In a bold attempt to formulate a tentative, unified conceptual framework for the study of global development, the author tries to integrate numerous contributions from a variety of fields, including economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, moral philosophy, sociobiology, neurobiology, and others. He regrets the present compartmentalization of study of this topic, which leads to a lack of perspective in dealing with crucial planetary problems. . . . Truly an ambitious and courageous effort and a worthy project. Recommended for academic and public library collections dealing with development. "Choice"

This book breaks important new ground in the international debate over development by presenting the first systematic attempt to map a unified theory of global development. Drawing from the fields of economics, sociology, political science, philosophy, and ethics, the author presents a unique cross-disciplinary perspective on international development that features a number of new concepts and approaches to development studies. Building upon a synthesis of three independent developments of the 1970s, Weigel contends that it is possible to construct a universal development norm and a universal moral principle which retain their credibility in both cross-cultural and transhistorical contexts. He argues further that when these principles are linked to a well-differentiated theory of basic human needs they provide a powerful normative framework for the integration of economic and political rights which can guide policymakers well into the 21st century.

Certain to spark new debate among academicians and policymakers, Weigel's work makes a number of significant contributions, including: a comprehensive synthesis between moral philosophy and development studies; the most elaborate philosophical defense of the I.L.O's 'Basic Needs Approach' to date; an analysis of the nuclear arms race which utilizes the concept of stable strategies and presents a new theory of nuclear deterrence; a macroeconomic framework for basic needs program; an analysis of global parameters for development assistance; country studies which demonstrate the feasibility of Basic Needs programs for low-income countries; the application of the theory to a wide variety of topic areas such as paternalism, population control policies, the problem of political legitimation, and economic policies. Throughout, the author focuses on the concept of basic needs, arguing that the satisfaction of basic human needs must be the touchstone of all future development policies.

In the first part of this book, we treat interacting and small open economies. We do this from an historical perspective, starting from the Classical model of the gold standard and the specie-flow mechanism and aim to show there that the Dornbusch IS-LM-PC approach, with or without rational expectations, can still be considered as a (if not the) core contribution to contemporaneous open economy macrodynamics, also on the level of structural macroeconometric model building. In the second part we then extend this analysis to the incorporation of more disequilibrium on the real markets, prominent further feedback channels of the macrodynamic literature and integrated macromodel building. We start from the closed economy, consider large open economies in a fixed exchange rate system, small open economies subject to high capital mobility, and finally two large interacting economies like the USA and Euroland. Our macrofounded approach extends and integrates non-market clearing traditions to macrodynamics and can be usefully compared with the New Keynesian approaches which are generally rigorously microfounded, but often much more limited in scope in capturing full market and agent interactions.

This book shows how money and banks emerge to efficiently address problems of trust between economic agents. The analysis offers an innovative approach for integrating monetary theory, banking theory, and standard economic theory in a game theoretical framework. The unified perspective of the book contributes to a better understanding of the microeconomic foundations of monetary policy and banking. It emphasizes the importance of trust supported by credible institutional structures in the financial industry.

First published in 1967, The Soviet Middle East provides an analysis of the economic and political status of the national republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, which were, at the time of the book's initial publication, a part of the Soviet Union. The authors analyse their economic achievements, as well as their rapid progress in health and education, comparing their situation with that of their non-Soviet neighbours and indeed with the rest of the USSR. They seek to define the relevance of the Soviet planning system and Soviet ideology to the development of these countries, and also to contextualise their study in terms of the problems of other developing countries and the political stability of the Soviet Union as a multi-nation state. Written by two leading authorities on the Soviet Union, this reissue will be welcomed by students of Soviet and Middle-Eastern history, and by all those interested in the political, social and economic development of Communist republics.

`A pioneering and valuable study linking finance to innovative activity: not only is the theoretical framework sound, thought-provoking and creative, but amply supported through systematic empirical testing.' - David B. Audretsch, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung This book broadens the economic explanation of technological change, by assuming that development and diffusion of new technologies are closely related to the financial arrangements and institutions which prevail in any given historical period. To support his hypothesis, the author combines theoretical prescriptions with empirical evidence: the interdependences between technology and finance suggested in the first part of the book are therefore analysed from a historical perspective, and a theoretical model is then applied to explain how R&D is funded by new and already established firms in the data processing industry. The book concludes with a survey of policy interventions towards various sources of innovation financing.

