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China's growth performance since the start of economic reforms in 1978 has been impressive, but the gains have not been distributed equally across provinces. We use a nonparametric approach to analyze the variation in labor productivity growth across China's provinces. This approach imposes less structure on the data than the standard growth accounting framework and allows for a breakdown of labor productivity into efficiency gains, technological progress, and capital deepening. We have the following results. First, we find that on average capital deepening accounts for about 75 percent of total labor productivity growth, while efficiency and technological improvements account for about 7 and 18 percent, respectively. Second, technical change is not neutral. Third, whereas improvement in efficiency contributes to convergence in labor productivity between provinces, technical change contributes to productivity disparity across provinces. Finally, we find that foreign direct investment has a positive and significant effect on efficiency growth and technical progress.

In 1999, the IMF and the World Bank adopted a new frame work for supporting economic reform in low-income member countries to achieve the objectives of poverty reduction and economic growth. The frame work consists of two key elements: country-authored Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, drawing on broad-based consultations with key stake holder groups; and a vehicle for the provision of IMF concessional lending, the Poverty Reduction andGrowth Facility. This evaluation takes stock of progress to date and attempts to identify short comings that may require course corrections in the design and implementation of the initiative.

“A brilliant and lucid new book” (John Lanchester, New York Times Magazine) about why paper money and digital currencies lie at the heart of many of the world's most difficult problems—and their solutionsIn The Curse of Cash, acclaimed economist and bestselling author Kenneth Rogoff explores the past, present, and future of currency, showing why, contrary to conventional economic wisdom, the regulation of paper bills—and now digital currencies—lies at the heart some of the world's most difficult problems, but also their potential solutions. When it comes to currency, history shows that the private sector often innovates but eventually the government regulates and appropriates. Using examples ranging from the history of standardized coinage to the development of paper money, Rogoff explains why the cryptocurrency boom will inevitably end with dominant digital currencies created and controlled by governments, regardless of what Bitcoin libertarians want. Advanced countries still urgently need to stem the global flood of large paper bills—the vast majority of which serve no legitimate purpose and only enable tax evasion and other crimes—but cryptocurrencies are like $100 bills on steroids.The Curse of Cash is filled with revealing insights about many of the most pressing issues facing monetary policymakers, from quantitative easing to alternative inflation targeting regimes. It also explains in detail why, if low interest rates persist, the best way to reinvigorate monetary policy is to implement fully effective and unconstrained negative interest rates.Provocative, engaging, and backed by compelling original arguments and evidence, The Curse of Cash has sparked widespread debate and its ideas have moved to the center of financial and policy discussions.

From the New York Times bestselling author of This Time Is Different,'a fascinating and important book'(Ben Bernanke) about phasing out most paper money to fight crime and tax evasion—and to battle financial crises by tapping the power of negative interest ratesThe world is drowning in cash—and it's making us poorer and less safe. In The Curse of Cash, Kenneth Rogoff, one of the world's leading economists, makes a persuasive and fascinating case for an idea that until recently would have seemed outlandish: getting rid of most paper money.Even as people in advanced economies are using less paper money, there is more cash in circulation—a record $1.4 trillion in U.S. dollars alone, or $4,200 for every American, mostly in $100 bills. And the United States is hardly exceptional. So what is all that cash being used for? The answer is simple: a large part is feeding tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, the drug trade, human trafficking, and the rest of a massive global underground economy.As Rogoff shows, paper money can also cripple monetary policy. In the aftermath of the recent financial crisis, central banks have been unable to stimulate growth and inflation by cutting interest rates significantly below zero for fear that it would drive investors to abandon treasury bills and stockpile cash. This constraint has paralyzed monetary policy in virtually every advanced economy, and is likely to be a recurring problem in the future.The Curse of Cash offers a plan for phasing out most paper money—while leaving small-denomination bills and coins in circulation indefinitely—and addresses the issues the transition will pose, ranging from fears about privacy and price stability to the need to provide subsidized debit cards for the poor.While phasing out the bulk of paper money will hardly solve the world's problems, it would be a significant step toward addressing a surprising number of very big ones. Provocative, engaging, and backed by compelling original arguments and evidence, The Curse of Cash is certain to spark widespread debate.

