Concern about global imbalances has been building since the 1990s and analysts from a variety of disciplines have called attention to aspects of the problem, ranging from the unsustainability of the U.S. current account position to the role of ‘under’ and ‘over’ saving rates in deficit...

Aging populations have altered saving and investment patterns in many developed and emerging market economies. The structural changes that have occurred have important implications for financial stability and for the conduct of monetary policy. As assets and borrowing shifted from banks to...

The financial crisis of 2008 was not unforeseen: it was preceded by clear warning signals with developments during the crisis that confirmed the underlying fault lines that had emerged as changed institutions, products and practices shifted the structure of the global system over the preceding...

This working paper is the fruit of a symposium on Democratizing Global Economic Governance held at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) on October 20, 2000, an event co-sponsored by the Five-College Peace and World Security Studies program. The speakers were asked not only to critique...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become a much desired commodity by nations, regions and cities throughout the world. Indeed, governments bid for FDI because it is commonly thought to be an important engine of economic growth, job creation, and technological upgrading. The People’s Republic...

This article recounts the intellectual history of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. It begins with the early history of welfare economics and follows this field through three successive revolutions in thought, culminating in the theory of human development. The first section traces this...

There is growing consensus that corruption hurts economic performance by reducing private investment, adversely affecting the quantity and quality of public infrastructure, reducing tax revenue, and reducing human capital accumulation. In addition to inefficiency effects—lower growth for a...