This paper explores the impact of “threat effects” of foreign direct investment on labor markets in the United States. In this context, the term “threat effect” refers to the use by employers of the implicit or explicit threat that they will move all or part of their production to a...

Developing economies worldwide have experienced rapid informal sector expansion in response to formal sector unemployment. However, the macroeconomic eects of formal-informal sector dualism have been widely overlooked. This paper develops a two-sector, structuralist, macroeconomic model to...

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...