India was one of the better performers after the global financial crisis, and has done well despite opening out in a period of great international volatility. This book asks if this was due to luck or to good management. How much did macroeconomic policy contribute and did it do as much as it could have, on a reform path that was not standard? Are there any lessons from the Indian experience for the rest of the world? Senior Indian policy economists, market participants, and researchers address these interesting and important questions. There are those who think financial reform has gone too fast - relaxations in foreign borrowing norms exposed firms to external shocks. Volatile capital flows impacted markets, although more liberalization of risk-sharing equity compared to debt flows, was effective in reducing domestic risk. But there are also those who think reform was too slow - choking financial development: many markets and instruments that could improve domestic financial intermediation and reduce risk were held back. Analysis suggests policy was able to find the correct timing, pace and combination of reforms and of caution, but improvement is always possible. Luck and inherent strengths of the economy helped absorb both policy mistakes and external shocks. This book was originally published as a special issue of Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies.

This book argues that in many jurisdictions free market advocates have resorted to public sector downsizing and privatization as a means of alleviating problems of unemployment and slow economic growth and that, as a consequence, the strategy of reducing public deficits, balancing budgets and achieving surpluses has become widely accepted as the only road to prosperity. The Economics of Public Spending shows in clear and simple terms that the strategy of public sector downsizing is based on a misleading conception of public finance. The book dispels several myths about public deficits and debts, offering alternative approaches to fiscal and monetary policies. The contributors argue convincingly and authoritatively that the public sector is crucial for economic growth, that budget deficits are required for improving the performance of the private sector and that there is a real need for an economic agenda based on public deficits and low stable real interest rates in order to achieve full employment with high wages, more generous social programmes and sustainable inflation. This fascinating and challenging book will be of great interest to policymakers in government, academic researchers as well as public finance experts and economists.

This book reviews the Islamic opposition to interest and assesses the feasibility of a non-interest financial system in the light of current economic theory. The Islamic critique of interest is set against a discussion of the methodology of Islamic economics and the opposition to interest within the Judeo-Christian tradition. The range of Islamic non-interest financial contracts is then detailed along with a review of the performance of Islamic banks to date; a model of the allocation of finance within a non-interest system is then presented. Assessment of the issues raised is made within the context of economic literature concerning debt versus equity finance; this includes an examination of banking instability and the business cycle, the determinants of levels of saving and the implications for public finance. The conclusions outline the advantages and disadvantages of a theoretical case for the prohibition of interest, and draws practical lessons for contemporary Western economies.

Hardbound. This book examines the relationship between elites, minorities, and economic growth. The novelty of the book lies in its focus on the interaction between social and economic changes during economic growth. This is an undeveloped subject because it crosses disciplinary lines. The first part of the book contains essays on the role of economic and political elites in America, Europe and the Middle East. The second part of the book contains essays on the role of minorities in past and present industrialization in Europe and Asia. And the final part contains more theoretical approaches that build on the historical essays earlier in the volume.Elites, Minorities and Economic Growth is particularly useful for macroeconomists interested in economic growth, economic historians, sociologists interested in elites, minorities and social mobility and historians of industrialization and economic growth.

It may be possible to claim that, generally speaking, central banks around the world have never before held such a central and well-respected position in their respective countries as they hold now. Their tasks seem to be reasona bly well defined and the mandate given to them to guarantee price stability has so far worked more successfully than was perhaps expected. Inflation is lower than it has been for a long time. One central bank after the other has been given a position independent of normal party political processes. Re search concerning monetary policy and other topics of relevance for central banking has made good progress during the past decade. Much of the mys tique that has typically surrounded the internal work and decision-making of central banks has gradually disappeared. Instead, openness and transparency have become the key words of the day. The communication channels of central banks; speeches, inflation reports, minutes of meetings, etc. receive considerable attention and often give rise to headlines in the media. The en vironment in which central banks work and act today has thus undergone changes that in my view are very positive. However, we should always be on our guard against complacency. It would be most dangerous for central bankers today to sit back and relax in the belief that all of the important problems have been resolved and need no further consideration. Unless central bankers remain constantly alert and vigilant, their policy-making can easily deteriorate."

