This book provides a collection of essays by leading economists in honour of David Laidler's contributions to the field of macroeconomics, with important essays on central banking, monetary policy implementation, inflation targeting, monetary theory, monetary framework debates, and the mathematical theory of banking.

The authors uncover the roots of the eurozone crisis, focusing on how this can be solved against the backdrop of a very deep financial and economic crisis and its strong social impact. Looking at the impact of the financial crisis on the eurozone, they explore the European Union's recent and future developments.

This book provides a detailed and up-to- date analysis of the current and near-future domestic economic situation in China based on the concept of "New Normal", which was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and which is commonly used in discussions on China's current economy. China's New Normal is the result of the growing pressures on domestic resources, environmental restrictions, and unstable international economic recovery and characterized by a moderate economic increase, a proper increase in commodity pricing, stabilizing new employment and optimizing economic structure. The book argues that while China focuses on stability and quality in macro-control and enhancing reform and innovation, many contradictions and problems in economic operations are gradually being solved, therefore optimizing the economic structure. The book explores many aspects of China's economic development under the "New Normal" while making analysis and policy suggestions for the present economic trends.

Since the global financial crisis the unprecedented role independent central banks have come to play in our societies has been increasingly disputed. This, in turn, has drawn greater attention to the link between their legitimacy, public support and their independence. Over the past thirty years, academics and central bankers have tried to systematically pin down the sources of central bank independence. One of them, however - culture - has continuously eluded their grip. By engaging in an ethnography of the social text of German, European and US monetary affairs, this book introduces a new analytical framework that will enable practitioners and academics, particularly within sociology, economics, political economy, and political science, to gain a clear understanding of the role of culture in central banking. Also, it will show why for an independent central bank meeting its own monetary goals may not be enough to secure public support for itself and its currency.

In recent years, the Republic of Guinea has shed its reputation as one of the most tightly controlled state economies in Africa, leaving behind a cloistered era marked by an extraordinarily closed economic and political system. In breaking with its dismal past, Guinea has launched an ambitious program of reform which has affected the entire range of the country's institutions, regulations, and markets.

Culling data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and numerous interviews and previously unpublished government data, Jehan Arulpragasam and David E. Sahn here present an overview of the Guinean economy, and its evolution--from independence, through crisis, to reform--and model implications of these changes for economic performance and living standards of the poor. Highlighting the chasm between theory and practice, between well-intentioned program and problematic implementation, the authors reveal how Guinea both parallels and contradicts past experiences of economic reform in Africa. Most notably, reform in Guinea has been hindered by the weighty administrative, managerial, and logistical demands of undertaking a vast battery of economic adjustments, all in one fell swoop.

The most detailed and informative study of the Guinean economy to date, "Economic Transition in Guinea" illustrates not only the successes of the nation's reform agenda, but also the fundamental constraints to development that often lie beyond the reach of such reform.

The essays collected here evolved from a two-day conference on Ethiopia held at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. Written by both academics and Ethiopians who have participated personally in the events they discuss, the papers describe and interpret the Ethiopian revolution and explore its successes, failures, and intrinsic qualities. The contributors express a variety of viewpoints and approaches to the current crisis situation in Ethiopia, demonstrating that although the 15-year revolution has failed to measurably improve the lot of Ethiopians, Ethiopia's history, demographics, and climate have also been important contributing factors. A number of articles deal with aspects of the political crisis while others analyze the economic crisis, looking at present problems and their historical roots. Taken together, these essays make a major contribution to our understanding of the persistent problems faced by Ethiopia today. Following the editor's introduction, the volume is divided into three sections. In Part I, four papers explore the Ethiopian state and the problem of power. Individual chapters examine such issues as change and continuity in Ethiopian politics, decisions and elections, and the question of rural transformation. Part II looks at different facets of the national question, now or in the past--the character of the leadership, the concept of government, and the decision-making process. The third section analyzes the current economic crisis in two papers which discuss Ethiopia's agricultural crisis and development strategy. The concluding chapter presents an overall perspective on revolution, nationality, and the Ethiopian state. Students ofpolitical economy, African studies, and economic development will find The Political Economy of Ethiopia illuminating reading.

