This book investigates the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes on macroeconomic instability and economic growth in recipient countries. Employing the New Institutional Economics approach as an analytical framework, it identifies the determinants of economic and political institutional quality by taking into account a broad variety of indicators such as parliamentary forms of government, the aggregate governance level, civil and economic liberties, property rights etc. The book subsequently estimates the impact of these institutional determinants on real economic growth, both directly and also indirectly, through the channel of macroeconomic instability, in recipient countries. Moreover, it illustrates the effectiveness of IMF programmes in the case of Pakistan, a frequent user of IMF resources.

Perhaps America's first celebrated economist, Irving Fisher-for whom the Fisher equation, the Fisher hypothesis, and the Fisher separation theorem are named-staked an early claim to fame with his revival, in this 1912 book, of the "quantity theory of money." An important work of 20th-century economics, this work explores: the circulation of money against goods the various circulating media the mystery of circulating credit how a rise in prices generates a further rise influence of foreign trade on the quantity of money the problem of monetary reform and much more. American economist IRVING FISHER (1867-1947) was professor of political economy at Yale University. Among his many books are Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices (1892), The Rate of Interest (1907), Why Is the Dollar Shrinking? A Study in the High Cost of Living (1914), and Booms and Depressions (1932).

With the cold war over and the Soviet empire dead, a new examination of American national policies and priorities is beginning. Most of the economic, political and military costs of the American empire, which exceed $1 trillion each year, are being questioned for the first time since World War II. Touted by George Washington as the infant empire, the United States expanded across the North American continent and at the turn of the twentiety century into the Pacific and Caribbean. At the end of World War II, it became the leader of the free world, a world empire of unprecedented power. However, by the 1980s, the strain of world leadership became apparent and signs of economic decline appeared, which is the inevitable fate of all empires. Jim Hanson undertakes this examination of imperial overstretch and decline and calls for a rechanneling of national energies into solving world-wide problems of war, environmental deterioration, and over-population. This historic-based and analytic critique of imperial America will interest scholars and students of American and world history, political and social science, economics, and foreign affairs.

Can the euro area survive without a more centralized economic policy? What lessons can be drawn from Economic and Monetary Union about new modes of policy-making in the European Union? Have euro area members spoken with one voice on the international stage and what does this mean for the European Union's ambitions to be a global actor in its own right? This book explores these three key questions through an in-depth analysis of euro area governance from the launch of the single currency in 1999 to the sovereign debt crisis of 2010. Drawing insights from the study of European Union politics, comparative political economy and international political economy, it examines: Economic and Monetary Union's break from the Community method of policy-making; the European Central Bank's ambivalence about the pursuit of ever closer union; the Eurogroup's rise and fall as a forum for economic policy coordination; the interplay between national fiscal institutions and the stability and growth pact; the broad economic policy guidelines' failure to apply peer pressure; the European Union's influence within the G20 and the International Monetary Fund at the height of the global financial crisis; euro diplomacy towards China and other rising powers; and current debates about the fate of EMU and the reform of euro area governance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The book's conclusions challenge claims that the euro area is in crisis because of its decentralized approach to decision-making alone and the corollary that the euro can be saved only through a further transfer of sovereignty to the supranational level.

Globalization and information and communications technology (ICT) have played a pivotal role in revolutionizing value creation through the development of human capital formation. The constantly changing needs and structure of the labour market are primarily responsible for the conversion of a traditional economy relying fundamentally on the application of physical abilities to a knowledge-based economy relying on ideas, technologies and innovations. In this economy, knowledge has to be created, acquired, developed, transmitted, preserved and utilized for the improvement of individual and social welfare. Comparative Advantage in the Knowledge Economy: A National and Organizational Resource provides a comprehensive and insightful understanding of all the dimensions of a transition from a traditional to a knowledge economy. It attempts to explain how educational achievement, skilled manpower, investment in knowledge capital and analytics will be the key to success of a nation's comparative advantage in the globalized era. The volume should be of interest to students, researchers and teachers of economics, policy makers and advanced graduate students with an interest in economic analyses and development policy.