This volume focuses on the analysis and measurement of business cycles in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). Divided into five parts, it begins with an overview of the main concepts and problems involved in monitoring and forecasting business cycles. Then it highlights the role of BRICS in the global economy and explores the interrelatedness of business cycles within BRICS. In turn, part two provides studies on the historical development of business cycles in the individual BRICS countries and describes the driving forces behind those cycles. Parts three and four present national business tendency surveys and composite cyclical indices for real-time monitoring and forecasting of various BRICS economies, while the final part discusses how the lessons learned in the BRICS countries can be used for the analysis of business cycles and their socio-political consequences in other emerging countries.

Sir Alan Walters ex-chief economic advisor to PM Margaret Thatcher Whether it succeeds or fails, Europe is everyone's concern. The idea of a united Europe has been entertained, even partially at least, achieved, inter alia, CharlemagI e, Napoleon, Hitler, and in our da)' by Spaak, Monet and Chancellor Kohl: the first three by military conquest, the last three by "negotiation" and the creation of integrating institutional arrangements. The motives varied from the twisted paranoia of the Nazis to the idealism of SpaaklMonet/Kohl in avoiding conflicts and wars. Under the protection of NATO the European Coal and Steel Community soon was transformed into the EEC by the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The massive reduction of trade barriers, particularly between France and Germany, was rewarded by vigorous growth over the next 15 years. Even as late as 1972, when Britain acceeded to the Treaty of Rome, the EEC was thought to be lar ely a customs union: in de Gaulle eyes the EEC was simply a collection of sovereISJ: l states who cooperated primarily on trade. Each state however enjoyed a veto; deCIsions had to be unanimous.

The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) encompasses the legislative text and political resolutions regulating fiscal policy and public finances in EMU. The contributions in this volume analyze the institutional, legal, theoretical and empirical aspects of the SGP, examine its development and evaluate its main implications. The authors include academic economists, who provide insightful analysis, and policy makers who have contributed to the shaping of the pact and have a direct responsibility for its implementation. This book is the definitive source of reference on the SGP for academics, policy makes and economists.

This reissue, first published in 1982, is the first of two volumes on the causes and cure of Stagflation - the two-headed monster that combines mass unemployment with rapid inflation, which affected contemporary economies across the industrially developped world in the 1970s.

Professor Meade outlines the nature of the problem, contrasting the Great Slump of the 1930s with the Great Stagflation of the 1970s and comparing the Orthodox Keynesian and Monetarist approaches with the New Keynesian strategy. Various proposals for the reform of wage-fixing institutions are discussed, including the limitation of trade-union bargaining powers, an official incomes policy, labour management and ownership in business, and tax or subsidy measures to discourage inflationary rises in wages and prices.

The book will be essential reading for all concerned with both the theory and policy of contemporary macroeconomics, industrial relations, labour economics and labour law. It has been written so that the general argument in the main text is accessible to the general reader as well as of interest to the professional economist.

With the rapid growth of China and India and the resurgence of Southeast Asia post-1997 8, emerging Asia has once again become one of the most dynamic regions in the world. This dynamism has in turn been fuelled largely by a carefully calibrated embracement of economic openness to international trade, investments and capital flows. While much has been written about international trade, there has been somewhat less work on the issue of capital flows, macroeconomic management and foreign direct investment (FDI) to and from the region, a gap that this book attempts to fill.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with selected issues pertaining to macroeconomic management in small and open economies, with particular focus on exchange rates. The second part of the book deals with the trends and determinants of FDI in emerging Asia, its importance as a source of finance, its impact on growth and development, and the nexus between FDI and foreign portfolio flows (FPI).

