Michael C. Macchiarola on Stephen H. Axilrod: Inside the Fed – Monetary Policy and Its Management, Martin Through Greenspan to Bernanke
Michael C. Macchiarola
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, page 201
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Are MENA Countries Reaping the Benefits of Inflows?
A comparative analysis of migrants’ remittances and FDI flows
Magda Kandil & Ida Aghdas Mirzaie
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 159 - 192
Using data for a sample of developing countries, we analyse the effects of external flows, namely migrants’ remittances and FDI flows, on real output growth, price inflation and components of aggregate demand. The historical evidence indicates unstable patterns of FDI inflows to a sample of nine MEN ... Read more
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Well-being and Public Attitudes in Afghanistan
Some insights from the economics of happiness
Carol Graham & Soumya Chattopadhyay
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 105 - 147
Afghanistan is a context where individuals have to cope with the most adverse of circumstances. Our study of happiness finds that Afghans conform to a remarkably consistent worldwide pattern in the determinants of happiness across individuals within countries of all different development levels. Ave ... Read more
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The New Economic Powers (NEPs)
Leadership opportunities post-crisis
Danny Leipziger & William O’Boyle
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 43 - 80
In the wake of the global financial and economic crises, much attention has been focused on large developing economies, particularly the BRICs, and their role in the new economic landscape. Focusing on trends in demographics and output, the emergence of the BRICs crystallised the notion that there w ... Read more
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The IMF, the Credit Crunch and Iceland
A new fiscal saga?
Sheetal K. Chand
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 19 - 42
Iceland was badly hit by a fundamental mismatch between the assets and international liabilities of her banking system, with severe consequences for the welfare of the population. The country now has an International Monetary Fund programme. The paper asks three questions of the programme: Is it too ... Read more
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The Secret of Canadian Banking: Common Sense?
Laurence Booth
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 1 - 18
This article looks at the basic reasons why the Canadian banking system was recently judged by the World Economic Forum to be the soundest in the world. It does so by first examining the basic functions of a financial system and what Canadian banks are allowed to do as intermediaries within that sys ... Read more
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Missing Out on Industrial Revolution
Eric Jones
Volume 9, Number 4, 2008, pages 101 - 128
Explanations of industrialisation stress England’s nineteenth-century abrupt
departure from a common Eurasian pattern. This paper examines the preceding
de-industrialisation of Southern England and limited development of Tokugawa
Japan (the shogunate that ruled Japan from 1600–1868), which throw ... Read more
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Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Funds
The political risk of overseas investments
Friedrich Wu
Volume 9, Number 3, 2008, pages 97 - 122
This paper examines Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)-the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore (GIC) and Temasek Holdings (Temasek)—and the political risks which they are exposed to in their overseas investments. Wu argues that Temasek has hitherto exposed itself to a greater l ... Read more
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The Sovereign Wealth Funds of Singapore
Anthony Elson
Volume 9, Number 3, 2008, pages 73 - 96
This paper examines the origin, evolution and recent operations of Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds, Temasek Holdings (TSK) and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC). Singapore is a unique case in that it has two of the oldest and largest sovereign wealth funds. Both funds reflect a long ... Read more
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Endangering the War on Terror by the War on Drugs
Deepak Lal
Volume 9, Number 3, 2008, pages 1 - 30
The century-old US War on Drugs based on supply control measures is endangering its War on Terror in Afghanistan. With opium poppy cultivation the most profitable crop available to Afghan farmers, the Taliban has been able to use the illegal profits from the trade to buy arms and recruit farmers by ... Read more
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Growth Strategies and Dynamics
Insights from country experiences
Mohamed A. El-Erian & A. Michael Spence
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 57 - 96
The paper examines the challenges that developing countries face in accelerating and sustaining growth. The cases of China and India are examined to illustrate a more general phenomenon which might be called model uncertainty. As a developing economy grows, its market and regulatory institutions cha ... Read more
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Alternative Strategies for Fighting Unemployment FREE ARTICLE
Lessons from the European experience
Gilles Saint-Paul
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 35 - 55
During more than three decades of protracted high unemployment, European countries have developed a variety of approaches in order to tackle the problem. These strategies differ in their philosophy, scopes and successes. A number of them can be understood in terms of shying away from full-fledged li ... Read more
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Challenging Times for UK Monetary Policy
Andrew Sentance
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 1 - 10
Global economic developments have recently thrown up two major challenges for the setting of UK monetary policy. The recent global financial turmoil threatens to reinforce the slowdown in the UK and globally. But rising energy and commodity prices will push up inflation in the short term, and pose a ... Read more
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The Opium Economy: A Possible Approach to Reform
Jeremy Berkoff
Volume 8, Number 4, 2007, pages 9 - 45
This paper reviews options for reform of the opium economy within a holistic world context, emphasising the economic forces at work at each stage of the marketing chain. Rather than choosing between prohibition and legalisation, the paper proposes an incremental approach that would move steadily fro ... Read more
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The Future of North Korea is South Korea
(Or hope springs eternal)
Marcus Noland
Volume 8, Number 3, 2007, pages 27 - 52
North Korea's famine was in significant part a product of state failure, and unleashed an unintended grassroots process of marketization. Reforms undertaken in 2002 are more usefully interpreted as a response to this development than as a pro-active attempt to improve efficiency, and the government’ ... Read more
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Can China Learn from Sweden?