The analysis of any monetary policy framework necessarily extends beyond the confinements of the central bank. A country's monetary framework can depend on many factors such as: its form of government; its legal system; the level of expertise in monetary policy matters that exists inside and outside the central bank; the country's financial institutions; as well as wider characteristics including the political system and level of literacy. This broad ranging collection focuses on the monetary policy frameworks used by central banks and governments in their attempt to achieve their various goals, of which price stability has become increasingly unpopular. It assesses the links between targets and central bank independence, accountability and the transparency of monetary policy. Based on data collected through a questionnaire completed by over 70 central banks in industrialized, transitional and developing economies, the analysis shows how the detailed characteristics of a monetary framework depend upon: structural differences; varying degrees of indexation and other nominal rigidities that affect the speed of transmission from monetary policy to inflation; and institutional arrangem

This book contributes to the debate on the decoupling of emerging economies from the advanced economies with a new, empirical investigation approach. Taking counterfactual experiments performed using a time-varying panel VAR model, the author argues that over the last thirty years, emerging economies have become less vulnerable to shocks spreading from advanced economies. This resilience to external shocks has changed in a non-progressive manner over time, with phases of greater resilience followed by others of lower resilience and vice versa. This research outlines its wave-like path and presents new results that contribute to the discussion.

This volume brings together a distinguished group of contributors from European universities and research institutes as well as U.S. finance and economic institutes to examine a broad range of issues related to the current and future roles of international and European monetary systems. Among the topics covered are the relationship of each system to the U.S. dollar and its fluctuations vis-a-vis the Japanese Yen and German Deutschmark; the effect of fiscal policies on monetary systems; the role of the European currency unit; exchange rate management and international coordination; the theory behind, and policy implications of, over- and undervalued currencies; and the prospects for future currency unification and currency competition. Students of international finance and trade, international economics, and monetary theory will find this an important contribution to debates over international monetary policy.

Divided into two major sections, which address the international and European systems respectively, the book begins with three chapters that examine the exchange rate system of a managed float with respect to the dollar. The fundamental question addressed by the authors is whether this system, which has predominated in the last decade, has contributed to increasingly unstable real exchange rates. The following two chapters examine the role of the IMF's special drawing right and the appropriate exchange rate regime for developing countries. The remaining chapters focus on the European Monetary System, and explore such issues as the convergence of monetary and fiscal policies within the European Monetary System and the role of the private European Currency Unit. A bibliography is included for those who wish to pursue further research on these topics.

What makes the German economy so resilient? This provocative book challenges the conventional wisdom as to what constitutes national wealth, arguing that it is long-term, balanced development rather than rapid growth and productivity that makes an economy successful. Interdisciplinary in approach, this is the first book in many years to take an organic view of the German economy, looking not only at the mix of business and economic policies but also at the sociocultural and psychological background to German economic development. Gazdar shows how Germany balances the priorities of wealth, welfare, and well-being, and describes Germany's uniquely resilient form of ecological sociocapitalism. He argues that the German way of running an economy gives the country a strong, long-term edge over the United States and Japan in the global competition for economic security.

Executives interested in strategic planning and international marketing, economists, cultural and business historians, and policymakers will find this insightful book invaluable toward understanding the unique model that Germany exemplifies. Gazdar claims that Germany's mastery of balance--between the private and public sectors, between the interests of employers and employees, and between economical and ecological priorities--will lead it to economic triumph. He also argues that unless the United States comes to a new consensus, one that encompasses social issues, vocational education, and the improvement of infrastructure, it will steadily lose ground to Germany.

One of the most important developments in macroeconomics during the last decade has been the introduction of the rational expectations approach. Before the introduction of this method, economists relied on a variety of ad hoc mechanisms which often led to errors in their predictions. Studies in International Macroeconomics explains the ways in which the rational expectations method deals with uncertainty. It presents stochastic models and applies them to curent issues such as exchange rate determination, the effects of the rise and fall in oil prices, and the impact of wage indexing on the economy.

It has long been recognized that productivity growth and the business cycle are closely interrelated. Yet, until recently, the two phenomena have been investigated separately in the economics literature. This book provides the first consistent attempt to analyze the effects of macroeconomic volatility on productivity growth, and also the reverse causality from growth to business cycles. The authors show that by looking at the economy through the lens of private entrepreneurs, who invest under credit constraints, one can go some way towards explaining persistent macroeconomic volatility and the effects of volatility on growth. Beginning with an analysis of the effects of volatility on growth, the authors argue that the lower the level of financial development in a country the more detrimental the effect of volatility on growth. This prediction is confirmed by cross-country panel regressions. The data also suggests that a fixed exchange rate regime or more countercyclical budgetary policies are growth-enhancing in countries with a lower level of financial development. The former reduce aggregate volatility whereas the latter reduce the negative effects of volatility on long-term productivity-enhancing investment by firms. The book concludes with an investigation into how the interplay between credit constraints and pecuniary externalities is sufficient to generate persistent business cycles and to explain the occurrence of currency crises.