The transformation provisions have brought about a replacement of the planning system by a capitalist market system. This change engendered many positive results, but at high social costs. Some results, such as a dramatic decline in output and a decline in the standard of living have been transitory, but unemployment, widening of income inequalities, weakening of social programs and expansion of poverty are permanent features of the new system. This book examines the active employment policy and its effect, especially focusing on the social costs of transformation. It analyzes the reasons for the expansion of poverty and the chances of reducing it. Great attention is devoted to the reforms of pension and health care system. This book also discusses the performance of the economies of subject countries and gives a critical evaluation of privatization, primarily of the Czech voucher privatization.

In 1985, General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev led the Soviet Union through a series of revolutionary reforms, such as Perestroika ('Restructuring') and Glasnost ('Openness'). Yet many of these changes failed, resulting in the collapse of centrally administered socialism throughout the country and most of Eastern Europe. Consistency and Viability of Socialist Economics Systems establishes a new and enlightening approach to understanding complex socialist economies. This book presents an original analytical framework to better map out the relationship between the economic, political, ideological structures, and the external environment, as well as the reform process that gives rise to certain economic systems.

The third volume in Greenwood's Handbook of Comparative Economic Policies, this volume provides an overview and comparison of monetary policies in the United States and the world's leading industrial, or G-7, countries. Although monetary policy is one of the most powerful and frequently used means of combating inflation and unemployment and of promoting long-term economic growth, there are many unresolved questions pertaining to the theory and practice of monetary policy. Moreover, in a world becoming increasingly interdependent, monetary policies in each industrial country have significant repercussions in other countries. This handbook is the only in-depth, up-to-date book providing an exhaustive comparative overview of the theory and practice of monetary policy in developed economies. Following an introduction written by the editors, the volume is divided into three parts. Part I, encompassing 5 chapters, covers the major issues in the theory and practice of monetary policy, including monetary policy and the money supply process, monetary policy and economic activity, monetary policy and inflation, monetary policy and regulation, and monetary policy and bank regulation. Part II, comprised of two chapters, deals with monetary policy in the United States, and part III includes chapters examining monetary policy in each of the other G-7 countries. A final chapter discusses monetary policy coordination in the European Monetary System. The chapters are written by well-known experts in the field of monetary economics. Chapter references and a selected bibliography identify the most important sources of additional information. The work concludes with a selected bibliography and an index.

With substantial risks arising from resource constraints on global growth, serious questions are being posed about how a scarcity of finite resources may impact global social and political fragility. The research which forms the core of this book focuses on how this scarcity will impact the financial sector, especially through insurance, pension and banking activities. The UK finance sector, which is considered to be amongst the most globalised, is placed under the microscope, and its approaches to food and oil are particularly noteworthy. Interviews with senior financial experts are analysed alongside more traditional quantitative economic analysis to explore potential future impacts, the scope of natural resource constraints and their impact on the economy.

This book proposes new methods of detecting causality among several dynamic variables and of estimating divisions of nominal income changes into changes in output and prices. Amano builds on established traditions of macro-dynamics and the theories of Keynes and Freidman, while providing innovative perspectives and important policy implications.

