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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Daniela Gabor (University of the West of England) |
| Abstract: | The global financial crisis forcefully highlighted the importance of developing mechanisms to curb the effects of large and volatile capital inflows on growth and financial stability in developing countries. It led the IMF to reconsider its long-standing rejection of capital controls. This paper explores the analytical framework underlying the IMF’s new position, arguing that its sequencing strategy offers a formulaic solution that neglects the institutional make-up of money and currency markets, is asymmetric in its emphasis on the upturn of the liquidity cycle and sanctions capital-controls only as a last-resort solution. The new approach can have perverse impacts, increasing vulnerability where banks play an important role in the intermediation of capital inflows. The paper offers alternative policy solutions that focus on realigning bank incentives towards longer horizons and sustainable growth models, combining carefully designed central bank liquidity strategies and institutional changes in the banking sector. |
| Keywords: | IMF, capital controls, financial crisis, global liquidity, shadow banks, sterilizations, central banks. |
| JEL: | E58 E63 F3 G1 O11 O2 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwe:wpaper:1109&r=pke |
| By: | Edgardo Sica |
| Abstract: | In the last 20 years, the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ (SD) has become very popular and wide spread in the world. In particular, the environmental dimension of SD asks for new ways to accomplish enhanced quality of life with reduced environmental impact. As a consequence, innovations that contribute to sustainable path ways through an improved environmental quality (the so-called ‘Sustainable Innovations’ - SI s) are facing a growing interest. The present study aims at contributing to the debate about innovation and SD, by focusing on the analysis of SIs from, respectively, the neoclassical and the evolutionary perspective. Whereas neoclassical theorists neoclassical theorists focus on the ‘double externality problem’ of SIs, on the one hand, and on the factors that influence the irimplementation, on the other, evolutionary approach analyses mainly radical technological changes thus stressing the need for a consideration of additional aspects ( in particular social and institutional ones) in the analysis of SIs. |
| Keywords: | Innovations, Sustainable Development, Neoclassical Theory, Evolutionary Approach |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufg:qdsems:08-2010&r=pke |
| By: | Doraisami, Anita (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | Several countries have employed countercyclical fiscal policy to ameliorate the impact of the global financial crisis. This study identifies some of the issues and policy implications associated with this policy response in developing countries. Included are case studies of four developing countries in the Asian region—Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. The findings point to a rich diversity in both the size and composition of fiscal stimulus and the challenges which are confronted. This study suggests several steps that countries might take to improve the impact of expansionary fiscal policy in response to future downturns. These include (i) embedding automatic stabilizing impulses through the provision of social safety nets; (ii) increasing tax revenues collected from personal and corporate taxes, by reducing labor market informality through improvements in the business environment; (iii) safeguarding fiscal sustainability; (iv) rebalancing growth by strengthening other sectors of the economy; (v) reducing expenditures on subsidies; and (vi) ensuring smooth and efficient budget execution. |
| Keywords: | countercyclical fiscal policy; asia fiscal policy; fiscal policy; global financial crisis |
| JEL: | E60 E61 E62 E63 |
| Date: | 2011–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0288&r=pke |
| By: | Natasha V. Pilkauskas (Columbia University); Janet Currie (Columbia University); Irwin Garfinkel (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Little research looks at the relationship between macroeconomic indicators and material hardship. High unemployment rates as a result of economic downturns are likely to lead to lost income, increased poverty, and material hardship. We examine the effect of the unemployment rate on hardship – food insecurity, difficulty paying bills, housing insecurity, unmet medical needs, and having utilities cut off – and investigate the role that government safety nets play in mitigating the effects of unemployment on the experience of material hardship. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study. The latest wave of data was collected during the Great Recession, the worst recession since the Great Depression, providing a unique opportunity to look at how high unemployment rates affect the well-being of low income families. |
| Keywords: | Material Hardship, Unemployment, Recession |
| JEL: | C01 D19 I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1312&r=pke |
| By: | Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University); Ilyana Kuziemko (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Most existing work on the price elasticity of demand for health insurance focuses on employees' decisions to enroll in employer-provided plans. Yet any attempt to achieve universal coverage must focus on the uninsured, the vast majority of whom are not offered employer-sponsored insurance. In the summer of 2008, we conducted a survey experiment to assess the willingness to pay for a health plan among a large sample of uninsured Americans. The experiment yields price elasticities substantially greater than those found in most previous studies. We use these results to estimate coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act, with and without an individual mandate. We estimate that 39 million uninsured individuals would gain coverage and find limited evidence of adverse selection. |
| Keywords: | health insurance, universal coverage, Affordable Care Act, price elasticity of demand |
| JEL: | D19 H75 I18 J32 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1306&r=pke |
| By: | Henry S. Farber (Princeton University, NBER, IZA) |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009 is associated with a dramatic weakening of the labor market from which the labor market is now only slowly recovering. The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high and durations of unemployment are unprecedentedly long. I use data from the Dis- placed Workers Survey (DWS) from 1984-2010 to investigate the incidence and consequences of job loss from 1981-2009. In particular, the January 2010 DWS, which captures job loss during the 2007-2009 period, provides a window through which to examine the experience of job losers in the Great Recession and to compare their experience to that of earlier job losers. These data show a record high rate of job loss, with almost one in six workers reporting having lost a job in the 2007-2009 period. The consequences of job loss are also very serious dur- ing this period with very low rates of reemployment, diculty nding full-time employment, and substantial earnings losses. |
| Keywords: | Labor market, unemployment rate, Displaced Workers Survey, reemployment, employment, substantial earnings losses |
| JEL: | E24 J00 J20 J21 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1309&r=pke |