Overall, the chapters in this book tackle important policy issues of contemporary relevance, but are informed by analytical frameworks, data and empirics. While each of the topic areas chosen in individual chapters is intentionally narrow, the book as a whole covers a number of areas and countries/regions within Asia (i.e. East, Southeast and South Asia). While the chapters have been written in a manner that can stand up to academic scrutiny, they are also meant to be accessible to policy makers, researchers and others who might be interested in FDI and related issues in Asia.

This EMEA edition of Robert Barro's popular text has been fully updated to reflect the macroeconomics of a post-financial crisis world. Starting with long-run macroeconomics, this text explores some of the key theories and models in macroeconomics such as the Keynesian model and the business-cycle model, finishing with extending the equilibrium model to the open economy. This exciting edition, which has been fully updated by Professor Angus Chu and Professor Guido Cozzi, provides an accurate and unified presentation of current macroeconomic thought whilst maintaining Professor Barro's original vision for his textbook.

This book explores the new economics of monetary union. It carefully discusses the effects of shocks and policies on output and prices. Shocks and policies are country-specific or common. They occur on the demand or supply side. Countries can differ in behavioural functions. Wages can be fixed, flexible, or slow. In addition, fixed wages and flexible wages can coexist. Take for instance fixed wages in Germany and flexible wages in France. Or take fixed wages in Europe and flexible wages in America. A special feature of this book is the numerical estimation of shock and policy multipliers. Further topics are inflation and disinflation. Take for instance inflation in Germany and price stability in France. Then what policy is needed for disinflation in the union? And what will be the dynamic effects on Germany and France?

Innovation in banking should be directed at improving the infrastructure that fosters efficient financial services and international trade. In this work, innovation theory is used to show how modern payment systems have transformed the technology of banking and facilitated changes in the strategy and structure of financial services organisations. Design, implementation and dissemination of payment systems are described and the analysis of their costs and benefits is combined with case studies of banks undergoing change. By studying firm capabilities, competencies, and resources, the approach is extended to services in general and linked to the ability of firms to compete and promote national economies. Payment systems vary and advanced and developing economies face obstacles in their legal and technical infrastructure, and maturity of banks. By adopting an international perspective, the book offers a unique comparative analysis that shows what kind of investments are likely to be effective.

This book began when a letter reached my desk in November 1989. Written by Warren Samuels, professor of economics at Michigan State University and editor for Kluwer Academic Publishers, the letter reviewed the philosophy behind Kluwer's series on recent economic thought and accordingly expressed interest in the controversies that surround con temporary topics in the discipline. It graciously went on to invite me to organize, consonant with that philosophy, a volume of chapters on saving. Soon thereafter I learned that the chapters were to be original compositions. I also learned that I would have substantial flexibility in structuring the volume and in recruiting contributors, who logically would be authorities in the field. Succinctly, Samuels was inviting me to work with leading scholars in exploring the current controversies in saving, one of my favorite subjects. That invitation was simply too tempting to refuse. Preparation of the book's outline went smoothly. It was obvious that the statistics of saving should be covered along with the theories of saving. It was equally obvious that special issues must be addressed: Ricardian Equivalence, supply-side doctrine, and economic development among others. These themes should be handled so as to bring out the ideological tensions in the profession, and that criterion helped to shape the list of potential contributors. That is, both sides of a conflict should be represented, and both should be given the same treatment."

This book represents the first of three volumes offering a complete reinterpretation and restructuring of Keynesian macroeconomics and a detailed investigation of the disequilibrium adjustment processes characterizing the financial, the goods and the labour markets and their interaction. It questions in a radical way the evolution of Keynesian macroeconomics after World War II and focuses on the limitations of the traditional Keynesian approach until it fell apart in the early 1970s, as well as the inadequacy of the new consensus in macroeconomics that emerged from the Monetarist critique of Keynesianism. Professors Chiarella, Flaschel and Semmler investigate basic methodological issues, the pitfalls of the Rational Expectations School, important feedback channels in the tradition of Tobin's work, and theories of the wage-price spiral and the evidences for them. The book uses primarily partial approaches, the integration of which will be the subject of subsequent volumes. With its focus on Keynesian propagation mechanisms, the research in this book provides a unique alternative to the black-box shock-absorber approaches that dominate modern macroeconomics. Reconstructing Keynesian Macroeconomics should be of interest to students and researchers who want to look at alternatives to the mainstream macrodynamics that emerged from the Monetarist critique of Keynesianism.

