World Economics Journal Archive
The contents of all previous issues of World Economics are listed below. Subscribers have access to the complete back issue archive: click on titles to view abstracts and full text of articles (PDF). If you are not a subscriber, sign-up online now.
Are Governments Overextended?: Assessing the spectrum of a government’s debts and its exposure to risk
Peter S. Heller , World Economics, December 2004
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 ... More
Responsible Growth to 2050
Kirk Hamilton & Ian Johnson, World Economics, December 2004
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 author ... More
Governance Matters: The role of governance in Asian economic development
David E. Bloom, David Steven & Mark Weston, World Economics, December 2004
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 governanc ... More
Dollarisation in Theory and Practice
John C. B. Cooper, World Economics, December 2004
Dollarisation involves the replacement of a soft domestic currency with a hard
foreign alternative. This paper explains the different forms that dollarisation can
take, its consequences for an economy, and concludes by exploring the
experience of Panama, a country do ... More
The Influence of Political Distortions on Economic Performance: The contributions of Alberto Alesina
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
World Economics, December 2004
Alberto Alesina is the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy and
Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. In this
interview he discusses with Brian Snowdon his views on several important
contemporary issues, including politics and the b ... More
The Economic Implications of Epidemics Old and New
Clive Bell & Maureen Lewis, World Economics, December 2004
The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the winter of
2002–03 raised the specter of a new, unknown and uncontrollable infectious
disease that spreads quickly and is often fatal. Certain branches of economic
activity, notably tourism, felt its impa ... More
A Portrait of the Artists as Young or Old Innovators: The creative life cycles of modern poets and novelists
David Galenson, World Economics, December 2004
Earlier research found that great painters can be categorized either as young
geniuses, who make sudden conceptual innovations early in their careers, or as
old masters, who work experimentally, by trial and error, and arrive at their
greatest contributions late in t ... More
The Bourgeois Virtues
Deirdre McCloskey, World Economics, September 2004
‘Bourgeois virtue’ is not a contradiction in terms. The age of capitalism has
enormously enriched the world. But the enrichment is by no means only
material. The virtues enabled capitalist development; but a bourgeois life also
encouraged new versions of old virtues; ... More
What Do Economists Know?
Alan Budd, World Economics, September 2004
How would you respond to a group of high school students when asked
“What do economists know?”. Alan Budd’s answers will be familiar to readers of
World Economics but bear repeating. Economics, unlike, say, Physics, tends to
attract beliefs and opinions by non ... More
The G-20 and the World Economy
C Fred Bergsten, World Economics, September 2004
‘Globalisation’ is under attack throughout the world. However, no country has
ever developed successfully without participating actively in the global economy.
Countries and even whole regions that have failed to globalise, or which have
‘de-globalised’, have lagged. ... More
What a Consumer Price Index Can’t Do
Ralph Turvey, World Economics, September 2004
A monthly consumer price index traces changes in the monthly cost of a year’s
consumption using a sample of prices. But in some months the prices that can be
sampled will temporarily exclude some of the products that were bought in the
base year, Christmas trees prov ... More
Globalisation, Economic Progress and New Millennium Collectivism: A review article
David Henderson, World Economics, September 2004
Three major studies of globalisation and its effects have recently been published.
One of these is the report of an international commission of eminent persons.
The other two are books by leading economists, one by Jagdish Bhagwati and the
other by Martin Wolf. David ... More
Asian Drama: The pursuit of modernisation in India and Indonesia
Tim Lankester, World Economics, September 2004
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 idea ... More
Pricing Cultural Heritage: A new approach to managing ancient resources
Susana Mourato, Ece Ozdemiroglu, Tannis Hett & Giles Atkinson, World Economics, September 2004
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 ... More
Does European Union Environmental Policy Pass a Cost–Benefit Test?
David Pearce, World Economics, September 2004
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 Europ ... More
European Financial Market Integration: Distant dream or nascent reality?
Patrice Muller, World Economics, September 2004
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 Uni ... More
Monetarism Revisited
Allan Meltzer, World Economics, September 2004
Allan Meltzer responds to the article by Thomas Mayer
and Patrick Minford, ‘Monetarism: A
Retrospective’ that appeared in World Economics, Vol. 5,
No. 2 (April–June), 2004, pp. 147–185.
