I review the crises and contagion literature as it has been formed during the last decade. The focus of the paper is to describe the main channels through which crises spread as they have been described in empirical studies and then present theoretical papers that support those views....

This paper attempts to provide a substantive introduction to behavioral economics for a general audience, and for introductory and intermediate level students of economics and business administration. 1. Introduction; 2. The Background; 3. Bounded Rationality; 4. Prospect Theory and other major...

The objectives of the paper are to show how the sustainability of urban settlements can be improved by treating as a variable the design of: (a) property rights to realty, corporations and currencies and: (b) their communication and control governance architecture. System science provides the...

quot;The Fund and the Bank exist because their neutral and apparently technical advice may be less offensive to national sentiments than direct intervention by the United Statesquot;.The very statement reflects on the fact about the activities of the Bank and the Fund being circumscribed by...

This paper looks at the validity of a conventional hypothesis about corruption on the basis of new data. The basic import of this hypothesis is that corruption should decline with economic development. The data seem to indicate that important qualifications need to be made about this hypothesis....

The economic development of oil importing countries creates an increased demand for oil. This results in higher prices and an increased surplus to producers. A buyers' cartel would be a mechanism by which the US (in association with other importing countries) could retain (all or a part of) this...

In this groundbreaking new study, IEA Fellow Tim Congdon argues that movements in the general level of asset prices (such as house prices and equity markets) are strongly influenced by the behaviour of the money supply.Congdon bases his conclusions on analyses of three episodes in the UK,...

The globalization of capital markets manifests the triumph of the corporation, as a form of organization, over the State. International corporations both weaken states' ability to monitor human activities, and require states to surrender portions of their sovereignty. This article inquires into...

The use of equilibrium models in economics springs from the desire for parsimonious models of economic phenomena that take human reasoning into account. This approach has been the cornerstone of modern economic theory. We explain why this is so, extolling the virtues of equilibrium theory; then...

Trustees have always played a vital role in the operation of pension plans in the UK. Most of the UK pension funds are organised as trusts- a legal entity that places the responsibility for taking care of certain assets in the hands of third parties, who are governed by trust deed, general trust...