of public finance practices and problems in a federal fiscal system, focusing on the fiscal behavior and policies of state and local governments. Modern economic theory is applied to examine the way key institutions are used to produce and finance services and to provide evaluation of alternative policies. This stalwart text will continue to be invaluable reading for those who study public finance, local government finance, urban economics, public policy, and public administration.

State and Local Public Finance provides a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of state and local government public finance practices and issues, using the basic tools of economics. This fifth edition maintains its focus on key local services such as education, health care, and transportation and brings in new coverage of land use and housing, applications from behavioral economics, and more international comparisons. This textbook provides an examination and analysis of public finance practices and problems in a federal fiscal system, focusing on the fiscal behavior and policies of state and local governments. Modern economic theory is applied to examine the way key institutions are used to produce and finance services and to provide evaluation of alternative policies. This stalwart text will continue to be invaluable reading for those who study public finance, local government finance, urban economics, public policy, and public administration.

An overview of many currently topical issues around food and agriculture, with particular emphasis on their implications for development. These include Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel's discussion of nutritional standards and the implications of new theories of evolution in assessing the extent of malnutrition. Historical analysis informs contemporary surveys, including Yair Mundlak's comparison of the postwar record of 130 countries in agricultural technology and outputs. The important implications of labour markets, income distributions and the impact of welfare states on these issues are considered by a number of papers. The contributors include many leading academics from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Israel.

China has reduced the energy intensity of its economy dramatically. This book explores how this reduction was achieved and determines the major sources of energy savings. Using extensive data, the author examines the impacts of technological and structural changes on energy consumption and identifies the factors that were primarily responsible for the energy-efficiency improvements. It is an interesting work that will be useful for policy makers in assessing the energy consequences of development strategies and for economists in analyzing the relationship between energy use and economic growth.

Emerging market and developing economies, like advanced economies, have experienced a remarkable decline in inflation over the past half-century. Yet, research into this development has focused almost exclusively on advanced economies. This book fills that gap, providing the first comprehensive and systematic analysis of inflation in emerging market and developing economies. It examines how inflation has evolved and become synchronized among economies; what drives inflation globally and domestically; where inflation expectations have become better-anchored; and how exchange rate fluctuations can pass through to inflation. To reach its conclusions, the book employs cutting edge empirical approaches. It also offers a rich data set of multiple measures of inflation for a virtually global sample of countries over a half-century to spur further research into this important topic.

In the past 25 years, the distribution of income and wealth in Britain and the US has grown enormously unequal, far more so than in other advanced countries. The book, which is aimed at both an academic and a general audience, examines how this happened, starting with the economic shocks of the 1970s and the neo-liberal policies first applied under Thatcher and Reagan. In essence, growing inequality and economic instability is seen as driven by a US-style model of free-market capitalism that is increasingly deregulated and dominated by the financial sector.

Using a wealth of examples and empirical data, the book explores the social costs entailed by relative deprivation and widespread income insecurity, costs which affect not just the poor but now reach well into the middle classes. Uniquely, the author shows how inequality, changing consumption patterns and global financial turbulence are interlinked.

The view that growing inequality is an inevitable consequence of globalisation and that public finances must be squeezed is firmly rejected. Instead, it is argued that advanced economies need more progressive taxation to dampen fluctuations and to fund higher levels of social provision, taking the Nordic countries as exemplary. The broad political goal should be to return within a generation to the lower degree of income inequality which prevailed in Britain and the US during the years of post-war prosperity.