International Capital Flows

International Capital Flows
Author: Martin Feldstein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226241807

Recent changes in technology, along with the opening up of many regions previously closed to investment, have led to explosive growth in the international movement of capital. Flows from foreign direct investment and debt and equity financing can bring countries substantial gains by augmenting local savings and by improving technology and incentives. Investing companies acquire market access, lower cost inputs, and opportunities for profitable introductions of production methods in the countries where they invest. But, as was underscored recently by the economic and financial crises in several Asian countries, capital flows can also bring risks. Although there is no simple explanation of the currency crisis in Asia, it is clear that fixed exchange rates and chronic deficits increased the likelihood of a breakdown. Similarly, during the 1970s, the United States and other industrial countries loaned OPEC surpluses to borrowers in Latin America. But when the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates to control soaring inflation, the result was a widespread debt moratorium in Latin America as many countries throughout the region struggled to pay the high interest on their foreign loans. International Capital Flows contains recent work by eminent scholars and practitioners on the experience of capital flows to Latin America, Asia, and eastern Europe. These papers discuss the role of banks, equity markets, and foreign direct investment in international capital flows, and the risks that investors and others face with these transactions. By focusing on capital flows' productivity and determinants, and the policy issues they raise, this collection is a valuable resource for economists, policymakers, and financial market participants.

Behind the Numbers

Behind the Numbers
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1992-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0309045908

America's international economic decisions rest to a large degree on the information available to policymakers. Yet the quality of international trade and financial data is in serious doubt. This book reveals how our systems for collecting and analyzing trade data have fallen behind the times-and presents recommendations for new approaches to accuracy and usefulness of these economic data. The volume traces the burgeoning use of international economic data by public and private analysts at a time when the United States is becoming increasingly integrated into the world economy. It also points out problems of capturing new transactions, comparing data from different sources, limited access to the data, and more. This is the first volume to review all three types of U.S. international data-merchandise trade, international services transactions, and capital flows. Highlights include: Specific steps for U.S. agencies to take. Special analyses on improving the accuracy of merchandise trade data, filling data gaps on the fast-growing international services transactions, and understanding structural changes in world capital markets. Comments, complaints, and suggestions from an original survey of more than 100 key users of trade data. This practical volume will be invaluable to policymakers, government officials, business executives, economists, statisticians, and researchers.

International Aspects of Fiscal Policies

International Aspects of Fiscal Policies
Author: Jacob A. Frenkel
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226262545

This volume brings together nine papers from a conference on international macroeconomics sponsored by the NBER in 1985. International economists as well as graduate students in the fields of global monetary economics, finance, and macroeconomics will find this an outstanding contribution to current research. It includes two commentaries for each paper, written by experts in the field, and Frenkel's detailed introduction, which serves as a reader's guide to the arguments made, the models employed, and the issues raised by each contributor. The studies analyze national fiscal policies within the context of the international economic order. Malcolm D. Knight and Paul R. Masson use an empirical model to show that fiscal changes in recent years in the United States, West Germany, and Japan have caused major disturbances in net savings and investment flows. Linda S. Kole uses a two-country simulation model to examine the effects of a large nation's expansion on exchange rates, interest rates, and the balance of payments. In other studies, Warwick J. McKibbin and Jeffrey D. Sachs discuss the influences of different currency regimes on the international transmission of inflation; Kent P. Kimbrough analyzes the interaction between optimal tax policies and international trade; Sweder van Wijnbergen investigates the interrelation of fiscal policies, trade intervention, and world interest rates; and Willem H. Buiter uses an analytical model to look at fiscal interdependence and optimal policy design. David Backus, Michael Devereux, and Douglas Purvis develop a theoretical model to investigate effects of different fiscal policies in an open economy. Alan C. Stockman looks at the influence of policy anticipation in the private sector, while Lawrence H. Summers shows the effects of differential tax policy on international competitiveness.

Capital Movements and Corporate Dominance in Latin America

Capital Movements and Corporate Dominance in Latin America
Author: Noemi Levy-Orlik
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2021-06-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1800372140

This book addresses the problems of Latin America, through two of the most important features of the post-Bretton Woods economic order, large corporations and weak financial markets. In turn, it shows that their impact on economic growth and development is feeble and short-lived. This resulted in income concentration and an extremely unequal distribution of wealth in the region.

Ruling Capital

Ruling Capital
Author: Kevin P. Gallagher
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2015-02-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0801454603

In Ruling Capital, Kevin P. Gallagher demonstrates how several emerging market and developing countries (EMDs) managed to reregulate cross-border financial flows in the wake of the global financial crisis, despite the political and economic difficulty of doing so at the national level. Gallagher also shows that some EMDs, particularly the BRICS coalition, were able to maintain or expand their sovereignty to regulate cross-border finance under global economic governance institutions. Gallagher combines econometric analysis with in-depth interviews with officials and interest groups in select emerging markets and policymakers at the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the G-20 to explain key characteristics of the global economy. Gallagher develops a theory of countervailing monetary power that shows how emerging markets can counter domestic and international opposition to the regulation of cross-border finance. Although many countries were able to exert countervailing monetary power in the wake of the crisis, such power was not sufficient to stem the magnitude of unstable financial flows that continue to plague the world economy. Drawing on this theory, Gallagher outlines the significant opportunities and obstacles to regulating cross-border finance in the twenty-first century.

Global Capital Flows

Global Capital Flows
Author: Stephany Griffith-Jones
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 206
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780312215620

Global Capital Flows examines the rapid growth and dramatic changes in capital flows globally and in emerging markets. In the context of relevant economic theory, it analyzes benefits and costs of large and volatile capital flows to developing countries; the latter include damaging currency crises in Mexico and East Asian economies. The book makes innovative proposals on how national governments--and especially--international organizations can best avoid such crises.

The Oxford Handbook of Banking and Financial History

The Oxford Handbook of Banking and Financial History
Author: Youssef Cassis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 561
Release: 2016
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199658625

The financial crisis of 2008 aroused widespread interest in banking and financial history. In an attempt to better understand the magnitude of the shock, there was a demand for historical parallels. This volume provides the material for such a reflection by presenting the state of the art in banking and financial history. Contributions to this volume analyse banking and financial history in a long-term comparative perspective. Lessons drawn from these analyses may well help future generations of policy makers avoid a repeat of the financial turbulence that erupted in 2008.