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According to economists from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, the introduction of performance pay for primary and secondary school teachers would lead to an increase in Dutch GDP of one-and-a-half percent in 2070. A new epistemic practice of microeconomic forecasting undergirded this attempt to make the distant future part of the political present. Taking the construction of the economic growth potential of performance pay as a starting point, this article analyzes how microeconomic forecasting emerged in one of the world's oldest forecasting bureaus - and to what consequences. First, it highlights the institutional preconditions for this 'turn to micro' in an institution that had pioneered in the field of macroeconomic forecasting. Second, the article analyzes microeconomic forecasting as a distinct epistemic practice that brings different forms of economic expertise together to make the future of educational reforms commensurable. Finally, it analyzes the political consequences of this new epistemic practice in the sense that it not only enables but simultaneously limits the provision of policy-relevant evidence. Beyond the specificities of the case, the article contributes to the sociological study of economic policy devices against the background of a predominant market bias in the STS research on economics.

In November 2016, the Government of India (GOI) demonetized the commonly used Rs500 and Rs1,000 denominations. This was a short-term economic policy, known as notebandi, implemented as a means to address black money, counterfeit currencies, and terrorist activities. Notebandi was unrolled in a chaotic, confusing, and complex manner, leaving many people with limited access to cash in their daily activities. And the poor, who tend to earn their livelihoods from cash, were faced with economic exclusion and even destitution. In this paper, we argue that demonetization had disproportionately negative consequences on the poor and trace the main pathways between demonetization and the health of the poor. We conclude by calling on public health researchers to monitor and evaluate the health consequences of India's latest demonetization and to rapidly assess future policy initiatives in order to help advise governments in devising and implementing economic policies that does not harm the health of people, especially the poor.

Objective: To examine changes in minimum wage associated with changes in women's weight status., Design: Longitudinal study of legislated minimum wage levels (per month, purchasing power parity-adjusted, 2011 constant US dollar values) linked to anthropometric and sociodemographic data from multiple Demographic and Health Surveys (2000-2014). Separate multilevel models estimated associations of a $10 increase in monthly minimum wage with the rate of change in underweight and obesity, conditioning on individual and country confounders. Post-estimation analysis computed predicted mean probabilities of being underweight or obese associated with higher levels of minimum wage at study start and end., Setting: Twenty-four low-income countries., Subjects: Adult non-pregnant women (n 150 796)., Results: Higher minimum wages were associated (OR; 95 % CI) with reduced underweight in women (0·986; 0·977, 0·995); a decrease that accelerated over time (P-interaction=0·025). Increasing minimum wage was associated with higher obesity (1·019; 1·008, 1·030), but did not alter the rate of increase in obesity prevalence (P-interaction=0·8). A $10 rise in monthly minimum wage was associated (prevalence difference; 95 % CI) with an average decrease of about 0·14 percentage points (-0·14; -0·23, -0·05) for underweight and an increase of about 0·1 percentage points (0·12; 0·04, 0·20) for obesity., Conclusions: The present longitudinal multi-country study showed that a $10 rise in monthly minimum wage significantly accelerated the decline in women's underweight prevalence, but had no association with the pace of growth in obesity prevalence. Thus, modest rises in minimum wage may be beneficial for addressing the protracted underweight problem in poor countries, especially South Asia and parts of Africa.

In parliamentary committee oversight hearings on fiscal policy, monetary policy, and financial stability, where verbal deliberation is the focus, nonverbal communication may be crucial in the acceptance or rejection of arguments proffered by policymakers. Systematic qualitative coding of these hearings in the 2010-15 U.K. Parliament finds the following: (1) facial expressions, particularly in the form of anger and contempt, are more prevalent in fiscal policy hearings, where backbench parliamentarians hold frontbench parliamentarians to account, than in monetary policy or financial stability hearings, where the witnesses being held to account are unelected policy experts; (2) comparing committees across chambers, hearings in the House of Lords committee yield more reassuring facial expressions relative to hearings in the House of Commons committee, suggesting a more relaxed and less adversarial context in the former; and (3) central bank witnesses appearing before both the Lords and Commons committees tend toward expressions of appeasement, suggesting a willingness to defer to Parliament.

Recognizing the health effects of nonhealth policies, scholars and others seeking to improve Americans' health have advocated the implementation of a culture of health-which would call attention to and prioritize health as a key outcome of policy making across all levels of government and in the private sector. Adopting this "health-in-all-policies" lens, policy makers are paying increasing attention to health impacts as they debate policies in areas such as urban planning, housing, and transportation. Yet the health impacts of economic policies that shape the distribution of income and wealth are often overlooked. Pooling data from all fifty states for the period 1990-2010, we provide a broad portrait of how economic policies affect health. Overall, we found better health outcomes in states that enacted higher tax credits for the poor or higher minimum wage laws and in states without a right-to-work law that limits union power. Notably, these policies focus on increasing the incomes of low-income and working-class families, instead of on shaping the resources available to wealthier individuals. Incorporating these findings into a health-in-all-policies agenda will require leadership from the health sector, including a willingness to step into core and polarizing debates about redistribution., (Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.)

