This volume contains an Open Access Chapter The Sustainability of Health Care Systems in Europe provides a comprehensive understanding of the sustainability of health systems in Europe. Furthermore, it includes an introduction to how EU action in supporting health- care policies in the EU Member States, looking both at implemented actions and describing current priorities for the future. There has been a rapid evolution of the structure of society and the economy over the last few decades which has created new demands for healthcare services. This has placed pressure on policy makers to ensure the sustainability of the health care sector. Policy makers understand the efficiency of the healthcare delivery system needs to be improved, the shortage of health professionals must be tackled, and that there are growing health inequalities and inequity in access to healthcare. These challenges are exacerbated by recent economic shocks including the 2008 recession, the uncertainty related to Brexit, and the crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which have impacted the ability of European health systems to finance the health care sector. This book is a must read for researchers and students of health economics and health policy.

Walter Bagehot noticed once that "John Bull can stand many things, but he cannot stand two per cent." Well, for several years, he has had to stand interest rates well below that, in some countries even below zero. However, despite this sacrifice, the economic recovery from the Great Recession has been disappointingly weak. This book's aim is to answer this question. The central thesis of the book is that the standard understanding of the monetary transmission mechanism is flawed. That understanding adopts erroneous assumptions-such as, that low interest rates always stimulate economic growth by boosting the credit supply, investment, and consumption-and does not fully take into account several unintended channels of monetary policy, such as risk-taking, high level of debt, or zombification of the economy. In other words, the effectiveness of monetary policy is limited during economic downturns accompanied by the debt overhang and the balance sheet recession, and generates negative effects, which can make the policy counterproductive. The author provides a thorough analysis of the issues related to the interest rates in the conduct of monetary policy, such as the risk-taking channel of monetary policy, the portfolio-balance channel and the wealth effect, zombie firms in the economy, the misallocation of resources, as well as the neutral interest rate targeting and the difference between the neutral and natural interest rate and the negative interest rate policy. The book is written in an accessible and engaging manner and will be a valuable resource for scholars of monetary economics as well as readers interested in (unconventional) monetary policy.

Central banking independence is a crucial factor for sustainable economic development of multiple countries. The multiple components for such systems, however, makes it difficult to evaluate how the success of such a system may be determined. Monetary Policies and Independence of the Central Banks in E7 Countries is an essential reference source that evaluates the effectiveness of monetary policies and the independence of central banks to contribute to economic development within seven emerging economies (E7): Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, and Turkey. Featuring research on topics such as global economics, independent banking, and foreign investing, this book is ideally designed for financial analysts, economists, government officials, policymakers, researchers, academicians, industry professionals, and students seeking coverage on improved econometric methods for effective financial systems.

Most works on John Maynard Keynes deal with his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money and his theory of unemployment. Much less well-known are his publications on money, finance, and international trade. This book fills that void by providing an analysis of Keynes' works from "Indian Currency and Finance" to "The Proposal for a Currency Union." It seeks to show that his concerns extended beyond his magnum opus to include the monetary and financial concerns of Great Britain and the world at large.

Relying on new statistical and archival material, this book tells the story of the operation of the international monetary system of the mid-nineteenth century. It seeks to explain how this system was able to weather the impact of the California and Australia gold discoveries. It shows how France contributed to global financial stability by standing ready to exchange silver from gold at a fixed rate - a consequence of its bimetallic system. This book also shows how France's decision to change its domestic monetary rules caused the emergence of the gold standard in 1873, and thus offers a new interpretation of the global monetary history of the nineteenth century.

This ground-breaking book introduces macro accounting. Most modern money emerges out of accounting documentation of private executory debt contracts within exchange processes. Money-information markers are basically negotiable (exchangeable for value) debt instruments. Macro accounting techniques provide sufficient detail to examine the complex coupling relations and the resulting constraints among exchanges of good, services, and money-information markers of various sorts.

The book begins with a discussion of the fundamental concepts of trades, exchanges, and the accounting basis of money. Accounting is then described as an aspect of empirical science--a means of observing concrete processes. Drawing on these basic ideas, Swanson extends organizational accounting to societies and supranational systems. The last four chapters simulate economic processes. The book should be read by serious students of economics, accounting, and political science as well as societal policy markers and the international banking community.

A pioneering work in comparative monetary and financial studies, this is the first international comparative, empirical study of the money supply process (MSP) that involves all of the basic types of economies and institutional economic systems at all levels of economic development. As the authors note at the outset, the highly relative nature of the MSP contributes to wide differences in the MSP in different types of economies. Yet the MSP is one of the most important topics of both monetary theory and monetary practice. The comparative approach adopted here enables the authors to explain the differences that do occur in the MSP across economies and what causes them. By properly defining the general theory and overall monetary theory of MSP, the authors offer the reader both a better understanding of the national MSP and a broad framework of possibilities for improving the efficiency of monetary policy.

The authors begin by describing their approach to an analysis of the MSP in national economies and the concepts and models used in this analysis. They then explain the classification of economies used in the study and their methodological approach, which is based on a two-dimensional flow of funds accounts matrix. Four chapters present the empirical evidence derived from this approach. Included are both a holistic analysis and a structural comparative analysis of the MSP. A separate chapter presents a comparative analysis involving 100 countries of the MSP during the 1978-83 time period. Finally, the authors look at the influence of the balance-of-payments and of domestic institutional sectors on the MSP. Their concluding chapters summarize their findings and point the way to further research in this area. Scholars and policymakers in economics, macroeconomics, and monetary policy will find this an illuminating addition to the literature of the money supply process.

A pioneering exploration of the relevance of economic theory to the practical realities of the foreign exchange market, this volume presents a well-reasoned, comprehensive examination of the degree to which economic theories and forecasts are helpful in predicting exchange rates. Douch, an economist who has worked closely with the foreign exchange market, argues that theoretical economic models have exhibited some serious inadequacies in forecasting the future. In an attempt to determine the real predictive value of economic theory in this context, Douch examines each of the different economic approaches in-depth and then analyzes the actual workings of the foreign exchange market from the perspective of the market participants. Particular emphasis is placed upon the reasons for the observed failure of economic theory to reliably predict exchange rate movements over time.

Divided into three major sections, the book begins with five chapters that describe and evaluate the different economic approaches to explaining exchange rate movements. The next two chapters link the theories of the first section with the practical realities of the third by discussing the advantages of fixed and floating exchange rates and presenting a brief history of exchange rate regimes since World War II. In the final section, Douch first looks at how the spot and forward exchange rate markets actually work by examining the motives of market participants. Subsequent chapters explore such issues as whether Game Theory might be used to explain market actions, the effect of new foreign exchange hedging instruments on the market, and the contribution of Chart Analysis to exchange rate forecasts. A detailed appendix defines various economic indicators and seeks to explain how the market might react to them and why. Advanced students of economics as well as foreign exchange market participants with little economic training will find here important new insights into when economic theories can be helpful in predicting exchange rates--and, even more importantly, when they can not.