Spatial decisions of multinational enterprises and their effect on local firms

Since the 1980s empirical research has been conducted on the influence of MNEs on local firms. The spillovers predicted by growth theory models used in the research designs have not been found. The main result is the importance of increased competition for the productivity of local firms. When FDI flows expanded rapidly in the 1990s, it became clear that MNEs play an important role in international technology transfer. However, growth theory models are limited in that market structures and firms cannot be modeled explicitly. The New Economic Geography (NEG) is better equipped to handle these issues. Instead of spillovers it relies on linkages. Therefore, new insights might be gained by basing empirical research on a NEG model and looking for linkages among firms

Spatial decisions of multinational enterprises and their effect on local firms

Since the 1980s empirical research has been conducted on the influence of MNEs on local firms. The spillovers predicted by growth theory models used in the research designs have not been found. The main result is the importance of increased competition for the productivity of local firms. When FDI flows expanded rapidly in the 1990s, it became clear that MNEs play an important role in international technology transfer. However, growth theory models are limited in that market structures and firms cannot be modeled explicitly. The New Economic Geography (NEG) is better equipped to handle these issues. Instead of spillovers it relies on linkages. Therefore, new insights might be gained by basing empirical research on a NEG model and looking for linkages among firms. --New Economic Geography,Foreign Direct Investment,Multinational Enterprises

The job guarantee: full employment, price stability and social progress

This paper presents the idea of the Job Guarantee (JG), which is a logical extension of the paradigm of a tax-driven fiat currency. The JG involves the government offering a public purpose-oriented job with a fixed hourly wage and job benefits to anyone willing to work. The JG as a bottom-up approach is locally administered but federally funded. As the analytical lens of MMT reveals, a monetarily sovereign government is always able to provide the spending required. Macroeconomically, the JG works as an automatic countercyclical stabilizer and an excellent tool for aggregated demand management, ensuring the economy is continuously operating at full capacity. On top, the JG uses an employed buffer stock approach as a superior means to maintain price stability. Next to its favourable macroeconomic impacts, the JG offers many social benefits, particularly related to continuous employment, working conditions in the private sector, power relations in the labour market and democracy. While the JG and Universal Basic Income (UBI) are often discussed as comparable, competing policy proposals, the JG addresses more macroeconomic and social issues than the UBI does. This paper concludes that the JG qualifies for being the single most effective policy in order to drive the economy towards continuous full employment and price stability while realizing additional social benefits

Von Keynes lernen: Ann Pettifor plädiert für mehr Aufklärung über die Produktion des Geldes

Ann Pettifor: Die Produktion des Geldes: Ein Plädoyer wider die Macht der Banken. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2018. 386854318

Chinese Monetary Policy – From Theory to Practice

Chinese monetary policy constitutes a marked example of a clash between theory and practice. In theory, a fixed exchange rate regime with capital mobility turns the money supply into an endogenous variable while expansionary pressure can be alleviated by the central bank by foreign currency transactions. For China, this standard view is contended by the 'compensation thesis' as proposed by Lavoie and Wang (2012) according to which the central bank maintains discretion over money supply by using alternative balance sheet instruments. In this paper we show that the People's Bank of China's (PBoC) activities can be better characterized by the 'compensation thesis' view of alternative money supply operations. In addition, we can thus characterize the PBoC's policy stance as being directed at targeting inflation and exchange rate stability via a five-phase policy mix using sterilization bonds and reserve requirements according to macroeconomic conditions. After downgrading the loans-to-deposits ratio of 75% to the status of an indicator and given the rise in lending despite a high reserve ratio, the quantity-driven approach to monetary policy of the PBoC faces an uncertain future

Comment on Edlin and Jaffee: Show Me the General Theory

Aaron Edlin and Dwight Jaffee point to a problem straight out of Keynes, according to Dirk Ehnts, so why not look to Keynes for the answer?