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 book is based on the research concerning China's National Balance Sheet (NBS) which is conducted by NIFD, the unique research groups in China focusing on NBS. The relative data have been quoted by the IMF, Chinese government sectors, influential investment banks at home and abroad. This book offers readers a unique edited work that systematically presents solutions to manage financial risk in the context of the current situation in China.

Over the last few decades, economists and psychologists have quietly documented the many ways in which a person's IQ matters. But, research suggests that a nation's IQ matters so much more. As Garett Jones argues in Hive Mind, modest differences in national IQ can explain most cross-country inequalities. Whereas IQ scores do a moderately good job of predicting individual wages, information processing power, and brain size, a country's average score is a much stronger bellwether of its overall prosperity. Drawing on an expansive array of research from psychology, economics, management, and political science, Jones argues that intelligence and cognitive skill are significantly more important on a national level than on an individual one because they have "positive spillovers." On average, people who do better on standardized tests are more patient, more cooperative, and have better memories. As a result, these qualities-and others necessary to take on the complexity of a modern economy-become more prevalent in a society as national test scores rise. What's more, when we are surrounded by slightly more patient, informed, and cooperative neighbors we take on these qualities a bit more ourselves. In other words, the worker bees in every nation create a "hive mind" with a power all its own. Once the hive is established, each individual has only a tiny impact on his or her own life. Jones makes the case that, through better nutrition and schooling, we can raise IQ, thereby fostering higher savings rates, more productive teams, and more effective bureaucracies. After demonstrating how test scores that matter little for individuals can mean a world of difference for nations, the book leaves readers with policy-oriented conclusions and hopeful speculation: Whether we lift up the bottom through changing the nature of work, institutional improvements, or freer immigration, it is possible that this period of massive global inequality will be a short season by the standards of human history if we raise our global IQ.

Karl Marx hypothesized that there is a long-term tendency for the profit rate to fall in capitalist economies. Immanuel Wallerstein hypothesized that capitalist development tends to drive up labor cost, material cost, and taxation cost. This book evaluates Marx's and Wallerstein's hypotheses by studying the long-term movement of the profit rate and contributing factors in major capitalist economies. During the twentieth century, leading capitalist economies largely succeeded in stabilizing the profit rate. However, the current decline of the profit rate in China may precipitate the global capitalist economy into a new major crisis. As economic growth slows down in all major capitalist economies, Marx's original hypothesis may be verified by the global economic events in the twenty-first century.

The crisis of distribution is one of the longest standing and most complicated issues facing human society. Imbued with social, political, historic, and cultural elements, it varies significantly across different countries as a result of all these factors. As an emerging economy which transferred from a planned to a market economy, China has experienced large distribution gaps since it implemented the Reform and Opening-up Policy in the early 1980s, requiring stronger economic law to mitigate and regulate the crisis of distribution. In this two-volume set, the author analyzes distribution crises from a theoretical perspective and proposes law and policy solutions. In this first volume, he discusses the four main concepts and focus points of the crisis of distribution - distribution itself, the crises it faces, the rule of law, and development. Concentrating on the major distribution problems China faces in particular, the author proposes regulatory methods which can be used to overcome the distribution dilemma, such as tools from policy and economic law, and reiterates the significance of theory building in resolving the issues. The book should be of keen interest to researchers and students of law, economics, and political science.

The crisis of distribution is one of the longest standing and most complicated issues facing human society. Imbued with social, political, historic, and cultural elements, it varies significantly across different countries as a result of all these factors. As an emerging economy which transferred from a planned to a market economy, China has experienced large distribution gaps since it implemented the Reform and Opening-up Policy in the early 1980s, requiring stronger economic law to mitigate and regulate the crisis of distribution. In this second volume, the author analyses crises of distribution from a theoretical perspective and proposes law and policy solutions. Believing that such crises are a collective result of systematic limitations, the author proposes a theoretical framework of "system-distribution-development" in order to resolve distribution problems and promote economic development. He argues that a crisis of distribution cannot be avoided without coordinated development of economic law and relevant constitutional, civil, and commercial law systems. In addition, it is necessary to differentiate the territories, industries, enterprises, and individuals that constitute such diverse systems. The book should be of keen interest to researchers and students of law, economics, and political science.