This report presents a set of concrete proposals of increasing ambition for the reform of the international monetary system. The proposals aim at improving the international provision of liquidity in order to limit the effects of individual and systemic crises and decrease their frequency. The recommendations outlined in this report include: / Develop alternatives to US Treasuries as the dominant reserve asset, including the issuance of mutually guaranteed European bonds and (in the more distant future) the development of a yuan bond market. / Make permanent the temporary swap agreements that were put in place between central banks during the crisis. Establish a starshaped structure of swap lines centred on the IMF. / Strengthen and expand existing IMF liquidity facilities. On the funding side, expand the IMF's existing financing mechanisms and allow the IMF to borrow directly on the markets. / Establish a foreign exchange reserve pooling mechanism with the IMF, providing participating countries with access to additional liquidity and, incidentally, allowing reserves to be recycled into productive investments. To limit moral hazard, the report proposes the setting up of specific surveillance indicators to monitor "international funding risks" associated with increased insurance provision. The report discusses the role of the special drawing rights (SDRs) and the prospects for turning this unit of account into a true international currency, arguing that it would not solve the fundamental problems of the international monetary system. The report also reviews the conditions under which emerging market economies may use temporary capital controls to counteract excessive and volatile capital flows. The potential for negative externalities requires mutual monitoring and international cooperation in terms of financial regulation and suggests that the mandate of the IMF should be extended to the financial account.

This book examines history of Russian finances in the period of Russia's transition from communism to capitalism in the 1990s and in the current decade. It focuses on obstacles to market reforms and macroeconomic policy choices that resulted in the state debt expansion and the financial crisis of 1998.

Since the 2007 financial crisis, discussion on issues related to the size, spread and frequency of financial crises has captivated a wide variety of audiences. Why has the world economy experienced such a marked increase in financial transactions and private and public indebtedness since the 1980s? How have middle-income developing countries suddenly become a part of this dynamic? And, most importantly, how has the topic of financial crises been featured in households' daily discussions in both developed and developing parts of the world? Domna Michailidou addresses the questions above through exploring the inexorable evolution of financialisation into financial crisis through the examination of three middle-income countries: Mexico, Brazil and South Korea. Concentrating on emerging economies, and especially choosing three very different economies that all experienced financial crises in the 1990s, this book explores what lessons can be learnt regarding financial fragility, volatility and failure in the wake of capital market liberalisation.

This book re-evaluates the regional organizations landscape and discusses how organizations with similar mandates can exercise strikingly different goals. Even economic organizations, which do not produce any outcomes in terms of economic cooperation, can be valuable for their members or individual stakeholders. The book's argument is supported by a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. It employs a novel dataset of 60 regional organizations to establish correlations between members' goals and their characteristics. More than a dozen case studies in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and post-Soviet Eurasia illustrate the theoretic arguments of how particular types of regional organizations come into existence and evolve. Finally, the book examines the remarkable resilience of regional organizations and considers the conditions under which the stakeholders are willing to abandon support.

This book advocates a holistic reform of the current monetary and financial system dealing with the issues of money creation, central banks, loans, stock markets, tax justice, pension security and the international monetary system - "Bretton Woods II". Its innovative approach presents several alternatives for each cornerstone, in addition to introducing a participatory democratic process whereby sovereign citizens can themselves determine the rules governing the new financial and monetary system. With "democratic money conventions" in each municipality, where the elements of this new money system are discussed and decided on in a participatory manner, and a federal money covenant which then elaborates a template for a referendum about the future "money constitution", a true "sovereign" could progressively convert money from a financial weapon into a democratic tool. The envisaged democratic monetary system, by providing equal opportunities for every member of society to participate in the development of the "new rules of the game", turns money progressively into a public good which increases the freedom for all. The new system furthermore drives the enhancement of constitutional and relational values such as human dignity, solidarity, justice, sustainability, or democracy. Money should serve life and should serve the common good. The "Bank for the Common Good" Project, which was initiated in Austria by the author Christian Felber, represents a practical example of his proposals.

