Unconventional monetary policy in the UK: a modern money critique

The ongoing Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has posed a growing challenge to the implementation of monetary stimulus measures in both sovereign (e.g. US, UK, Japan) and non-sovereign (eurozone) economies. With the policy rate close to the zero nominal bound, the UK has relied on quantitative easing, ostensibly to improve market liquidity and/or stimulate economic activity, despite being freed from the policy constraints of a non-sovereign economy. The evidence regarding the macroeconomic effects of quantitative easing is, however, largely inconclusive. Meanwhile, UK growth forecasts have been revised downwards but, at the time of writing, the government remains committed to its fiscal austerity programme. In this paper we explore the origins of quantitative easing, its underlying objectives, the theoretical arguments for its use and the empirical evidence concerning its impact. Our analysis focuses on the policies of the Bank of England since the advent of the GFC, and is informed by the principles of Modern Monetary Theory

Making apartments affordable: moving from speculative to deliberative development

Urban consolidation policies in Australia presuppose apartments as the new dominant housing type, but much of what the market has delivered is criticised as over-development, and as being generic, poorly-designed, environmentally unsustainable and unaffordable. In contrast to the usual focus on planning regulation and construction costs as the primary issues needing to be addressed in order to increase the supply of quality, affordable apartment housing this paper uses Ball’s (1983) ‘structure of provision’ approach to outline the key processes informing apartment development to reveal a substantial gap in critical understanding of how apartments are developed in Australia, and identifies economic problems not previously considered by policymakers. Using mainstream economic analysis to review the market itself, the authors found high search costs, demand risk, problems with exchange, and lack of competition present key barriers to achieving greater affordability and limit the extent to which ‘speculative’ developers can respond to the preferences of would be owner-occupiers of apartments. The existing development model, which is reliant on capturing uplift in site value, suits investors seeking rental yields in the first instance and capital gains in the second instance, and actively encourages housing price inflation. This is exacerbated by lack of density restrictions, such as have existed in inner Melbourne for many years, which permits greater yields on redevelopment sites. The price of land in the vicinity of such redevelopment sites is pushed up as landholders\u27 expectation of future yield is raised. All too frequently existing redevelopment sites go back onto the market as vendors seek to capture the uplift in site value and exit the project in a risk free manner. The paper proposes three major reforms. Firstly, that the market for apartment development be re-designed following insights from the economic field of ‘Market Design’ (a branch of Game Theory). A two-sided matching market for new apartments is proposed, where demand-side risks can be mitigated via consumer aggregation. Secondly, consumers should be empowered through support for  ‘deliberative’, or ‘do-it-yourself’ (DYI) development models, in order to increase competition, expand access, and promote responsiveness to consumer needs and preferences. Finally, planning schemes need to impose density restrictions (in the form of height limits, floor space ratios or bedroom quotas) in localities where housing demand is high, in order to dampen speculation and de-risk development by creating certainty. However restrictions on over-development on larger infill sites needs to be offset by permitting intensification of ‘greyfield’ suburbs. Aggregating existing housing lots to enable precinct regeneration and moderate height and density increases would permit better use of airspace thus allowing design outcomes that can optimise land use while retaining amenity

Crowdfunding awareness and adoption intentions in Africa: Empirical evidence from Tanzania

Purpose – Crowdfunding is a viable alternative to access finance to overcome the limited capital problem among developing countries. Despite the low rate of crowdfunding adoption in Africa, there is a dearth of literature on the continent, specifically on adoption drivers and behavioural intentions. This thesis aims to investigate the drivers of crowdfunding adoption intentions in Africa and fully understand the impact of awareness on crowdfunding, both as an antecedent and a dependent variable. Design/Methodology/approach – The hypotheses developed are based on the extended theory of planned behaviour by incorporating the challenges highlighted in previous conceptual papers. This study utilises an approach based on quantitative research. An online survey was administered that collected data from 471 respondents in Tanzania. The authors further used PLS-SEM for analysis and implemented several quality tests to ensure the robustness of the results. Findings – The empirical results in this study reveal that attitudes and interests towards crowdfunding and prior contribution experiences are the crucial drivers of crowdfunding contribution intentions. Furthermore, education and training, as well as subjective norms, play an essential role in increasing crowdfunding awareness. Also, crowdfunding awareness was found to have a positive and significant influence on interest, self-efficacy, and perceived behavioural control. Finally, awareness, interest, perceived IT infrastructure and social trust had a favourable impact on attitude towards crowdfunding. Originality/value – First, the study provides empirical insight into the crowdfunding concept in the sluggish growth context. Second, it clarifies the impact of awareness on crowdfunding, both as an antecedent and dependent variable (identification of effective strategies for increasing awareness among potential backers). Third, it further helps to refine existing models and develop new ones that better reflect the unique characteristics of different regions. Keywords Crowdfunding, Theory of planned behaviour, Awareness, Adoption, Intentions, Africa, Tanzania

Crowdfunding awareness and adoption intentions in Africa: Empirical evidence from Tanzania