How can we effectively aggregate disparate pieces of information that are spread among many different individuals? In other words, how does one best access the ?wisdom of the crowd Prediction markets, which are essentially speculative markets created for the purpose of aggregating information and making predictions, offer the answer to this question. The effective use of these markets has the potential not only to help forecast future events on a national and international level, but also to assist companies in providing, for example, improved estimates of the potential market size for a new product idea or the launch date of new products and services.

The markets have already been used to forecast uncertain outcomes ranging from influenza outbreaks to the spread of other infectious diseases, to the demand for hospital services, to the box office success of movies, climate change, vote shares and election outcomes, to the probability of meeting project deadlines. The insights gained also have many potentially valuable applications for public policy more generally. These markets offer substantial promise as a tool of information aggregation as well as forecasting, whether alone or as a supplement to other mechanisms like surveys, group deliberations, and expert opinion. Moreover, they can be applied at a macroeconomic and microeconomic level to yield information that is valuable for government and commercial policy-makers and which can be used for a number of social purposes.

This volume of original readings, contributed by many of the leading experts in the field, marks a significant addition to the base of knowledge about this fascinating subject area. The book should appeal to all those with an interest in economics, forecasting or public policy, and in particular those with an interest in the study of money, investment and risk.

Originally published in 1994, this book, divided into three parts, examines macroeconomic models in a non-technical way. Part I discusses the importance of macroeconomic modelling; Part II examines the rise and fall of Keynesian income-expenditure models; and part III evaluates the evidence and presents a critique of how we can learn from these models now and in the future.

The European economy is emerging from its deepest recession since the 1930s. This volume, which brings together economic analysis from the European Commission services, explains how swift policy response avoided a financial meltdown; but turning the ongoing recovery into sustained growth requires action on five challenges: boosting potential output, enhancing labour market flexibility, preparing fiscal consolidation, facilitating intra-EU adjustment, and unwinding global imbalances. Europe also needs an improved co-ordinated crisis-management framework to help it respond to any similar situations that may arise in the future. Economic Crisis in Europe shows that the beginnings of such a crisis-management framework are emerging, building on existing institutions and legislation and complemented by new initiatives. Naturally, initial EU policy efforts, such as fiscal stimulus, focused on crisis control and mitigation. But first steps have also been taken to redesign financial regulation and supervision with crisis prevention in mind. The design of crisis resolution policies is now becoming a main task. While any premature withdrawal of policy stimulus should be avoided, exit strategies should be ready for implementation, embedded in a broader policy framework that also includes growth-enhancing structural reforms.

* Presents many of the microeconomic and macroeconomic theories and schools of thought not generally covered in mainstream principles of economics textbooks * Each chapter starts with a short "refresher" of standard neoclassical economic modelling before demonstrating how that model is distorted by people, problems and events in the real world to provide students with a more realistic picture of how the economy works * Updates throughout and new material on populism, racism, inequality, climate change and the covid-19 pandemic * Now has online supplements: quiz questions for students and PowerPoint slides for instructors

Nancy and Richard Ruggles's seminal work on prices has a contemporary relevance for modern-day theorists and practitioners. These carefully selected essays provide a core analysis of pricing systems and the behavior and measurement of prices. Initially, the authors examine pricing systems and the role of prices in the theories of value and income distribution. They examine the theory of marginal cost pricing and the welfare basis of the marginal cost pricing principle before focusing on the problems of measuring price changes over time and space. They also examine the reliability of domestic price statistics and price indices and offer an evaluation of the wholesale price index. They expand this analysis to examine the behavior of prices, costs, wage rates and earnings in the United States economy, placing particular emphasis on inflation between 1950 and 1973 and on price stability and economic growth. This book will be invaluable to academics, statisticians and policymakers with an interest in micreoconomics and pricing.