Im Rahmen des Projekts Duncker & Humblot reprints heben wir Schätze aus dem Programm der ersten rund 150 Jahre unserer Verlagsgeschichte, von der Gründung 1798 bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs 1945. Lange vergriffene Klassiker und Fundstücke aus den Bereichen Rechts- und Staatswissenschaften, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Geschichte, Philosophie und Literaturwissenschaft werden nach langer Zeit wieder verfügbar gemacht – und zwar sowohl gedruckt als auch in elektronischer Form. Einige Titel sind bereits erschienen. Täglich kommen weitere hinzu. Bis Ende des Jahres wird das »Duncker & Humblot reprints«-Programm auf ca. 1.500 Bände anwachsen. Möchten Sie regelmäßig über Neuerscheinungen aus dem reprints-Programm informiert werden? Dann abonnieren Sie unseren E-Mail-Benachrichtigungsdienst.

Im Rahmen des Projekts Duncker & Humblot reprints heben wir Schätze aus dem Programm der ersten rund 150 Jahre unserer Verlagsgeschichte, von der Gründung 1798 bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs 1945. Lange vergriffene Klassiker und Fundstücke aus den Bereichen Rechts- und Staatswissenschaften, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Geschichte, Philosophie und Literaturwissenschaft werden nach langer Zeit wieder verfügbar gemacht – und zwar sowohl gedruckt als auch in elektronischer Form. Einige Titel sind bereits erschienen. Täglich kommen weitere hinzu. Bis Ende des Jahres wird das »Duncker & Humblot reprints«-Programm auf ca. 1.500 Bände anwachsen. Möchten Sie regelmäßig über Neuerscheinungen aus dem reprints-Programm informiert werden? Dann abonnieren Sie unseren E-Mail-Benachrichtigungsdienst.

This book contains selected peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the Fourth International Symposium on Transportation Network Reliability (INSTR) Conference held at the University of Minnesota July 22-23, 2010. International scholars, from a variety of disciplines--engineering, economics, geography, planning and transportation—offer varying perspectives on modeling and analysis of the reliability of transportation networks in order to illustrate both vulnerability to day-to-day and unpredictability variability and risk in travel, and demonstrates strategies for addressing those issues. The scope of the chapters includes all aspects of analysis and design to improve network reliability, specifically user perception of unreliability of public transport, public policy and reliability of travel times, the valuation and economics of reliability, network reliability modeling and estimation, travel behavior and vehicle routing under uncertainty, and risk evaluation and management for transportation networks. The book combines new methodologies and state of the art practice to model and address questions of network unreliability, making it of interest to both academics in transportation and engineering as well as policy-makers and practitioners.

First published in 1980, this book collects 17 lectures presented at the annual conference of the Association of University Teachers of Economics covering a wide range issues and debates. They include new theoretical points, criticisms of existing theory, the reporting of empirical studies and their implications, and refinements of methodological techniques. Among the topics covered are government deficits and capital accumulation; macroeconomic issues of management policy and foreign trade; empirical studies of foreign exchange markets, and supply and demand of hours of work; public sector and welfare economics; risk and uncertainty; and monopoly, competition and markets.

Over the last forty years, the field of public economics has emerged as a modern successor to public finance. It has gained importance on the research agenda of economists and in the curricula of economics depa- ments. It has become a diversified field, rich in theoretical developments and substantive applications. Beyond the traditional concerns with t- ation or public goods, a number of new concerns have entered the scene, concerning for instance public sector pricing, the management of public firms, social security or federalism. A comprehensive presentation of the field extends nowadays beyond the scope of textbooks and requires access to a growing specialised literature. The present volume, collecting 22 papers published by Henry Tulkens over the period 1978–2003, is offered as an illustration of these new developments. The illustration has three dimensions: approach, s- ject matters and methods. Coming from a single author, admittedly assisted by 18 co-authors, the different papers are illustrative of an underlying general approach, which I like to label ‘‘operational public economics''. With these simple words, I mean an approach under which issues in public economics are formulated so as to capture essential elements of actual situations. Ty- cally, this leads to theoretical models more complex than standard te- book formulations. It is then up to the public economist to extend the theory as needed to fit the situation.

