This book identifies and explores the mechanisms linking political institutions and variation in capitalist systems. A strong correlation exists between varieties of political regimes and varieties of capitalism: majoritarian political regimes are correlated with liberal market economies (LMEs) and consensus political regimes are correlated with coordinated market economies (CMEs). Still, correlation is not causation. Empirical findings illustrate that partisanship and policy legacies, the number of political parties, electoral rules, and constitutional constraints are significant indicators of LMEs and CMEs. Arsenault finds that majoritarian institutions create an environment of adversarial politics and strong competition between actors, which makes credible commitment to nonmarket coordination mechanisms unlikely. Consensus institutions, on the other hand, promote an atmosphere of cooperation and coordination between actors, thus encouraging credible commitment to nonmarket coordination mechanisms. Qualitative case studies of Germany, Britain, and New Zealand confirm the quantitative findings and suggest that political regimes were instrumental in shaping the economic adjustment paths of these countries during the era of liberalization in the 1980s.

The sixth volume in the FIEF Studies in Labour Markets and Economic Policy series is a contribution to the empirical literature on endogenous growth theory, which studies the interrelationships of institutions, government policies, distribution, and growth. After an Introductory overview by the editor, the volume contains four main chapters, each of which is followed by review comments: Alesina and Perotti review recent literature on the political economy of growth, and discuss such topics as the relationship between income instability and growth, whether democratic institutions and civil liberties influence growth performance, and whether income inequality hampers growth or not. Hansson and Henrekson study the tendency--predicted by neoclassical growth theory--of per capita income and productivity to converge between countries. They focus on the diffusion of technology and the phenomenon of 'catching up', whereby poor countries copy the production methods and possibily organizational methods in advanced countries. Grier uses a similar neoclassical production-function approach, but brings in some new explanatory factors for the growth process, including union density, the existence

This Palgrave Pivot offers comprehensive evidence about what people actually think of "nudge" policies designed to steer decision makers' choices in positive directions. The data reveal that people in diverse nations generally favor nudges by strong majorities, with a preference for educative efforts - such as calorie labels - that equip individuals to make the best decisions for their own lives. On the other hand, there are significant arguments for noneducational nudges - such as automatic enrollment in savings plans - as they allow people to devote their scarce time and attention to their most pressing concerns. The decision to use either educative or noneducative nudges raises fundamental questions about human freedom in both theory and practice. Sunstein's findings and analysis offer lessons for those involved in law and policy who are choosing which method to support as the most effective way to encourage lifestyle changes.

The Public Sector R&D Enterprise combines a primer on how government R&D programs actually work with a sophisticated methodology for prospectively putting a dollar figure on the value of R&D investments before they are made.

The role of fiscal policy in short-run macroeconomic stabilization is, by now, well known in the academic literature and in policy circles. However, this focus on the short-run, especially in a democracy, means that much less attention has been paid to the other consequences of the use of fiscal policy. By studying the intergenerational-welfare aspects of fiscal policy, this book deals with some fundamental issues of fiscal policy. Why does public debt tend to rise over time in democracies? Why is there a tendency for government spending on consumption and on social security to grow? Why do governments fail to invest in public capital adequately? Should a dollar transferred from the young be treated as a dollar transferred to the old? By studying the international aspects of fiscal policy, the book establishes international differences in fiscal policy as determinants of persistent trade imbalances and international indebtedness. It also considers some basic questions on international transfers and austerity in open economies. What criteria should be used to define a successful foreign-aid programme? Why is foreign aid likely to fail in a world of global wealth disparity? Can reliance be placed on the international coordination of austerity to improve welfare in the long run? Is austerity accompanied by international transfers superior to austerity unaccompanied by international transfers? This book based on the OLG model fills a gap on fiscal-policy issues in the recent spate of books on overlapping generations.