Arne Bigsten
Volume 8, Number 2, 2007, pages 17 - 40
China is undergoing a very rapid process of structural and institutional transformation, which has led to dramatic increases in income levels. During this process, the country is facing a series of development challenges that need to be dealt with in order to sustain growth. The question posed in th ... Read more
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What Could Brake China’s Rapid Ascent in the World Economy?
Friedrich Wu
Volume 7, Number 3, 2006, pages 63 - 87
There has been much hype about China’s rapid ascent in the world economy. For instance, economists from Goldman Sachs and the OECD have predicted that the Chinese economy will overtake the Japanese and the US economies well before the mid–21st century. However, these optimistic, straight-line projec ... Read more
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Has the European Social Model a Future?
J. R. Shackleton
Volume 7, Number 3, 2006, pages 43 - 62
The European Social Model, involving high levels of government spending and taxation, labour and product market regulation and the involvement of the “social partners”, is in crisis. The core European economies are experiencing low economic growth, slow job creation and high levels of unemployment. ... Read more
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The Economic Growth of East Asia and Latin America in Comparative Perspective
Lessons for development policy
Anthony Elson
Volume 7, Number 2, 2006, pages 97 - 114
This paper attempts to identify key factors that can account for the divergent economic performance of East Asia and Latin America during the second half of the 20th century. Within the triad of so-called “deep determinants” of economic growth (geography, policy and institutions), the paper argues t ... Read more
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Understanding China’s Economic Transformation
Are there lessons here for the developing world?
Daniel W. Bromley & Yang Yao
Volume 7, Number 2, 2006, pages 73 - 95
Economic change is a process of continual adjustment to new circumstances. Economies are always in the process of becoming. Good economic policy entails pragmatic adjustment so that economic dystrophy is avoided. The experience of economic (institutional) reform in China since 1978 is drawn on—and e ... Read more
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Russia at the Crossroads
Padma Desai on transition, reform, and the legacy of Yeltsin’s ‘kamikaze crew’
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
Volume 7, Number 2, 2006, pages 11 - 71
To set the interview in context, Brian Snowdon first traces out some important landmarks in twentieth-century Russian/Soviet Union history. In the conversation that follows, Professor Desai gives her views on a number of key issues relating to the decline of the Soviet system and problems of Russia’ ... Read more
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Can Iraq Overcome the Oil Curse?
Robert E. Looney
Volume 7, Number 1, 2006, pages 21 - 44
A growing literature suggests that the oil sector and the allocation of its revenues is the critical variable in shaping both the economic structure and political systems of countries like Iraq. For the most part this literature focuses on the so-called “oil curse” or the “paradox of plenty.” ... Read more
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Corporate China Goes Global
Friedrich Wu
Volume 6, Number 4, 2005, pages 171 - 181
Recent high-profile international acquisitions and take-over bids by Chinese companies have attracted much media limelight and raised intense interest in China’s rising outward foreign direct investment (FDI). This paper delineates the macro trends of China’s outward FDI based on the most currently ... Read more
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Brazil’s Economy Under Lula
The dawn of a new era?
