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How religious beliefs and practices can influence the wealth of
nations Which countries grow faster economically-those with strong
beliefs in heaven and hell or those with weak beliefs in them? Does
religious participation matter? Why do some countries experience
secularization while others are religiously vibrant? In The Wealth
of Religions, Rachel McCleary and Robert Barro draw on their long
record of pioneering research to examine these and many other
aspects of the economics of religion. Places with firm beliefs in
heaven and hell measured relative to the time spent in religious
activities tend to be more productive and experience faster growth.
Going further, there are two directions of causation: religiosity
influences economic performance and economic development affects
religiosity. Dimensions of economic development-such as
urbanization, education, health, and fertility-matter too,
interacting differently with religiosity. State regulation and
subsidization of religion also play a role. The Wealth of Religions
addresses the effects of religious beliefs on character traits such
as work ethic, thrift, and honesty; the Protestant Reformation and
its long-term effects on education and religious competition;
Communism's suppression of and competition with religion; the
effects of Islamic laws and regulations on the functioning of
markets and, hence, on the long-term development of Muslim
countries; why some countries have state religions; analogies
between religious groups and terrorist organizations; the violent
origins of the Dalai Lama's brand of Tibetan Buddhism; and the use
by the Catholic Church of saint-making as a way to compete against
the rise of Protestant Evangelicals. Timely and incisive, The
Wealth of Religions provides fresh insights into the vital
interplay between religion, markets, and economic development.
How religious beliefs and practices can influence the wealth of
nations Which countries grow faster economically-those with strong
beliefs in heaven and hell or those with weak beliefs in them? Does
religious participation matter? Why do some countries experience
secularization while others are religiously vibrant? In The Wealth
of Religions, Rachel McCleary and Robert Barro draw on their long
record of pioneering research to examine these and many other
aspects of the economics of religion. Places with firm beliefs in
heaven and hell measured relative to the time spent in religious
activities tend to be more productive and experience faster growth.
Going further, there are two directions of causation: religiosity
influences economic performance and economic development affects
religiosity. Dimensions of economic development-such as
urbanization, education, health, and fertility-matter too,
interacting differently with religiosity. State regulation and
subsidization of religion also play a role. The Wealth of Religions
addresses the effects of religious beliefs on character traits such
as work ethic, thrift, and honesty; the Protestant Reformation and
its long-term effects on education and religious competition;
Communism's suppression of and competition with religion; the
effects of Islamic laws and regulations on the functioning of
markets and, hence, on the long-term development of Muslim
countries; why some countries have state religions; analogies
between religious groups and terrorist organizations; the violent
origins of the Dalai Lama's brand of Tibetan Buddhism; and the use
by the Catholic Church of saint-making as a way to compete against
the rise of Protestant Evangelicals. Timely and incisive, The
Wealth of Religions provides fresh insights into the vital
interplay between religion, markets, and economic development.
Currency Unions reviews the traditional case for flexible exchange
rates and "countercyclical"--that is, expansionary during
recessions and contractionary in booms--monetary policy, and shows
how flexible exchange rate regimes can better insulate the economy
from such real disturbances as terms-of-trade shocks. The book also
looks at the pitfalls of flexible exchange rates--and why fixed
rates, particularly full dollarization--might be a more sensible
choice for some emerging-market countries. The contributors also
detail the factors that determine the optimal sizes of currency
unions, explain how currency union greatly expands the volume of
international trade among its members, and examine the recent
implementation of dollarization in Ecuador.
Exzellentes Lehrwerk zum Wirtschaftswachstum von zwei weltweit
renommierten Volkswirten.
Dieses Werk tritt im deutschsprachigen Raum die Nachfolge von
Barros Makrookonomie an. Inhaltlich entspricht es der vierten
Auflage von Barros Makrookonomie im amerikanischen Original. Diese
wurde aber auf die europaische Perspektive hin und im Bereich der
europaischen Institution vollstandig den hiesigen Erfordernissen
angepasst. Damit erweist es sich erneut als ein fuhrendes
deutschsprachiges Lehrwerk der Makrookonomie."
The new classical approach to macroeconomics, which assumes that
people gather and use economic information efficiently, has been
the most important theoretical advance since the Keynesian
revolution of the 1930s. This hook surveys the major contributions
of the "second generation" of proponents of the new classical
approach, emphasizing real business cycle theories and applying
them to a variety of phenomena.
The chapters include expositions of growth theory, real models
of business fluctuations, the informational role of prices,
consumption, fiscal policy, rules versus discretion in monetary
policy, time consistency and policy, and monetary models. Although
the chapters are aimed at advanced undergraduate- and
graduate-level students, they will also be of interest to
researchers who are looking for a compact and original exposition
of the new classical macroeconomics.
In this short book, Robert Barro, one of the world's leading
economists, examines the causes and consequences of the financial
crash. In particular, he looks at the effects of fiscal stimulus
packages and suggests that, whilst they may lead to an immediate
positive impact on growth, the effect will quickly wear off and the
effect of the so-called stimulus packages will then be negative.