"In this paper we incorporate the possibility of international migration into a monetary policy game played by governments in unionized interdependent economies. We show that contrary to usual presumptions, established by earlier studies that ignore the possibility of international migration, inter-government cooperation in the monetary field may well turn out to be advantageous. This has important implications for the European economies, since it suggests that measures taken towards encouraging international migration within EU [the European Union] will not only harmonize the European labor markets but will also make monetary policy cooperation within Europe, as required by the Maastrict Treaty, more advantageous.", (excerpt)

"This article examines the impact of economic reforms on the volume and characteristics of permanent migration in Zhejiang Province, China. The data suggest that the new economic policy induced a surge in permanent migration during the post-reform years. Such positive impact of the reform on permanent migration has started to fade away in 1985, as government relaxed its control over residence. Moreover, market mechanisms started playing a more important role in employment, exchange, and consumption. The data also suggest that the new economic policy has particularly favored the better educated, and thereby increased educational differentials between permanent migrants and nonmigrants. For all other characteristics examined, the results show consistently that post-reform migrants are less differentiated from nonmigrants than their pre-reform counterparts." An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1994 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America., (excerpt)

"This article argues for the adoption of a co-ordinated urban planning policy in the Republic of Ireland where towns now accommodate 64% of the total population. A review of trends in town population change for the years 1986-91 suggests that the ad hoc approach to planning urban employment and service provision that exists currently is inadequate to prevent major disparities in population distribution becoming exacerbated between large and small settlements and between regions within the state. These disparities are the result in part of fundamental economic restructuring which is related to international trends but they also reflect the gradual withdrawal by the Irish Government from regional planning from the mid-1980s on. By way of introduction to the discussion of the empirical evidence, an earlier phase of Irish urban and employment planning is reviewed briefly.", (excerpt)

"Using data from the Survey of Ageing and Independence (N=20,036), this research examines the effect of a dual economy on retirement incomes for both men and women [in Canada]. Specifically, the analysis compares core and periphery retirees on sociodemographic characteristics, work characteristics, income characteristics and pension arrangements. Models are then estimated to ascertain what factors influence the retirement incomes for those retirees who previously worked in the core or periphery of the economy. The findings suggest that Canadian pension policy has served to exacerbate the already precarious economic position of retired women, a known outcome of their unstable labour force histories and family responsibilities. The dualist pension system has assisted in producing an underclass of retirees, the principal causalities being women who previously worked in the periphery of the economy." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA), (excerpt)

"The tendency towards early retreat from the work force observed in Europe over the past years can be attributed to social security measures other than old age security, and is not simply due to an advancing retirement age. Two programmes have been especially favoured for protecting ageing workers: disability insurance and unemployment insurance. Preretirement compensation packages have also facilitated the early departure of these workers from the labour force, whether employed or not. Such emerging models in the transition from work activity to retirement are revealing, both in terms of the social restructuring of the life cycle, and the overhaul of the social safety net. These transformations are analyzed in conclusion in relation with their potential role in new stakes for social security." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA), (excerpt)

"The 1980s witnessed increasing regional interdependence in Asia through trade and investment. Increasing flows of labor within the region, however, raise questions about three important issues: (1) the assumption that trade, investment and aid will eventually mitigate migration pressure in source countries and the effectiveness of migration policies based on that assumption; (2) whether increasing regional interdependence stimulates or deters migration; [and] (3) the effect of rising interdependence on the political and international relations aspects of migration. As a partial attempt to address these questions, this article examines the regional pattern of economic interdependence by utilizing information concerning trade, investment and migration flows. The concept of interdependence/dependence is discussed within a political context, focusing on migration and policy responses to it. Observations are made on the implications for regional stability and development.", (excerpt)

"This paper analyses redistribution policies that transfer income between owners of immobile factors of production and workers in a given region. The menu of income distribution possibilities attainable through tax/transfer policy in the presence of labour mobility is characterized. Simple general equilibrium analysis shows that migration can lead to Pareto-inferior outcomes in the destination region if immigrants are the beneficiaries of redistributive transfers. All residents of the destination region may gain, however, if transfer payments are also paid to workers in the source region so as to reduce the level of immigration." (SUMMARY IN FRE), (excerpt)

"A theoretical model of rural-urban migration has been developed with special reference to the informal sector. The wage rate and employment in the informal sector are determined endogenously. The paper shows the simultaneous existence of open unemployment and informal sector in the urban area in migration equilibrium. The effects of alternative subsidy policies on unemployment and welfare of the workers are studied." The model is intended primarily for use in analyzing trends and policies in developing countries.