Serving up fresh insights on Hong Kong's economic growth, this book investigates issues such as housing, immigration, monetary and financial systems, the business environment, and international trade and finance to provide a coherent and comprehensive overview of Hong Kong's position in the global economy. Exploring these interrelated topics chapter-by-chapter, the authors cover contemporary macroeconomic topics such as government policies supporting structural changes of the Hong Kong economy challenges to the pillars of Hong Kong's economic growth, factors determining the success and failure of emerging sectors, the impacts of the linked exchange rate system on the financial and monetary markets, the tightening integration between the Hong Kong and Mainland China economies, Hong Kong's real estate market and its socio-economic impact, regional competition, and the operation and contribution of Mainland Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong. With broad application across several courses, this book is appealing reading to researchers in the fields of economic policy, economic growth, financial modelling, and more.

Macroeconomic Theory and Policy is the second collection of Richard G. Lipsey's essays and contains material that has previously remained unpublished or has not been widely available. The book considers the macroeconomic issues of unemployment, inflation and policies to combat inflation, the Keynesian macroeconomy and supply side economics.The book begins with a new autobiographical introduction to the intellectual development, personal achievements and the fields of interest of Richard G. Lipsey and is then divided into five parts. Part one considers the Phillips Curve, wage rates and profits. The second part discusses the various theories of the causes of inflation and explores issues such as the depreciation of money, monetarism and cost-push versus demand-pull inflation. Part three looks at anti-inflation policies, focusing on incomes policies, credit and monetary policy and wage-price controls among other issues. Keynesian macroeconomics is evaluated in the fourth section, as well as inflation and the national income model. The final part considers supply-side economics. Macroeconomic Theory and Policy is an essential reference companion to the work of Richard G. Lipsey, one of the most important economists of our generation.

This volume uses cutting-edge theory and empirical analysis of channels of international interaction to build new knowledge about strategies of entrepreneurs, domestic and multinational firms, governments, and international organizations facing increasing globalization. The ongoing process of globalization implies the continuing expansion and intensification of economic, political, social, cultural and judicial relations across borders. It is furthered by reductions in transportation and communication costs, the rise of new information technologies, such as the internet, and liberalizations in the markets for goods, services, labor, capital, and technology. Globalization presents new opportunities to some, but risks and threats to others. The volume presents new research and findings by leading scholars on international trade, labor markets, financial markets, economic integration, political science, law, management, the humanities, developing countries, and international relations.

Setting the issue "Most economists consider the marked increase in automatic stabilizers a highly favorable development with respect to maintenance of economic stability". Besides the rare privilege of having being signed by both Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson (Depres,Friedman, Hart, Samuelson, and Wallace [1950]), among others, this sentence expressed as soon as 1950 the consensus view on the stabilizing effect of fiscal rules governing tax revenue and public expendi tures and transfers. This positive ex ante assessment will have been confirmed ex post as part of the explanation for post war stabilization (Burns [1960], de Long and Summers [1986], Moore and Zarnovitz [1986]). However, it becomes disputed in both its positive and normative aspects. Many institutional changes since the eighties point at curbing back the transfer mechanisms underlying automatic stabilizers, and legal restraints on deficits such as the US balanced budget amendment or the European Maastricht criteria would involve serious risks for the future of stabilizers. Under such rules "the government would become, almost inevitally, a destabilizer rather than a stabilizer" said Joseph Stiglitz, quoted by the New York Times (April 1995)). "Built-in stabilizers are automatic fiscal adjustments that reduce the national income multiplier and thus cushion the effects of changes in autonomous spend ing on the level of income" (Pechman [1987]). Early analyses of the automatic fiscal stabilizers include the contributions of A. G. Hart [1945], R. Musgrave and M. Miller (1948) and E. C. Brown (1955).

There is a lack of international comparative housing studies, this book brings together scholars with knowledge on different national markets. Each chapter can be read independently, making it easy to adopt single chapters in a course curriculum. Part A and C provides a theoretical framework that can be read separately and function as a base for discussing an individual housing market by choice above the provided country chapters. The book relies on both quantitative and qualitative methods. For teaching purposes, single chapters can be used as examples of different contexts. There is very little research on international housing markets from a comparative approach. This book provides new data as well as new analysis of existing data, providing new insights on institutional constraints on national housing markets. The book is written in an accessible, non-technical manner targeting a broad academic audience, and can be used both for teaching and readers wanting to orient themselves in the field. The book provides new perspectives on international housing markets and, focusing on underlying and interconnected markets. Specifically, the role of how institutional factors influence transaction costs differently on different national markets is addressed.