Tracing the origins of recent Latin American debt problems to the financial politics of the immediate post-independence period, Thomas Millington argues that the failure of Latin American states to fund their internal debts made them dependent on foreign credit. Negative political and social consequences remain today, he says, and suggests that debt management should move toward a funded debt goal and away from the floating debt framework that is endemic in Latin America. He uses the funding experience in Bolivia to illustrate his thesis. Millington's work draws on the history of economic ideas and modern debt analysis and applies them to Latin American financial practices in their historical, social, and political contexts. By emphasising the politics of debt funding, he seeks to challenge other concepts of dependency and neocolonialism that dominate study of the immediate postindependence period. The book emerged from the author's experience of working on financial policy in the Bolivian Ministry of Finance in 1977-78 and on his extensive research in the Bolivian Archives, where he discovered evidence of the conflicts between liberal constituencies, as opposed to the external obstacles often cited in other studies.

First Published in 1983. This book is a contribution to the debate about Monetarism as an economic policy, and whether and how Monetarist policies can contribute to solving the current economic crisis. The diverse backgrounds and opinions of the distinguished economists writing in this volume, some supportive and some critical of Monetarism, ensure a variety of interpretations of the causes of, and responses to, the crisis. Overall, however, the book lays emphasis on two related factors which are frequently neglected in the current debates. Firstly, that the current economic crisis is a world crisis which is felt concomitantly, though in different forms and with different intensities, in the industrial countries, in the countries of the socialist bloc, and in the Third World. And although its manifestations in the industrial and in the developing countries have been quite different, the proposed policy answer has been fairly homogeneously Monetarist. Secondly, the message occurs throughout the book that in today's highly integrated world economy, national economic policies have lost much of their autonomy; Monetarist policies should therefore be assessed as to their consistency with external conditions and their effects on other countries. The contributors analyse the manifestations of the economic crisis in various parts of the world and give their individual views on Monetarist policies. Obviously there is no agreement, but that is not the purpose of this volume: its aim is to place the Monetarism discussion in the international context in which it should be conducted.

Can participatory budgeting help make public services really work for the public? Incorporating a range of experiments in ten different countries, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of participatory budgeting in Europe and the effect it has had on democracy, the modernization of local government, social justice, gender mainstreaming and sustainable development. By focussing on the first decade of European participatory budgeting and analysing the results and the challenges affecting the agenda today it provides a critical appraisal of the participatory model. Detailed comparisons of European cases expose similarities and differences between political cultures and offer a strong empirical basis to discuss the theories of deliberative and participatory democracy and reveal contradictory tendencies between political systems, public administrations and democratic practices.

This book, first published in 1967, explores some of the problems formulating investment criteria for the public sector of a mixed-enterprise, underdeveloped economy. The typical essay on public investment criteria explicitly or implicitly postulates a single goal for economic analysis - maximization of weighted average of national income over time - and relegates all other objectives of public policy to a limbo of "political" and "social" objectives not amenable to systematic, rational treatment. In contrast Professor Marglin assumes a multiplicity of objectives and explores ways and means of expressing contributions to different objectives in common terms. The book also investigates the relationship of specific investment criteria to the objectives of public policy. Benefits and costs are defined separately for each objective, as are so-called "secondary" benefits. This book is suited for students of economics.

This book critically addresses the model of social inclusion that prevailed in Brazil under the rule of the Workers Party from the early 2000s until 2015. It examines how the emergence of a mass consumer society proved insufficient, not only to overcome underdevelopment, but also to consolidate the comprehensive social protection system inherited from Brazil's 1988 Constitution. By juxtaposing different theoretical frameworks, this book scrutinizes how the current finance-dominated capitalism has reshaped the role of social policy, away from rights-based decommodified benefits and towards further commodification. This constitutes the Brazilian paradox: how a center-left government has promoted and boosted financialization through a market incorporation strategy using credit as a lever for expanding financial inclusion. In so doing, it has pushed the subjection of social policy further into the logic of financial markets.

Money's Fiscal Dictionary details information about fiscal terms in encyclopaedic format in relation to British industry in 1910 when originally published. This text originally began as a column in The Morning Leader but was expanded upon to present this information in a more accessible and convenient way. This title will be of interest to students of Business and Economics.

Originally published in 1919, A primer of National Finance discusses elements of financial principles with reference to facts and figures of British National Finance, Britain's financial position and general outline of where finances stood at the time of publication. Higgs aims to explain essential information about the political economy in a simple and concise way to reach a wider audience on issues related to wealth and production. This title will be of interest to students of Economics and Political History.