Edmund Amann
Volume 6, Number 4, 2005, pages 149 - 169
In this article Edmund Amann analyses the recent performance of the Brazilian economy, the largest in South America. For a number of years it has been clear that Brazil, despite substantial natural resource endowments and a talented and entrepreneurial population, has failed to match the growth perf ... Read more
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Monetary Policy, Macro-stability and Growth
South Africa’s recent experience and lessons
Janine Aron & John Muellbauer
Volume 6, Number 4, 2005, pages 123 - 147
There is greater appreciation now amongst economists of the negative effect of uncertainty on investment, growth and equality, especially when credit constraints are widespread. This implies an important linkage between the transparency and predictability of the policy environment, and growth and eq ... Read more
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Reserve Accumulation in Asia
Lessons for holistic reform of the international monetary system
Graham Bird & Alex Mandilaras
Volume 6, Number 1, 2005, pages 85 - 99
In the aftermath of the 1997/1998 crisis, Asian economies have built up large
holdings of international reserves. Although initially encouraged to do so by the
IMF, more recently they have been criticised for maintaining undervalued
currencies, running large current account balance of payments su ... Read more
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Governance Matters
The role of governance in Asian economic development
David E. Bloom, David Steven & Mark Weston
Volume 5, Number 4, 2004, pages 53 - 78
In recent years there has been a surge of interest in governance: good governance
increasingly is seen as a vital adjunct to successful development efforts. This paper
attempts to explain what governance is and why it is important, and assess which
forms of governance are likely to best support a ... Read more
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European Financial Market Integration
Distant dream or nascent reality?
Patrice Muller
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 139 - 158
European Monetary Union and a vigorous legislative agenda have profoundly
changed the environment in which the European financial services industry
operates. These developments should have contributed to a deepening of
financial market integration in the European Union, especially within the
Eur ... Read more
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Does European Union Environmental Policy Pass a Cost–Benefit Test?
David Pearce
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 115 - 137
Most European Union countries are committed to some form of regulatory
impact assessment, and in some cases these assessments involve the formal use
of cost–benefit analysis. The European Treaty of Union also calls for a
comparison of costs and benefits for all European regulations. Despite this, ... Read more
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Pricing Cultural Heritage
A new approach to managing ancient resources
Susana Mourato, Ece Ozdemiroglu, Tannis Hett & Giles Atkinson
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 95 - 113
A growing determinant of leisure travel decisions has been the demand for
cultural destinations. This has presented complex challenges with regards to the
correct management of major cultural resources. Management options can be
assessed in terms of three criteria of performance: access, financia ... Read more
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Asian Drama
The pursuit of modernisation in India and Indonesia
Tim Lankester
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 75 - 93
The now largely forgotten book Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations
by Swedish social scientist Gunnar Myrdal was published in 1968. Myrdal called
his book “Asian Drama” because of the tensions he saw being played out in Asia
between modern ideals and the traditional. But th ... Read more
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The Health and Wealth of Africa
David E. Bloom & David Canning
Volume 5, Number 2, 2004, pages 57 - 81
Among Africa’s problems, chronic poverty and poor health stand out. Traditional
development thinking has maintained that health improvements are a
consequence of income growth. But new evidence shows that investing in health,
with the aid of the international community, could make a big differenc ... Read more
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Globalisation and the Asia–Pacific Revival
Arne Bigsten
Volume 5, Number 2, 2004, pages 33 - 55
This paper reviews evidence on the evolution of international economic
integration of Asia–Pacific countries, and discusses the extent to which this
explains their recent growth success. It starts with a review of some theoretical
arguments in the growth and globalisation debate, which is followe ... Read more
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A Single European Market in Asset Management
Vision and reality
Friedrich Heinemann
Volume 5, Number 1, 2004, pages 133 - 158
In spite of progress with integration, the European single market is still far from
perfect. In particular, financial services markets are still heavily segmented along
national borders—even in the era of the Internet and the Euro. In order to
understand the reasons for and consequences of incomp ... Read more
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Escaping Regulation, Escaping Convention
Development strategies in small economies
Naren Prasad
Volume 5, Number 1, 2004, pages 41 - 65
Contrary to widely held belief, small island countries have many lessons to offer
to other countries and the world community in terms of their development
strategies. This article provides evidence that small island countries are experts at
breaking and distorting global trade rules without being ... Read more
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China’s Capital Market
Better than a casino
Stephen Green
Volume 4, Number 4, 2003, pages 37 - 54
Throughout the 1990s, China’s stock market was developed as a tool of industrial
policy. It was used to supply capital to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that
remained controlled by the state and whose performance usually declined after
listing. Secondary market trading was poorly regulated, again ... Read more
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Hydropower in Bhutan and Nepal
Why the difference?