These are important observations given the pressure that Western
governments are under to increase government borrowing in the face
of slowing growth rates. The author moves on to discuss what he
believes will be the next crisis - a crisis of government
indebtedness. This publication is based on a lecture given in July
2011 and such a crisis has, indeed, unfolded. However, Professor
Barro expects that this crisis will not be confined to the
Eurozone. For example, US states are failing to deal with the
problems of both explicit debt and future pensions and social
insurance obligations. The author concludes with suggestions as to
how governments should deal with these growing problems. This
publication should be of interest to all who want to understand the
wider economic implications of the financial crisis and the policy
response to that crisis.
Education has significant and far-reaching effects not only on
individuals, but also on the societies in which they live and to
which they contribute. The education level of a population affects
how a country supports itself and others and the degree to which it
can participate in the global field. While everyone from
politicians to policymakers to celebrities has stressed the
importance of education, there has not been-until now-a vigorous
yet comprehensible examination of data to support what has long
been common knowledge: education matters. In Education Matters:
Global Gains from the 19th to the 21st Century, renowned economists
Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee present a revolutionary new data set
on education in 146 countries since 1870 and projected through
2040. With case studies from the United States, China, and Korea,
Barro and Lee evaluate schooling both quantitatively and
qualitatively and assess the role of education in political
development. The book also addresses sensitive and controversial
topics, such as international disparities in education and the role
of education in modernization and development. Both challenging and
enlightening, Education Matters has exciting implications for the
future of education and promises to be a ground-breaking work in
the fields of economics and educational attainment. In this
comprehensive study, Barro and Lee establish the critical role that
education plays - particularly for women and girls - in economic
growth, fertility, and democracy. Engaging and informative,
Education Matters is a compelling read for students, scholars, and
anyone with a passion for education.
The long-awaited second edition of an important textbook on
economic growth-a major revision incorporating the most recent work
on the subject. This graduate level text on economic growth surveys
neoclassical and more recent growth theories, stressing their
empirical implications and the relation of theory to data and
evidence. The authors have undertaken a major revision for the
long-awaited second edition of this widely used text, the first
modern textbook devoted to growth theory. The book has been
expanded in many areas and incorporates the latest research. After
an introductory discussion of economic growth, the book examines
neoclassical growth theories, from Solow-Swan in the 1950s and
Cass-Koopmans in the 1960s to more recent refinements; this is
followed by a discussion of extensions to the model, with expanded
treatment in this edition of heterogenity of households. The book
then turns to endogenous growth theory, discussing, among other
topics, models of endogenous technological progress (with an
expanded discussion in this edition of the role of outside
competition in the growth process), technological diffusion, and an
endogenous determination of labor supply and population. The
authors then explain the essentials of growth accounting and apply
this framework to endogenous growth models. The final chapters
cover empirical analysis of regions and empirical evidence on
economic growth for a broad panel of countries from 1960 to 2000.
The updated treatment of cross-country growth regressions for this
edition uses the new Summers-Heston data set on world income
distribution compiled through 2000.
This is a textbook on macroeconomic theory that attempts to rework
the theory of macroeconomic relations through a re-examination of
their microeconomic foundations. In the tradition of Keynes's
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (published in
1936), and Patinkin's Money, Interest, and Prices, published in
1956 and revised in 1965, this book represents a third generation
of macroeconomic theory. This book presents a comprehensive
choice-theoretic analysis of the determination of the level of
employment and the rate of inflation. A central feature of the book
is the recasting of macroeconomic analysis in terms of a theory of
exchange under non-market-clearing conditions. In addition, the
analysis incorporates other aspects of the current reformulation of
macroeconomic theory, including the relation between inflationary
expectations, rates of return, and unemployment, the dynamics of
aggregate demand, and the significance of incomplete information
regarding the spatial distribution of wages and prices.
To recover from recession, the global economy must rely on the
strong performance of developing Asian economies, and it has become
clear not only in Asia that regional cooperation and integration is
key to regional economic development. Heavily reliant on external
demand as an impetus to growth and closely linked to global
financial markets, Asian economies are becoming closely integrated
through trade, investment, and financial transactions. But how
closely integrated are they, and what are the real benefits of
integration?
In line with its goal to foster economic growth and cooperation in
the region, the Asian Development Bank, with Robert J. Barro and
Jong-Wha Lee, have collected a formidable group of scholars to
tackle the issues related to these questions. Costs & Benefits
of Economic Integration in Asia offers quantifiable results from
the field's top economists on cooperation and integration in the
areas of trade, investment, and finance in Asia. Appealing to
scholars, policymakers, and interested general readers, the book is
an authoritative diagnosis of initiatives seeking to promote
regional economic integration. It examines two broad divisions of
cooperation and integration: monetary and financial, and trade and
investment. Specific enquiries include such topics as comparisons
to other regions such as Eastern Europe and Latin America, the
effects of regional free trade agreements on overall trade and
welfare, the distribution of benefits of unevenly distributed
resource wealth among the region's economies, the possibility and
desirability of an East Asian currency union, business cycle
synchronization and its relationship with inflation targeting
regime and trade, pre-World War I Asian monetary systems, the
computation of the extent of foreign and domestic content in a
country's exports, and many more.
After financial disaster, the world's economy is changing
drastically, and Asia will play a pivotal role in how these changes
occur. Costs & Benefits of Economic Integration in Asia is an
essential reference on the controversy and consensus on economic
integration, and how it will influence individual Asian countries,
the region as a whole, and the world, for decades to come.
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