An examination of U.S. economic policy in the 1990s, by leading policy makers as well as academic economists.

Weighing up the costs and benefits of economic interdependence in a finance-driven world, this book argues that globalization, understood and promoted as absolute freedom for all forms of capital, has been oversold to the Global South, and that the South should be as selective about globalization as the North. ‘Liberalization, Financial Instability and Economic Development’ challenges the orthodoxy on the link between financial deepening and economic growth, as well as that between the efficiency of financial markets and the benefits of liberalization. Ultimately, the author urges developing countries to control capital flows and asset bubbles, preventing financial fragility and crises, and recommends regional policy options for managing capital flows and exchange rates.

As economic, social and environmental connections among states have grown stronger and denser in the last decades, new levels and types of governance have emerged. The process of globalization, while not entirely new, has created new challenges for policymakers attempting to reap its benefits and manage its effects. This volume pulls together work on global governance that examines these challenges and looks at the patterns of governance that emerge. The work is organized into six sections. The first introduces concepts crucial to the analysis of global governance, including representation, efficiency, and hierarchy. The next two sections turn to specific patterns of governance in two realms, security and economic affairs respectively. The fourth section examines legal dimensions of governance. The fifth section concentrates on the impact of global governance on domestic politics, while the sixth looks at how concepts of norms and legitimacy structure our understanding of governance. Overall, this collection reveals a rich scholarly understanding of globalization, governance, and institutions that builds on deep theoretical roots while shedding light on major policy issues.

It is now more than fifty years since the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions were created. The world has changed since then, and so have its governance needs in terms of institutions and rules. It is time to think about the contours of institutions and governance thatwould meet the needs of the world economy, and also polity, at least for the first quarter of the twenty-first century. This book is the first to examine the subject in depth.The study is divided into four parts. The first situates the subject in the wider context of globalization which has shaped development in the world economy, affected the living conditions of people, and constrained the role of nation states. The international context and the national setting areexplored. The second part analyses some issues of emerging significance in the contemporary world, such as global macroeconomic management, transnational corporations, international capital flows, and cross-border movements of people, to suggest that there are some missing institutions which areneeded. The third part provides a critical evaluation of the existing institutions, in retrospect, with a focus on the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. It analyses how existing rules need to be modified or existing institutions need to be restructured to meet the present and future needs ofglobal governance. The fourth part explores some important elements of governance which are critical for any vision of the future. It suggests some changes in existing institutions and points to emerging governance needs where new institutions may have to be created.This authoritative volume will be of enormous value to readers with an interest in international economics, development economics, and international relations. It will also be of immense value to practitioners, both policy-makers and diplomats, concerned with problems of global governance, andshould become the standard reference on the subject.

This paper reviews major issues and developments in the trade area and outlines the challenges governments face as they seek to liberalize trade in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations and address new trade issues. In industrial countries, the reorientation of policies was most apparent in steps taken to liberalize financial markets and foreign direct investment, privatize public enterprises, and deregulate services, particularly in the transportation and communication sectors. Among developing countries, a growing number recognized the merits of outward, market-oriented policies and took steps to liberalize their trade regimes and open their economies to international competition. By and large, the increased focus on market principles in industrial countries did not carry over to trade and industrial policies or, most notable, to the agricultural sector. Despite strong growth performance in 1983–1989, little progress was made in rolling back the protective barriers that had risen during the preceding recessionary period; protection persists in agriculture and declining sectors and has spread to newer high-tech areas.

This book is both breathtaking in its scope and impressive in its attention to legal and institutional detail in situating developing countries in the evolving body of international economic law. Essays in this volume canvas most important areas of international economic law, including international trade law, international financial regulation, the regulation of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations, foreign aid, the enforcement of human rights standards and core international labour standards on multinational corporations, international enforcement of anti-corruption conventions, international competition law, international intellectual property rights, and international environmental law. A pervasive theme, compellingly developed, in most of these papers is the asymmetric structure of international institutions that generate rules in these various areas, in which developing countries are mostly rule takers, rather than equal participants. The current global financial crisis may provide a welcome opportunity for re-evaluating these institutional asymmetries. In any such re-evaluation, this book will provide a veritable cornucopia of constructive new insights.

The globalisation of financial markets has attracted much academic and policymaking commentary in recent years, especially with the growing number of banking and financial crises and the current credit crisis that has threatened the stability of the global financial system. This major new Research Handbook sets out to address some of the fundamental issues in financial regulation from a comparative and international perspective and to identify some of the main research themes and approaches that combine economic, legal and institutional analysis of financial markets. Specially commissioned contributions represent diverse viewpoints on the financial regulation debate and cover a number of new and controversial topics not yet adequately addressed in the literature. Specifically, these include; financial innovation particularly in the context of the credit risk transfer market, securitization and the systemic importance of the over-the-counter trading markets; the institutional structure of international financial regulation; and risk management and corporate governance of financial institutions. This Handbook will provide a unique and fully up-to-date resource for all those with an interest in this critical issue including academic researchers in finance and regulation, practitioners working in the industry and those involved with regulation and policy.

Jan A. Kregel is considered to be “the best all-round general economist alive” (G. C. Harcourt). This is the first collection of his essays dealing with a wide range of topics reflecting the incredible depth and breadth of Kregel’s work. These essays focus on the role of finance in development and growth. Kregel has expanded Minsky’s original postulate that in capitalist economies stability engenders instability in international economy, and this volume collect’s Kregel’s key works devoted to financial instability, its causes and effects. The volume also contains Kregel’s most recent discussions of the Great Recession beginning in 2008.

The World Economic Outlook, published twice a year in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, presents IMF staff economists analyses of global economic developments during the near and medium term. Chapters give an overview of the world economy; consider issues affecting industrial countries, developing countries, and economies in transition to market; and address topics of pressing current interest. Annexes, boxes, charts, and an extensive statistical appendix augment the text.

Instability has become global and systemic. Strengthening international institutions and arrangements would reduce the threat of crises and allow those that do occur to be better managed. These proposals take the developing world into account.