This century has seen the continuation of long-term trends in the movement of the territorial boundaries of nation states alongside the emergence of new tensions. The repercussions of the Scottish referendum and the heightened urgency of the Catalonia question along with the continued economic problems faced by the Eurozone have given new energy and context to debates on institutional and fiscal autonomy. Assessing the impact of increasing calls for wider fiscal autonomy in the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy and the USA this volume updates and adds significant new context to the debate. Framing the discussion on fiscal autonomy and drawing out ethical considerations it portrays the problems connected with the devolution of responsibilities and financial resources to sections of the population, sometimes content to be part of a lower layer of government, sometimes aspiring to an asymmetrical position or total independence.

The book proposes a monetary policy regime that is suitable for the European Periphery on the road to the euro. The first part examines the relation between the eleven founding members of the EMU and countries staying out of the EMU - paying particular attention to the European Periphery that includes Greece and all those CEE transition countries which have recently applied for EU membership. The second part of the book argues against ERM-II participation for those countries. It stresses the limits in efficiency of an ERM-II arrangement in a world of increased international capital movements, fiscal imbalances, and asymmetric real shocks. The third part offers a consistent and credible monetary framework for the achievement of price stability at the European Periphery: adoption of explicit and formal inflation targets together with political and economic independence of the central bank.

In 1962, the Committee on Urban Economics held a conference on public expenditure decisions in order to promote analysis of the issues facing the public sector of the urban economy. Originally published in 1965, this report pulls together key papers presented at this conference discussing issues such as urban services, the patterns of public expenditure and the quality of government services in urban areas to draw conclusions on the difficulties of analysis and how economic tools could be utilised more effectively to solve these difficulties. This title will be of interest to students of environmental studies and economics.

Topics in this comprehensive survey include bureaucracy, corruption and tax compliance; public finance in developing economies; taxation in several former Soviet republics, Eastern Europe and China; taxation in the enlarged European Union; tax harmonization vs. tax competition; and the philosophy of taxation and public finance. The editor has assembled a stellar group of authorities to write about their areas of expertise.

This instructor's manual complements the textbook Money: Theory and Practice which provides an introduction to modern monetary economics for advanced undergraduates, highlighting the lessons learned from the recent financial crisis. The manual provides teachers with exercises and examples that reflect both the core New Keynesian model and recent advances, taking into account financial frictions, and discusses recent research on an intuitive level based on simple static and two-period models.

State fiscal decisions have a significant impact on the US economy. Taken together, subnational governments employ more than one out of every eight workers and provide the bulk of all basic governmental services consumed by individuals and businesses. Sustaining the States: The Fiscal Viability of American State Governments will give you a basic understanding of trends in, current status of, and future prospects for the fiscal sustainability of state governments. After reading this book, you should have a great appreciation for the reach and multiple contributions of state governments to individuals and communities across the nation. The book examines the broad range and depth of state revenues, responsibilities, and activities. It begins with an assessment of executive budgeting in the states, then presents the experiences of states with strong executive-driven systems and the various rules and institutions that impact state government budget discipline. The book goes on to examine state revenue sources, debt, pensions, and spending, honing in on vital state functions including education, transportation, health services and public safety. It concludes with an assessment of the challenges that will test the fiscal vibrancy of US state governments going forward: vulnerability to future economic downturns, growing dependence on an increasingly austere federal government, the obsolescence of state tax systems and an ever more coercive system of federalism. Edited by experts, with a hand-picked panel of contributors, the book delineates the resources that states generate and use to conduct the business of government. The chapters outline the very real and significant constraints on the ability of the states to fulfill their responsibilities and introduce several challenges that state governments face and are actively addressing as they strive for fiscal sustainability. These features provide a clear, realistic understanding of state operations and financing in the United States, today. The book should also leave you with a sense of optimism for the capacity of state governments to advance forward.