This proceedings volume analyzes the impact of globalization on international financial flow as well as harmonized financial reporting. Featuring contributions presented at the 18th Annual Conference on Finance and Accounting held at the University of Economics in Prague, this book examines the economic consequences of the globalized world in the sphere of corporate and public finance, monetary systems, banking, financial reporting and management accounting. The global perspective is accompanied by local specific cases studies, including those from emerging markets. In addition, the combination of micro- and macroeconomic approaches provide insights on the behavior of all relevant stakeholders in the process and the results of dynamic pressures surrounding global capital markets and international investments. This book will serve as a useful resource for scholars and researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of finance, economics and accounting.

This book offers the analysis of the relationship between the Cape Town Convention and national laws on secured transactions. The first part of the book considers why national implementation is so important in the case of the Cape Town Convention and identifies how innovative the Convention is as a uniform law instrument. The second part includes chapters on those states that are Parties to the Cape Town Convention, which analyse how the Convention is implemented under the domestic law. The third part includes chapters on those states that are not Parties to the Convention, which compare their national laws and the Convention to find unique features of the Cape Town Convention's rules. The fourth part discusses the meaning of Protocols on aircraft, railway rolling stock and space assets from the practitioner's point of view. As a whole, the book offers insights into the new stage of uniform private law and shows the need for further examination of the subject, which will be essential for international and national legislators, academics of comparative and international private law as well as practitioners who are the users of the uniform law regime.

This book presents a broad overview of risk management in the banking industry, with a special focus on strategic thinking and decision-making. It reveals the broader context behind decision models and approaches to risk management in the financial industry, linking the regulatory landscape for capital management and risk to strategic thinking, together with behavioral and cultural assessments.

Modern economics is like a metropolitan area. Economists' ideas about business and markets are like the magnificent buildings of the city centre. Yet most growth and prosperity is in the suburbs - lately many of economics' greatest successes have been outside the traditional boundaries of the discipline. In the study of law, economic ideas have been the intellectual focus and "law and economics" has become a major field. In the study of politics, economists and political scientists using economics-type methods are uniquely influential. In sociology and history, economics has had a smaller but growing influence through "rational choice sociology" and "cliometrics". The influence of the economists type thinking in other social sciences is bringing about a theoretical integration of all the social sciences under one overarching paradigm. The chapters of the book illustrate the intellectual advances that account for this unified view of economies and societies.

This book explores financial stability issues in the context of East Asia. In the East Asian region financial stability has been a major concern ever since the Asian crisis of 1997/98, which still looms large in the collective memory of the affected countries. The global crisis, which had its starting point in 2007, only served to exacerbate this concern. Safeguarding financial stability is therefore a major goal of any country in the region. Diverging cultural, political and economic backgrounds may however pose different stability challenges and necessary cooperation may be complicated by this diversity. Against this backdrop the contributions of this book by leading academics from the fields of economics and law as well as by practitioners from central banks shed light on various financial stability issues. The volume explores the legal environment of central banks as lenders of last resort and analyzes challenges to financial stability such as shadow banking and the choice of exchange rate regimes. Case studies from China, Japan and Indonesia are contrasted with experiences from Europe.

In the years since World War II, the United States and other countries have created a new economic order which has produced one of the broadest and most sustained periods of prosperity in world history. The essence of this new economic order is a system of rules to govern, facilitate, and promote trade in goods and services. The result is applauded by some and condemned by others. This study discusses the roles of money, systems, and growth in the emerging, new economic order. Studying the roles of money, systems, and growth are important for gaining insight into the likely behavior of economies such as China's. A nation as large as China could undermine the ability of other countries to impose politically difficult economic disciplines. There is need for caution. The upheaval in Asia that is affecting the world's largest markets is a case in point. Failure to implement reforms consistent with the rules of the new economic order has pushed such countries as Albania, Romania, and Macedonia close to becoming Europe's hidden Third World. The power of monetary policy and economic growth to either facilitate or hinder a country's readiness to adopt the rules of the new economic order is underscored in this study.