Monetary Policy in a Converging Europe covers the most important monetary issues in the transition towards an Economic and Monetary Union in Europe, containing contributions from renowned experts in relevant research and policy areas. Among other things, the contributions discuss the scope for inflation targeting, monetary interdependencies within the `core'ERM countries, money demand within the European Union, the difference between the monetary transmission mechanisms in the various European countries, and the preferred exchange rate policy in Stage Two of EMU. The book provides an excellent overview of current issues for anyone interested in monetary policy in a converging Europe.

I. The concept of competition played a central role in the very first attempts to apply the tools of economics to the analysis of politics. Adopting Hotelling's (1929) industrial organization model of imperfect competition in markets in which space has a predominant role, Downs (1957), following on some perceptive insights of Schumpeter (1942), was able to formulate a model of electoral competition in which political parties, seeking the support of citizens, compete against each other in offering policies designed to elicit their vote. Downs'model and the numerous variants to which it gave birth soon became the major component of what was to become Public Choice Theory. The enormous efforts of the last 30 years devoted to modelling electoral competition have helped improve our understanding of politics and have contributed a basic element that undoubtedly will remain essential to any reasonably complete theory of politics. But whatever may have been early expectations, it is now clear that electoral competition will only be one such element. More recently, the idea of competition has been used to model interest-group behavior. Becker (1983), building on earlier work by Bentley (1908), Truman (1958), Olson (1965), Stigler (1971) and Peltzman (1976), applied the Public Finance analysis of the excess-burden of taxes and subsidies - to which, incidentally, Hotelling (1938) had made pioneering contribution- to produce a model in which competition between interest groups determines an equilibrium distribution of income.

I. Until about a dozen years ago, the economic analysis of the relationship between political preferences and political demands was a rather straightforward, if dull, subject. The most common assumption was that the only political instrument available to citizens was the vote. Given this assumption, the analyst could express the outcome of the voting process in one of two ways. One possibility was to make the heroic assumptions necessary to obtain the median voter theorem, in which case, the political demands of the citizenry are simply the preferences of the median voter. The alternative was to make Arrow's Impossibility Theorem in which case even though individual preferences are well ordered, no collective preference function exists. On either of these approaches, institutions such as interest groups, political parties, or the structures ofpolitical representation played no role in the analysis. The work of'Chicago'scholars especially George Stigler, Gary Becker and Sam Peltzman took a different approach and emphasized the importanceoforganizationinmakingpoliticaldemandseffective, shifting thefocus from voting topolitical'pressure'byinterestgroups. However, in these models, voting as an instrument of political action simply disappears and the relationship between interest group pressures and electoral processes has never been clarified.

This book comprises a compilation of papers authored by researchers who took part in the 5th International Conference on Economic, Business, Financial, and Institutional Translation held at the University of Alicante in 2023. We hope that this collection of papers will prove to be of interest and provide a more comprehensive perspective on the pedagogical aspects of economic translation in the context of machine translation.

This paper critically reviews recent work regarding the sustainability of public debt. It argues that Debt Sustainability Analyses (DSAs) should be more than mere mechanical simulation exercises. Instead, a DSA should be linked to some objective regarding the distribution of fiscal burdens and distortions over time (in the tradition of Barro's 1979 tax smoothing objective). The paper discusses objective functions that yield simple and transparent fiscal policy rules.

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of pertinent issues on sovereign debt restructurings, based on a newly constructed database. This is the first complete dataset of sovereign restructuring cases, covering the six decades from 1950-2010; it includes 186 debt exchanges with foreign banks and bondholders, and 447 bilateral debt agreements with the Paris Club. We present new stylized facts on the outcome and process of debt restructurings, including on the size of haircuts, creditor participation, and legal aspects. In addition, the paper summarizes the relevant empirical literature, analyzes recent restructuring episodes, and discusses ongoing debates on crisis resolution mechanisms, credit default swaps, and the role of collective action clauses.

This book contains selected papers of the International Conference on Industrial Economics Systems and Industrial Security Engineering (IEIS 2020), which is co-organized by Beijing Jiaotong University, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, in July 25–28 2020. This book aims to provide new research methods, theories and applications from various areas of industrial economics and engineering. In detail the included scientific papers analyze and describe communication processes in the fields of industrial economics, industrial system, industrial security and engineering and other related areas. The variety of papers delivers added value for both scholars and practitioners.

This book gathers selected papers from the 29th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal. While the theoretical and empirical papers presented cover diverse areas of economics and finance in various geographic regions, the main focus is on the latest research concerning accounting/audits, banking, the economics of innovation, and empirical studies on emerging economies and international trade. Studies on labor economics and public economics, as well as regional studies, round out the coverage.

