An Economic Analysis of Monetary Union

An Economic Analysis of Monetary Union
Author: Michael Carlberg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3662044358

This book explores the new economics of monetary union. It carefully discusses the effects of shocks and policies on output and prices. Shocks and policies are country-specific or common. They occur on the demand or supply side. Countries can differ in behavioural functions. Wages can be fixed, flexible, or slow. In addition, fixed wages and flexible wages can coexist. Take for instance fixed wages in Germany and flexible wages in France. Or take fixed wages in Europe and flexible wages in America. A special feature of this book is the numerical estimation of shock and policy multipliers. Further topics are inflation and disinflation. Take for instance inflation in Germany and price stability in France. Then what policy is needed for disinflation in the union? And what will be the dynamic effects on Germany and France?

Monetary Policy and Macroeconomic Stabilization

Monetary Policy and Macroeconomic Stabilization
Author: Ole Roste
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351504878

As a fundamental review and critique of activist economic policies, this book is a unique contribution to classical political economy. "Monetary Policy and Macroeconomic Stabilization" is about macroeconomic stabilization policy, with emphasis on the value of a distinct national monetary policy to growth. Ole Bjorn Roste's argument is for public officials to restrain themselves in the pursuit of policy. As the author notes: when you know less, you should do less.The history of modern macroeconomics started in 1936 with the publication of Keynes' "General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money". The problems of the Great depression of the 1930s paved the way for a change of focus, from the long run to economic fluctuations in the short run, and from nominal to real variables, such as unemployment and aggregate output.Keynes offered clear policy implications in tune with the times. Because economic adjustment was slow, waiting for the economy to recover by itself was irresponsible. Particularly fiscal policy was essential to return to high employment. Monetary policy could affect aggregate demand through Interest rates, but was less important. Roste discusses the role of monetary policy, starting out with the implications of the theory of optimum currency areas (OCAs). This is followed by estimates of the output loss associated with disinflation policy (the sacrifice ratio) for six OECD economies. Further, Roste models the dynamic adjustment to negative, local labor-market shocks, with particular relevance to Scandinavia, in a final section.The idea that governments should pursue stabilizing fiscal or monetary policies with regard to real variables is often taken for granted by the public, if not by economists. Among the reasons for skepticism, is the presence of differing views on how economies really work, that the state of a given economy becomes known only after a time lag, and that economic agents react to policy and expectations of policy. For these reasons, the effects of policy are generally uncertain. This book explains why the role of history is critical to the study of macroeconomics.p>

Implications of the Euro

Implications of the Euro
Author: Mark Baimbridge
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2006-05-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134272278

To date, critical analysis of the EMU project has largely been advanced from the centre-right spectrum of British politics. Comparable questions from the centre-left have failed to find a coherent voice. Although, the European fault-line cannot be characterized as a neat Left-Right issue there are noticeable divisions in opinion across British business, the trade union movement and within the Labour Party. Offering a unique insight into this key debate from the ‘centre-left’, eurosceptic view point, this book provides a rigorous analysis of all the salient economic and political issues of concern, such as: * the economics of a single currency * employment and social implications * sovereignty * political determination. The arguments presented in this volume highlight the emergence of a coherent alternative to deepening economic integration as a platform to build a just and equitable society. Contributions are drawn from leading academics, trade union leaders and prominent politicians, both from the Labour Party and the wider progressive Left in British politics. This informative and thought provoking book will be indispensable reading for students and practitioners in economics, politics and international relations, as well as those interested in this highly contentious topic.

Business Cycles and Macroeconomic Stability

Business Cycles and Macroeconomic Stability
Author: Jean-Olivier Hairault
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1461561736

Setting the issue "Most economists consider the marked increase in automatic stabilizers a highly favorable development with respect to maintenance of economic stability". Besides the rare privilege of having being signed by both Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson (Depres,Friedman, Hart, Samuelson, and Wallace [1950]), among others, this sentence expressed as soon as 1950 the consensus view on the stabilizing effect of fiscal rules governing tax revenue and public expendi tures and transfers. This positive ex ante assessment will have been confirmed ex post as part of the explanation for post war stabilization (Burns [1960], de Long and Summers [1986], Moore and Zarnovitz [1986]). However, it becomes disputed in both its positive and normative aspects. Many institutional changes since the eighties point at curbing back the transfer mechanisms underlying automatic stabilizers, and legal restraints on deficits such as the US balanced budget amendment or the European Maastricht criteria would involve serious risks for the future of stabilizers. Under such rules "the government would become, almost inevitally, a destabilizer rather than a stabilizer" said Joseph Stiglitz, quoted by the New York Times (April 1995)). "Built-in stabilizers are automatic fiscal adjustments that reduce the national income multiplier and thus cushion the effects of changes in autonomous spend ing on the level of income" (Pechman [1987]). Early analyses of the automatic fiscal stabilizers include the contributions of A. G. Hart [1945], R. Musgrave and M. Miller (1948) and E. C. Brown (1955).

