Reasons for Remitting
Oded Stark
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 147 - 158
This article presents a set of reflections on what gives rise to remittances, which constitute a major part of the impact of migration on economic development in the migrants’ own countries. The collage of reasons presented serves to illustrate that remittance behaviour is the outcome of an intricat ... Read more
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Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries
No consensus but plenty of solutions
Michael Chibba
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 197 - 200
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Three Cheers for the 'Progressive State'
Ben Friedman on the moral consequences of economic growth
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 97 - 146
Ben Friedman is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading macroeconomists. His research and publications have focused on monetary and fiscal policy, and the key role that financial markets play in influencing how macroeconomic policies impact on aggregate economic activity. Professor Friedman’ ... 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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Exploring the Present Through the Past
Claudia Goldin on human capital, gender and the lessons from history
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
Volume 8, Number 4, 2007, pages 61 - 124
Claudia Goldin is one of the world’s leading economists and economic historians, and has made a series of outstanding and original contributions particularly to the cliometric (or ‘The New Economic History’) literature. In this interview, Professor Goldin discusses with Brian Snowdon (who first prov ... Read more
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The Power of Ideas
Joel Mokyr on the intellectual origins of the Industrial Revolution and modern economic growth
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
Volume 8, Number 3, 2007, pages 53 - 110
Joel Mokyr is one of the world’s leading economic historians, known internationally for his numerous publications on the history of technology and the Industrial Revolution. He has also written extensively on demographic issues and Irish economic history. In this interview, Professor Mokyr discusses ... Read more
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Losses and Gains to Developing Countries from the Migration of Educated Workers
An overview of recent research, and new reflections
Oded Stark & C. Simon Fan
Volume 8, Number 2, 2007, pages 259 - 269
This paper synthesizes and extends recent research on “The New Economics of the Brain Drain”. In a unified framework, the paper shows that while recently identified adverse repercussions of the brain drain exacerbate the long-recognized negative impact of the brain drain, longer-term consequences tu ... 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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Economic, Neurobiological and Behavioral Perspectives on Building America’s Future Workforce
Eric Knudsen, James J. Heckman, Judy Cameron & Jack P. Shonkoff
Volume 7, Number 3, 2006, pages 17 - 41
A growing proportion of the US workforce will have been raised in disadvantaged environments that are associated with relatively high proportions of individuals with diminished cognitive and social skills. A cross-disciplinary examination of research in economics, developmental psychology, and neuro ... Read more
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Measuring Global Poverty Right
Mission impossible?
M. G. Quibria
Volume 6, Number 4, 2005, pages 111 - 121
The international community is committed to millennium development goals which postulate a vision of global development that makes eliminating poverty and sustaining development the overriding objective of global development efforts. In the hierarchy of the MDGs, the first and foremost goal is to re ... Read more
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Migration and Development
A new research and policy agenda
Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah
Volume 6, Number 2, 2005, pages 141 - 146
There is growing interest in the impacts of international migration on economic development. Yet, despite a burgeoning literature, some of the most fundamental questions in this area remain unanswered. This article suggests five priorities for devising better methodologies for understanding the impa ... Read more
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The New Economics of the Brain Drain
Oded Stark
Volume 6, Number 2, 2005, pages 137 - 140
For nearly four decades now, the conventional wisdom has been that the migration of human capital (skilled workers) from a developing country to a developed country is detrimental to the developing country. However, this perception need not hold. A well-designed migration policy can result in a “bra ... Read more
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Responsible Growth to 2050
Kirk Hamilton & Ian Johnson
Volume 5, Number 4, 2004, pages 33 - 51
At plausible rates of growth in population and income per capita, world GDP in
2050 could be four times what it is today. This paper considers the benefits this
growth can provide, the risks that it presents, and the building blocks required to
achieve it. The authors argue that “business as usua ... Read more
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Are Governments Overextended?