This book presents selected papers from the 26th and 27th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conferences, held in Prague, Czech Republic, and Bali, Indonesia. While the theoretical and empirical papers gathered here cover diverse areas of economics and finance in various geographic regions, the main focus is on the latest research concerning banking and finance, as well as empirical studies on emerging economies and public economics. The book also includes studies on political economy and regional studies.

This volume details the process of, and difficulties in, assembling the data: the source notes for every column in each sub-file for each of the Excel files A–P; with some fuller explanation of the heading; and particular notes for particular years in each column. There are also explanations, calculations and reasoning for particular estimates and how totals were arrived at. The reasoning for some totals and the inclusion of certain categories may be contested. I welcome such disagreements, suggestions of sources which I may have missed, and correction of straightforward mistakes. This is a workbook for future scholars to peruse and amend. I will provide amendments as necessary. The painstaking research initially involved going through the British Parliamentary Papers (BPP) from 1830, item by item, and reconstructing ‘country-specific estimates from the available empirical evidence'. The second part of this volume provides a guide to what was considered, even if not used, 1830–1920 in the British Parliamentary Papers. The primary other sources emerged from this process, particularly for the first phase and the first half of the second phase. The data to which the sources in this work refer, and which are the statistical basis of the first volume, “The Key to all Mythologies” are contained in the following website: www.thekeytoallmythologies.com

This book contains eight papers focusing on factors associated with the growth of government. There is a large literature in public economics, especially public choice, on the determinants of the growth of government. The papers in this volume focus on a number of arguments related to why government has grown in many developed countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Chapters focus on taxation, trade openness, technology, income changes, and tax compliance. The volume features prominent scholars such as Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, Casey Mulligan, Gordon Tullock, Randall Holcombe, and Tyler Cowen.

This book gathers selected papers from the 28th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, held in Coventry, United Kingdom. While the theoretical and empirical papers presented cover diverse areas of economics and finance in various geographic regions, the main focus is on the latest research concerning the economics of innovation, finance and macroeconomics. The book also includes regional studies.

This paper uses the Growth-at-Risk (GaR) methodology to examine how macrofinancial conditions affect the growth outlook and its probability distribution. Using this approach, we evaluate risks to GDP growth in the Dominican Republic using quarterly data for 1996-2018. We group macrofinancial conditions in five principal determinants, based on 32 indicators. The Dominican Republic's growth distribution appears most vulnerable to negative shocks to domestic financial conditions, domestic leverage, domestic demand, and external demand, with additional repercussions from the external cost of borrowing in the longer run. Our findings show that domestic monetary policy plays a particularly important role in reducing growth vulnerabilities when the economy is weak.

This paper documents a form of private sector bailout that is much more common (and yet unnoticed) than the typical bank bailout. Building on the newly-created Global Debt Database, we show that excess private debt systematically turns into higher public debt, regardless of whether the credit boom resulted in a crisis or a more orderly deleveraging process. This debt migration operates mainly through growth rather than explicit bailouts: private deleveraging weighs on activity, prompting a countercyclical government response to support economic activity. Ultimately, whether this debt substitution results in a net increase or a net decline of overall indebtedness in the economy depends on the extent of the growth slowdown during the deleveraging spell. These findings suggest that markets and policymakers should move away from looking at private and sovereign debt in silos and pay closer attention to the total stock of debt in the economy, as the line between the two tends to become blurry.

This volume provides a comprehensive account of Wilhelm Röpke as a liberal political economist and social philosopher. Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966) was a key protagonist of transatlantic neoliberalism, a prominent public intellectual and a gifted international networker. As an original thinker, he always positioned himself at the interface between political economy and social philosophy, as well as between liberalism and conservatism. Röpke's endeavors to combine these elements into a coherent whole, as well as his embeddedness in European and American intellectual networks of liberal and conservative thinkers, are a central theme throughout the book. The volume includes papers by international experts from a conference in Geneva on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Röpke's passing. The first part focuses on new biographical insights into his exile years in Istanbul and Geneva, while the second part discusses his business cycle theory in the context of the Great Depression, and the third part elaborates on his multifaceted social philosophy.Wilhelm Röpke was among the most important thinkers within the classical liberal revival post-WWII, with intriguing tensions between liberalism and conservatism. A highly recommended volume.–– Peter J. Boettke, 2016-2018 President of the Mont Pèlerin Society and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, George Mason University This important collection of papers provides an in-depth assessment of Wilhelm Röpke's contributions, placing him in the context of his time. A fine contribution. –– Bruce J. Caldwell, Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy and Research Professor of Economics, Duke University

