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Studies have shown that external capital account liberalisation can boost capital inflows and augment economic development. Nevertheless, in the case of developing and emerging economies (DEE), adverse currency fluctuations could hamper external competitiveness due to relative price differences creating currency overvaluation, which might not be mitigated via financial openness alone. Therefore, this paper uses annual panel data for 35 DEEs over 40 years to explore whether financial openness of countries can help preserve their external price competitiveness, in the presence of greater trade openness and better institutional quality. Our findings suggest that financial openness alone does not aid export competitiveness, unless it is supported by greater trade openness. In addition, both cross country and regional analyses show that financial openness can benefit economies in maintaining their export competitiveness if they have stronger quality of institutions. Our results remain robust when we estimate the role of financial openness and institutional quality jointly on external competitiveness across regions, and during the pre‐ and post‐crisis periods. We conclude that financial openness alone is not sufficient to improve external competitiveness of an emerging economy, but it does help in the presence of greater trade openness or better institutions, enabling reduction in trade costs and thereby making these countries more price‐competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using historical data for the 1700–1914 period, this paper analyses the nature and direction of technical change in Britain. The evidence in this paper indicates that, over this long period, labour‐saving technology adoption was a major response to changes in relative factor prices, thus supporting the hypothesis that 'induced innovation' was a major driver of technical change during the British industrial revolution. Labour saving was made possible and sustained by capital‐augmenting and energy‐augmenting technical change coupled with continuous capital accumulation and abundant energy supplies. This process placed the British economy on a higher capital–labour ratio equilibrium, and was the primary force driving sustained productivity growth, which further raised wages and living standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the long-run two-way causal relationship between government revenues and spending and their interaction with the yearly change in public debt for eighteen OECD countries by using annual data for 1976-2017 period. The empirical literature has mainly focused on the long run relationship between government expenditure and revenues or other single country time series while only a few studies have used panel causality analysis and none have investigated the link with the evolution of public debt ratios. The purpose of this paper is to present a dynamic model identifying the underlying relationships constituting the fiscal policy set-up in sample countries. We apply a robust dynamic panel causality methodology based on SUR systems and Wald tests with country specific bootstrap critical values. The study also aims to provide the basis for recommendations on the policy response to public finance challenges stemming from exogenous shocks like the global pandemic that began in 2020. By developing an enhanced analysis of the long-term causal relationship between taxation, spending and their interaction with changes in public debt, the study not only provides fresh insights into the sustainability and optimal design of fiscal adjustment efforts but also offers a country-specific schematization as a guide for policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses synchronization, both across and between business and financial cycles (growth and classical) in a subset of 10 countries representative of the Economic and Monetary Union. Employing an extended data set from 1960 to 2013, we find evidence of synchronization across financial cycles. In case of business cycles, we find contrasting results: There is significant synchronization across growth cycles but no evidence of a common classical cycle. This confirms, first, that economic and financial variables in the Economic and Monetary Union behave differently and, second, that synchronization in business cycles arises from synchronized deviations from the trend, but the underlying macroeconomic fundamentals are not in synch. Furthermore, we adopt a novel approach to break down our full sample period into smaller subperiods to follow the evolution of synchronization over time. Our results highlight the role played by the monetary union in further increasing macroeconomic divergences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the lessons learned from the collapse of the ruble zone, the currency of Soviet Union. The lessons involve recalling the circumstances of the collapse of the country and the monetary and fiscal legacy of Soviet-style central planning. It demonstrates that the monetary experience of the first troubled years of post-Soviet Russia and the other Former Soviet Republics (FSRs) offers an interesting case history from the standpoint of present-day concerns.

We analyse how government policy can exert a positive influence on public attitudes towards the Economic and Monetary Union given the existing fiscal policy framework and thus increase the likelihood of survival of the Eurozone. Results from applying the Brender and Drazen ('Consolidation of New Democracy, Mass Attitudes, and Clientelism', The American Economic Review, Vol. 99, No. 2, pp. 304-309) political economy model indicate the extent of the difficulty of maintaining public support for the monetary union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide an economic model in the context of developing countries to address the policy strategies related to poverty reduction. With a view to deal with the shortcomings of the existing approaches as regards poverty reduction, this paper develops a model on the basis of the policy framework of the IMF and the World Bank to show how demand growth can be a crucial mechanism in determining the potential rate of growth, and then to suggest ways in which poverty-conceptualised officially in absolute terms with a subjective cut-off point (e.g. US $1/$2 a day), and a new objective measure in terms of consumption deprivation-can be linked with the key policy variables contained in the adjustment programmes. A strategy of investment in infrastructure and in human development, and improving access to credit markets, particularly in rural areas to encourage or `crowd in' private investment is a precondition for growth and poverty alleviation. Debt relief can only provide a temporary, not a sustainable, solution to the problem of reducing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical validity of the effect of pension reforms on domestic savings in the UK has been investigated using an Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model capable of testing for the existence of a long-run relationship regardless of whether the underlying time series are individually I(1) or I(0). The total savings response to change in pension savings is positive and significant, but an increase in occupational pension saving appears offset by a decrease in other forms of saving. This paper concludes that there is no firm evidence that aggregate savings increase considerably because of privately funded pension schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using annual data over a long time horizon from 1900 to 2000 for the UK, this study finds the existence of a Fisher relation via Johansen cointegration tests. The cointegrating relationship between the two variables suggests a significant long-run equilibrium with a positive coefficient of more than one during the stated period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on different factors which caused the inflationary experiences of Weimar Germany in the 1920s and Russia after communism collapsed in the 1990s. Discussion on the economic policies of the two countries; Details on the political and social consequences of inflation; Analysis of the banking system and expenditures of the two countries.

Focuses on the financial global situation that is without guarantee by governments or international institutions that it is under control. Relation between budget deficits, debts and dramatic expansion of the bond market; Rationale for pegging the exchange rate in the light of capital flows; Strategies for hedging against currency risks.

By the end of 1992, Russia stood at the brink of hyperinflation. This article identifies the main cause as an uncontrolled increase in the money supply related to the budget deficit, and central bank credits to enterprises, and to the rouble zone. These create a vicious inflationary cycle, which will be difficult to break since the political forces representing old Soviet economic structures have undermined stabilization policies. The article concludes that though macro-economic stabilization is not a sufficient condition for the market-oriented transformation of the Russian economy, it remains a necessary one, without which the reform will fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores price and currency reforms being undertaken to reduce budget deficits in Russia and other former Soviet republics. Liberalization of prices; Creation of competitive economic structure; Currency convertibility; Interrepublic trade.

Focuses on the currency convertibility and exchange rate policies in Poland. Various forms and degrees of convertibility; Accounts on the modifications of the exchange rate policies; Introduction of internal convertibility of the zloty and its devaluation. Importance of official exchange rate in currency convertibility.