Restructuring economies in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere are abandoning their hostility to foreign enterprises and adopting policies to attract international investment. This book examines corporate experiences in Chile, one of the first nations to move successfully from a statist economy to an open market system using privatization, debt conversion, and liberal trade and investment policies. Drawing from research on over seventy foreign corporations, the book compares investment strategies used to assess risk and exploit business opportunities under conditions of fundamental economic change. Case studies describe how and why firms selected different financing, management, employment, production, and marketing approaches in establishing or expanding their operations.

After a brief historical review, the book examines key policy decisions in the 1980s that shaped Chile's new economy. Case studies are then analyzed by sector, covering mining and energy, nontraditional exports (forestry, fishing, and agribusiness), banking and insurance, and other industries including computers, telecommunications, chemicals, electrical goods, automotive products, foods and beverages, and pharmaceuticals. Summary chapters relate these learning experiences to broader strategic issues such as ownership and control, financing methods, technology transfer, trade policy, labor relations, taxation, regulatory reform, and coordinating global corporate operations. This book presents cumulative learning experiences useful for business executives and public officials who must develop new foreign investment strategies, as well as scholars and students interested in the role of foreign investment in developing countries.

This 12-country comparative volume examines the impact of economic structural adjustment programmes on grassroots civil associations and the implications for political liberalization and democratization in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The authors look at the impact of economic reform upon women's groups, human rights organizations, social welfare non-governmental organizations, unions and business associations. They challenge the assumption that economic reform will automatically lead to greater democratization.

Objects and commodities have frequently been studied to assess their position within consumer - or material - culture, but all too rarely have scholars examined the politics that lie behind that culture. This book fills the gap and explores the political and state structures that have shaped the consumer and the nature of his or her consumption. From medieval sumptuary laws to recent debates in governments about consumer protection, consumption has always been seen as a highly political act that must be regulated, directed or organized according to the political agendas of various groups. An internationally renowned group of experts looks at the emergence of the rational consuming individual in modern economic thought, the moral and ideological values consumers have attached to their relationships with commodities, and how the practices and theories of consumer citizenship have developed alongside and within the expanding state. How does consumer identity become available to people and how do they use it? How is consumption negotiated in a dictatorship? Are material politics about state politics, consumer politics, or the relationship between these and consumer practices?
From the specifics of the politics of consumption in the French Revolution - what was the status of rum? How complicated did a vinegar recipe have to be before the resultant product qualified as 'luxury'? - to the highly contentious twentieth-century debates over American political economy, this original book traces the relationships among political cultures, consumers and citizenship from the eighteenth century to the present.

Why do banks collapse? Are financial systems more fragile in recent decades? Can policies to fix the banking system do more harm than good? What's the history of banking crises? With dozens of brief, non-technical articles by economists and other researchers, Banking Crises offers answers from diverse scholarly viewpoints.

The book analyses the institutions of the European financial market supervision and the challenges of financial markets. The current European supervisory structure for financial markets represents a major development in European supervisory history. Its operation however has to be explored and analysed critically. Has it gone far enough to provide a sufficiently comprehensive and resilient system to reduce or mitigate systemic risks and handle financial crises? Some claim it has gone too far already. Fresh and rigorous critical legal and economic analysis from an independent scholarly perspective are needed to assess whether the institutional design of the European supervisory architecture has proved itself to be an efficient and effective model. This book discusses many dimensions of the structure and workings of the European system from various angles providing different dimensions. The book makes an important contribution to the limited literature on financial market supervision.

This book provides a comprehensive overview, in the form of eight long essays, of the evolution of monetary theory over the three-quarters of century, from the time of Keynes to the present day. The essays are originally based on lecture notes from a graduate course on Advanced Monetary Economics offered at York University, Toronto, written in the style of academic papers. The essays are mathematical in method - but also take a historical perspective, tracing the evolution of monetary thought through the Keynesian model, the monetarist model, new classical model, etc, up to and including the neo-Wickesellian models of the early 21st century. The book will be an essential resource for both graduate and advanced undergraduate students in economics, as well as for individual researchers seeking basic information on the theoretical background of contemporary debates.