This volume comprises papers presented at the 8th international conference “The Economies of the Balkan and Eastern European Countries in the Changing World” (EBEEC) held in Split, Croatia in 2016. The papers cover a wide range of current issues relevant for the whole of Eastern Europe, such as European integration, economic growth, labour markets, education and tourism. Written by experienced researchers in the field of economic challenges for Eastern Europe, the papers not only analyse recent problems, but also offer policies to resolve them. Furthermore, they offer insights into the theoretical and empirical foundations of the economic processes described. The proceedings of the conference appeals to all those interested in the further economic development of the Balkan and Eastern European countries.

Over the past decade, governments in the Caribbean region have introduced the value-added tax (VAT) to modernize their tax system, rapidly mobilize revenue and reduce budget deficits. This paper analyzes VAT performance in the region and concludes that while it has boosted revenues, the VAT has not reached its potential. Intended as a broad-based tax with limited exemptions, a single rate and zero-rating confined to exports, the VAT's design often lacks these characteristics. The paper also finds that although tax administration reforms can boost revenues, countries have just started to address organizational inefficiencies, data integrity issues, and operational ineffectiveness. These reforms need to intensify in order to have a more significant impact on compliance and revenue.

The paper offers an approach to assessing the sustainability of public debt taking into account the effect of fiscal policy on output, as well as uncertainty in the model parameters and system dynamics. Uncertainty is specified in general terms, and the analysis is based on the notion of invariant sets. Examples are provided to illustrate how the method can be applied in practice.

Highlighting recent revolutionary changes, this volume deals with the ongoing transformation from central planning towards more efficient economic structures in Eastern and Central Europe and the former USSR. Political democracy and the creation of market economies have now become realistic aims but the process of reform is only just beginning and is likely to take many years. The papers and discussions deal with systematic changes, deregulation, abolition of price controls and macroeconomic fiscal and monetary policies needed to stabilise the economics and to implement appropriate structural changes.

Emerging countries that have defaulted on their debt repayment obligations in the past are more likely to default again in the future than are non-defaulters even with the same external debt-to-GDP ratio. These countries actually have repeated defaults or restructurings in short periods. This paper explains these stylized facts within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework by explicitly modeling renegotiations between a defaulting country and its creditors. The quantitative analysis of the model reveals that the equilibrium probability of default for a given debt-to-GDP level is weakly increasing with the number of past defaults. The model also accords with an additional fact: lower recovery rates (high NPV haircuts) are associated with increases in spreads at renegotiation.

The proceedings of the 1st AAGBS International Conference on Business Management 2014 (AiCoBM 2014), held in Penang, Malaysia, gathers 57 refereed papers. They cover areas relating to various aspects of business management and reflect the conference's three main themes (management and marketing, economics and finance, and entrepreneurship) and present original papers contributed by researchers, scholars, professionals and postgraduate students. They address a range of disciplines that encompass each of the main themes. Using basic and applied research findings together with case studies they provide valuable information on current research trends in business management, international business, marketing, economics, finance, Islamic finance and economics, and entrepreneurship.

There is relatively little literature that analyses the role, functions, and organization of finance ministries. The purpose of this working paper is to review international experiences in this area, in an effort to formulate guiding principles of organizational design and the allocation of functions, while recognizing the crucial importance of each country's history and institutional context. Over the past 30 years many finance ministries have moved from a “traditional” to an “emerging” model of organizational design in which there is greater openness and transparency, more flexible management practices, and a broader focus on strategic policy issues. In addition, many operational functions have been devolved to arm's–length agencies or line ministries. The paper describes the challenges facing developing countries in strengthening their finance ministries, and the principles, approaches, and strategies that can be applied.

