Trade, Stability, and Macroeconomics


Book Description

Trade, Stability, and Macroeconomics: Essays in Honor of Lloyd A. Metzler provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of trade, stability, and macroeconomics. This book covers a variety of topics, including nontraded and intermediate commodities, prices, production, exchange rates, and wages. Organized into five parts encompassing 22 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the theory of international trade and the effect of a tariff or export tax on domestic prices. This text then defines the supply of the international commodities as a function of their prices and of the output of the domestic commodity. Other chapters consider the Stolper–Samuelson analysis of the effects of protection of the distribution of income. This book discusses as well the theory of external–internal balance or the assignment problem as related to macroeconomic policy in an open economy. The final chapter deals with the dynamic allocation of scarce resources. This book is a valuable resource for economists.




Stability with Growth


Book Description

There is growing dissatisfaction with the economic policies advocated by the IMF and other international financial institutions - policies that have often resulted in stagnating growth, crises, and recessions for client countries. This book presents an alternative to "Washington Consensus" neo-liberal economic policies by showing that both macro-economic and liberalization policy must be sensitive to the particular circumstances of developing countries. One-size-fits-all policy prescriptions are likely to fail given the vast differences between countries. This book discusses how alternative approaches to economic policy can better serve developing countries both in ordinary times and in times of crisis.




International Macroeconomics


Book Description

An essential introduction to one of the most timely and important subjects in economics International Macroeconomics presents a rigorous and theoretically elegant treatment of real-world international macroeconomic problems, incorporating the latest economic research while maintaining a microfounded, optimizing, and dynamic general equilibrium approach. This one-of-a-kind textbook introduces a basic model and applies it to fundamental questions in international economics, including the determinants of the current account in small and large economies, processes of adjustment to shocks, the determinants of the real exchange rate, the role of fixed and flexible exchange rates in models with nominal rigidities, and interactions between monetary and fiscal policy. The book confronts theoretical predictions using actual data, highlighting both the power and limits of given theories and encouraging critical thinking. Provides a rigorous and elegant treatment of fundamental questions in international macroeconomicsBrings undergraduate and master’s instruction in line with modern economic researchFollows a microfounded, optimizing, and dynamic general equilibrium approachAddresses fundamental questions in international economics, such as the role of capital controls in the presence of financial frictions and balance-of-payments crisesUses real-world data to test the predictions of theoretical modelsFeatures a wealth of exercises at the end of each chapter that challenge students to hone their theoretical skills and scrutinize the empirical relevance of modelsAccompanied by a website with lecture slides for every chapter




Introduction to Business


Book Description

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.




Sundown Legends


Book Description

Standing atop the wall of California, Michael Checchio decided to head out for Saline and Death Valley, the canyonlands of Arizona and Utah and the uplands of New Mexico. He would re-visit old haunts and explore new ones-and in so doing rediscover a world he thought he already knew. In Sundown Legends, Checchio offers up the American Southwest as a spiritual repository and source of inspiration. On his travels he talked to individuals whose imaginations have been shaped by the power of this desert landscape, including Ken Sleight, the Utah wilderness outfitter, who was the inspiration for a character in THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG and novlist John Nichols, author of the MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR, who wandered into Taos in the late sixties and found a place to make his stand. Like Michael Wallis, Michael Checchio is a powerfully gifted writer who has created an intimate and lasting portrait of one of our last remaining wild places.




International Trade and Finance


Book Description

This collection of essays is intended to help define an agenda for future research in the field of international trade and finance.




Flexible Exchange Rates for a Stable World Economy


Book Description

Volatile exchange rates and how to manage them are a contentious topic whenever economic policymakers gather in international meetings. This book examines the broad parameters of exchange rate policy in light of both high-powered theory and real-world experience. What are the costs and benefits of flexible versus fixed exchange rates? How much of a role should the exchange rate play in monetary policy? Why don't volatile exchange rates destabilize inflation and output? The principal finding of this book is that using monetary policy to fight exchange rate volatility, including through the adoption of a fixed exchange rate regime, leads to greater volatility of employment, output, and inflation. In other words, the "cure" for exchange rate volatility is worse than the disease. This finding is demonstrated in economic models, in historical case studies, and in statistical analysis of the data. The book devotes considerable attention to understanding the reasons why volatile exchange rates do not destabilize inflation and output. The book concludes that many countries would benefit from allowing greater flexibility of their exchange rates in order to target monetary policy at stabilization of their domestic economies. Few, if any, countries would benefit from a move in the opposite direction.




The Global Trade Slowdown


Book Description

This paper focuses on the sluggish growth of world trade relative to income growth in recent years. The analysis uses an empirical strategy based on an error correction model to assess whether the global trade slowdown is structural or cyclical. An estimate of the relationship between trade and income in the past four decades reveals that the long-term trade elasticity rose sharply in the 1990s, but declined significantly in the 2000s even before the global financial crisis. These results suggest that trade is growing slowly not only because of slow growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also because of a structural change in the trade-GDP relationship in recent years. The available evidence suggests that the explanation may lie in the slowing pace of international vertical specialization rather than increasing protection or the changing composition of trade and GDP.







Microeconomic Risk Management and Macroeconomic Stability


Book Description

“The essence of a hedging contract is a coincident purchase and sale in two markets which are expected to behave in such a way that any loss realized in one will be offset by an equivalent gain in the other. If such behavior follows a perfect hedge has been effected. ” Hardy and Lyon (1923, p. 276). 1. 1 LiteratureReviewandMotivation In the traditional hedging literature, the two markets in which hedgers trade are spot and futures markets. The trader’s position in the spot market is generally considered as given. According to Johnson (1960), hedging can be meaningfully de?ned only if the spot market is regarded as the trader’s primary market. The futures market is used solely to counterbalance an existing position in the spot market. Speculators, in contrast, do not have a commitment in the spot market. They take on risk in futures markets in order to pro?t from expected price changes. The hedger synchronizes his trading activities in spot and futures markets in order to reduce spot risk. In the lit- ature this approach to hedging is labeled risk reduction concept. Risk reduction will be achieved if spot and futures prices move more or less in parallel. If prices are p- fectly correlated, risk is abolished, since losses in one market are perfectly offset by pro?ts in the other market. However, as Hardy and Lyon (1923) point out, any div- gence from perfect correlation results in an imperfect hedge.