Assessing the spectrum of a government’s debts and its exposure to risk
Peter S. Heller
Volume 5, Number 4, 2004, pages 1 - 31
Have government debt levels reached dangerous levels? Certainly, for some
countries, the data would suggest so. However, this paper will argue that for
many governments, the amount of explicit debt on their balance sheets seriously
understates the magnitude of their future fiscal obligations. Thi ... 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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How Demographic Change can Bolster Economic Performance in Developing Countries
David E. Bloom & David Canning
Volume 4, Number 4, 2003, pages 1 - 14
Falling mortality rates spurred by medical, nutritional and lifestyle changes have
spurred a ‘demographic transition’ in a majority of the world’s countries. As couples
realize their children are more likely to survive, they need, and eventually have,
fewer of them to attain their desired family ... Read more
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The Impact of Globalization on Rural Poverty
Alexander Sarris
Volume 4, Number 2, 2003, pages 143 - 162
The paper first reviews the meaning and causes of globalization. It indicates that
globalization is not a new phenomenon in history, but the current phase seems to
have new elements that did not exist previously. Regarding the consequences of
the various aspects of globalization at the national l ... Read more
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Does Britain Need More Immigrants? A Debate
Nigel Harris & David Coleman
Volume 4, Number 2, 2003, pages 57 - 102
In this debate, Nigel Harris and David Coleman discuss the pros and cons of
migration. Taking the case of Britain, they address issues such as the desirability
or otherwise of migration controls, gains and losses from migration, the ‘optimum’
size and composition of the country’s workforce, and t ... 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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Labour Standards and International Trade
Krisztina Kis-Katos & Günther G. Schulze
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 101 - 129
Can a case be made for the imposition of international minimum labour
standards? And if so, on what grounds? The authors systematically present the
existing theoretical and empirical arguments for and against introducing minimum
labour standards on the international level, and discuss whether tra ... 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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Wanted: Measures of Economic Change
Ralph Turvey
Volume 2, Number 2, 2001, pages 191 - 196
Economic growth may involve change, but there can be change without
economic growth insofar as outputs of some products or employment in some
regions or industries grows while there are equal decreases elsewhere. National
accounts data do not reveal such shifts, yet they may involve investment an ... 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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Child Labour
Theory, policy and evidence
Saqib Jafarey & Sajal Lahiri
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 69 - 93
The purpose of this paper is to pull together the emerging theoretical and
empirical literature on the economics of child labour, and to draw out the
underlying commonalities between various contributions in this field. In doing
so, the authors also identify various policy options and their relat ... 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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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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Demographic Risk in Industrial Societies
Independent population forecasts for the G-7 countries
Sylvester J. Schieber & Paul S. Hewitt
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 27 - 72
There is a growing awareness of the aging of populations around the world and the implications for national retirement programs. In most cases, estimates of population aging are based on fixed assumptions about fertility, improvements in life expectancy, and immigration. In most countries, however ... Read more
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Owner-occupiers and the Price Index
Ralph Turvey
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 153 - 159
The treatment of owner-occupied dwellings in Consumer Price Indexes varies between countries and is the subject of continuing controversy. Ralph Turvey explains the alternative possible treatments and reasons for disagreement.
... Read more
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The US “Underclass” in a Booming Economy
Richard B. Freeman
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 89 - 100
The main failure in the US economy in the 1980s through the mid 1990s was its inability to distribute the gains of economic growth to the bulk of the population. The traditional “rising tide lifts all boats” link between economic growth and poverty seemed broken, creating a large seemingly permanent ... Read more
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Understanding Labour Market Institutions
Gilles Saint-Paul
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 73 - 87
Labour market rigidities are often considered to be responsible for high unemployment in Europe. This paper outlines a theory explaining why they may be supported by the political system, and where their support comes from.
Labour market rigidities are likely to arise as the outcome of microeconomi ... Read more
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Poles Apart
Labour market performance and the distribution of work across households
Paul Gregg, Kirstine Hansen & Jonathan Wadsworth
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 55 - 72
Analysis of labour market performance using individual level data can reach radically different conclusions to those provided by a household-based analysis, using the same source of information. In Britain and other OECD countries the number of households without access to earned income has grown de ... 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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Welfare-to-work and the New Deal
Richard Layard
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 29 - 39
Welfare-to-work is on trial in many countries. In Britain it has become the
government’s most important policy for lowering unemployment and expanding
labour supply. But can it work? And what lessons does Britain’s experience
provide for other countries? This paper argues that whilst ... 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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Values Matter
Avner Ben-Ner & Louis Putterman
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 39 - 60
Human beings display a complex set of behavioural predispositions, including a strong inclination to pursue self-interest but also empathy, receptivity to norms of reciprocity, and an inclination to punish violators of such norms. Not only are workable economic arrangements constrained by the types ... Read more
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Prophesies of Doom at the Turn of the Millennium
A critical review of the fallacies about the end of work
Mauricio Rojas
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 21 - 38
Predictions about the "end of work" are widespread. A growing body of literature argues that growth is destroying more jobs than it created. New technology and globalisation are syndicated as the causes of this development that in the long run will condemn the majority of mankind to exclusion and po ... Read more
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