Jeremy Berkoff
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 121 - 142
Bhutan and Nepal have followed differing hydropower development strategies.
Bhutan has co-operated with India and power export earnings have helped fund a
broadly successful economic, environmental and social programme. In contrast,
Nepal turned to the World Bank and other donors to fund its powe ... Read more
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Five Centuries of Energy Prices
Roger Fouquet & Peter Pearson
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 93 - 119
Concerns about rising energy prices tend to occur in times of economic
expansion, to disappear in times of recession. A recurring fear is that, in the long
run, real energy prices will trend upwards. This paper presents evidence from
five hundred years of prices of energy sources for the United K ... Read more
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Is Economic Growth Good For Us?
Nicholas Crafts
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 35 - 49
This article reviews Britain’s experience of economic growth in the twentieth
century. It argues that average living standards have risen much more rapidly than
is generally appreciated. The main reasons for this include increased life
expectancy which is highly valued by the public and downward ... Read more
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Measuring Consumer Inflation in the United Kingdom
Recent developments and the future outlook
David Fenwick
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 175 - 184
Responding to Mick Silver’s proposals regarding the RPI, David Fenwick of the
ONS summarises some of the issues that confront compilers of price indices. ... Read more
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Some Proposed Methodological Developments for the UK Retail Prices Index
Mick Silver
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 153 - 173
The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is one of the UK’s most important macroeconomic
indicators, as well as being used for indexation/adjustments for inflation
to wages and benefits. This paper argues that the dynamic changes in product
markets and consumers’ responses to price changes need to be incorp ... Read more
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Demographics and Pension Reforms in the Major Central and Eastern European Countries
Dieter Bräuninger
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 117 - 132
Today in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries there are barely 30
pensioners for every 100 persons of working age. By 2050, the number could rise
to almost 80 pensioners. So far Poland has responded the most rigorously to the
challenge, establishing a modern three-pillar pension syste ... Read more
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How to Reform Europe’s Fiscal Policy Framework
Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 109 - 116
The current budgetary problems of some EU member states have intensified the
debate on Europe’s fiscal policy framework. It is not enough to change the
interpretation of the Stability and Growth Pact. More fundamental revisions of
the EU Treaty are needed in order to strike a reasonable balance b ... Read more
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Some Lessons from a Single Currency
Alan J. Brown
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 99 - 107
This article looks at the early experience of the Euro and argues that both the
original rules established for the European Central Bank and the Stability and
Growth pact need to be reconsidered. Failure to do so will result in the whole
European economy delivering less growth and prosperity. Wit ... Read more
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Why The Five Economic Tests?
The decision about British membership of a single European currency in historical context
Ed Balls
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 73 - 98
Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury, Ed Balls, sets out the government’s
approach to making the decision about British membership of a single European
currency in an historical context. The basis for deciding whether there is a clear
and unambiguous economic case to join the single currency is ... Read more
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A Decade of Trade Reforms in India
How it compares with East Asia
Ramkishen S. Rajan & Rahul Sen
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 87 - 100
This paper summarises recent trade reforms in India and documents the extent
to which the country has integrated with the global trading system. The paper
argues that India has made important strides since the initiation of reforms in
1991. Although it lags significantly behind most of East Asia ... Read more
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Continuities and Discontinuities in Global Development
Lessons from new East/West comparisons
Kenneth Pomeranz
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 73 - 86
Much literature normalises a ‘North Atlantic’ pattern of development, and sees a
regionally specific ‘East Asian’ path emerging relatively recently. However,
development patterns in core regions of Europe and East Asia were surprisingly
similar until almost 1800; Europe’s subsequent divergence wa ... Read more
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Ready to Join the EU?
On the status of reform in the candidate countries
Federico Foders, Daniel Piazolo & Rainer Schweickert
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 43 - 72
This paper presents a new set of indicators concerning the status of economic
reform in the candidate countries for the enlargement of the European Union
which is scheduled for 2004. After an overview of indicators of institutional
development, macroeconomic policy and trade policy, a composite i ... Read more
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The UK’s Achievement of Economic Stability
How and why did it happen?
Tim Congdon
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 25 - 41
The UK achieved a remarkable degree of macro-economic stability in the 1990s.
