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852. Beyond Microfinance: Getting Capital to Small and Medium Enterprises to Fuel Faster Development
- Author:
- David de Ferranti and Anthony J. Ody
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), typically employing between 10 and 250 workers, form the backbone of modern economies and can be crucial engines of development through their role as seedbeds of innovation. In much of the developing world, though, SMEs are under-represented, stifled by perverse regulatory climates and poor access to inputs. A critical missing ingredient is often capital.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States
853. China's Looming Crisis—Inflation Returns
- Author:
- Albert Keidel
- Publication Date:
- 09-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- Surging food prices in China indicate a serious risk of inflationary overheating. Past steps to control inflation caused social protest and deadly unrest. China faces the same risk now. China could avoid severe inflation by learning from its past failures and quickly raising interest rates—but politics make this unlikely. “Cooling off” policies in the future will thus be harsher than necessary. Beyond short-term fixes, China should increase imports of fine grains, with long-term U.S. supply assurances, both to stabilize prices and to promote lucrative farm diversification. U.S. intelligence analysis of this overheating risk should refute the conventional wisdom that China's growth is export-led—it is clearly domestically driven. Policy makers need to realize that China's rapid economic rise is homegrown and sustainable. The United States should quietly remind China that harsh handling of inflation-related unrest could seriously damage U.S.-China relations—especially in a U.S. election year.
- Topic:
- Economics and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, and Asia
854. U.S. Living Standards in an Era of Globalization
- Author:
- Sandra Polaski
- Publication Date:
- 07-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- U.S. wages have stagnated for the past three decades, while the workforce has also faced an erosion of job security, health care, and pension plans. This increasing economic insecurity has coincided with rapid globalization. Is there a causal relationship between the two?
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- United States
855. What Can the United States Learn from the Nordic Model?
- Author:
- Daniel Mitchell
- Publication Date:
- 11-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Some policymakers in the United States and Europe argue that it is possible to enjoy economic growth and also have a large welfare state. These advocates for bigger government claim that the so- called Nordic Model offers the best of both worlds. This claim does not withstand scrutiny. Economic performance in Nordic nations is lagging, and excessive government is the most likely explanation. The public sector in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland consumes, on average, more than 48 percent of economic output. Total government outlays in the United States, by contrast, are less than 37 percent of gross domes- tic product. Revenue comparisons are even more striking. Tax receipts average more than 45 per- cent of GDP in Nordic nations, a full 20 percent- age points higher than the aggregate tax burden in the United States.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
856. In Pursuit of Happiness Research: Is It Reliable? What Does It Imply for Policy?
- Author:
- Will Wilkinson
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- “Happiness research” studies the correlates of subjective well-being, generally through survey methods. A number of psychologists and social scientists have drawn upon this work recently to argue that the American model of relatively limited government and a dynamic market economy corrodes happiness, whereas Western European and Scandinavian-style social democracies pro- mote it. This paper argues that happiness research in fact poses no threat to the relatively libertarian ideals embodied in the U.S. socioeconomic system. Happiness research is seriously hampered by confusion and disagreement about the definition of its subject as well as the limitations inherent in current measurement techniques. In its present state happiness research cannot be relied on as an authoritative source for empirical information about happiness, which, in any case, is not a simple empirical phenomenon but a cultural and historical moving target. Yet, even if we accept the data of happiness research at face value, few of the alleged redistributive policy implications actually follow from the evidence. The data show that neither higher rates of government redistribution nor lower levels of income inequality make us happier, whereas high levels of economic freedom and high average incomes are among the strongest correlates of subjective well- being. Even if we table the damning charges of questionable science and bad moral philosophy, the American model still comes off a glowing success in terms of happiness.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Europe
857. Has U.S. Income Inequality Really Increased?
- Author:
- Alan Reynolds
- Publication Date:
- 01-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- There are frequent complaints that U.S. income inequality has increased in recent decades. Estimates of rising inequality that are widely cited in the media are often based on federal income tax return data. Those data appear to show that the share of U.S. income going to the top 1 percent (those people with the highest incomes) has increased substantially since the 1970s.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States
858. The Case for Exchange Rate Flexibility in Oil-Exporting Economies
- Author:
- Brad Setser
- Publication Date:
- 11-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- Brad Setser is a fellow at the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously worked as a senior economist at RGEMonitor, an online financial information service. He served in the US Treasury Department from 1997 to 2001, where he concluded his tenure as the acting director of the Office of International Monetary and Financial Policy, and spent 2002 as a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. He is the coauthor of Bailouts or Bail-ins? Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Economies (Institute for International Economics, 2004) with Nouriel Roubini.
- Topic:
- Economics, Foreign Exchange, International Trade and Finance, and Oil
- Political Geography:
- United States
859. China and Economic Integration in East Asia: Implications for the United States
- Author:
- C. Fred Bergsten
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- East Asia is clearly, if gradually and unevenly, moving toward regional economic integration. Market forces are leading the process, as firms construct production chains across the area that exploit the comparative advantage of its individual countries. Governments are now moving to build on those forces, and consolidate them, through a series of formal agreements to intensify their economic relationships and start creating an East Asian Community.
- Topic:
- Development and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Israel, East Asia, and Asia
860. Congress, Treasury, and the Accountability of Exchange Rate Policy: How the 1988 Trade Act Should Be Reformed
- Author:
- Randall Henning
- Publication Date:
- 09-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- The controversy within the United States over Chinese exchange rate policy has generated a series of legislative proposals to restrict the discretion of the Treasury Department in determining currency manipulation and to reform the department's accountability to Congress. This paper reviews Treasury's reports to Congress on exchange rate policy—introduced by the 1988 Trade Act—and Congress's treatment of them. It finds that the accountability process has often not worked well in practice: The reports provide only a partial basis for effective congressional oversight. For its part, Congress held hearings on less than half of the reports and overlooked some important substantive issues. Several recommendations can improve guidance to the Treasury, standards for assessment, and congressional oversight. These include (1) refining the criteria used to determine currency manipulation and writing them into law, (2) explicitly harnessing US decisions on manipulation to the International Monetary Fund's rules on exchange rates, (3) clarifying the general objectives of US exchange rate policy, (4) reaffirming the mandate to seek international macroeconomic and currency cooperation, (5) requiring Treasury to lead an executivewide policy review, and (6) institutionalizing multicommittee oversight of exchange rate policy by Congress. Legislators should strengthen reporting and oversight of broader exchange rate policy in addition to strengthening the provisions targeting manipulation.
- Topic:
- Economics, Foreign Exchange, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States and China