East Asia's Monetary Future is an illuminating and valuable work which uniquely focuses on a long-term monetary view of the region. There are multiple and varied future scenarios which can be applied to this region - an enlarged Singapore-Brunei currency area, a greater China monetary bloc and even a Northeast Asian bloc comprising Japan and Korea. Leading scholars from East Asia, Europe and the US contribute valuable new insights to the key questions facing the organization and future of the monetary system in East Asia. Central questions discussed and analysed in the book include, amongst others: should the region move towards monetary union? Should countries peg their exchange rates to the US dollar? Is complete dollarization an option for East Asia? The authors argue that, having realized price stability over the last twenty years, in contrast to Latin America and Africa, the next logical step would be the gradual formation of various currency blocs within the region. This comprehensive discussion of the fundamental issues at stake will ensure the book's appeal to academics and researchers of Asian studies and financial economics. Financial experts working in this area and policymakers will also find much of interest to them within this book.

With the aim of providing a comprehensive analysis of institutions, and of the global economy more generally, this text explores systems of institutions and the effect of corruption, developments in behavioural economics, the impact of immigration, and the links between democratic progress and economic growth. Papers from the Fourteenth World Congress of the International Economic Association held in Marrakech from August 29 to September 2, 2005.

In 1989 the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe opened their economies by establishing more open exchange rate policies and exchange controls and eliminating prohibitive tariffs and quotas. Now trying to join the integrated world economy, they are facing the challenge of finding strategic alliances and attracting foreign capital. This book analyzes economic policy in Eastern Europe with a focus on the financial arrangement of currency boards. It examines the main challenges facing East European countries, their economic policy strategies, the main challenges to the economies that adopted currency boards, and whether currency boards were a solution.

The book is organized into two parts. Part I addresses the challenges to economic policy in Eastern Europe, and Part II turns to the discussion of currency board arrangements.

This timely and important book takes a serious view of our current economic situation. The author's conclusions differ from the conventional wisdom, which suggests that the manufacturing sector is regaining much of its dominance as a result of the declining dollar, that exports will take over as a major source of economic growth, that a recession is unlikely, and that a depression is no longer possible. Indeed, she outlines many similarities between the excesses of the 1980s and those of the 1920s which led to the Great Depression. The author provides convincing evidence that the recent economic recovery may only have provided a smokescreen for the continued deterioration of the U.S. economy.

How do market participants construct stable markets? Why do crises that seem inevitable after-the-fact routinely take market participants by surprise? What forces trigger financial panics, and why does uncertainty lead to market volatility? How do economic elites respond to financial distress, and why are some regulatory interventions more effective than others? Social Finance: Shadow Banking during the Global Financial Crisis answers these questions by presenting a new, economic conventions-based model of financial crises. This model emerges from a theoretical synthesis of several intellectual traditions, including Keynesian epistemology, Hyman Minsky's asset market theory, economic sociology, and international relations theory. Social Finance uses this new paradigm to explain instability in the global shadow banking system during the global financial crisis. And it presents the results of interviews with some of the world's leading investors - who saw over $2 trillion in annual order flows and managed over $160 billion in assets - to provide first-hand accounts of markets in crisis. Written in accessible prose, Social Finance will appeal to a broad audience of academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in understanding the drivers of financial stability in the twenty-first century.

The arguments over the economic policies of the Reagan Administration will continue until sufficient time has elapsed for a consensus to be possible. In the meantime, it is necessary for contemporary scholars to record their opinions as a base for the consensus. Campagna has recorded his conclusions based on considerable research on Reagan Administration policies. He begins by describing what was planned by the government. From there, he discusses what actually happened, and devotes the remainder of the work to his opinion of what has been left with which the future must deal. Campagna concludes that the Reagan economic policies failed. He establishes a position for others to attack or defend in their own publications in the continuing argument.

"The Political Economy of Kenya" is a collection of timely and up-to-date essays focusing on the interaction of politics and economics in Kenya's domestic political arena. The essays, written by scholars from Kenya, the United States, and Great Britain, contain in-depth presentation based on contemporary research. For example, the contributors stress the interdependence of politics and economics in determining political outcomes and examine the Kenyan political system in that light. Chapters discuss such topics as Kenyan agriculture, urbanization and spatial planning, public enterprises, public policy and reform, and specific case studies on labor and social issues.