Search Results

Many believe economic growth is incompatible with ecological preservation. Green Capital challenges this argument by shifting our focus away from the scarcity of raw materials and toward the deterioration of the great natural regulatory functions (such as the climate system, the water cycle, and biodiversity). Although we can find substitutes for scarce natural resources, we cannot replace a natural regulatory system, which is incredibly complex. It is therefore critical that we introduce a new price into the economy that measures the costs of damage to these regulatory functions. This change in perspective justifies such innovations as the carbon tax, which addresses not the scarcity of carbon but the inability of the atmosphere to absorb large amounts of carbon without upsetting the climate system. Brokering a sustainable peace between ecology and the economy, Green Capital describes a range of valuation schemes and their contribution to the goals of green capitalism, proposing a new approach to natural resources that benefits both businesses and the environment.

A nation’s capital stock is widely recognized as a crucial determinant of the productivity of its workers and the standard of living of its citizens. Tracking the evolution of capital is therefore a critical input to economic history. Economist Robert E. Gallman (1926–98) gathered extensive data on US capital stock and created a legacy that has, until now, been difficult for researchers to access and appraise in its entirety. Gallman measured American capital stock from a range of perspectives, viewing it as the accumulation of income saved and invested, and as an input into the production process. He used the level and change in the capital stock as proxy measures for long-run economic performance. Analyzing data in this way from the end of the US colonial period to the turn of the twentieth century, Gallman provided a firm empirical foundation for our knowledge of the long nineteenth century—the period during which the United States began to experience per capita income growth and became a global economic leader. Gallman’s research was painstaking and his analysis meticulous, but he did not publish the material supporting his findings during his lifetime. Here Paul W. Rhode completes this project, giving permanence to a great economist’s insights and craftsmanship

From Main Street to Wall Street examines the relation between the economy and the stock market. It discusses the academic theories and empirical facts, and guides readers through the fascinating interaction between economic activity and financial markets. Itexamines what causes long-run economic growth and shorter-term business-cycle fluctuations and analyses their impact on stock markets. From Main Street to Wall Street also discusses how investors can use knowledge of economic activity and financial markets to formulate expectations to future stock returns. The book relies on data, and figures and tables illustrate arguments and theories in intuitive ways.In the end, From Main Street to Wall Street helps academic scholars and practitioners navigate financial markets by understanding the economy.

One lens through which to view global economic interdependence and the spillover of shocks is that of decoupling (and then recoupling). Decoupling between developed and developing countries can be seen in the strong economic performance of China and India relative to that of the United States and Europe in the early 2000s. Recoupling then took place as developing countries sank along with the developed world during the deepening financial crisis of 2008. This volume examines patterns of global economic interdependence and the propagation of shocks in an increasingly integrated world economy. The contributors discuss such topics as the transmission of exogenous shocks; causes of business cycle synchronicity; the differences between global and regional shocks; the South-South trade relationship and its effect on decoupling; vertical specialization and Mexico’s manufacturing exports; growth prospects in China, the United States, and Europe after the financial crisis; and the evolving role of the U.S. dollar in international monetary architecture.

The planning system has always sought to support greater prosperity in local areas, but has achieved mixed success. Inequality, social deprivation and environmental injustice remain persistent features of urban and rural areas. This has been true even in more nationally buoyant economic times but now the planning system is faced with the prospect of operating through years of economic stagnation. The existing approach which is dependent on market-based economic growth to achieve social benefits in localities is unlikely to work. Yet government policy is responding by proposing a presumption in favour of sustainable development - understood clearly to be market-led development. It is time to re-examine this approach and consider alternatives. This book provides a timely critique of existing assumptions about planning’s relationship to economic demand and its role in relation to market-led development. It proposes an alternative approach based on a mix of protection of community and low-value assets and land uses with ways of promoting development and use of the built and natural environment that meet community needs. It builds on the arguments of the last chapter in The Purpose of Planning (Policy Press, 2010), and feeds into contemporary debates about public policy, planning and sustainability.

The book objective is two-fold: First, the book provides rigorous analysis of some of the major globalization episodes during the decade's long emergence of the economy of Israel. Second, the book spells out, empirically, how the globalization played a crucial role in advancing Israel's economic progress. That is, economists and policy makers can gain insights as to how a globalized economy takes advantage of international trade, labor mobility, its international financial links, and at the same time push up against globalization headwinds, such as those triggered by the 2008 global financial crisis. A general lesson which comes out is that once a gradual opening up process is set, time-consistent macroeconomic policy is adapted, and well-regulated institutional setup is put in place, Israel’s economy has been able ride on growth-enhancing globalization flows, and weather its chilly storms. The book analyzes these game-changing events, evaluates their role in Israel remarkable development, and compares these developments to groups of developed and emerging- market economies in similar circumstances. To gain broader perspective, the book also looks back into recent history. The unique saga of Israel’s high-inflation crisis and the long period where it rebuilt the major financial, and monetary institutions, and regulatory bodies. These elements provided better macroeconomic stability and help mitigate business cycle fluctuations, and get the economy through military conflicts and boycotts. The book also surveys trending developments that remain challenging. The exceptionally high fertility among ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arab minority, increasing portions of the population, is the main reason for the flagging labor-force participation. High fertility diminishes skill attainment. A rise in income inequality in all advanced economies, which also takes place in Israel, has a potential for setting off social-political divide. In the case of Israel, its fast development came, however, at the cost of rising income inequality and social polarization. Israel now has the most unequal distribution of income among OECD countries and its public education has declined from one of the best to one of the worst in the OECD. Israel’s income redistributive policies, from rich to poor, from healthy to the sick and from young to old, is significantly less comprehensive in scope, compared to the European systems. It has been becoming even less so over the last decades. Israel has an unusually high fertility rate among the developed economies. The book endeavors to marry economic theory, empirical evidence, and narrative presentation. It does so in a way that is enlightening to the specialist, but remains digestible for the non-professional reader. It provides an opportunity for the reader to look through the rear mirror at the saga of Israel’s high-inflation, and the inflation conquest. To connect to the earlier literature, the book provides a review of books surveys of the earlier phases in the development of the economy of Israel. There could be at least two potential groups of readers: a. Policy makers, academic and non-academic (international institutions, banks, etc.) researchers and students interested in the Israeli Economy; b. Policy makers, academic and non-academic researches, interested in the effects of globalization; and, c. Advanced undergraduate, and graduate students in international macroeconomics courses.

The Venture Capital State investigates the diffusion of the globally acclaimed Silicon Valley venture capital (VC) policy model. The spread of this model has been ubiquitous, with at least 45 states across a range of countries, in terms of geography, culture, and size, attempting to build local VC markets. In contrast to the transcendent exuberance for VC, policymakers in each and every state have implemented a distinct set of policies. Even states of similar population and economic sizes that are geographically and culturally proximate, and at comparable levels of industrialization, have not implemented similar policies. This book explains why: policymakers are “contextually rational” in their learning; their context-rooted norms shape preferences, underpinning their distinct valuations of studied models. The normative context of those learning about the policy – how they see themselves and what they deem as locally appropriate – informs their design. Findings are based upon deep investigations of VC policymaking in an East Asian cluster of states: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. These states’ VC successes reflects their ability to effectively adapt the highly-lauded model for their local context, not their policymakers’ approximation of the Silicon Valley policy model.