Contrary to expectations when the pound was expelled from the European
exchange rate mechanism in September 1992, over the next ten years inflation
was kept almost exactly on target and its volatility declined by over 9 ... Read more
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The Growing US Fiscal Gap
Daniel Shaviro
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 1 - 8
The United States has a huge long-term fiscal gap, perhaps with a present value
as great as $74 trillion. The US may thus be unable to continue meeting its
current spending commitments without eventually enacting huge tax increases.
The tax cut enacted in 2001 may have increased the fiscal gap by ... Read more
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Japan’s Monetary and Economic Policy
Allan Meltzer
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 85 - 103
Japan has gone from very successful policies that promoted growth without
inflation to a long period of slow growth, recessions and deflation. The Bank of
Japan’s policies are a major reason for deflation. Although the Bank has purchased foreign exchange, it counteracts the inflationary effects of ... Read more
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The Case for Congestion Charging
David Begg & David Gray
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 71 - 84
Car use has grown significantly in the UK in recent years, raising concerns about pollution and congestion. Although existing fiscal measures have been effective in tackling the former, the UK now has the worst traffic congestion in Europe. The economic costs of congestion are considerable, and moto ... Read more
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The Quest for Stability
Alan Budd
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 55 - 70
The UK seems to be enjoying a golden age of macroeconomic policy-making.
Growth is steady; inflation is low and stable, and unemployment is low. After
years of trying to achieve economic stability we seem to have found the answer.
This paper explores the history of policy-making from the late 195 ... Read more
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Regulating Tobacco in the United States
The Government and the Courtroom
Jonathan Gruber
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 27 - 53
There has been a dramatic turn of events against the tobacco industry in the past
few years, raising the question of the appropriate future path for smoking policy
in the US. This paper discusses the theory and evidence on regulation of
smoking. The author begins by reviewing the background on th ... Read more
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Slobodan Milosevic and the Fire of Nationalism
Ronald Wintrobe
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 1 - 26
This paper is an economist’s attempt to understand the behaviour of dictators
with special reference to the Milosevic regime in Serbia. The author focuses on
nationalism, ethnic cleansing and war, especially the most recent war with
NATO. The basic argument is simple. First, like any dictator, Mi ... Read more
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Does the Eurozone Face 50 Years of Economic Stagnation?
Tim Congdon
Volume 3, Number 2, 2002, pages 47 - 60
The newly-formed European currency will compete with the dollar to become
the world’s leading currency in the 21st century. Its prospects in this competition will depend partly on the size of the European economy compared with the US economy. This article argues that unprecedented demographic trend ... Read more
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Can Africa Catch Up?
Arne Bigsten
Volume 3, Number 2, 2002, pages 17 - 33
The trend towards globalization of the last few decades has been manifested in
the sustained growth of world trade and flows of investment and technology. For
most regions this growing integration has led to rapidly growing per capita
incomes, while Africa has stagnated at the income level achiev ... Read more
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Letter from Buenos Aires
Pierre Wassenaar
Volume 3, Number 1, 2002, pages 179 - 183
“IMF criminals!” cry the antiglobalists in the wake of Argentina’s descent into
chaos. But the real crime of Argentina’s last ten years was its own supineness in tying its fortunes for so long to the economy of an indifferent superpower, and allowing itself to become the plaything of international ... Read more
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Capital Controls
The experience of Malaysia
Jomo K.S.
Volume 3, Number 1, 2002, pages 125 - 143
Malaysia’s decision to adopt capital controls in September 1998 reminded the
world that there are alternatives to capital account liberalisation. Unfortunately,
there has been a tendency for both sides in the debate over the capital control
measures to exaggerate their own cases, with little rega ... Read more
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Policy-Making in Resource-Rich Countries
Lessons from Zambia
Arne Bigsten
Volume 2, Number 3, 2001, pages 139 - 153
Economic development depends upon resource availability, resource allocation,
and the efficiency of resource use. One would presume that countries with an
abundance of natural resources would stand a better chance of developing than
resource-poor countries. Recent experiences in less developed co ... Read more
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Latin America: The Long and Winding Road to Growth
Federico Foders
Volume 2, Number 2, 2001, pages 143 - 162
This paper reviews recent economic reforms carried out in Latin America and
relates them to the long-run economic trends in the region. After a brief overview
of growth and income distribution patterns of Latin American countries in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the paper addresses some ... Read more
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The Emerging Northeast–Southeast Asia Divide and Policy Implications
Friedrich Wu
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 169 - 180
Since the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in mid-1997, the gulf between the Northeast Asian economies and Southeast Asian economies has widened as measured by GDP growth rates and size, direct and portfolio investment flows,
stock market capitalisation and trading turnover, as well as foreig ... Read more
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Russia’s Post-Communist Economy
Peter Oppenheimer & Brigitte Granville
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 149 - 168
Ten years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia’s measured output was still showing a net decline of around 40 per cent – but with no comparable
decline in average living standards, both because the output drop affected mainly the defence sectors and because Russia’s participation in inter ... Read more
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Is Dollarisation a Viable Option for Latin America?
