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.
Measuring Nations’ Economic Performance: The Report of the Commission on Economic Performance and Social Progress
F. Gerard Adams, World Economics, December 2009
The Report of the Commission on Economic Performance and Social Progress considers the issues of establishing a broader measure of human well-being than the per capita GDP currently used. The report evaluates the possibilities for expanding the GDP concept and other mea ... More
Chile: Foreign Shocks and Policy Responses
José De Gregorio, World Economics, December 2009
In 2009, the world is facing the worst recession in more than six decades. Chile has been no exception. In spite of this outlook, the Chilean economy stands on solid ground, and recent figures show that the recovery has started. This article discusses the fundamentals o ... More
The World’s Poorest Nations and the Global Financial Crisis
Nicholas Imparato & Shalendra D. Sharma, World Economics, December 2009
Unlike many earlier financial crises, the current sub-prime-induced crisis originated in advanced economies (in the US housing sector) in the summer of 2007, and rapidly mushroomed into a global financial crisis by September 2008. Developing nations, especially the ‘lea ... More
Dominant Currencies, Special Drawing Rights and Supernational Bank Money
Pietro Alessandrini & Michele Fratianni, World Economics, December 2009
The current international monetary system (IMS) is fragile because the dollar standard is rapidly deteriorating. The dual role of the dollar as the dominant international money and national money cannot easily be reconciled because the US monetary authorities face a con ... More
The Systemic Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies and Rated Markets
Amadou N.R. Sy, World Economics, December 2009
Credit ratings have contributed to the current financial crisis. Proposals to regulate credit rating agencies focus on micro-prudential issues and aim at reducing conflicts of interest and increasing transparency and competition. In contrast, this paper argues that macr ... More
Reforming the World Trade Organization
Faizel Ismail, World Economics, December 2009
This paper considers two perspectives on the future of World Trade Organization (WTO) reform. One argues that the WTO is largely a well-functioning institution and requires only incremental reforms, while the other argues that more fundamental reforms are required to co ... More
Export-led Growth via Export Platform Strategies: The impact of free trade agreements on the structure of FDI
Akinori Tomohara & Kazuhiko Yokota, World Economics, December 2009
Free trade agreements (FTAs) have the potential to impact FDI structures. Specifically, we explore when and how export platform strategies can result in export-led growth. A reduction in trade costs, including tariffs and non-tariff barriers, are likely to lead to expor ... More
Public Health, Advertising and Reality
Tim Ambler, World Economics, December 2009
Advertising is often blamed as the, or a, cause of public health problems such as misuse of alcohol or obesity. This paper suggests that the conclusions drawn by researchers owe more to their a priori attitudes than to an even-handed review of the evidence from both sid ... More
Brian Sturgess on Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel: Economic Gangsters
World Economics, December 2009
The Secret of Canadian Banking: Common Sense?
Laurence Booth, World Economics, September 2009
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 ... More
The IMF, the Credit Crunch and Iceland: A new fiscal saga?
Sheetal K. Chand, World Economics, September 2009
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 questio ... More
The New Economic Powers (NEPs): Leadership opportunities post-crisis
Danny Leipziger & William O’Boyle, World Economics, September 2009
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 crysta ... More
Reforming IMF Conditionality: From ‘streamlining’ to ‘major overhaul’
Graham Bird, World Economics, September 2009
As it has for many years, International Monetary Fund conditionality is currently receiving much attention in the context of the global financial crisis. At the beginning of the 2000s the Fund introduced a policy of ‘streamlining’ intended to reduce the amount of condit ... More
Well-being and Public Attitudes in Afghanistan: Some insights from the economics of happiness
Carol Graham & Soumya Chattopadhyay, World Economics, September 2009
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 dif ... More
Reasons for Remitting
Oded Stark, World Economics, September 2009
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 ... More
Are MENA Countries Reaping the Benefits of Inflows?: A comparative analysis of migrants’ remittances and FDI flows
Magda Kandil & Ida Aghdas Mirzaie, World Economics, September 2009
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 i ... More
Global Climate Change
F. Gerard Adams, World Economics, September 2009
Lynne Nikolychuk on Gerben Bakker: Entertainment Industrialised: The Emergence of the International Film Idustry, 1890-1940
Lynne Nikolychuk
World Economics, September 2009
Michael C. Macchiarola on Stephen H. Axilrod: Inside the Fed – Monetary Policy and Its Management, Martin Through Greenspan to Bernanke
Michael C. Macchiarola
World Economics, September 2009
Will Economic Recovery Drive up World Oil Prices?: Growth versus resource availability and the world petroleum market
F. Gerard Adams, World Economics, June 2009
Globalisation has gone a long way towards freeing individual economies from their resource and technology constraints. But, paradoxically, as large economies grow, their need for resources may strain availability on a worldwide basis, causing commodity prices to rise, w ... More
Quantitative Easing: Will it generate demand or inflation?