Purpose – Crowdfunding is a viable alternative to access finance to overcome the limited capital problem among developing countries. Despite the low rate of crowdfunding adoption in Africa, there is a dearth of literature on the continent, specifically on adoption drivers and behavioural intentions. This thesis aims to investigate the drivers of crowdfunding adoption intentions in Africa and fully understand the impact of awareness on crowdfunding, both as an antecedent and a dependent variable. Design/Methodology/approach – The hypotheses developed are based on the extended theory of planned behaviour by incorporating the challenges highlighted in previous conceptual papers. This study utilises an approach based on quantitative research. An online survey was administered that collected data from 471 respondents in Tanzania. The authors further used PLS-SEM for analysis and implemented several quality tests to ensure the robustness of the results. Findings – The empirical results in this study reveal that attitudes and interests towards crowdfunding and prior contribution experiences are the crucial drivers of crowdfunding contribution intentions. Furthermore, education and training, as well as subjective norms, play an essential role in increasing crowdfunding awareness. Also, crowdfunding awareness was found to have a positive and significant influence on interest, self-efficacy, and perceived behavioural control. Finally, awareness, interest, perceived IT infrastructure and social trust had a favourable impact on attitude towards crowdfunding. Originality/value – First, the study provides empirical insight into the crowdfunding concept in the sluggish growth context. Second, it clarifies the impact of awareness on crowdfunding, both as an antecedent and dependent variable (identification of effective strategies for increasing awareness among potential backers). Third, it further helps to refine existing models and develop new ones that better reflect the unique characteristics of different regions. Keywords Crowdfunding, Theory of planned behaviour, Awareness, Adoption, Intentions, Africa, Tanzania

Financialising the State : Recent development in fiscal and monetary policy

Understanding the nature of state financialisation is crucial to ensure definancialisation efforts are successful. This paper provides a structured overview of the emerging literature on financialisation and the state. We define financialisation of the state broadly as the changed relationship between the state, understood as sovereign with duties and accountable towards its citizens, and financial markets and practices, in ways that can diminish those duties and reduce accountability. We then argue that there are four ways in which financialisation works in and through public institutions and policies: adoption of financial motives, advancing financial innovation, embracing financial accumulation strategies, and directly financialising the lives of citizens. Organising our review around the two main policy fields of fiscal and monetary policy, four definitions of financialisation in the context of public policy and institutions emerge. When dealing with public expenditure on social provisions financialisation most often refers to the transformation of public services into the basis for actively traded financial assets. In the context of public revenue, financialisation describes the process of creating and deepening secondary markets for public debt, with the state turning into a financial market player. Finally, in the realm of monetary policy financial deregulation is perceived to have paved the way for financialisation, while inflation targeting and the encouragement, or outright pursuit, of market-based short-term liquidity management among financial institutions constitute financialised policies

International financial centres, office market rents and volatility

Despite continuing developments in information technology and the growing economic significance of the emerging Eastern European, South American and Asian economies, international financial activity remains strongly concentrated in a relatively small number of international financial centres. That concentration of financial activity requires a critical mass of office occupation and creates demand for high specification, high cost space. The demand for that space is increasingly linked to the fortunes of global capital markets. That linkage has been emphasised by developments in real estate markets, notably the development of global real estate investment, innovation in property investment vehicles and the growth of debt securitisation. The resultant interlinking of occupier, asset, debt and development markets within and across global financial centres is a source of potential volatility and risk. The paper sets out a broad conceptual model of the linkages and their implications for systemic market risk and presents preliminary empirical results that provide support for the model proposed

Adjustment programs and Bank support : rationale and main results

This paper reviews the rationale for programs and then evaluates the design, implementation, and effectiveness of Bank-supported adjustment programs anddiscusses lessons that have emerged from the analysis of adjustment problems and programs. In countries that are experiencing acute macroeconomic imbalances manifested in the form of high fiscal deficits, balance of payments crisis and high open or repressed inflation, adjustment should start with policy and institutional reforms to deal wtih the ultimate causes of the macroeconomic crisis. Once enough progress has been achieved in reducing inflation and the fiscal and balance of payments deficits, other structural reforms aimed at improving resource allocation and achieving sustainable and equitable growth should be attempted. Among the latter reforms, the most common are: public sector reforms, trade/domestic competition reforms and financial sector reforms. Labour market reforms are not as common as they should be. The Bank can assist the adjustment process by providing both finance and policy advice. Furthermore, the Bank helps countries in mobilizing other sources of finance. The ultimate success of the adjustment programs depends not only on getting the right policies in place but also on increasing investment -- including efficient public investment, saving and growth.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Achieving Shared Growth,Economic Stabilization

Shifting boundaries and new technologies: a case study in the UK banking sector.

This paper describes case study based research on the use of innovative computer-based decision support systems introduced into corporate lending processes in a major UK bank. It describes how the new technology was implicated in shifting boundaries: within the sector as a whole and in specific organizational de-layering; between local/global dimensions of the loans process; and in the status of expertise and personal/professional risk. The case study is connected to broader debates in IS and social transformation through an analysis that relates aspects of the empirical material to themes from social theories of reflexive modernization. Some implications and conclusions are drawn for both the banking sector and IS research.

All Politics is Local: The Renminbi's Prospects as a Future Global Currency

. In this article we describe methods for improving the RWTH German speech recognizer used within the VERBMOBIL project. In particular, we present acceleration methods for the search based on both within-word and across-word phoneme models. We also study incremental methods to reduce the response time of the online speech recognizer. Finally, we present experimental off-line results for the three VERBMOBIL scenarios. We report on word error rates and real-time factors for both speaker independent and speaker dependent recognition. 1 Introduction The goal of the VERBMOBIL project is to develop a speech-to-speech translation system that performs close to real-time. In this system, speech recognition is followed by subsequent VERBMOBIL modules (like syntactic analysis and translation) which depend on the recognition result. Therefore, in this application it is particularly important to keep the recognition time as short as possible. There are VERBMOBIL modules which are capable to work ..