In August 2009 the African finance ministers issued the Freetown Declaration, in which they committed their governments to “implement fiscal stimulus measures” to counter the effects of the international financial crisis on their economies.  This paper analyzes the feasibility of realizing...

Weeks examines the probable impact of capital flows, including capital flight, on the macroeconomic performance of sub-Saharan countries over several decades leading up to the global financial crisis. He uses empirical evidence from 31 countries (from Ndikumana and Boyce 2010). His analysis...

In this PERI Working Paper, John Weeks inspects the standard policy rule that under a flexible exchange rate regime with perfectly elastic capital flows, monetary policy is effective, and fiscal policy is not. The logical validity of the statement requires that the effect of an exchange rate...