Colin Ellis, World Economics, June 2009
Central banks around the world have moved to cut interest rates to record lows, with many in advanced economies going further and embracing full quantitative easing – creating new money to inject into the economy. This paper examines why quantitative easing has been nec ... More
How Many US Jobs Might be Offshorable?
Alan S. Blinder, World Economics, June 2009
Using detailed information on the nature of work done in over 800 US Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational codes, this paper ranks those occupations according to how easy/hard it is to offshore the work – either physically or electronically. Using this ranking, it is ... More
Governance and Development: The current role of theory, policy and practice
Michael Chibba, World Economics, June 2009
Governance matters are arguably at the core of international development. What role do theory, policy and practice play in shaping matters of governance with respect to development? This review paper, which is organised in three parts, focuses on this subject since the ... More
Understanding Crime, Political Uncertainty and Stock Market Returns: A case study of the Colombian stock market
Juan Carlos Franco Laverde, Maria Estela Varua & Arlene Garces-Ozanne, World Economics, June 2009
Colombia’s economy has experienced positive growth over the past few years despite the incidence of serious armed conflict in the region. However, the Colombia of today still faces a significant degree of sociopolitical instability as a result of organised crime associa ... More
Global Income Distribution and Convergence 1820–2003
Péter Földvári & Jan Luiten van Zanden, World Economics, June 2009
Can the development of the world economy – the growth of global gross domestic product and the increase in global inequality – in the period from 1820 to 2003 be understood as the result of the spread of one fundamental ‘innovation’, the Industrial Revolution? This pape ... More
So Far So Good, But Still Some Missing Links: A report card on the G20 London summit
Graham Bird, World Economics, June 2009
Economists and Climate Change: Homework Comes First: A comment to Henderson
Aldo Matteucci, World Economics, June 2009
Alistair Milne on Robert J. Shiller,The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened and What to Do About It
World Economics, June 2009
Sweden’s Bank Nationalisations: Are there lessons for today?
Fredrik Erixon, World Economics, March 2009
Many banks are on the verge of bankruptcy and have received support from the government to stay afloat. Measures taken have not sufficed, and an increasing number of economists and commentators are calling for the nationalisation of banks in the United Kingdom and Unite ... More
The Oil-producing Gulf States, the IMF and the International Financial Crisis
Bessma Momani, World Economics, March 2009
As the finance-strapped International Monetary Fund (IMF) was placed at the centre of coordinating funding and offering ideas to navigate out of the international financial crisis, it became clear that the international community needed to reinvigorate the emerging mark ... More
The Institutional Framework of the Gulf Central Bank
Nasser H. Saidi & Fabio Scacciavillani, World Economics, March 2009
This paper discusses the viable alternatives for a suitable institutional and governance framework for the policymaking body presiding over the GMU. The authors review a series of alternatives, from the simplest one (i.e. a governors’ council formed by the governors of ... More
The World Financial Crisis: New economy, globalisation and old-fashioned philosophy
F. Gerard Adams, World Economics, March 2009
The world financial crisis of 2008 is a consequence of new financial technologies, new accounting methods and new international linkages. These developments have come at a time when governments have returned to an old-fashioned free market philosophy. This paper links t ... More
Economists and Climate Science: A Critique
David Henderson, World Economics, March 2009
This paper presents a critique of the characteristic treatment by economists of climate science, which appears as over-presumptive and uncritical. While the paper draws on a range of illustrative cases, the main focus is on six recent and important contributions. The pr ... More
A Question of Fudge: Professor Nordhaus on climate change and mitigation policy
Mohammed H.I. Dore, World Economics, March 2009
This paper is an outline and critique of William Nordhaus’ book A Question of Balance (2008), in which he proposes his optimal policy for dealing with global climate change. Nordhaus finds that the proposals of the Stern Review and that of Al Gore are inefficient and co ... More
How Much Would it Cost to Avoid Climate Change?
Bryan Buckley & Sergey Mityakov, World Economics, March 2009
This paper summarises various estimates of the costs of mitigation of the adverse impact of climate change. It finds that the differences in the estimated impacts on gross domestic product, consumption, employment, and gasoline, electricity and natural gas prices are dr ... More
The Banking Crisis and Inequality
Tim Lankester, World Economics, March 2009
The Dangers of Déjà Vu Economics
Graham Bird, World Economics, March 2009
The Great Moderation and the New Business Cycle
Ann Spehar, World Economics, March 2009
Charles Goodhart on Jean-Charles Rochet, Why Are There So Many Banking Crises?: The Politics and Policy of Bank Regulation
World Economics, March 2009