In the theoretical macroeconomics literature, fiscal policy is almost uniformly taken to mean taxing and spending by a ‘benevolent government’ that exploits the potential aggregate demand externalities inherent in the imperfectly competitive nature of goods markets. Whilst shown to raise...

This paper examines the organization and reporting structure of Singapore's public budgetary accounts and implications for public financial management. The budget's current reporting scope and structure does not provide an adequate representation of the government's fiscal position. Subtle...

This paper posits that the sequencing of topics in introductory economics texts plays a subtle, but potentially key, role in influencing the effective delivery of principles courses. The key criterion for effectiveness is the attainment of economic literacy. The effective role of sequencing is...

We examine and establish the likelihood of convergence among the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Using a novel a non-linear, time-varying factor convergence estimation methodology, we find that overall income convergence is already ongoing among ASEAN...

Perceived wisdom typically corroborates ‘useful’ Keynesian-type of public spending to be welfare-improving if output (or GDP) increases, i.e. a positive fiscal multiplier. I show a contrarian result which suggests that welfare can increase despite a fall in output due to fiscal expenditure....

In managed floats, central banks often intervene in the foreign exchange market to obtain politically desirable exchange rates. How this is done has remained totally opaque although central banks are likely to adopt a satisfying rather than optimizing strategy since they need to intervene...