International Policy Coordination: The Long View

This paper places current efforts at international economic policy coordination in historical perspective. It argues that successful cooperation is most likely in four sets of circumstances. First, when it centers on technical issues. Second, when cooperation is institutionalized – when procedures and precedents create presumptions about the appropriate conduct of policy and reduce the transactions costs of reaching an agreement. Third, when it is concerned with preserving an existing set of policies and behaviors (when it is concerned with preserving a policy regime). Fourth, when it occurs in the context of broad comity among nations. These points are elaborated through a review of 150 years of historical experience and then used to assess the scope for cooperative responses to the current economic crisis.

Food and population: a long view

Food supply ; Population

Improving human development: a long-run view.

The pessimistic flavour of the Human Development Reports appears to be in contradiction with their own numbers as developing countries fare comparatively better in human development than in per capita GDP terms. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by providing a new, ‘improved’ human development index (IHDI), informed by welfare economics. The IHDI is presented here alongside the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) HDI for the world and its main regions since the late 19th century. Social dimensions in the IHDI are derived, following Kakwani (Journal of Development Economics 41 (1993), pp. 307–336), with a convex achievement function, whereas a geometric average is employed to combine its dimensions (longevity, knowledge and income). Thus, the IHDI does not conceal the gap between rich and poor countries and casts a much less optimistic view than the conventional UNDP index, while it fits with the UNDP concern for international differences. The paper’s findings highlight main weaknesses in human development dimensions of present-day developing countries.Education; Human development; Life expectancy; Per capita GDPs;

Improving human development : a long-run view.

The pessimistic flavour of the Human Development Reports appears to be in contradiction with their own numbers as developing countries fare comparatively better in human development than in per capita GDP terms. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by providing a new, ‘improved’ human development index [IHDI], informed by welfare economics. The IHDI is presented here alongside the UNDP’s HDI for the world and its main regions since the late nineteenth century. Social dimensions in the IHDI are derived, following Kakwani (1993), with a convex achievement function, while a geometric average is employed to combine its dimensions (longevity, knowledge, and income). Thus, the IHDI does not conceal the gap between rich and poor countries and casts a much less optimistic view than the conventional UNDP index, while fits with the UNDP concern for international differences. The paper’s findings highlight main weaknesses in human development dimensions of present-day developing countries.Human development; Life expectancy; Education; Per capita GDP;

Structural Change and Technology. A Long View

change, technology

The Long View

The cumulative toll of events over the last few months is undeniable, writes Mary B. Marcy, but we in higher education must reaffirm our enduring purpose

Medicaid Policy and Long-Term Care Spending: An Interactive View

Examines state variations in Medicaid spending on long-term care and links between coverage policies and spending. Outlines potential factors, limitations of conventional methods of measurement, and an approach that includes interactions between policies

Institutional instability and growth in Argentina: a long-run view

Argentina has slipped from being among the ten richest countries in the world by the eve of World War I to its current position close to developing countries. What did originate Argentina's economic retardation?. In this paper we employ a structural model to investigate the extent to which institutional instability, as captured by "Contract Intensive Money" (Clague, Keefer, Knack and Olson, 1999), conditioned capital accumulation and economic growth in Argentina and, consequently, the country's relative international position. Our results suggest that institutional instability played a major role in Argentina's unique historical experience of economic decline