"Growth theory may be used to predict the response of saving, capital formation, and output growth to large demographic shifts. Such large shifts would also be expected to alter the demand for government services and the desired levels of taxation in the population. This paper extends the overlapping-generations model of economic growth to predict the evolution of government tax and spending policy through the course of a major demographic shift. Simulations suggest that this approach may yield valuable insights into the evolution of policy in the United States and other industrialized economies.", (excerpt)

In this paper, a new measure for uncertainty that affects the economy is proposed, constructed, and applied to an emerging economy, Türkiye. We have constructed an index of economic country-specific uncertainty (ECSU) that is in line with the methodology used in constructing economic policy uncertainty indexes. As the economic uncertainty is of the Knightian type, the essence of measuring it lies in counting the frequency of joint appearances of words related to economics and uncertainty in Turkish-language newspapers. The uncertainty index constructed using local language sources- Turkish performs significantly better in measuring country-specific uncertainty in Türkiye. However, some indexes use English language sources to measure uncertainty in Türkiye- did not make them country-specific. The ECSU was tested by evaluating the dynamic real effects of the uncertainty. This evaluation was performed by the analysis of impulse responses from uncertainty to some economic variables in a vector autoregressive model describing the economy of Türkiye. We find that an unexpected increase in uncertainty in the Turkish-language press is related to decreases in industrial production, employment, and trade. If the uncertainty measure is based on the articles from the English-language press only, no such relationship can be confirmed. We also find that an increase in uncertainty leads to increase in inflation and stock and oil prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the health, economic, and sense of well-being of many nations worldwide, drastically changing and disrupting the daily lives of everyone in all levels of society. In South Korea, in particular, the pandemic destabilized many businesses, crippled production and services delivery, and debilitated work flows on such a massive scale, leading to high levels of unemployment and production shutdowns rarely experienced by the country before. This prompted the South Korean government to come up with national policies to revitalize the country's plunging levels of productivity by getting the nation's executives, managers, professionals, and labour force back to work by coming out with massive emergency programmes to protect their health, safety, and fitness to work in the midst of the lingering pandemic. In this study that we hope will contribute to the effectiveness of the ongoing national stimulus measures, we conducted a formal evaluation of the initiatives, policies, and efforts undertaken by the South Korean government to reduce the national unemployment rate and spur productivity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clinton administration’s drive to enact reform in Ukraine during the 1990s was viewed at the time as being necessary for the nation’s revitalization and re-integration into Western Europe. Decades later, these policies have been critiqued for antagonizing the Kremlin, causing it to seek political control over its former satellite. This paper addresses the viability of the Clinton administration’s efforts and the reasons for their ultimate failure. It finds that despite its best intentions, the administration’s economic strategy faced unanticipated resistance from the Kremlin, as long-standing ties with Kiev undermined US-led efforts for economic and political reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on situating Ibn Khaldûn in the context of the Political Economy of Communication. Topics include biographical and contextual aspects of Khaldûn's works, the role of the state in society and the economy, the de-Westernisation of Media and Communication Studies, ideology, and aspects of neoliberalism.

The objective of this research was to analyze the relationship between public policy in the domain of public economic law policy. The primary policymakers in the field of public economics, in light of ethical schools of thought, aim to distinguish between the current state and desired goals. They strive to bridge the gap between what is and what should be by utilizing various tools. On the other hand, the successful implementation of these processes depends on the continuous evaluation of all components of these two main and significant factors, which is typically carried out based on various elements such as the governing principles of public law and economic policy. Muslim jurists generally extract these principles by referring to numerous Quranic verses and Hadiths or by utilizing different jurisprudential approaches. In addition to these legal discussions, various economic schools have also structured their systems of policy evaluation using their own targeted and diverse criteria regarding moral valuation. The findings indicate that choosing any of the approaches-deontology, virtue ethics, or ethical economics-has specific implications for evaluating the policies of different legal and economic schools. Muslim economists, as well, have proposed other methods, aside from normative ethical theories, to derive the governing principles of Islamic economic policies. They have adopted frameworks of Islamic economic value systems based on referencing Quranic verses, Hadiths, or employing jurisprudential approaches to extract these principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented economic challenges worldwide, prompting governments to implement various expansionary economic policies to mitigate its adverse effects. Expansionary policies typically involve measures such as increased government spending, tax cuts, policy and interest rate cuts, and monetary stimulus packages to boost economic activity and support businesses and households during times of economic downturn. This research paper explores the relationship between current inflation rates and the effectiveness of expansionary economic policies adopted during the pandemic. The hypothesis posits that expansionary policies increase inflation rates across different countries. Through a comparative analysis of various countries' approaches, the study identifies the impact of these policies on inflation. Findings reveal varied effects, emphasizing the importance of contextual factors. This cross-country analysis will include developed and developing economies to understand the implications across different economic contexts. This study contributes to understanding the interplay between expansionary policies and inflation dynamics during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]