Graham Bird
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 137 - 147
In the aftermath of the East Asian financial crisis there has been much discussion of exchange rate policy in developing countries. Some observers have suggested that they should opt either for flexible exchange rates or for firmly fixed rates. Adopting the US dollar as legal tender and abandoning t ... Read more
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Eastern Enlargement and EU Labour Markets
Perceptions, challenges and opportunities
Tito Boeri & Herbert Brücker
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 49 - 68
This paper summarises the key findings of a recent study on the impact of
Eastern Enlargement of the European Union (EU) on labour markets in the
current Member States. The study focuses on three main channels along which
enlargement may affect labour markets in the EU, namely i) trade, ii) forei ... Read more
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From Rags to Riches
Ireland’s economic boom
Brendan Walsh
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 113 - 133
This article explores the factors behind the Irish
economic renaissance of the 1990s. These include the fiscal correction of the 1980s, the availability of an ample supply of well-educated labour, a
competitive exchange rate, and the inflow of EU aid. The reintroduction of ‘social
partnership’ is ... Read more
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Hardship and Happiness
Mobility and public perceptions during market reforms
Carol Graham & Stefano Pettinato
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 73 - 112
This paper focuses on an age-old puzzle: why some societies peacefully tolerate high levels of inequality and others do not. The authors posit that opportunity and mobility over time are as important as current distributions are to the explanation. Assessments of past mobility and future expectatio ... Read more
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Is there a Case for an Asian Monetary Fund?
Graham Bird & Ramkishen Rajan
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 135 - 143
The East Asian financial crisis has spawned a number of proposals for institutional reform. Some envisage reforming existing institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while others suggest that new institutions are needed. Amongst them is the idea of establishing an Asian Mone ... Read more
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The Thirty-five Hour Working Week
Flexibilité, compétitivité, productivité-a French Revolution
Alan Kirman
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 41 - 54
The introduction of a reduced working week (RWW) in France has been widely condemned as an arbitrary additional constraint in an already rigid labour market. This article explores the origins of the law, and the reasons for the negative appreciation by economists of this measure. However, it goes on ... Read more
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Housing in the South East of England
Some issues raised by the Government’s plans
David Miles
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 1 - 11
Plans recently unveiled by the UK government will, if implemented, generate a
major increase in new housebuilding in one of the most crowded and congested
parts of the UK. The plans fail to take account of the impact on people living in
London and the South East—and in the rest of the ... Read more
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European Pension Reforms
A study by Merrill Lynch
Jan Mantel & David Bowers
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 103 - 138
Are the present pension systems in Europe substainable? Can the pensions time bomb caused by demographic changes be defused? This study describes developments in Europe, but the theory, the problems and the solutions are similar for most developed nations in the rest of the world. The combination of ... Read more
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Pension Reform in Germany
To fund or not to fund
Axel Börsch-Supan
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 81 - 101
German public retirement insurance is in many respects an extreme example of the typical European pay-as-you-go pension system because almost 85% of retirement income stems from this system and only 15% comes from private sources such as funded pensions, labour income, and family transfers. Public r ... Read more
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The Public/Private Mix in UK Pension Policy
Phil Agulnik & Nicholas Barr
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 69 - 80
The UK government aims to shift the balance between public (Pay-As-You-Go) and private (funded) pensions from 60:40 today to 40:60 by 2050 (UK DSS 1998). What is the economic rationale for this shift? Funding pensions may have a positive effect on economic growth and the long-term sustainability of ... Read more
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Achieving the goals of UK Pension Reform
Frank Field
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 61 - 68
There is an inevitable tension between the aim of providing enough income in retirement for those genuinely unable to build up a sufficiently large fund of their own and the aim of preserving people’s incentives to save for their own retirement. The author argues that if the current UK government’s ... Read more
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