... More
Monetarism: A Response
Meghnad Desai, World Economics, September 2004
Meghnad Desai responds to the article by Thomas Mayer
and Patrick Minford, ‘Monetarism: A
Retrospective’ that appeared in World Economics, Vol. 5,
No. 2 (April–June), 2004, pp. 147–185.
... More
Monetarism in Retrospect — and Prospect
Andrew G Haldane, World Economics, September 2004
Andrew Haldane responds to the article by Thomas Mayer
and Patrick Minford, ‘Monetarism: A
Retrospective’ that appeared in World Economics, Vol. 5,
No. 2 (April–June), 2004, pp. 147–185. ... More
Monetarism: A Rejoinder
Tim Congdon, World Economics, September 2004
Tim Congdon responds to the article by Thomas Mayer
and Patrick Minford, ‘Monetarism: A
Retrospective’ that appeared in World Economics, Vol. 5,
No. 2 (April–June), 2004, pp. 147–185.
... More
The Quest for Development: What role does history play?
Areendam Chanda & Louis Putterman, World Economics, June 2004
It may be no coincidence that those countries that grew most rapidly in the late
twentieth century—including South Korea, China, and, of late, India—were
relatively developed civilizations when Western Europe began its overseas
expansion five centuries ago. In this a ... More
Globalisation and the Asia–Pacific Revival
Arne Bigsten, World Economics, June 2004
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 globalis ... More
The Health and Wealth of Africa
David E. Bloom & David Canning, World Economics, June 2004
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 communi ... More
Explaining the ‘Great Divergence’: Daron Acemoglu on how growth theorists rediscovered history and the importance of institutions
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
World Economics, June 2004
Daron Acemoglu is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. In this interview he discusses with Brian Snowdon some of his
recent research findings that confirm the key role played by ‘good’ and ‘bad’
institutions in determining the economic ... More
Fifty Years of Economic Growth in Western Europe: No longer catching up but falling behind?
Nicholas Crafts, World Economics, June 2004
Productivity growth in virtually all west European countries exceeded that of the
United States throughout the period 1950 to 1995. Since then American
productivity performance has strengthened and that of the EU has weakened.
The most important reason is contrasting ... More
Monetarism: A retrospective
Thomas Mayer & Patrick Minford, World Economics, June 2004
This paper offers a retrospective on the monetarist debate started by Milton
Friedman in the 1950s, discussing both monetarist theory and policy
recommendations. While the inability to find a controllable monetary aggregate
with a velocity that can be accurately pred ... More
The End of the Road for the WTO?: A snapshot of international trade policy after Cancun
Razeen Sally, World Economics, March 2004
The collapse of the Doha Round in Cancun is symptomatic of a wider malaise in
the WTO. It has an overloaded agenda, and is becoming excessively legalised
and politicised. The “UN-isation” of the WTO proceeds apace. Its decisionmaking
mechanism is crippled. It is ther ... More
International Aid: Experience, prospects and the moral case
Tim Lankester, World Economics, March 2004
This article describes the main reasons why aid has not been as effective at
addressing the world’s poverty problem as it could have been: lack of will on the
part of donors, inadequate policies and governance on the part of recipients, and
a lack of understanding of ... More
Escaping Regulation, Escaping Convention: Development strategies in small economies
Naren Prasad, World Economics, March 2004
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 gl ... More
Beyond the Ivory Tower: Stanley Fischer on the economics of contemporary global issues
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
World Economics, March 2004
Stanley Fischer had a long and distinguished career as an academic economist at
MIT, and was Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist at
the World Bank, before becoming First Deputy Managing Director of the
International Monetary Fund in 1994. He is ... More
Does the IMF Perform a Catalytic Role?: And what if it doesn’t?
Graham Bird & Dane Rowlands, World Economics, March 2004
The IMF advertises itself as playing a catalytic role, whereby its lending
programmes induce other providers of finance to invest or lend as well. The
theoretical foundations of this claim are reviewed and found to be questionable.
The empirical evidence also appears ... More
A Single European Market in Asset Management: Vision and reality
Friedrich Heinemann, World Economics, March 2004
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 ... More
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics: A biographical guide to potential future winners
Howard R. Vane & Chris Mulhearn, World Economics, March 2004
In October 2003 the latest recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
were announced. Since its inception in 1969, 53 economists have been awarded
the Prize. A closer look at the biographical details of the Nobel Memorial
Laureates—including their broad fiel ... More