This paper examines the role of social conflict in explaining macroeconomic phenomena and, especially, the effectiveness of aggregate demand policies as a means of raising real output. The social conflict approach to macroeconomic phenomena is compared with a Keynesian view along with Ball,...

Unemployment in the European Union has risen from a modest 2% in 1970 to 8.3% in 2002, a level not seen since the Great Depression. In this draft introduction for his new book, The Rise of European Unemployment: A Keynesian Approach, economist Engelbert Stockhammer argues that changes in the...

In the last two decades, there has been a global sea change in the theory and practice of central banking. The currently dominant “best practice” approach to central banking consists of the following: (1) central bank independence (2) a focus on inflation fighting (including adopting formal...

Certification systems are becoming important tools to encourage and reward social and environmental responsibility. This paper explores whether these systems, which generally have not been designed for the explicit aim of poverty reduction, can assist poor people, either individually or in...

The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) is currently Ghana's blueprint for growth, poverty reduction, and human development. It represents the framework the government of Ghana adopted to foster economic growth and fight poverty. A joint ILO/UNDP team was set up to specifically study the...

This study investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment on local workers’ wages by focusing on U.S. manufacturing industries for the period from 1987 to 1992. I use two different approaches to control individual characteristics and to implement estimation in this study: (1)...

This study examines capital flows and shifts in capital account and exchange rate regimes in African countries over the past two decades. The evidence shows that official lending to Africa has declined while the volume of private capital flows remains low and significantly below the levels...

This paper presents individual country notes for the paper "Trends in Rentier Shares in OECD Countries, 1966-2000 (Power, Epstein and Abrena, 2003). Meant for the specialist, these notes explain data sources and methods for each country in our sample.

A reduction of impediments to international flows of goods, capital and professional labor is thought to raise the economic costs of programs by the nation state (and labor unions) to redistribute income to the poor and to provide economic security. But some of the more politically and...