This chapter assesses the potential for reform in North Korea, and considers the lessons learned from economic reform and transition in China, the Soviet Union, and Central Europe. We focus in particular on the importance of reforms in the financial regime, and argue that in the absence of a...

This study reports the results of a financial literacy test given to more than four thousand students in 19 Southern Nevada secondary schools as a pre-test in advance of a financial education curriculum and again as a post-test. The schools vary demographically, and the delivery of the...

We consider whether there is statistical evidence for a causal relationship between government expenditures and real GDP growth in postwar Japan. After studying the time-series properties of these variables, we find that government consumption and government investment both have a positive and...

In this brief paper, I consider whether five common political beliefs have any basis in fact. Does the economy grow faster when Republicans are in charge? Does the size of the government actually keep expanding? If so, is this growth correlated with Democrats being in charge? Does bigger...

Excessive short-term debt is thought to be one of the major causes of the Asian financial crisis, and this paper documents the changes in the maturity of corporate debt in Thailand during a period of rapid integration with international capital markets. Using data from publicly-traded Thai...

In this paper we review the fiscal evolution of China and Russia, asking how the process of creating a separate, tax-financed public sector in the two countries differed. We observe that the size of China's budget sector was consistently smaller than in Russia and that budget decentralization...

In this paper, we consider whether there is statistical evidence for a causal relationship between federal government expenditures and growth in real per-capita GDP in the United States, using available data going back to 1792. After studying the time-series properties of these variables for...