This book examines how China's decentralization process has affected and will affect the country's macroeconomic performance and the functioning of the market. With an innovative application of game theory, the author develops an analytical framework that can explain the behaviour of the central and local governments under alternative institutional environments. The study also suggests how to establish desirable rules of games in China's political and economic institutions through appropriate reforms.

This textbook helps students truly understand how to apply the principles behind corporate finance in a real world context from both a firm and investor perspective. In its second edition, this text focuses on traditional theory applied to a holistic and realistic business case study, written as a novel set in current times so that all readers can relate. As such, this textbook offers readers both a quantitative and qualitative perspective on topics such as capital budgeting, time value of money, corporate risk, and capital structure. The sections are laid out to mirror the financial decision process, making it easier for readers to grasp the idea of the corporate financial life cycle. New topics such as socially responsible investing and private capital markets are also incorporated into this edition. Finally, PowerPoint slides, answer keys and data sets are available online for instructors.

This book deals with the effects of international trade on economic growth and money. It also re-examines Keynesian theory and analyzes economic growth in an affluent society in terms of planning, economic and social policy.

The Economics of Budget Deficits provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly literature exploring the causes and consequences of deficit spending and the public debt. Incorporating classical, Keynesian and public choice analyses of debt-financed public expenditures, the two volumes contain major theoretical and empirical contributions to the debate. They cover such critical fiscal policy issues as the history and measurement of budget deficits, the question of who bears the burden of the public debt, the use of deficits to solve problems of dynamic policy inconsistency and the relative effectiveness of fiscal rules and constitutional constraints as mechanisms for achieving budget balance. The editors provide an authoritative introduction to the two volumes and separate overviews of each of the seven parts. The Economics of Budget Deficits is an indispensable reference for all scholars and students interested in fiscal policy and for all policymakers.

This book examines the policy implications of the fundamental theoretical errors exposed in the companion volume on Toxic Economic Theory:
Correction of the microeconomic market-value fallacy (the root cause of the economic crisis) suggests radical accounting reform based on the segregation of fact from opinion. Disclosure of planned investment rates and their continuous monitoring are essential for curing "balance-sheet myopia" and for bringing the management of banks and large corporations under the control of market forces.
Correction of the macroeconomic single-gear fallacy (the main obstacle to economic recovery) indicates that the economy is a multi-gear machine. To operate efficiently at its full employment potential, structural reform to improve the lubricant of free competition is necessary but not sufficient. Freedom of circulation to maintain the economy in top gear is equally vital. Counter-productive attempts to shrink economies out of debt stem from the single-gear obsession with competition to the exclusion of
circulation.
A multi-gear strategy for economic recovery requires the repudiation of two centuries of tax mythology. Radical reform of the current dysfunctional tax system and its integration with macroeconomic policy can create an automatic mechanism, not
only for economic gear-changing, but also for the disposal of inflationary waste. By establishing regional fiscal autonomy, multi-gear strategy can solve the problem of imbalances between or within countries, and also within single-currency unions.
Rapid economic growth without inflation - essential for economic recovery - is impossible until economic policy is liberated from the stranglehold of single-gear fundamentalism. As a science, economics may be dismal; as a religion, it is positively
lethal.

This book explores the development of economic thought in Sweden through some of the people who shaped it. The book highlights both some of the well-known contributions and some overlooked areas of research. It begins with the origins of the pioneer neoclassical Heckscher-Ohlin theorem and Gunnar Myrdal 's circular, cumulative approach to economic development. Secondly, it focuses on a number of economists related to the Industrial Institute of Economic and Social Research: Ingvar Svennilson, Axel Iveroth, Jan Wallander, Erik Hoeoek, Villy Bergstroem and Rolf Henriksson. Finally, it offers portraits of three economists from Lund University: Bo Soedersten, Ingemar Stahl and Goete Hansson. The work of all of them is placed within the context of the contemporary academic and public economic debate. This book aims at providing a perspective on the legacy of the Swedish tradition in economics and will be relevant to students and academics interested in the history of economic thought.

Housing finance structures and Institutional and regulatory/fiscal aspects in housing have changed significantly in recent years. This book examines the development in housing markets in Europe and the US, and looks at ways to make housing more affordable and housing market developments more stable.