This Selected Issues paper examines the interaction between real and financial cycles in the Philippines and their relationship to the global financial cycle. It finds that the surge in capital inflows between 2010 and mid-2013 can largely be explained by global financial factors such as global risk aversion, with exchange rate expectations and domestic fundamentals playing a secondary role. Moreover, local bond yields and retail bank rates seem to be driven by the same global factors and the U.S. term premiums. The paper suggests that the quantitative impact of VIX shocks on domestic demand via capital flows and asset repricing and of changes in the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields on bank credit and investment, are significant.

​The book showcases a selection of peer-reviewed papers, the preliminary versions of which were presented at a conference held 11-13 June 2011 in Bologna and organized jointly by the Italian Statistical Society (SIS), the Institute national Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and the Bank of Italy. The theme of the conference was'Statistics in the 150 years of the Unification of Italy.'The celebration of the anniversary of Italian unification provided the opportunity to examine and discuss the methodological aspects and applications from a historical perspective and both from a national and international point of view. The critical discussion on the issues of the past has made it possible to focus on recent advances, considering the studies of socio-economic and demographic changes in European countries.

We examine how the composition of public debt, broken down by currency, maturity, holder profile and marketability, has responded to major debt accumulation and consolidation episodes during 1900-2011. Covering thirteen advanced economies, we focus on debt structure shifts that occurred around the two World Wars and global economic downturns, and the subsequent debt consolidations. Notwithstanding data gaps, we are able to recover some broad common patterns. Episodes of large debt accumulation—essentially, large increases in debt supply— were typically absorbed by increases in short-term, foreign currency-denominated, and banking-system-held debt. However, this pattern did not hold during the debt build-ups starting in the 1980s and 1990s, which were compositionally skewed toward long-term local-currency debt. We attribute this change to higher structural demand for sovereign paper, linked to capital account liberalization in advanced economies, the emergence of a large contractual saving sector, and innovative sovereign debt products. With regard to debt consolidations, we find support for the financial repression-cum-inflation channel for post World War II debt reductions. However, the scope for a repeat of this strategy appears limited unless financial liberalization and globalization were materially rolled back or the current globally agreed monetary policy regime built around price stability abandoned. Neither are significant favorable structural demand shifts, as witnessed in the 1980s and 1990s, likely.

Delegating fiscal decision making power to sub-national governments has been an area of interest for both academics and policymakers given the expectation that it may lead to better and more efficient provision of public goods and services. Decentralization has, however, often occurred on the expenditure and less on the revenue side, creating “vertical fiscal imbalances” where sub-national governments'expenditures are not financed through their own revenues. The mismatch between own revenues and expenditures may have consequences for public finance performance. This study constructs a large sample of general and subnational level fiscal data beginning in 1980 from the IMF's Government Finance Statistics Yearbook. Extending the literature to the balance sheet approach, this paper examines the effects of vertical fiscal imbalances on government debt. The results indicate that vertical fiscal imbalances are relevant in explaining government debt accumulation suggesting a degree of caution when promoting fiscal decentralization. This paper also underlines the role of data covering the general government and its subectors for comprehensive analysis of fiscal performance.

This paper presents the DIGNAR (Debt, Investment, Growth, and Natural Resources) model, which can be used to analyze the debt sustainability and macroeconomic effects of public investment plans in resource-abundant developing countries. DIGNAR is a dynamic, stochastic model of a small open economy. It has two types of households, including poor households with no access to financial markets, and features traded and nontraded sectors as well as a natural resource sector. Public capital enters production technologies, while public investment is subject to inefficiencies and absorptive capacity constraints. The government has access to different types of debt (concessional, domestic and external commercial) and a resource fund, which can be used to finance public investment plans. The resource fund can also serve as a buffer to absorb fiscal balances for given projections of resource revenues and public investment plans. When the fund is drawn down to its minimal value, a combination of external and domestic borrowing can be used to cover the fiscal gap in the short to medium run. Fiscal adjustments through tax rates and government non-capital expenditures—which may be constrained by ceilings and floors, respectively—are then triggered to maintain debt sustainability. The paper illustrates how the model can be particularly useful to assess debt sustainability in countries that borrow against future resource revenues to scale up public investment.