A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis

A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis
Author: Bruno Dallago
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2018-10-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317281179

The financial and economic crisis in Europe is not over, and the radically opposing strategies on how to proceed has only increased the complexity of problems in the region, revealing the shortcomings of the EU’s architecture. The European Union, perhaps for the first time in its history of more than seventy years, is being perceived as a threat to the financial and monetary stability of the world. A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis explores the connection between internal EU actions and institutions and the external factors that influence the ongoing response to the European crisis. With a unique collection of international and interdisciplinary essays, this book considers the complex macroeconomic and challenging political landscape of Europe, looking at how and why the European Union is untenable in its current state. The chapters outline what should be done to make the common currency area more resilient, and explain why external events are particularly problematic for the EU, ultimately offering suggestions for what Europeans should do in order to avoid harmful internal consequences. This volume confronts the causes of the crisis’ persistence, its economic and political consequences, and the impact of more recent events and policy decisions. It will be of interest to researchers and policy-makers keen to understand the EU relations and the influence of international organizations in the European economic crisis.

The Changing Business Landscape of Romania

The Changing Business Landscape of Romania
Author: Andrew R. Thomas
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2014-07-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1461468655

Romania stands at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Since 1990, when the country experienced the bloodiest revolution of all of the Warsaw Pact members, Romania has gone through withering change. While the formal transition from a totalitarian, communist state was completed in 2007 with Romania’s accession into the European Union, the adaptation of the nation’s people and business climate to a market-based economy is a daily occurrence. In the 2000’s, in the lead up to EU accession, Romania was one of the largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in the world. While multinational corporations poured in hundreds of billions of dollars, there was also a restructuring of the way business was conducted. Western systems of management and organization—foreign to most Romanian academics and business people—almost overnight transformed the way the marketplace was perceived. Romania’s entrepreneurs were quick to adapt to the new ways, leveraging new opportunities in the environment. Fortunes were made. Multinationals also burgeoned in Romania. Companies like Microsoft, General Electric, Timken, Kraft, P&G, Renault and dozens of others successfully took advantage of the possibilities created by a relatively well-educated population that was moving into the middle class. For the most part, however, researchers and scholars were caught off guard by the quickening pace of business change in Romania. Only until very recently has the academic community at large been able to wade through the murkiness and begin to see what the new landscape looks like. It is the purpose of this edited volume, which includes the work of some of Romania’s finest business scholars, to provide even greater clarity to the current and future scene. Moreover, the experience in Romania helps shed light on the dynamics of economic and business transition throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and other emerging regions, with implications for practice, policymaking, and research.

Relative Prices and Economic Adjustment in the U.S. and the EU

Relative Prices and Economic Adjustment in the U.S. and the EU
Author: Mr.Tamim Bayoumi
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 36
Release: 1994-06-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451848633

Structural vector autoregressions are used to analyze the relationship between real output and relative prices within the EU and the United States, Relative price variability appears to be more important for adjustment within the EU than the United States, reflecting the lower integration of goods and factor markets. In the absence of higher market integration, the lower relative price variability implied by the introduction of a single currency in the EU could well cause significant economic disruption.

Rethinking Economic and Monetary Union in Europe

Rethinking Economic and Monetary Union in Europe
Author: Philip B. Whyman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2018-01-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1315471876

In the wake of the Greek crisis, the future of the EU is the subject of a great deal of debate. This book critically evaluates the current new monetarist model of Economic and Monetary Union in Europe, presenting an alternative post-Keynesian (progressive) model, aimed at addressing the current problems of trade imbalance and asymmetric macroeconomic policy infrastructure that are augmenting tensions within the Eurozone. The book’s approach is based upon the development of a common, rather than a single, currency approach, and utilises post-Keynesian policy solutions in order to create a form of EMU which will promote full employment rather than austerity.

International Monetary Arrangements for the 21st Century

International Monetary Arrangements for the 21st Century
Author: Barry Eichengreen
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2000-08-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780815791423

Recent events have reignited the debate over the future of the international monetary system. This book, part of the Integrating National Economic series, examines international monetary options of the twenty-first century. Barry Eichengreen argues that it will not be possible for governments to prevent exchange rates from exceeding prespecified limits. Changes in technology, market structure, and politics will force countries that have traditionally pegged their exchange rates to choose between floating rates and monetary unification. Eichengreen describes the various international monetary arrangements with which policymakers have experimented in the past. He introduces the requirements that an international monetary system must satisfy and illustrates how these requirements have been met over time. He analyzes which preconditions for the smooth operation of international monetary systems in the past will be impossible to achieve in the next century and creates a list of feasible options for future policymakers. These feasible options, he concludes, will be limited to some form of floating exchange rates and monetary unions. In which direction countries should move is not obvious. The choice between floating and monetary unification depends on a host of economic and political factors. The book provides an in-depth analysis of Western Europe's experience and the dramatic international monetary initiatives currently under way, and compares options for Asia, Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Western Hemisphere. A volume of Brookings' Integrating National Economies Series