This book examines the new conditions under which professional work, often referred to as "knowledge-intensive work," is organised and how professional groups who have traditionally been granted jurisdictional discretion now have their work routines renegotiated. In the new economic regime of what has been called "investor capitalism" and under the influence of shareholder primacy governance, professional work is put under pressure to change. The author explores issues of increased financial and economic volatility, the pressure to outsource and offshore professional work and the increased supply of competitors with tertiary education degrees in the labour market. Examining both macroeconomic conditions and policy that inform and shape the domain of professional work, the book emphasises how the nature of professional work has changed since the 1980s and 1990s and argues that it is no longer a "safe haven" for a favoured group of elite workers. Precarious Professional Work underlines how the study of professions must constantly accommodate new economic conditions and managerial practices to better understand how professional work is dependent on and entangled with external social, economic, and political conditions.

The US housing bubble and the ensuing financial crisis and recession, as well as the ongoing slow recovery, have prompted a renewal of interest in the business cycle theory associated with the Austrian school of economics. Over the last thirty years, Austrian economists have extended and refined that theory while also deploying Austrian insights in other areas of monetary theory and macroeconomics. In this volume, a number of macroeconomists influenced by the Austrian school demonstrate its explanatory power by applying those ideas to a variety of historical and contemporary issues. Several of the papers focus on the differences between the US and Canadian experiences during the early 21st century, while other contributors offer critical extensions of Austrian monetary and business cycle theory. The volume also includes empirical applications to the housing boom and bust, and several papers consider the place of Austrian macroeconomics within the school's approach to political economy and public policy more generally. "Studies in Austrian Macroeconomics" shows the breadth and depth of modern macroeconomics in the Austrian tradition.

This work, written by a scholar and consultant who has worked extensively in Central and Eastern Europe, presents important background information and analysis on the economic and political changes that are taking place in that part of the world. The author's work is based on research conducted at the Department of Economics at Harvard University. The book provides the basis for future evaluation of the changes in post-communist economies. It discusses the radical changes in Europe, economic reforms in Eastern Europe and the former USSR, economic development strategies, and theoretical and policy issues on currency convertibility in post-communist economies.

This book discusses the current landscape of our market economy, which is in the hands of financiers and billionaires who decrease competition as well as consumer power. In order for society to fully thrive and provide its members higher living standards and quality of life, it must distribute and deliver the fruits of the economic activity without discrimination and favoritism. This book exposes the real problem of economic inequality, poverty, and the elimination of the middle class and argues for a progressive market economy in the face of regressive conservatism. The author warns of business failures, rigid and unrealistic laws, widespread unemployment, and class warfare without a fair, functional system. Until action is taken to reverse this situation, our market economy will continue to be abused by the greedy and the powerful, stripping it of any potential for advancement and growth.

This volume offers an authoritiative selection of the best published articles on the great speculative manias and stock market crashes, which highlights their important similarities. These phenomena disrupt the normal activities of investors who use financial markets to accumulate diversified portfolios of assets. The attraction of rapid capital gains entices the unwary to abandon their customary investments, exposing them to ruin when prices of hot new assets collapse. The mania for tulips in seventeenth century Holland and schemes to refinance government debt in eighteenth century France and Britain burned many investors and transformed financial markets. The volatile American stock market of the nineteenth century and bursting regional real estate bubbles brought down many financial institutions, threatening economic stability. The striking parallels between the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 raise basic questions about the stability of the capital markets. By examining whether these phenomena represent rational movements of the market or some mania or fad, these articles focus on the central policy question of whether these markets require regulation to serve the investing public.

This volume discusses diverse methodologies in economics education, focusing on experiential economic education away from campus through study abroad, study away, and other off-campus programs. These twenty-three chapters provide a 'how-to' guide for economic educators looking to expand their pedagogical repertoire, whether they want to take students to Ireland to study Adam Smith or South Africa to study poverty. Readers are provided with information about the economic content of the course as well as the nuts-and-bolts of on-the-ground experiences. Delivering a modern take on economic education, this volume is intended for economics educators wishing to engage students in new and creative ways.

This book provides an overview of the monetary and financial systems seen in Africa. The issues related to these systems are examined to help evaluate their effectiveness in fostering the development of African economies. Economic integration is extensively discussed to highlight variations between different parts of Africa and the specific challenges seen within certain regions. The impact of monetary unions, in particular the CFA franc zone, on economic activities is also explored. This book aims to outline how sustainable development can be achieved in Africa through well-developed financial and monetary institutions and policies. It will be relevant to students, academics and policy makers interested in African and development economics.