The recent global financial crisis is considered to be the most severe crisis which has led to a synchronised recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Europe is the most affected region in the world as a result of this crisis, and, as such, the sovereign debt crisis remains the most important issue in the Eurozone and threatens the future of the EU.This book provides answers, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, to the following questions: What caused the global and European debt crises? What are the consequences of these crises? Why, despite the implementation of several policy measures, are these crises still affecting the world economy? What are the solutions to end the on-going crisis situation in the Eurozone? How can future crisis episodes in the world economy be prevented?Eleven quality papers from both academics and professionals are included in this volume, each of which provides a significant source, reference, and teaching supplement for researchers, policymakers and advanced graduate students. In addition, the papers collected here will also provide supplementary readings for advanced courses for graduate students in economics and European studies.

Highly favorable external conditions have helped Latin America strengthen its economic fundamentals over the last decade. But, has the region built enough buffers to guard itself from a weakening of the external environment? This paper addresses this question by developing a simple framework that integrates econometric estimates of the effect of global factors on key domestic variables that determine public and external debt dynamics, with the IMF‘s standard debt sustainability framework. Results suggest that, while some countries in the region are well placed to withstand moderate or even large shocks, many would benefit from having stronger buffers to be in a position to deploy countercyclical policies, especially under tail events. External sustainability, on the other hand, does not appear to be a source of concern for most countries.

The demand for high quality detailed public finance statistics covering a globally representative sample of countries has increased dramatically during the recent financial crisis. Due to the complexity of public finance statistics, however, such data tend to be either available in oversimplified high level aggregates and lacking in methodological transparency, or, available with a great level of detail and a unified methodological approach yet overly complicated to understand. The IMF's Government Finance Statistics Yearbook (GFSY) withdata over an almost 40 year period for almost 140 countries is a valuable database but with a complex structure requiring some specialty knowledge that most data users do not have. The IMF's Statistics Department embarked on several initiatives to improve its accessibility. The purpose of this paper is to provide a non-technical overview of the methodology and advantages of the GFSY database and discussion of how the database is improving to better meet the needs of the user community.

It has taken a long time to make this book. Many initial drafts of the chapters published in this book were presented in November 2000 during a two-day conference on Interactive governance: towards a post-parliamentary democracy held in Enschede (The Netherlands). The Netherlands Institute of Governance (NIG) sponsored the. conference. After this conference the organisers discussed the possibility of making a book on the basis of papers presented at this event. In the end it was agreed that such a publication would indeed be worthwhile provided the initial papers were fundamentally revised. Moreover it was agreed that also supplementary chapters should be included, in order to strengthen the international comparative perspective. On this basis authors of the conference papers chapters and envisioned new chapters were invited to (re)submit drafts. The completion of the book, however, was unexpectedly halted by the tragic sudden death of our co-editor and dear friend Oscar van Heffen. In his lifetime he was the driving force behind this project. Without his efforts, insightful comments and helpful suggestions this book, in its present form, would never have been published. As such we dedicate this volume to his memory, the completion of the book being an honorary debt to our friend and his wife Mirjan.

Liberia is facing large infrastructure gaps and developmental needs that constrain the country's growth potential. The government has set an ambitious agenda to transform the economy and to reach middle-income country status by 2030 by scaling up investment in infrastructure and human capital. Fiscal space remains constrained by rigidities in current spending and the government will need to resort to borrowing to close some of the gaps. This paper presents an estimate of the nexus between public investment, financing, and growth in Liberia using an inter-temporal macroeconomic model. The model has been calibrated as much as possible to Liberian economic data and assumes that public investment has a high economic and social rate of return and is highly complementary toward private sector investment. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the debate on how fast public investment should be scaled up to address the country's developmental needs. The paper also highlights the trade-offs and potential risks associated with different financing options and the required changes in fiscal policy to ensure macroeconomic stability.

This book presents a collection of papers which evaluate the achievements of the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974 in making Australian markets more competitive. The contributors have all played major roles in Australian and New Zealand antitrust actions, either as expert economic witnesses, as antitrust enforcers, as judges or as quasi-judicial administrators. No other publication presents such in-depth economic analysis of the Act and the cases decided under it in its first two decades of its operation. As well as an introductory paper, this collection includes a foreword by the Hon. George Gear, Assistant Treasurer of the Australian Government and Minister responsible for the administration of the Act, plus two broad analytical overviews of the last two decades of Australian antitrust actions by two economists who have continually been at the heart of antitrust proceedings. In addition, papers are provided which give a judicial view of the Act and economic analysis, which compare the Act with its New Zealand counterpart. Other contributions look in detail at those sections of the Act which cover mergers, misuse of market power, price-fixing and vertical practices. The book shows that the Act has had a major impact on Australian market behavior. Judges, lawyers and economists between them have produced a truly Australian approach to antitrust, which has reflected overseas trends in both law and economics, as well as developed a unique Australian flavor. The book will be of interest to academic and practicing lawyers and economists, judges and corporate executives. It will be essential reading for Australian students in undergraduate courses in antitrust law, business regulation, antitrust economics and industrial organization. It provides by far the most comprehensive economic evaluation of Australian antitrust yet published and so will be the definitive source of information on this topic for non-Australians interestedin comparative antitrust legislation and enforcement issues.