Since the late 1800s psychologists have been interested in discerning the strategies subjects employ to solve psychological tests (Piaget, 1928, Werner, 1940, Gesell, 1941). Much of this work, however, has relied on qualitative observations. In the 1970s, Edith Kaplan adopted this approach to the analysis of standardized neuropsychological measures. Unlike her predecessors, Dr. Kaplan and her colleagues emphasized the application of modern behavioral neurology to the analysis of the test data. Her approach was later termed the Boston Process Approach to neuropsychological assessment. While Edith Kaplan's work generates a great deal of enthusiasm, the qualitative nature of her analyses did not allow for its adoption by mainstream neuropsychologists. However, in recent years this limitation has begun to be addressed. Clinicians and researchers have developed new methodologies for quantifying the Boston Process Approach, leading to the emergence of a new field, which is collectively termed the Quantified Process Approach. Quantified Process Approach to Neuropsychological Assessment outlines the rationale for the emergence of this new approach and reviews the state of the art research literature and up to date clinical applications as they pertain to the evaluation of neuropsychiatric, head injured, and learning disabled patients. When available, norms and scoring forms are included in the appendices.

In this book Miroslav Beblavy, who has been involved in policy-making at the highest level in his country, offers a detailed study of monetary policy and monetary institutions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia during the 1990s and the early 2000s and a more general look at monetary policy in less developed, but highly open and financially integrated market economies. Taking an innovative approach, this text focuses on a range of areas where few articles or books have been published and where very little empirical research has been undertaken, covers the topics of monetary policy frameworks, institutions inflation in transition and developing economies. As well as these border themes it analyzes specific factors that have significant influence on the conduct or outcomes of monetary policy including: the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in Central Europe use of principal types of constraints on policy discretion, such as central bank independence, exchange rate commitments and domestic targets for monetary policy. This book is a valuable resource for postgraduate students and research working or studying in the areas of development economics, public finance and banking.

What do drivers' licenses that function as national ID cards, nationwide standardized tests for third graders, the late unlamented 55 mile per hour speed limit, the outlawing of the eighteen-year-old beer drinker, and the disappearing mechanical lever voting machine have in common? Each is the product of an unfunded federal mandate: a concept that politicians of both parties profess to oppose in theory but which in practice they often find irresistible as a means of forcing state and local governments to do their bidding, while paying for the privilege.

Mandate Madness explores the history, debate, and political gamesmanship surrounding unfunded federal mandates, concentrating on several of the most controversial and colorful of these laws. The cases hold lessons for those who would challenge current or future unfunded federal mandates. James T. Bennett also examines legislative efforts to rein in or repeal unfunded federal mandates. Finally, he reviews the treatment of unfunded mandates by the federal courts. Those who find wisdom in America's traditional federalist political arrangement maintain--perhaps with more wishfulness than realism--that the unfunded federal mandate has not yet joined death and taxes as an immovable part of the modern political landscape.

Global developments in basic income have reinvigorated political debates on the necessity of progressing to universal basic income implementation. Basic income is a powerful strategy for addressing poverty gaps and growing inequality. This book provides new insights and strategies from an Australian political economy perspective to respond to implementation challenges and distributive justice. The book positions the disability dimension and disability pensions in relation to basic income to explore strategies for strengthening universal provisions. It illustrates the need for socially just conditions and adequate financing to underpin redistribution as a way of safeguarding the sustainability of basic income.

This volume celebrates the career of Nobel Laureate Sir James Mirrlees. The contributions are all by leading authorities and range over Mirrlees' fields of interest: the economics of information, welfare, taxation, project appraisal, and industrial organization. The book will appeal to a wide audience of economists working in microeconomic theory.

This book explores the incentives and effects of modern welfare policy, contrasted with outcomes of global basic income pilots in the past seventy years. The author contends that paternalistic and counterproductive eligibility rules in the modern American welfare state violate the human dignity of the poor and make it nearly impossible to escape the "poverty trap." Furthermore, these types of restrictions are absent from expenditures aimed at middle and upper-income households such as mortgage interest deductions and tax-sheltered retirement accounts. Case examples from the author's years as a front-line social worker and interviews with basic income pilot recipients in Ontario, Canada, are woven throughout the book to better illustrate the effects of the current system and the hidden potential of more radical alternatives such as a universal basic income.

This title considers such issues as the effect of local government policies on migration, the optimal size of cities, tax and expenditure capitalization, the economics of intergovernmental transfers, tax exporting, and tax competition.