The chapter claims that monetary authorities’ conservatism is needed to improve the macroeconomic performance, the more so the higher the degree of product market competition. Contrary to a widespread belief, central bank conservatism and market competition are complements, rather than...

Social pacts have long been a centrepiece of European politics. They are characterized by negotiations among government, employers, workers, and other interest groups over wages and other economic issues. With the growth of globalization and pervasiveness of knowledge, some economists have...

The Peruvian economy has had an extraordinary performance in the last 10 years. The 2012 per capita GDP is 66 percent over 2002 and more than double its 1992 level. In a long term perspective, the cumulative growth of GDP per capita recorded in the last 10 years has been the strongest since...

Economies rich in mineral resources, need to evaluate the merits of investing rents earned from resource extraction in other income generating activities to sustain the flow of income. It is hence important to estimate and assess the potential uses of the resource rent tax (RRT). This paper...

This paper investigates how monetary policy can help ward off a protracted deflationary slump when policy rates are near the zero bound by studying the experience of Japan during the "Lost Decade" which followed the asset-price bubble collapse in the early 1990s. Estimation results based on a...

This paper discusses the overall process of recovery and reform in the context of Indonesia's changing political landscape, related to the implementation of the programs as well as relations with the IMF. It examines the evolving programs and policies and the difficulties of implementing them....

The objective of this study is to analyze the macroeconomic performance of 16 Ibero- American countries over the period 1980- 199 1. Macroeconomic performance is defined as the ability of a country's macroeconomic managers to provide four welfare-enhancing economic services to their citizens: a...

This paper examines the transmission channels through which property markets propagate shocks to the real economy. Using a four-equation model which portrays the theoretical inter-linkages between real estate value and other components of the economy, our findings suggest that in the short run,...

This paper explores the implications of public investment for macroeconomic performance within a simple two-period policymaking model. We show that under the balanced-budget rule, the contribution of public investment to future output plays a key role in determining its effects on macroeconomic...

We analyse the importance of ERM membership for macroeconomic performance by comparing the behaviour of real output growth and inflation of members and non-members of the ERM. Taking the traditional aggregate supply and demand model as the basis for the analysis, we propose and implement an...