Operations research tools are ideally suited to providing solutions and insights for the many problems health policy-maker's face. Indeed, a growing body of literature on health policy analysis, based on operations research methods, has emerged to address the problems mentioned above and several others. The research in this field is often multi-disciplinary, being conducted by teams that include not only operations researchers but also clinicians, economists and policy analysts. The research is also often very applied, focusing on a specific question driven by a decision-maker and many times yielding a tool to assist in future decisions.The goal of this volume was to bring together a group of papers by leading experts that could showcase the current state of the field of operations research applied to health-care policy. There are 18 chapters that illustrate the breadth of this field. The chapters use a variety of techniques, including classical operations research tools, such as optimization, queuing theory, and discrete event simulation, as well as statistics, epidemic models and decision-analytic models. The book spans the field and includes work that ranges from highly conceptual to highly applied. An example of the former is the chapter by Kimmel and Schackman on building policy models, and an example of the latter is the chapter by Coyle and colleagues on developing a Markov model for use by an organization in Ontario that makes recommendations about the funding of new drugs. The book also includes a mix of review chapters, such as the chapter by Hutton on public health response to influenza outbreaks, and original research, such as the paper by Blake and colleagues analyzing a decision by Canadian Blood Services to consolidate services. This volume could provide an excellent introduction to the field of operations research applied to health-care policy, and it could also serve as an introduction to new areas for researchers already familiarwith the topic.The book is divided into six sections. The first section contains two chapters that describe several different applications of operations research in health policy and provide an excellent overview of the field. Sections 2 to 4 present policy models in three focused areas. Section 5 contains two chapters on conceptualizing and building policy models. The book concludes in Section 6 with two chapters describing work that was done with policy-makers and presenting insights gained from working directly with policy-makers.

This book arises from a meeting held at Wiston House, Sussex, UK, in September 1987. The meeting brought together academic, governmental and industrial experts from eight countries to discuss the increasingly important sUbject of the relations between civil and defence technologies. It was primarily funded under the Advanced Research Workshops Programme of NATO's Scientific Affairs Division, and was the first science policy workshop funded by the Programme. Additional financial support came from the Leverhulme Trust. The choice of topic, of speakers and, finally, of papers to be published was entirely ours. The conclusions reached were our own and those of the partIcipants. They were not in any way guided by NATO; nor do they represent NATO policy. We speak for all the participants in offering our thanks to the NATO SCIentific Affairs Division, especially Secretary General Durand and Dr. Craig Sinclair, for rnei r- generosity and encouragement. WIthout them this book would not exist. We thank the Leverhulme Trust for enabling assistance to be provided to the Workshop Directors, in the form of lain Bate, who himself played a major part in the success of the meeting. The staff of Wiston House must also be thanked for prOViding an admirable environment for the meeting. For secretarial support prior to the meeting we thank Gill Miller and Lesley Price. Finally, we offer special thanks to Mrs. Yvonne Aspinall for converting all the papers, in whatever state they were presented, into camera-ready copy with such professionalism and gOOd humour.

International Finance and Financial Crises: Essays in Honor of Robert P. Flood, Jr. contains the proceedings of a conference held in honor of Robert P. Flood, Jr. Bob Flood has made important contributions to many areas of economic analysis, including regime switching, speculative attacks, bubbles, stock market volatility, macro models with nominal rigidities, dual exchange rates, target zones, and rules versus discretion in monetary policy. Contributors were invited to address any of the topics or others of their choosing. The results include five papers on topics in international finance; two of these papers, as well as the panel discussion, focus on speculative attacks and financial crises. The other three take new directions in exploring topics in which existing models leave much to be desired.